From guardian.co.uk

The world is going to get hungrier this century, and on a scale that will make the famines of the 1980s look paltry. The maths are simple and devastating: in 40 years’ time the global population will be 9.2 billion people – a third larger than it is now. But to feed us all, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says, we will need to produce twice as much food.

That’s because, despite the threats of this century, most developing countries will get richer. At present 350m households in the world live on £8,000 a year or more. That figure is projected to increase to 2.1bn by 2030. And the richer they are, the more wastefully people eat. Generally the poor eat vegetables, while the rich eat food that eats vegetables. Lots of it. To produce 1kg of beef takes 10kg of grass or soya-based feed. A farmed fish will have eaten three times its weight in wild fish. And the rate at which the richest consume these things is amazing: Americans consume 120kg of meat each per year; in the developing world they eat 28kg.

If the world develops as economists predict, it is hard to see how we can possibly meet these demands: environmentalists like to say that the 2050 population would require the resources of two earths to sustain it. No wonder the British government’s chief scientific adviser John Beddington says: “Food security represents a greater threat to mankind than climate change itself.”

There lies the other big problem. While we look for ways to produce that extra food, the rapidly changing climate is going to make the earth a less efficient piece of farmland. Large swaths of the tropics and the equatorial regions will get hotter and drier, and while that won’t leave them unable to grow things, what they can grow will change radically. The 2°C increase in average temperatures that is accepted as the likely minimum this century is enough to cause major shifts in the seasons and in what crops work where.

The great irony of this change is that, initially at least, most of us in the richer parts of the world will benefit. It’s in the tropics, where most of the world’s poor live, that climate change is damaging agriculture, and will continue to do so. Essentially, the belt round the centre of the earth will get hotter and drier, while those of us who live in the north of the northern hemisphere will see more warmth but also more rain. This will extend our growing seasons and increase the geographical area where it’s possible to grow crops. Canada and Russia are among the countries expected to do well, as are northern China and northern Europe. But the Mediterranean countries, southern American states and California don’t look comfortable at all. Spain, for one, is painted a nasty red on all the maps showing where water will be short come 2050.

But this is nothing compared with the changes that are happening or imminent in the tropical world. Rice production, the staple food of most of Asia, is already moving northwards, forcing millions of people to change ways of living that have sustained them for centuries. Along the coastal fringes of Asia, people’s lives are changing radically, as a huge increase in storms coupled with a rise in sea levels (which is now predicted to be a metre this century) brings salt to their fields and makes growing rice impossible.

Half of the poorest billion people in the world live in South Asia, as do many of the 5 million children who die every year of diseases caused or exacerbated by malnutrition. According to a report by the Asian Development Bank, 1.6 billion south Asians will find their food security at risk because of climate change.

In Africa and parts of Latin America predictions are just as hair-raising. Maize is one of the world’s four most important food crops and the staple of more than a quarter of a billion east Africans. It’s a hugely important food for animals as well. Maize is vulnerable to water problems and to temperature changes. As Andy Jarvis, an award-winning crop scientist, puts it: “When you look at the graph, under even small average heat rises, the line for maize just goes straight down.” It’s estimated that maize production will drop in sub-Saharan Africa and much of India by 15% in the next 10 years alone. By 2080, according to government scientists in South Africa, the region can expect to see a 50% drop in crops of all the cereals.

Among the luxuries of living in our comfy corner of the world, is the fact that climate change still seems to be a problem of the future, something that we need to worry about less for ourselves than our grandchildren. But for many millions of people the devastation caused by changing seasonal patterns and unpredictable weather is already a clear and present danger. First-person accounts collected by Oxfam from agricultural workers around the world all say the same. Whether they’re in the east African savannahs, the Peruvian altiplano or the fertile coastal wetlands of Indonesia, all complain that the seasons have become less certain, rainfall unpredictable and that their crops or their animals have suffered. There are new pests and diseases.

While it is still not possible to say with certainty that this is caused by human beings burning fossil fuels, it is undeniable that catastrophic changes are going on in the climate system. Filter the news with a climate change alert for a few months, and you watch a stream of worrying official statistics trickle in – all of them bad news. The southern Indian state of Karnataka reports a drop in rainfall of 6-8% since 1990. Tanzania and other east African countries report already an average warming of 1.5°C since 1990. Chinese meteorologists say that parts of their country have experienced the same. These figures may not seem enormous, but their effect is dramatic. According to the research of the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, just half a degree of average temperature increase will reduce the yield of India’s wheat crop by 20%. And India is the world’s second largest producer of wheat. …

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This movement aims not only to ensure a community’s resilience against these challenges, but also to strengthen community relationships as people work together in initiatives such as community gardens.

Increased economic hardship, food security, and health concerns about industrial produce are all reasons why urban agriculture makes a lot of sense. On top of this, cities are most often built on places of fertile soil and readily available water, making them perfect sites for agriculture. There is no need for fertilisers, and organic waste can be used productively rather than sent into landfill.

So how can you get involved?

Wellington Community Gardens Network is host to several different Wellington Co-ops. For example, Common Ground is a garden in Island Bay that aims to “provide a space where Wellingtonians can learn about sustainable living, and how to practice examples of urban sustainability in their homes and neighbourhoods. We aim to be inclusive, accessible, relevant and welcoming, providing opportunities for people to work together and strengthen community relationships.”

Common Ground began in 2005 with just an empty field and has now grown to encompass a large garden space, fruit trees, a composting system, and a shed of shared tools. In addition to the large communal garden, there are small plots cared for by individuals.

Operation Green Thumb is a community garden initiative run by the Wellington City Council in council housing complexes, as well as in 3 public community gardens. Their website has information on how to get an individual plot, get involved as a volunteer, setup your own co-op, or just general gardening help.

So join your local initiative, or start your own!

Community gardening on church lawn space also helps build community resilience – preparing for upcoming challenges from a decline in cheap oil. In a small way it also begins to address one of my great sadness-es with our social services. Don’t get me wrong here. I love our social services. The more I have got to know the hearts of the people involved in running the Anglican Care and Anglican Action programmes the more impressed I have become. What makes me sad is that our professional social services (and they do have to be professional) must increasingly fill a gap that would once have been sorted out simply by a functioning healthy community. At one time if someone was hungry, lonely, struggling, needed budget advice, an advocate, or short term support, the community would rally around and support them. Not in every case at all times in any way needed, but certainly a lot more than now. We need our social services, and I am glad we are in a country with official safety nets, but making intentional steps towards re-energising healthy, resilient local communities may reduce some of their work load. Social services don’t let the rest of us off the hook. Community gardens in a myriad of forms, stretching through the back sections of suburbia, is a step in this direction.

However, there are church grounds gardens and church grounds gardens. If you dig over the church lawn, plant it out, then invite the community to come and take part, that is not really a community garden. It’s a church garden using the same attractional model we apply to our services. If we go and talk the community, our neighbours, local groups, the local Transition Town people and others already engaged in our communities, discuss our needs, offer the land, and dig the lawn over with the community, that’s a community garden. Both of these models are happening in various parts of the country at the moment. Both are better than lawn – but one is better than the other.

Justice isn’t about giving someone a fish, or teaching them to fish. But about asking who ownes the pond? Who makes the decisions? Who has the power?

• The second biggest killer of children under five worldwide is the lack of clean and accessible drinking water.
• Nearly 5,000 children die every day as a result of water-related diseases including cholera, typhoid and malaria.
• Just $1 can provide a child with safe drinking water for 30 days.  

What’s the Tap Project about?

This is the second year that New Zealand has taken part in The Tap Project (also running in the US) and already a record 300+ restaurants and cafes across the country have signed up to participate, including a number of major chains (all listed on our website: www.tapproject.org.nz).  

In the lead up to World Water Day on 22 March, the campaign celebrates the clean and plentiful tap water Kiwis are lucky enough to enjoy, while helping UNICEF provide safe drinking water for the world’s poorest children, with this year’s proceeds going to specific projects in Laos. 

Five easy ways to get involved

It’s really easy for everyone to get involved and a great way to make a life-saving difference to the futures of thousands of children.

1. Dine out or have a coffee at participating establishments and make a donation whilst there – all venues listed at www.tapproject.org.nz/restaurants.html
2. Make a donation online at www.tapproject.org.nz or by texting TAP to 833 ($3 automatic donation)
3. Join the Facebook group and help spread the word about the Tap Project. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11175254404
4. Get your school or workplace involved by running water-themed events or activities, e.g. donations for drinking water from the water cooler. Download free education resources at www.tapproject.org.nz
5. Come to UNICEF’s World Water Day events:  On World Water Day – Sunday 22 March, local councillors will join a water challenge to coincide with Wellington’s dragon boat festival. On Sunday 5 April, an attempt will be made in Auckland to break the Guinness World Record for the largest ever simultaneous squirting of water pistols.   

Celebrity support

Many New Zealand celebrities are supporting the campaign, including Mike McRoberts, Alison Mau, Jay Reeves and Amber Peebles.

Further Information:

• For news, videos, online donation and useful info and links: www.tapproject.org.nz
• Media enquiries: david@unicef.org.nz (David Youngmeyer)
• General enquiries: carolyn@unicef.org.nz (Carolyn Shivanandan)
• UNICEF NZ: www.unicef.org.nz

‘Dear Friends,

When Africa’s heads of state meet this Sunday, they will be greeted by a crowd of hunger strikers, calling for justice and democracy in Zimbabwe.

Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela’s wife Graça Machel, and hundreds of others have joined the campaign and pledged solidarity with the Zimbabwean people—most of whom are now struggling to survive on a meal a day or less. Their powerful demonstration of commitment has seized the media’s attention, pressuring leaders to refuse Mugabe in his attempts to cling to power.

The world’s support is needed now. Kumi Naidoo, a South African activist in his eighth day of a 21-day hunger strike, has recorded a video appeal for Avaaz members worldwide to join the protest by pledging to fast this Sunday, when he will speak to the African Union summit about Zimbabwe’s crisis. If thousands of us fast, our actions will give power to his words.’

watch?v=lMavByxvgzA

The SAVE ZIMBABWE NOW web site is co-ordinating the protest.

Take a look at this video, taken in Welly last month. There are heaps of reasons people go diving – protest at the amount of good food wasted in a world where many still starve, protest against our culture of aesthetic perfection, to save money on food, and heaps of other motivations. These guys are awesome, because they calculate the money they save by diving each week, and what they save is donated to a development project in Burma.

If anyone’s inspired to dive, a few things to keep in mind:

- Leave the area tidier than you found it – if you get caught, insist on tidying up really well before you leave

- If you get asked to leave, be polite and do so

- If you have to climb a fence to get to the skip, it’s against the law to go in

- If diving gets publicity, supermarket owners tend to start locking skips, so keep it on the low (although making people aware of the wastefulness of our current system is important – guess it’s a question of finding a balance…)

Finally, to do your bit to stop stuff being thrown away, when you’re shopping pick the dented can, the imperfect apple and the bag of pasta with a wee hole in it!

It’d also be cool to hear below of other people’s experiences /  reactions to dumpster diving…???

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/organic-farming-could-feed-africa-968641.html

Sustainable Agriculture-not starting from ground zero

Agriculture remains a major employer in the world, providing jobs to about 40% of the total world labour force.

The Global Green New Deal should include a major international program. This should be led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, to provide long-term support for investing in land restoration, soil and water conservation, integrated pest management, organic production, infrastructure development, extension services, and market support in the developing world.

Organic agriculture triggers very polarized views, seen by some as the saviour and others as a niche, even luxury product unable to meet the needs of billions of people.

Studies indicate that organic agriculture in both the North and the South employees more people. But what of the wider benefits?

A new survey by the UN Conference on Trade and the Environment and UNEP in East Africa found that over 90 per cent of studies show that organic or near organic agriculture had benefits for soil fertility; water control; improved water tables, carbon sequestration and biodiversity.

This allows farmers to extend the growing season in marginal areas. The research in East Africa was among 1.6 million organic or near organic farmers from seven countries working on 1.4 million hectares.

Other findings include an increase in crop yields of 128 per cent since switching.

Higher incomes too as a result of not having to buy fertilizers and pesticides; more food availability; higher prices paid through certification schemes for both export and domestic markets-addresses poverty in environmentally friendly way.

Close to 90 per cent of cases showed increase in farm and household incomes and because organic agriculture is more knowledge intensive it has lead to improvements in education; community bonds and cooperation on market access.

The report concludes:” Organic and near-organic agricultural methods and technologies are ideally suited for many poor, marginalized smallholder farmers in Africa, as they require minimal or no external inputs, use locally and naturally available materials to produce high-quality products, and encourage a whole systemic approach to farming that is more diverse and resistant to stress”.

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=548&ArticleID=5957&l=en

“The land can be… an opportunity to solve most of the ongoing global crises,” Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), told a news conference in New York.

The 2005 Convention aims to promote effective action through innovative local programmes and supportive international partnerships to combat desertification, which is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas.

Caused mainly by human activities and climatic variations, desertification puts at risk the health and well-being of 1.2 billion people in more than 100 countries.

Mr. Gnacadja stressed that “the nexus between land degradation and climate change is clear.” Global warming is likely to lead to more extreme weather events, such as droughts and heavy rains, which could lead to soil erosion and loss of land cover.

At the same time, land degradation releases carbon into the atmosphere, worsening global warming and climate change.

“If we want to tackle climate change challenges, we must look to the untapped potential of the soil to sequester carbon,” said Mr. Gnacadja, calling it a “win-win” situation. “By doing that, we are improving biodiversity of the soil ecosystem and improving the productivity of the soil, therefore impacting the livelihoods of affected populations.”

Improving land productivity will also boost the capacity to produce more food and therefore tackle the issue of food security. “We are also making the world much more able to produce more agro-fuels,” he added.

“An ecosystem is like a bank account,” Mr. Gnacadja noted. “If we keep on withdrawing, and we don’t invest by feeding the soil and enabling it to regenerate, we are moving towards bankruptcy.”

The Second Global Assessment of Land Degradation and Improvement, issued this year, found that an additional 24 per cent of global land had been degraded in the period from 1981-2003. However, what was really worrisome is that these lands are mainly in humid areas where rainfall is not an issue.

The Assessment also found that 16 per cent of land had been improved, including some of the drylands in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and Australia.

“We know that drought and land degradation are predictable, and land degradation is reversible when the tipping point is not reached,” Mr. Gnacadja said, adding that the social and economic impacts on livelihoods are, therefore, to a large extent the result of “public and even global policy failure.”

This includes the failure to scale up good practices, to spread available information and knowledge, and to mobilize the required resources.

UN Press Release, 29 October 2008

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28756&Cr=desertification&Cr1=

According to this, the average NZ footprint is 57.5 global hectares. If my maths is correct (which is not a given…), we’d need 3.66 Earths to sustain the global population if everyone lived like the average kiwi.

To be honest, I was surprised that my food footprint is only marginally smaller than the average Kiwi since I don’t eat meat. Away with the smugness of vegetarianism then!

Low carbon diet promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whkURVgR16E

David Gershon from Seventh Generation discusses current consumption in the U.S. and moving towards a low carbon diet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xMMkJZpzs0

Food for thought is great, but action is better!