Food Security, Climate Change, and COVID – Food Security and Covid (Reading)
Food Security, Climate Change, and COVID – Food Security and Covid (Reading)
Required Reading: Climate Change and Food Security in the Future
Anticipated Time Commitment: 30 Minutes
Please view the following Video and Radio interviews for a total of 10 minutes.
I was interviewed by the University of British Columbia’s media which was then picked up by various media sources who interviewed me for television, online e-news stations, radio, and print. Please listen to or read the following media reports about Covid and Food Security and what the effects of Covid have had on prices, beef, migrant workers, food security and how food producers have adapted in this global pandemic. At the end of this list of media reports is a list of extra readings which you do not need to read. And following this are some statistics about Covid.
UBCO researcher looks at food security during COVID-19: https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2020/08/05/ubco-researcher-looks-at-food-security-during-covid-19/
We should be ‘genuinely concerned’ about food supply, UBCO researcher warns: https://www.kelownanow.com/watercooler/news/news/Okanagan/We_should_be_genuinely_concerned_about_food_supply_UBCO_researcher_warns/
UBC Okanagan researcher says Canadians too dependent on imported foods: https://globalnews.ca/news/7256219/ubc-okanagan-researcher-canadians-dependent-imported-foods/
Food security amid COVID
Kamloops Radio Station NL 610 AM Stingray Live Interview:
Calgary Radio Station 660 NEWS Live Interview:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Kelowna iNFONews Interview:
Williams Lake Tribune Newspaper:
https://www.quesnelobserver.com/news/food-security-food-sovereignty-top-of-mind-for-first-nations/
Further Readings – Not required: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture/brief/food-security-and-covid-19 and http://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/covid-19-and-global-food-systems-aeb1434b/
These articles look at food system resilience and COVID-19. There is a lot of content out there that tries to argue that resilient food systems should be local, usually associated with some association that would gain if that were the case. However, resilience is about how a system recovers from a shock. Cutting off a subsystem from the larger system – local production of food for local consumption – makes that subsystem more vulnerable. All else equal, a global food system is more resilient than a local one. The food system adapted to COVID-19 very well. There were few shortages that were based on production and distribution issues. The shortages we experienced were largely because of consumer fears and the resultant hoarding. There are some very widely circulated stories of crops rotting in the fields, etc. (slick videos with interviews of suffering farmers, …), but in large part those are exceptions. Food prices have not changed much, food trade has not changed much. The global food system adapted very well.
Notes and Markers of Food Insecurity and Covid:
SUDDENLY BECAUSE OF COVID EVERYONE IS ASKING QUESTIO