Photo of rows of lettuce and spring onions separating them from other green vegetables.
Climate change is impacting food production. But food production is also impacting climate change. Credit: Kenan Kitchen / Unsplash Credit: Kenan Kitchen / Unsplash

These days it is easy to miss very important stories on the state of the world. So many crises are overtaking our news channels. One of the stories that has been buried in the dust is the release of the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

In late February, the world turned its attention to the Russian-Ukraine theatre of war. During this time, the IPCC released the second instalment of its Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. 

For an overview on some of the Report’s detail, and the IPCC process, see this column by David Suzuki titled New climate report shows urgent need to adapt and change.

Since much of the world has turned to online conferences during the past two years, we have now become accustomed to viewing or joining in on important events. The media conference for the release of this IPCC report is one of these recorded events. It is worth listening in — but brace yourself for chilling warnings and calls for the world to take immediate action. 

“The facts are undeniable,” states United Nations Secretary General António Guterres. “This abdication of leadership is criminal.” In his presentation to the media, Guterres notes that half of humanity is already living in the danger zones.  He states that the world’s direction of unchecked carbon pollution is testimony to failed climate leadership.

To maintain an increase of 1.5 degrees, carbon emissions have to be cut by 45 per cent by 2030 and to net zero by 2050. But — and this is grim — we are currently on target to actually increase carbon emissions by 14 per cent within the next decade. Guterres called for coalitions of businesses, governments, NGOs, and more to begin immediately reducing emissions. He noted that the good news is that investments in adaptation do work.

One of the key areas where action is required urgently is related to water resources and food sovereignty. Already, climate change is undermining food production and impacting agricultural productivity. According to the IPCC report, production of food has slowed 21 per cent due to climate change. 

Climate change is impacting food production. 

But food production is also impacting climate change.

What is missing in most of the conversations on climate change action is the key role that agriculture plays in producing carbon emissions. Close to 30 per cent of carbon emissions currently come from agriculture and food production. 

There are organizations that are pushing for governments around the globe to earnestly join in efforts to promote sustainable food systems founded on the principles of agroecology and food sovereignty.

One of the international groups calling on increased action is the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). Founded in 2015, this diverse and independent panel of 23 experts from 16 countries across five continents is guided by new ways of thinking about research, sustainability, and food systems.

“The science is clear,” states Olivier De Schutter of Belgium, co-chair of IPES-Food, and UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, in reaction to the IPCC report. “Without a major turnaround in carbon emissions and the way we farm, we are likely to see mass crop failures and collapse of our fragile food system — with people in poverty hit first and hardest by a crisis they did not cause. Transforming our agriculture is now urgent — governments must act to support local communities’ efforts to feed themselves and encourage resilience through diversity, not uniformity.”

According to the IPES-Food, applying sustainable food systems policies could in fact create both the social and environmental resilience we need to withstand climate shocks.

The IPES-Food panel underscores the IPCC report’s call for transformational changes that address social inequities in order to make food systems more resilient. 

For example: 

  • Cultivar improvements, agroforestry, community-based adaptation, farm and landscape diversification, and urban agriculture. 
  • Diverse agroecological farming working with nature supports food security, livelihoods and biodiversity — and helps to buffer temperature extremes and sequester carbon.

Climate change and the need for mitigation and adaptation is clear. What at times is not so clear is what measures or policies will provide the most impact to reduce emissions. When it comes to agriculture the need to ensure sustainable communities while reducing carbon emissions is linked to food security.

Canada’s National Farmers Union (NFU) has published several reports outlining the impact of climate change on agriculture but also of agriculture on climate change. These reports define the issue in Canada. They also endeavour to identify the areas of agriculture that create the most emissions, areas that might lead to the most efficient reductions in carbon, and policies that should be implemented to support farmers moving toward models of agriculture that reduce emissions and secure food production.

To that end, the NFU has just released a report detailing the source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canadian agriculture. Titled Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Canada: A New, Comprehensive Report, the introduction to the peer-reviewed document states: 

“To properly plan and implement the many on-farm changes needed to achieve emissions reductions and to design and fund the government programs needed to accelerate and support those on-farm changes, farmers and policymakers need to understand emissions: we need detailed, comprehensive numbers. Currently, however, the data is presented in incomplete and inadequately detailed formats. Many analyses omit key emission sources such as farm fuel use or input production. Clear, accessible, complete analyses and graphs have not yet been produced. This report seeks to fill that gap.”

This report, touted as the first of its kind in Canada, digs even deeper than IPCC reports by including more detailed categories of emission sources linked and created by on-farm agricultural production. The report authors note: “This report presents, for the first time, a single detailed picture of nearly all sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Canadian agricultural production and production of associated farm inputs.”

The NFUniversity has also produced an online “class” which explains the research undertaken.

The escalation and production of military arms continues unabated and wars tend to overshadow our battle with climate change. Still we might take some solace in knowing that many, including some of Canada’s farmers, are busily trying to back-up their need for solid policy change to shore up resilience in our food systems.

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Lois Ross

Lois L. Ross has spent the past 30 years working in Communications for a variety of non-profit organizations in Canada, including the North-South Institute. Born into a farm family in southern Saskatchewan,...