ENV 639a () / 2024-2025

Food Systems and Climate Services

Credits: 3 Fall 2024: Tu,Th, 10:30-11:50, Kroon G01

Amidst climate change, there is an urgent need to address the sustainability challenges of agrifood systems. This course builds on mixed methods, integrating applied economics, management and information, policy, and system analysis tools to understand (and potentially solve) the complex interactions of food systems. This interdisciplinary course welcomes students with different backgrounds interested in sustainability, food systems, climate management, and policy at global and community-based scales, with particular emphasis on the Global South. It involves a weekly lecture and practical hour session for a small-medium-sized group.
 
Context
 
As noted in the literature studied and referenced in this course, the production of crops, livestock, and aquatic organisms covers more than a third of land and oceans. Simultaneously, two-thirds of hungry people live in rural areas, and of some 570 million farms in the world, more than 475 million are smaller than 2 hectares. There are clear interconnections between agriculture, climate, conservation, poverty, and inequality. However, our capacity to assess and robustly respond to climate impacts on food systems (or vice versa) is severely challenged by complex interactions between climate risk, demographic shifts, political processes, economic insecurity, and land-use practices.  

The urgency of transforming agri-food systems is undeniable. However, the lack of usable and spatially disaggregated statistics prevents the implementation of effective food system interventions. Economic assessments of climate change are usually expressed in terms of aggregate output or economic sector impacts, without clearly indicating the potential risks and consequences to farm-level production systems, communities, and livelihoods. An overwhelming majority of existing agricultural research publications are unable to provide solutions, particularly to the challenges faced by smallholder farmers, and most studies only involve researchers without any participation from farmers. Climate models also estimate global scenarios that do not offer real advice and information for adaptation at the local level. Current aggregated food production and climate data frameworks need to be made more comprehensive to establish and quantify links between specific farming practices, business models, and climate risk, ultimately illuminating the socio-economic consequences and impacts on smallholder communities, specific production systems, and ecosystems. An innovative generation of researchers, partitioners, and leaders is called to provide alternative and creative solutions, policies, and tools for sustainable food systems and climate services.