We Need To Consider Food Adaptations For Our Future Healthy Planet – CleanTechnica

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I’m on an August road trip. As these two weeks come to an eventual end, I will have traveled through all six New England states and stayed with several different friends. During these visits I’ve had an opportunity to see what the local harvest is producing. Tiny Maine blueberries. Cape Cod lobster rolls. Connecticut peaches (and more peaches). Zucchini and tomatoes and bouquets of basil everywhere. I’ve also noticed as we prep and swap stories that, no matter the geographic area, my pals are describing how food adaptations are the talk-of-the-town because of new pressures on agriculture.

One prevailing narrative is the lack of seasonal harvest workers and the commensurate astronomical rise in the cost of local crops. Those of us who follow the US political economy are aware of many ways that our lifestyles are plunging because of Trump/ Project 2025 policies. In addition to impeding a secure a seasonal labor force, the Administration’s faulty policy-making includes the failure to accept and address the consequences of climate change on agriculture.

How the Drive for Profits Impedes Nutrition for All

In 1971 the Diet for a Small Planet illuminated the ecological and social costs of animal agriculture; it revealed how a plant-based diet was imperative as part of a healthy, well-fed global population. What additional food adaptations should we be implementing now with twice the number of humans on the planet?

Sixty years ago the meat-processing industry was already denying how chemicals like nitrates and nitrites react with meat and form cancer-causing compounds. The health risks weren’t important to these meat producers, as using these additives made curing cheaper and quicker, extended shelf life, and gave meat a pleasing pink color. That combination of appealing features made for lots of profit.

Factory farms, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), are the method by which most farmed animals are raised in this industrial agriculture system. Intensive factory farming is designed to maximize profits; large numbers of animals are confined in small and cramped indoor spaces for the duration of their lives.

On large scale farms, synthetic pesticides and fertilizers degrade soil, pollute water, and result in habitat loss. Factory farm emissions intensify climate-related weather events like heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires, and early frosts, which reduce crop vitality and reduce food production. Global temperatures and atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations are still increasing, as Nic Fleming writes in Nature. Tree cover is shrinking, oceans are acidifying, agricultural land is being lost to salinization, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent.

Global climate change has had a significant impact on the way the world grows its food. Climate change introduces a suite of ominous factors, such as greenhouse gas emissions, elevated temperature, increased carbon dioxide concentrations, nitrous oxide and methane ozone depletion, and deforestation. All of these intensify environmental stresses on crops and can even deplete essential plant nutrition levels.

“Most people don’t eat steaks and fresh chicken breasts,” Jessica Fanzo of the Columbia Climate School explains. “They’re eating these processed meats — bacon, Spam, bologna, sausage — which are associated with heart disease and colorectal cancer.”

The growing universe of alternative protein product formulation is creating opportunities to introduce diverse crops.  Producing a single pound of beef requires roughly 1,800 gallons of water, compared to 16 gallons for a pound of lettuce. By reducing the consumption of animal products, the USDA estimates the potential to lower US agricultural emissions by up to 20% by 2030.

Food can also have a crucial role in solving the climate crisis. Indeed, food, climate, and cleantech are coalescing as more power brokers become aware of the role that agriculture has to play in reducing food and climate impacts on greenhouse gas emissions. From climate-smart cultivation to breakthrough protein alternatives, researchers and small businesses are seeking out ways to reduce the carbon footprint of agriculture.

How would food value chains look different if we were to view them as an essential nutritional source rather than a profit-making venture? An investigation by Columbia Magazine explores this question, musing what ordinary citizens can do to transform a system that touches every part of human life. Certainly, we can step back and critically analyze our own daily activities and how food, transportation, and clothing systems intersect to form our own personal carbon footprints. Indeed, some experts argue for new ways to consider a confluence of dietary habits, mindfulness, and mental health.

But there are larger implications than individual choice. Changing the food system cannot lie with consumers. The necessity for substantive food adaptations along the value chain are becoming a harsh reality .

What are Food Value Chains, and Why are Food Adaptations Necessary?

Food systems are complex networks; they’re filled with ebbs-and-flows of supply and demand. The food value chain is a vertical axis connecting or coordinating supplying, producing, processing, and selling the food from farm to table. Such chains have a sequence of activities from farm to fork that provide financial opportunities for stakeholders.

Who’s involved? Seed, pesticide, fertilizer, and life stock genetics producers. Farmers, food processors, distributors. Retailers, researchers, advocacy groups, and policymakers — all have an important role in food production and distribution.

Supply and demand value chains have profound effects on human health, environmental sustainability, and economic development. Competition for food system resources leads to tensions over arable lands, energy, and freshwater sources. Deforestation and biodiversity loss are environmentally-damaging by-products. Population growth, a demanding middle class, urbanization, resource competition, geopolitical tensions, and climate change are 21st century influences along the food value chain. These lead to concerns about the social, environmental, and economic sustainability of current systems.

Improving access to affordable, healthy, and sustainable diets needs to be reconciled with the challenges inherent within the current food system value chain. Some experts call for reformulation efforts to reduce energy density, sugars, saturated fats, and sodium levels. So, too, understanding how texture and microstructure impact the speed and extent of food and energy intake and metabolic response. Increasing nutrient density at affordable prices needs to be sought, with a goal of achieving a safe, nutritious, and sustainable food supply. This would mean exploring culturally acceptable new or under-utilized nutrient-rich food sources from sustainable sources.