The climate crisis is already here, and it is hitting everywhere in the world: from huge fires in California, Portugal and Australia, through huge floods in Pakistan, forms of biblical proportions in France, California, Italy and China, the melting of glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, the Alps and the Himalayas. All these huge events have far-reaching consequences On the ability to grow food and feed the world’s population today, not least when we will be 9 billion.
Everything is really fine. (Image: Oded Baranach)
We are in the midst of several overlapping epidemics and crises, all linked to food systems in reciprocal relationships with positive feedback loops – that is, each exacerbating the other. First, there is food insecurity, hidden hunger and simple hunger, which are on the rise since the beginning of the Corona epidemic, are getting worse in different parts of the world, especially since the beginning of the geopolitical crisis in Ukraine, and the worsening of the climate crises from Africa to the rich countries. When a third of the country of Pakistan is under water, of course it is not possible to grow on these agricultural lands. The severe droughts for hundreds of years in California, Italy and China reduce the ability to grow food and with it the increase in prices, the cost of living and even risks of food shortages in quite a few countries, already in the near future. At the same time, the epidemics of obesity and diabetes are spreading all over the world. These have heavy consequences for the resilience of the health systems and of course a huge financial burden.
The third crisis is the climate and environmental crisis, which, as described, also includes a dramatic damage to the ability to grow food. Climate, environment and food systems are interconnected, with food systems responsible for about a third of all greenhouse gas emissions – raising and consuming cattle emit about 14% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Beyond that, cattle farming and consumption have an existential impact on the South American rainforests that are being burned to raise cattle and/or cattle feed, for the ever-increasing global demand. These processes lead to a chain of crises and environmental damage, from the extinction of species and serious damage to biological diversity, lead to desertification processes in areas that used to be rainforests and these are just a few examples.
Closer to the plate, more destructive. sirloin steak Photo: Anatoli Michaelou
Today’s food systems are broken. They are based on intensive crops and intensive agriculture to raise animals for food and food to feed them – and this is a very inefficient process altogether. For every 100 calories we feed the beef, we get a total of 3 calories on the plate, and for every 100 grams of protein we feed the beef during its breeding, we get a total of 3 grams of protein respectively. It is much more effective and healthy to feed people with whole plant foods, such as legumes and whole grains. That way there will be much more food to feed the world’s population.
And of course, if you look at Israel, we are the highest in the consumption of chicken and beef: in first and fourth place in the world, respectively. Most of the beef we eat is imported from Argentina and Brazil – which means that we also make a significant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions – only that this “contribution” is not counted in Israel, but in the countries where it is grown. The heart of the problem is that the food systems are currently aimed at growing food as a product to create capital, not growing food for healthy and sustainable nutrition of the world’s population.
time to wake up. Dr. Dorit Adler. Photo: Inga Avshalom
A large part of the food grown is based on a minority of crops such as wheat, corn and rice – a limited variety of species which is a danger to the robustness of the food systems and which are an engine for the epidemics of obesity, diabetes and even nutritional insecurity. In 2015, the United Nations announced 17 sustainable development goals that the world must achieve by 2030 in order to deal with the complex of climate and environmental crises. Food systems are interconnected with each of these goals, and without significant change in our food systems, as the United Nations stated at the summit food systems in 2021, it will not be possible to achieve the sustainable development goals.
Time is running out, the crises are intensifying and we can all start from the plate, or perhaps better, the writer’s circle. Adopting a Mediterranean diet – based mostly on unprocessed food from plants with a touch of fish, chicken, eggs and dairy products and proven to help prevent most of the diseases prevalent in humans and mitigating the climate and environmental crisis – will be a significant step for human and world health.
Dr. Dorit Adler will participate this Tuesday (9/13) in an expert panel on “Our lunch and the climate crisis” as part of the first meeting of “Civilized Discourse”.