Climate Change as a Challenge to Food Security
Dear Professor Vasco and colleagues,
In this video article, we will explore the critical topic of climate change as a challenge to global food security, as presented by Professor Monika A. Król from the University of Lodz. Professor Monika A. Król sheds light on the impacts of climate change on the biosphere and its components, the concept of food security, and its connection to environmental security. She also discusses the legal basis for the right to food and the legal instruments available for its implementation. This insightful presentation offers valuable insights into the pressing issue of climate change and its repercussions on food security, an urgent concern for our planet's future.
Climate change poses a significant threat to global food security, as highlighted by Professor Monika A. Król in her video article published in ELPIS v-LAW Review No. 5/2022. In her informative presentation, Professor Monika A. Król discusses the impacts of climate change on the biosphere and its components, the concept of food security, and its connection to environmental security. She also delves into the legal basis for the right to food and the legal instruments available for its implementation.
According to Professor Monika A. Król, the global population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, based on UN data as of October 2022. This increase in population, coupled with the rising demand for food, has significant consequences for food security. Currently, an estimated 900 million people suffer from hunger or starvation worldwide. The 21st century is expected to witness a need for increased food production to meet the growing demand.
However, climate change exacerbates the situation with its adverse effects on agriculture and land resources, including declining water resources, air pollution, agricultural and industrial emissions, and loss of biodiversity and species.
Loss of agricultural land resources, both in quantity and quality, is a pressing concern. Globally, millions of hectares of land are lost to soil erosion, desertification, and other causes such as allocation for investment purposes, lack of natural protection for agricultural land in planning and zoning regulations, and land-grabbing phenomenon. The quality of agricultural land is also compromised by natural causes such as salinization, acidification, desertification, and decreased soil fertility, including carbon content.
Moreover, inadequate land-use regulations, driven by investment purposes and construction, lead to water problems such as overfertilization and air pollution caused by agriculture, which generates a significant percentage of ammonia emissions to the air in Europe.
In 2015, greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in the EU accounted for 11% of total EU emissions, with carbon sequestration by agriculture and forestry contributing only 7% of total EU greenhouse gas emissions. Biodiversity loss is also evident in various regions, including Canada, the US, and others, resulting in the deterioration of agricultural ecosystems, decline in pollination, and invasion of invasive species such as plants.
Addressing the issue of food security, Professor Monika A. Król emphasizes the lack of a legal definition and the reliance on agricultural, environmental, and administrative law doctrines.
She mentions two approaches:
• the narrow approach calculates the total amount of food available in a country to its population.
• the broader approach based on documents of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): The more comprehensive approach takes into consideration food adequacy, personal, cultural, and religious preferences, as well as access to sustainable supplies of food and meeting health needs.
Professor Monika A. Król explains that food security exists when all people have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and preferences for an active and healthy life. She also highlights that ensuring food security goes beyond freedom from hunger and includes qualitative aspects such as food safety.
Regarding legal concepts, Professor Monika A. Król discusses food security as a global public good from which no one can be excluded, similar to a stable climate. She emphasizes that humanity as a whole is the beneficiary of this global public good. She also notes that food security is a responsibility of the state, citing the example of Poland, her home country. She further asserts that if food security is considered part of environmental security, it becomes an essential task not only of agricultural policy but also of state environmental policy.
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