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Episode recorded October 6, 2022
Episode released on March 23, 2023
Paolo D’Odorico is a Professor of Natural Resources at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a hydrologist and focuses on ecohydrology and evaluating the role of water in human society, including food and energy security.
Highlights | Transcript
- The food system is globalized through international trade, accounting for 25% of food calories consumed.
- Current war in Ukraine (breadbasket) and Black Sea region could impact many regions through global trade.
- Previous food crises in 2007 and 2011 related to rising demand for food and energy (natural gas, fertilizers), increasing food prices, some countries reducing exports (e.g. Ukraine, Russia, and Australia) resulting in spikes in wheat prices of 150%.
- Previous food crises affected Middle East and African countries.
- Increasing food demand related to rising population, increasing affluence, changing diet (increasing meat consumption which is more water and land intensive).
- Evolution of global food trade began with subsidized grain production in US after WW II (Marshall Plan), exporting to Europe and Middle East and the developing world, limiting the ability of these countries to develop agriculture and allowing for the persistence of yield gaps.
- Then countries started importing soybeans from S America as animal feed, with Brazilian cerrado undergoing major land use change to support agricultural expansion, affecting habitat and greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions.
- After the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico became major supplier of vegetables and berries for US, impacting water resources in Mexico, mostly grown in irrigated semiarid regions.
- Global food trade also impacts water resources through the water footprint, amount of water required to produce food, much higher for meat than for grains etc.
- Trading food involves trading water, virtual water representing the water required to grow the food or evaporated.
- 25% of food on average is traded and 25% of water is used to produce this food) (virtual water, a concept introduced by Tony Allen).
- Irrigation paradox: increasing efficiency by switching from surface irrigation to drip systems reduces groundwater recharge and discharge to surface water, full water balance needs to be accounted for while analyzing the pros and cons of upgrades in irrigation technology.
- Land grabs used to increase food and water security. Land grabs: acquisition of large tracts of agricultural land in conditions of unbalanced power relations without a democratic, informed, and inclusive process. Grabs often made by large agribusinesses, governments, or investors.
- Argument for land grabs: areas of developing countries did not benefit from Green Revolution, agribusiness invest in technology to increase yields.
- However, land grabs are often associated with the transition from subsistence farming to large-scale commercial farming with associated losses of rural livelihoods and food security in local communities.
- Land grab often associated with water grab because of limited water resources in the investors’ home countries
- The construction of large dams in Africa often does not benefit small-holders but irrigation schemes for agribusiness near large dams in Africa, growing luxury items for export, without helping food security locally. AT the same time local community lose control of their water resources. For instance, in the case of the Omo River, Ethiopia, pastoralists lost access to downstream water resources, while the impacts on Lake Turkana and its fisheries are affecting fisherfolks and their communities.
- Two potential pathways to improve agricultural production in regions where agricultural yields are low entail:
- The adoption of technological advances from the Green Revolution or other technology-based approaches
- The adoption of agroecological methods with low technology, labor intensive production, polycultures, limited irrigation, organic fertilizers, decentralized detention ponds, use of suitable crops; crop rotations and reduced agrochemical use to improve soil health and microbial diversity. ; cover crops and no till agriculture to reduce soil erosion and soil evaporation.
- Examples of the importance of environmental restoration (e.g. reforestation in the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, to improve environmental quality, tree plantings).
- Role of wetlands in improving water quality and flood mitigation
- Solutions to food and water shortages: increase supplies, reduce demands, store and transport.
- Reduce demand through decreasing food waste, which accounts for 20 – 30% of global food production or changing food consumption by reducing meat consumption, or shifting from beef to poultry and pork, thus reducing water footprint and ghgs.
- Biofuels, high water and land demand, compete with food production
- Food stocks and grain reserves are similar to water storage.
