Solutions Volume 7, Issue 4

July-August 2016, Volume 7, Issue 4

For a sustainable and desirable future

Solutions Towards Sustainable Food Futures

The Importance of Hunting for Future Inuit Food Security

by Carie Hoover et al.

Valuing What Really Matters: A Look at Soil Currency

by Randall Coleman The Power of PlaceBased Food Systems

by Susanna E. Klassen Shifting Power Relations through Participatory Action in Mozambique

by Helena Shilomboleni Food Sovereignty in Rebellion

by Levi Gahman

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Duncan, J. and M. Bailey. (2016). Solutions for a Food Secure World. Solutions 7(4): 1–3. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/solutions-for-a-food-secure-world/

Editorial by Jessica Duncan and Megan Bailey

Solutions for a Food Secure World

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t a recent meeting of academics and activists, a farmer stood up to address the overcrowded meeting room. “If you are optimistic about the future of our food systems, and our planet, you are naive at best,” she said, “but, if you do not have hope, then you have nothing.” It is indeed hard to be optimistic at this moment. The systems of food provisioning inherited from the 20th century have failed: the number of hungry people around the world hovers under one billion while 1.9 billion are overweight.1 At the same time, conventional food production is not environmentally sustainable: agriculture is a key driver of climate change and natural resource depletion. Looking ahead, global population growth, growing inequity, and climate change are all factors that will further complicate, and contribute to, an insecure food future. We are thus facing a complex challenge: how can we move to a just and sustainable food future?

Food security refers to having adequate access to appropriate food for an active and healthy life. If you have access to adequate and culturally appropriate food, you are considered to be food secure. While the challenges of feeding current and future populations are well articulated, innovative and effective solutions for achieving food security remain elusive, and time is of the essence. To ensure food security for all, innovative solutions are needed, and yet, as young scholars, we have faced frustration and limitations when it comes to proposing innovative solutions for food security. Furthermore, young

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Multiple, and at times divergent solutions pathways will be needed to arrive at sustainable food futures.

scholars are increasingly being pushed to publish quantity over quality, and are generally not incentivized to consider radical or innovative directions in their work. These frustrations led to the launch of this Special Issue. A key objective of this Special Issue is to provide a creative space for scholars who may be limited in the scope of their publication outlets, especially when it comes to proposing “out of the box” ideas.

The young scholars that have contributed to this issue began this adventure from the same starting point: a place where food insecurity is a complex, multidirectional, messy problem requiring multiple solutions.

But the consensus in some ways stops there. Indeed, there are contradictions and debates across the solutions presented in this Special Issue. Perhaps this is not surprising given that these contradictions have come to define many of the big problems our generation, and indeed future generations, are facing. Yet, through these contradictions we can also uncover insights into the different ways individuals and

groups in society view the world. These insights shed light on what people value, and this in turns allows us to recognize that there is no single “right” solution. While we focus on young thinkers, we recognize that everyone is responsible for pushing forward new ways of thinking and new ways of doing that allow for a plurality of values. We need to build pathways that are aligned with these values.

Beyond opening up dialogue, this special issue is also a way to start to address two of the reasons why we feel effective solutions for food security have been slow to surface: limited diversity, and challenges for innovative scholarship. In terms of diversity, and to quote Einstein, we start from the idea that, “no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” And yet, we see that many of the solutions for solving recurring and interconnected food crises are restricted to a seemingly global consensus that gives priority to economic growth and trade liberalization over nutritional, social, ecological, cultural, and spiritual

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Editorial by Jessica Duncan and Megan Bailey priorities. From our perspective as academics, we see that there continues to be a lack of diversity in the make-up of university faculties and academic journals. The limited diversity in the background of researchers, and even what is considered “scientific knowledge,” further restricts the diversity of solutions. One implication of this limited diversity is that, while food insecurity is experienced primarily in the global South, the solutions are still largely developed and proposed by scholars and practitioners from the global North. The good news is that things are changing: there is growing recognition that effective solutions are developed by, or at least with, people who understand the context, history, and possibilities, and who will be impacted by the solutions.

anticipate and/or understand social processes, not necessarily discover or direct new ones.

Further stifling the development of solutions is the tendency for researchers and scholars of food security to work in relative disciplinary and ideological isolation. In an effort to agitate the predominant food security discourse, and to provide new perspectives and visions for the future, we deliberately sought contributions from emerging scholars and practitioners from around the world The resulting collection speaks to the two challenges we set out to address.

The solutions put forward in this Special Issue promote multiple solution pathways and possible futures by challenging how science is communicated and by breaking down barriers

The good news is that things are changing: there is growing recognition that effective solutions are developed by, or at least with, people who understand the context, history, and possibilities, and who will be impacted by the solutions.

The second, but related, challenge limiting the ability of young scholars to propose solutions is linked to disciplinary legacies. Within the social sciences and humanities, scholars have traditionally struggled to promote ground-breaking innovations. We propose that this is, in part, because discovery in these disciplines is the result of slow and stepwise processes whereby scholars contribute to evolving understandings of social relations through research and publications.

Discovery is not always the goal of this research, but rather, the objective is to

about who gets to make claims to knowledge. The feature article “The Importance of Hunting for Future Inuit Food Security” by Carie Hoover et al. demonstrates why we need to understand and learn from Indigenous peoples. In their reflection on the food security of Inuit peoples of the Arctic, the authors show how a failure of governments to co-create appropriate strategies, starting from local knowledge and realities, leads to problematic policies. The defense of Indigenous practices, values, and knowledge can result in conflict, as Levi Gahman’s

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review of Zapatista rebellion illustrates. And yet, the value of the practices that are being defended offers promising solutions for ensuring food sovereignty, and, by extension, food security. Engaging people in research and policy can shift power relations, as highlighted by Helena Shilomboleni’s piece on participatory action around land deals in Mozambique. In the context of globalized food systems and social sustainability, Megan Bailey and Niklas Egels-Zandén propose ways for consumers to become more aware of what happens along the seafood supply chain so as to contribute to social justice at sea.

Alongside the need to ensure meaningful participation of people, contributions in this Issue stress the need to also focus on local contexts.

Susanna Klassen, for example, argues in favor of place-based approaches to food for enhancing socio-ecological sustainability.

Many articles in this issue call on us to actively challenge and push boundaries: not only of contemporary science and popular notions of who “counts” as a scientist, but also of common sense. We need to reject the tendency to call innovative and radical alternatives “unrealistic.”

Indeed, we wonder at what point did it become realistic to have one billion people undernourished, almost two billion people overweight, and the earth’s ability to support us starting to crack? We must push ourselves to reimagine how our food systems can function, and for whom they function. For example, as consumers seek out increased certification (i.e. fair trade, organic, and sustainability labels) to ensure that foods meet certain standards and values, we must ask, as Simon Bush does, who should bear the burden of certification?

Seth Baum et al push the boundaries of our imagination by proposing

Editorial by Jessica Duncan and Megan Bailey

Brian Fuller

Disciplinary silos have limited diverse and interdisciplinary thinking in food security solutions.

solutions for global food supply after a major catastrophe.

Deep concern related to the ecological impacts of conventional food production has motivated many contributors. Stefano Pascucci and Jessica Duncan propose principles of circular economy for re-designing food production systems to reverse the negative ecological and social impacts associated with conventional food systems. Given that many of the ecological impacts of the industrial food system are externalized, there are increasing calls to reform the way that agricultural practices and products are valued and priced. Elizabeth Hardee proposes developing credit markets for nutrient stewardship. Another proposal, advanced by Randall Coleman,

is to develop a “soil currency” to raise awareness of the importance of soil by creating a soil currency and credit system. Marwa Shumo proposes black soldier flies as part of an ecofriendly solution for converting food waste into livestock feed.

For us, there is urgent need for practices, knowledge, and infrastructure that support the assemblage of imaginative, reflexive, and representative futures. Just because things are, does not mean they ought to be, and it is this thesis that we want readers to take on board after they digest what this Special Issue has to offer. Finally, the solutions proposed in this Special Issue can be read as an atlas of possibilities. The atlas that past and present generations have

thus far used for social-ecological navigation needs to be updated with contemporary and future routes.

Today we are at a critical juncture that requires creative route planning.

There are multiple roads we can, and must, travel to bring us towards our destination: a food secure future. We recognize that some routes may take us off-road and others may lead us directly to roadblocks. It is our hope that the solutions presented in this Special Issue will help lead us to a destination of just and sustainable food futures.

References 1. Obesity and overweight. Fact sheet no 311. World Health Organization [online] (2015). http://www. who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/.

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Contents

July/August 2016

Features

The search for real answers begins with Solutions

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Submit

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Your contribution will help bring together people from all walks of life in creating innovative solutions.

Crediting Farmers for Nutrient Stewardship: Using Carbon Markets to Create Positive Environmental Change by Elizabeth Hardee Agriculture accounts for one tenth of global emissions. How can we continue to increase global food productivity without the negative impacts? By creating a carbon market, farmers could be credited for nutrient management, incentivizing emissions reductions and benefitting both agriculture and the air.

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Join the dialogue.

Submit your thoughts in the form of articles, news stories, features, or online comments.

What are your solutions?

Become a Partner

L.L. Loseto, and T. Pearce

For the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic, food security is a growing challenge. Modern pressures on traditional subsistence practices have led to a reliance on store-bought foods. A return to historic foods will require a renewed focus on educating youth about land skills and increasing access to hunter support programs.

Join the Solutions Team Become a part of the global Solutions Team. Have Solutions delivered to your door or devices with our new PDF subscription.

Keep up to date on our latest articles and gain exclusive access to online and face to face Solutions events.

The Importance of Hunting for Future Inuit Food Security by C. Hoover, S. Ostertag, C. Hornby, C. Parker, K. Hansen-Craik,

Circular Solutions for Linear Problems: Principles for Sustainable Food Futures

by Stefano Pascucci and Jessica Duncan

The linear design of industrialized global food systems has failed. Food production systems need to be resigned in ways that make use of principles of the Circular Economy: eliminating waste by reusing all byproducts, leveraging renewable energy, and finding inspiration from diversity.

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Transparency for Just Seafood Systems

by Megan Bailey and Niklas Egels Zandén

The next step in sustainable seafood is ensuring complete transparency by achieving full chain traceability, from fishermen’s boats to consumers’ throats. Consumerfacing traceability will not only hold seafood producers accountable, but could create more just seafood systems by combatting labor abuses and slavery in seafood supply chains.

On the Web

Perspectives

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Valuing What Really Matters: A Look at Soil Currency by Randall Coleman

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Decreasing Distance and Re-Valuing Local: How Place-Based Food Systems Can Foster Socio-Ecological Sustainability by Susanna E. Klassen

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Reversing the Burden of Proof for Sustainable Aquaculture by Simon R. Bush

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Alternative Foods as a Solution to Global Food Supply Catastrophes

by Seth D. Baum, David C. Denkenberger, and Joshua M. Pearce

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Black Soldier Fly: A Bio Tool for Converting Food Waste into Livestock Feed

by Marwa Shumo

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On the Ground

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Shifting Power Relations and Poor Practices in Land Deals through Participatory Action in Marracune, Mozambique by Helena Shilomboleni Just south of the capital city of

Mozambique, communities in the district of Marracune have been increasingly threatened by private investors seeking land rights. In response, the National Union of Mozambican Peasants has empowered over 5,000 local farmers to learn Land Laws, register their lands, and obtain titles. This participatory solution has challenged the status quo, giving power back to smallholders.

Solutions in History

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Food Sovereignty in Rebellion: Decolonization, Autonomy, Gender Equity, and the Zapatista Solution

by Levi Gahman Since the 1980s, the Zapatistas have rebelled against the neoliberal regime in Mexico. The Indigenous insurgency has resisted global capitalism and built a local food system that feeds their participatory democracy.

The Zapatista achievements of autonomous education, gender equality, and food sovereignty prove that there are alternatives to the neoliberal food regime.

Idea Lab Noteworthy

08 Interview

India’s Pastoralist Communities: Solutions for Survival Interview with Monika Agarwal by Jessica

Syrian Refugees Reclaim Childhoods through Arts Therapy

Duncan Monika Agarwal has spent over a decade working with the pastoralists of India. She speaks with Solutions about threats to the pastoralist ways of living, the importance of protecting the commons, and leveraging technology to engage youth and add value to these traditional cultures.

Ugandan Women Design Their Own Future Redesigning Conservation: Adidas Announces Recycled 3D-printed Shoe

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In Review

Women Lead the Fight to Save Mother Nature

Cities at the Forefront of Future Food Solutions

Ikea Grounds Sustainable Packaging Future with Mushroom Roots

Editorial

by Aniek Hebinck

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Solutions for a Food Secure World by Jessica Duncan and Megan Bailey www.thesolutionsjournal.org | July-August 2016 | Solutions | 5

Solutions Editors-in-Chief: Robert Costanza, Ida Kubiszewski

Contributors 2

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Associate Editors: David Orr, Jacqueline McGlade Managing Editor: Colleen Maney Senior Editors: Christina Asquith, Jack Fairweather Editor: Naomi Stewart History Section Editor: Frank Zelko Book & Envisioning Editor: Bruce Cooperstein Photo Editors: Marc Fader, Marcello Hernandez Graphic Designer: Kelley Dodd

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Copy Editors: Anna Sottile, Nadine L. Business Manager: Ian Chambers Editorial Board: Gar Alperovitz, Vinya Ariyaratne, Robert Ayres, Peter Barnes, William Becker, Lester Brown, Alexander Chikunov, Cutler Cleveland, Raymond Cole, Rita Colwell, Robert Corell, Herman Daly, Thomas Dietz, Josh Farley, Jerry Franklin, Susan Joy Hassol, Paul Hawken, Richard Heinberg, Jeffrey Hollender, Buzz Holling, Terry Irwin, Jon Isham, Wes Jackson, Tim Kasser, Tom Kompas, Frances Moore Lappé, Rik Leemans, Wenhua Li, Thomas Lovejoy, Hunter Lovins, Manfred Max-Neef, Peter May, Bill McKibben, William J. Mitsch, Mohan Munasinghe, Norman Myers, Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir, Bill Rees, Wolfgang Sachs, Peter Senge, Vandana Shiva, Anthony Simon, Gus Speth, Larry Susskind, David Suzuki, John Todd, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Alvaro Umaña, Sim van der Ryn, Peter Victor, Mathis Wackernagel, John Xia, Mike Young

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On the Cover Locals fish on Myanmar’s Inle Lake at sunset. In June 2015, Inle Lake was designated as Myanmar’s first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The lake is a wetland ecosystem home to diverse flora and fauna, and is crucial to the food security of the local populations. Farmers from one of the dominant ethnic groups in the region, the Inthas, practice floating island agriculture on the lake, and local diets depend on the lake’s fish stocks. Lake Inle joins well over 600 biosphere reserves globally, gaining it access to international tools to promote conservation and implement sustainable development. Photo by Robert Levy.

Solutions is subject to the Creative Commons license except where otherwise stated.

1. Jessica Duncan, Guest Editor—

Jessica Duncan is Assistant Professor in Rural Sociology at Wageningen University (The Netherlands). She holds a PhD in Food Policy from City University London. Her research areas include: food policy; food security; global governance; environmental policy; and participation.

She works as an associate editor for the journal Food Security and acts as an advisor and researcher with Traditional Cultures Project (USA). Jessica’s latest book is Global Food Security Governance: Civil society engagement in the reformed Committee on World Food Security (Routledge 2015). When not working she is likely to be reading, riding her bike, climbing rocks, tweeting (@foodgovernance), or blogging at www.foodgovernance.com.

2. Megan Bailey, Guest Editor—Megan Bailey is an Assistant

Professor and Canada Research Chair in Integrated Ocean and Coastal Governance with the Marine Affairs Program at Dalhousie University (Canada). Her expertise is in fisheries economics and environmental policy, with particular emphasis on the governance of shared fish stocks, and the tensions and synergies between private and public governance. Megan serves on the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of the International Pole and Line Foundation, which works to develop, support, and promote socially and environmentally responsible tuna fisheries around the world.

3. Niklas Egels-Zandén—Dr.

Niklas Egels-Zandén is Associate Professor of Management and Organization at the Business

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Administration at University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has published over 25 articles in journals such as Socio-Economic Review, Global Networks, Scandinavian Journal of Management, Business & Society, Journal of Business Ethics, Business Strategy, Environment, and Journal of Cleaner Production. His two ongoing research projects revolve around governance of global value chains and integration of sustainability into corporate strategy.

4. Stefano Pascucci—Stefano

Pascucci is an Associate Professor in innovation and organization of agribusiness at Wageningen University (NL). He holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics and Policy. His research interests are related to the organization, innovation, and sustainability of international food value chains, and more recently to circular economy.

Stefano has published, among others, in the European Review of Agricultural Economics, Food Policy, and Journal of Business Ethics and Agricultural Systems. Stefano serves as member of the editorial board of the British Food Journal. He is member of the Institutional and Organizational Economics Academy and alumnus of the Ronald Coase Institute. When not working he likes to run, read, cook, and enjoy food and friends.

5. Elizabeth Hardee—Liz Hardee

(MBA, Portland State University) is a researcher and writer in pursuit of a stabilized climate and serves as Senior Analyst for The Climate Trust, a carbon finance nonprofit based in Portland, OR. Beyond sustainable

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agriculture, Liz frequently performs analyses and writes on the topics of corporate climate change strategies, the workings of carbon markets, and the effectiveness of various climate policies.

6. Carie Hoover—Carie Hoover

is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Manitoba. She works closely with Fisheries and Oceans Canada Central and Arctic division researching issues related to changing Arctic ecosystems, and the impacts these changes have on local communities.

7. Simon Bush—Simon Bush is a

Professor of Environmental Policy at Wageningen University. His research focuses on public and private environmental governance arrangements for fisheries and aquaculture. Simon’s recent publications investigate the role of market-based sustainability arrangements such as certification, fishery improvement projects, and fishery credit systems. He is currently the principle investigator for two projects researching the role of the private sector in the sustainable management of tuna fisheries, and one recently commenced project exploring the potential for areabased management and certification of aquaculture in Southeast Asia.

8. Seth Baum—Dr. Seth Baum

is Executive Director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, a nonprofit think tank that Baum co-founded in 2011. He is also an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and a columnist for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. His research focuses on risk and policy

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analysis of catastrophes that could cause major permanent harm to human civilization, such as global warming, nuclear war, and future artificial intelligence technologies. Baum received a Ph.D. in Geography from Pennsylvania State University, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University, and B.S. degrees in Optics and Applied Mathematics from the University of Rochester. He also completed a post-doctoral fellowship with the Columbia University Center for Research on Environmental Decisions and was a fellow of the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative hosted by the UPMC Center for Health Security. (http:// sethbaum.com) 9. Susanna Klassen—Susanna is

a M.Sc. student in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Her research focuses on agricultural sustainability and how the concept of food sovereignty can be used to understand the relationship between social and ecological processes in food systems. Her thesis project explores these themes in the context of the blueberry industry in British Columbia.

She has had the opportunity to work on several farms in Canada, the US, and Latin America, with a particular interest in small ruminants. Susanna received a B.Sc. in environmental science from McGill University.

10. Randall Coleman—Randall

Coleman is a social entrepreneur, educator, and sustainable development practitioner. He has co-founded an international development NGO (Can YA Love) and created an experiential learning tool called The Food Trade

Game. Randall currently works for the Non GMO Project and has consulted for various non-profit, for-profit, and intergovernmental organizations providing expertise on research, sustainability, and database management. His work on sustainable development has been shared in various publications and through speaking engagements around the world. Randall has a Master of Public Policy from American University and a BA in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland.

11. Marwa Shumo—Marwa Shumo

earned a bachelor degree with honors in Biotechnology from the University of Nizwa in the Sultanate of Oman.

Marwa was awarded the elite Albertus Magnus scholarship by the University of Cologne, where she studied and graduated with a First Class master’s degree in Environmental Sciences.

Currently, Marwa is a junior research and a doctoral fellow at the Center for Development Research, University of Bonn pursuing a doctorate in Development Studies. Marwa’s research is covered by a scholarship from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, where she conducts her field research on the utilization of Black Soldier Flies in waste management and feed production.

12. Helena Shilomboleni—Helena

Shilomboleni is a PhD Candidate in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability (SERS), University of Waterloo, Canada. Her primary area of research examines how the divergent agrarian models of the African Green Revolution and Africa’s Food Sovereignty movements shape our understanding

of food security and agricultural sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Her research interest in Africa’s food systems sustainability is informed by her background growing up in rural Namibia.

Helena currently lives in Kitchener, Ontario.

13. Aniek Hebinck—Aniek Hebinck

is a Jr. Researcher at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen University (Netherlands). Aniek is interested in the construction of sustainable food provisioning practices and the governance of these practices. She is keen on exploring how places in the Global South and North can learn from each other.

Her current research focuses on policy making for urban agriculture and the transformative potential of food banks via the EU-project TRANSMANGO. Her research interests include food security, (urban) food governance, and international development.

14. Levi Gahman—Levi is a loyal,

but stumbling, adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle from rural Kansas (ancestral Osage territories) and currently working with the Institute for Gender and Development Studies and Department of Geography at The University of the West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago). His work is comprised of struggling against neoliberalism and participating in movements for liberation, autonomy, belonging, and dignity that promote a preferential option for the poor, vulnerable, and dispossessed.

He remains a community organizer with Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture (RAMA) and is also an Editor for ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies.

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Noteworthy. (2016). Solutions 7(4): 8–12.

Idea Lab Noteworthy Syrian Refugees Reclaim Childhoods through Arts Therapy

by Nihal Kayali

For many children escaping the Syrian war, the trauma of violence and loss lingers long after the journey away from home. In Sultanbeyli, a suburb of Istanbul with a burgeoning refugee population, children who have survived the worst of war are now dealing with the stress of settling in a town where they do not understand the language and are shut out of overcrowded neighborhood schools.

Enter Project Lift, an organization that has brought expressive arts therapy classes to Syrians aged four to 13 in an effort to ease post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms while providing a space for children to harness their creative impulses. In what were once drab municipal offices, Project Lift now facilitates a lively five-day curriculum of dancing, drumming, and drawing for Syrian refugees.

“If you can boost a child’s imagination, you improve their ability to problem solve,” says Leyla Akca, Chief Advisor to Project Lift. The program, which applies the Skills for

Psychological Recovery model and includes home visits before and after the week-long program, has served over 600 children in Sultanbeyli.

Run by licensed therapists and a cadre of trained volunteers who use a blend of English, Turkish, Arabic, and motions to communicate, Project Lift ensures that no student is left unheard or unattended to.

Akca emphasized the value of creative outlets as therapy for refugee children, some of whom are unable to “self-regulate” and therefore deal with conflict by acting out disruptively or closing further in on themselves.

Caroline Gluck/ECHO/EU

Refugee children wait at a food kitchen in Turkey in February 2015.

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Idea Lab Noteworthy Such behavior makes it difficult for some refugee children to integrate in schools, where classmates may interpret erratic behavior not as a symptom of trauma but as pretext for exclusion or derision. By harnessing imaginative thinking through art, students are better able to visualize various solutions to problems they encounter.

“The kids are surprisingly resilient,” Akca reflects. “They come every day smiling, learning, and thriving.”

With any luck, come September, space will open up in local schools for more Syrian students. Equipped with the preparation of Project Lift, these children will be better prepared to embrace educational opportunities and take on the daunting challenges of integrating into a new school.

Ugandan Women Design Their Own Future

by Jennie Spector

Uganda’s next generation of female doctors, lawyers, accountants, and human rights professionals may have gotten their start through sandal design.

Women in Uganda face an uphill climb toward attaining high level education and employment. Only 5.4 percent of men and women officially eligible for tertiary education were enrolled in 2010, and of that small number, 44 percent were women.

Supporting these women to someday see their name on a university diploma is the aim of Sseko Designs, a sandal and accessory design social enterprise dedicated to providing women with dignified employment, financial planning tools, and a sturdy link from secondary school to a university education.

IICD

A female graduate works in information and communications technology in Bushenyi, Uganda.

Ugandan students take a ninemonth gap between secondary school and university in order to earn tuition funds. This gap challenges the momentum of women hoping to leap from secondary to university graduation, as the fairly equitable number of women in secondary education does not translate into equality in social and economic spheres. A UN Millennium Development Goals report notes that women in Uganda spend significantly

more hours completing unpaid, home-care activities than men, and an average of seven hours less engaged in economic activity. Even if able to find reliable employment, the same UN report notes a startling wage gap, with men’s median wages around double that of women’s, regardless of the manner of employment.

This is where Sseko steps in. The fashion line aims to employ “high potential” women during their

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Idea Lab Noteworthy nine-month gap, along with a longterm team of Ugandan women from all walks of life. More than 70 women have graduated from the university program so far, and all participants have gone on to pursue university education. Fifty percent of the university program participants’ paycheck is only accessible when a tuition payment is due, ensuring that the money earned will only be used to secure a true route out of poverty by way of education.

Sseko then provides scholarships that match 100 percent of the money each woman has saved away at the end of her nine-month term. Sseko also partners with a non-profit for women previously in the sex industry, providing crucial dignifying, fair-wage employment within that community.

Integrating women into the economic landscape is good for business and society. Liz Bohannon, the founder of Sseko, observes that Ugandan women only needed “to work in an environment and with people who saw beyond the seemingly impossible barriers of the now and had a vision for what they would become” in order to succeed. Sseko graduates are the inevitable future of their country, and through dignified employment and education, the future, and the fashion, looks bright.

Read more at ssekodesigns.com.

some marine life outright and killing others that mistake the toxic bits for food. While this problem may seem insurmountable by the sheer magnitude of plastic waste that is now floating in our oceans (to put it in perspective, in 1961 only eight million metric tons of plastic were produced annually), a seemingly unlikely company is helping lead the charge in chipping away at this plastic pollution through the best way it knows how: sporting gear.

The company in question is Adidas, and their solution is a new, highperformance shoe made entirely from recycled ocean waste. Based on the design of Adidas’s previously unveiled “Futurecraft 3D” concept shoe, which features a unique, 3D-printed midsole, Adidas’s new recycled shoe replaces the Futurecraft’s plastic-based sole with recycled polyester and fishing nets retrieved from ocean waste. In addition, the new shoe will substitute

the previous design’s yarns with fibers broken down from ocean plastic and illegal deep-sea gillnets.

Adidas’s recycled shoe is crafted in partnership with Parley for the Oceans, a conservation group founded in 2013 that is committed to the protection and conservation of Earth’s oceans.

This partnership feeds into Adidas’ new three-pronged approach to help conserve the world’s oceans, dubbed “AIR,” or “Avoid, Intercept, Redesign.”

In addition to the production of their new, 3D-printed shoe, Adidas’s new commitment plans to fade out both plastic bags in retail stores and plastic microbeads in body care products, both of which contribute to plastic ocean waste. In addition, the company will position several Adidas employees as ambassadors for Parley for the Oceans, helping push forward the new conservation group’s mission.

Adidas’s recycled shoe line is set to be released later this year.

Redesigning Conservation: Adidas Announces Recycled 3D-printed Shoe

by Devin Windelspecht

An estimated 4.8 million metric tons of plastic waste enter our oceans each year—that’s 13,000 metric tons per day. As plastics don’t biodegrade, this mass of artificial junk is slowly accumulating in the ocean, poisoning

Design Milk

Prototype for Adidas’ recycled shoe made from ocean plastic.

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Idea Lab Noteworthy Women Lead the Fight to Save Mother Nature

by Zeynep Karatas

Women are stepping up to the plate in the fight against climate change.

Earlier this year, the UN appointed six women to hold the highest positions in its efforts to fight climate change. Patricia Espinosa was approved in late May to replace Christiana Figueres as the UN Climate Chief. Ms. Espinosa will be joined

by Ségolène Royal, Hakima El Haite, Laurence Tubiana, Sarah Baashan, and Jo Tyndall—creating an all-female team to lead UN talks.

According to Women’s Environment and Development Organisation, women on average have made up just 30 percent of delegates at the annual summit since 2008.

Some have argued that women are more severely harmed by climate change, which has promoted the notion that women should be leading efforts to save the environment.

Canada’s female Environment Minister, Catherine McKenna, was recently bombarded with harsh criticisms after tweeting that women are more vulnerable to climate change effects. In the US, a woman leads environmental issues: Gina McCarthy is the US Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

McKenna is not alone in her stance that women are the greater victims of climate change, despite being targeted with great criticism. “Because of these existing gender inequalities that are perpetuated by customs, social practices, and even economic structures, women are more vulnerable,” says Verona Collantes, a climate change specialist with UN Women told VICE News.

UN Photo/Marco Castro

Patricia Espinosa, who has been approved to become the next UN Climate Chief.

Women stepping up to positions of leadership for fighting against climate change are significant not only because they might be the greater victims of the environmental phenomenon, but also because women are better positioned to bring tangible change.

According to the UN Women and Climate Change Factsheet, women worldwide are in a greater position to contribute to changing environmental realities due to their roles in the household.

Ikea Grounds Sustainable Packaging Future with Mushroom Roots

by Naomi Stewart

Polystrene has been a dominant player in the packaging industry since its early days of being manufactured in Germany by I.G. Farben—just think of all the Styrofoam found in product packaging in the United States and Canada. Though incredibly adaptable as a compound and useful for both goods production and delivery, it’s

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Idea Lab Noteworthy

MyCoBond

An Ecovative wine shipper.

very environmentally unfriendly.

Polystrene takes hundreds of years to break down, is resistant to photolysis, and is one of the main pollutants in ocean debris. It is often mistaken for food by fish and birds, which can kill them if too much is eaten. At the same time, polystyrene ingestion also introduces associated toxic chemicals into the food chain.

To tackle this problem, two young American men teamed up 10 years ago. Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre met in an ‘inventor’s class’ and developed an insulation material from agricultural waste and fungus, which

their professor encouraged them to turn into a product. That biodegradable mushroom packaging idea has grown into the sustainable goods company Ecovative, which counts furniture and home goods giant Ikea amongst their latest clients.

In making the packaging, agricultural waste like corn husks is first gathered from local farmers and cleaned and bagged with fungus. The fungus eats the waste and forms small matrices of roots (mycelium) around each particle. After a few days, the mix is broken up and poured into packaging molds, where the mycelium grows into specific

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shapes. These bricks are removed, treated to prevent further growth, and are then ready for use. Once used, they can be composted at home and easily biodegrade in the garden.

Now, in 2016, Ecovative’s mushroom packing has been confirmed for use by Ikea in the company’s efforts to increase sustainability. Considering the breadth of Ikea’s distribution, as well as other major multinational Ecovative clients like Dell, this simple yet effective solution is well on its way to having a positive and widespread impact on reducing the amount of nonbiodegradable polystyrene globally.

Duncan, J. (2016). India’s Pastoralist Communities: Solutions for Survival. Solutions 7(4): 13–17. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/indias-pastoralist-communities-solutions-for-survival/

Idea Lab Interview

India’s Pastoralist Communities: Solutions for Survival Monika Agarwal Interviewed by Jessica Duncan

F

or more than 15 years, Monika Agarwal has been working with the pastoralists of India, including EDA Rural Systems Consultancy, MARAG (an Indian NGO), the World Alliance for Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP), and as the International Land Coalition’s National Engagement Strategy coordinator for India.

Her forthcoming publication, “There is dignity only with livestock: Land grabbing and the changing social practices of pastoralist women in Gujarat, India,” is to be published soon in the book Cosmopolitan Rural Gender Relation: International Perspectives on Gender and Rural Development (CABI 2017).

She has just launched new a project that will see her living with different pastoralist communities across India to learn about the challenges they face, and to identify possibilities for securing their futures.

She has an MBA in rural management from the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), India.

The situation for pastoralists around the world is complicated and increasingly challenging. Although there is evidence that pastoralism is a very suitable form of production and land use, especially in dryland areas, as a livelihood and culture, it has come under threat. These threats include legal, economic, social, and political disincentives, but also barriers to being able to graze and migrate with livestock. Can you explain the situation for pastoralists in India at the moment?

Recently, I read that Indian pastoralism is the worst documented of all pastoral populations. This has not improved, and we still do not know

Himalayan Drifters

Monika Agarwal with Dilip, a Gaddi Pastoralist, Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh.

the exact population of pastoralists in India. Different experts have estimated that pastoralists make up eight to ten percent of India’s 1.2 billion population, and yet, most people know very little, if anything, about pastoralism.

Many a time, when I have told my friends in India that I work with pastoralists, they are surprised to know that there are pastoralists outside Africa, and that a large population of pastoralists exists in India. In this scenario, it is quite obvious that pastoralists are an invisible constituency, and that their issues and interests are not reflected in development policies or more broadly in the governance of this country. The situation of pastoralists worldwide is the same and deteriorating rapidly because of increasing commercial pressures on land, impacts of globalization, and climate change. In India, we have seen they have no option but

to drastically reduce herd sizes, and many are eventually pushed out of pastoralism. Pastoralists who have coexisted with nature and livestock for centuries now always complain that “today we cannot decide how many livestock we can keep.”

You point out that there is a clear need for a broader and better understanding of the situation of pastoralists in India.

Can you tell us what some of the main threats are to pastoralism?

I would like to discuss two main threats that I see: land grabbing, especially of the commons, and youth engagement. In recent times, the corporate interest in land has become perhaps our biggest threat. Let us accept that land grabbing is a global phenomenon and that there is little we can do to stop it. The rush for land to meet capitalist interests is targeting

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Idea Lab Interview

Himalayan Drifters

A pastoralist feeds a motherless goat.

all kinds of land, but it is much easier to grab common land. Often with these common lands, there is no need to pay financial compensation.

This is especially the case when the governance framework is weak or nonexistent. There are innumerable cases where pastoral lands are taken away without the free, prior, and informed consent of the people who had been living on those lands for generations.

The beauty of pastoralist ways of life lies in their ability to convert the marginal resources in dry and arid regions to productive resources such as milk, meat, wool, and manure with few, if any, inputs. Livestock keeping is increasingly becoming unviable for them. This leaves pastoralists with few options. For most of them, their entire lives have been dedicated to pastoralism. While they have extensive knowledge, especially around animal husbandry, they often have no formal

education. They, thus, have few skills that might be suitable for other forms of modern employment. What I have seen is that when they give up livestock keeping, most end up doing odd jobs or wage labor. They go from a situation where they had food and income from keeping livestock to needing cash to buy food. This has certainly led to increased food insecurity.

The second threat is the lack of interest on the part of youth.

Anywhere in India I go, when I talk to pastoralists, I hear that, “We are the last generation as pastoralists.” The youth have no interest. Pastoralism is a low input, but highly labor-intensive way of life. Without the interest of the next generation, pastoralism, as a viable livelihood, can die, and it is dying. To be clear, this is not a recent phenomenon. Over the years access and control over land has declined; land quality has deteriorated with

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chemicals propagated by the Green Revolution; more common lands have been brought under agriculture, plantations, industries; migration is becoming difficult; new weeds and grasses are resulting in unknown diseases in livestock; conflicts with farmers and forest officials are increasing; and so on. We also see that a negative image of pastoralists is being promoted at a societal level.

It is not surprising, then, that there are poor prices for pastoral products and no political will to support them through, for example, more favorable or appropriate policies. It is absolutely absurd that India is home to the largest livestock population without a comprehensive policy on commons and livestock.

This is related to the current education system in our country, which has already done a lot of damage. It is taking children and youth away from traditional livelihoods and, in so doing, it does not prepare children for a traditional way of life. It is also perhaps not surprising that all ‘educated’ youth want a ‘9 a.m. to 5 p.m.’ job. The elder generation associate livestock with dignity, but the current generation find pastoralism to be dirty work. I recently had a Gaddis shepherd pastoralist from Himachal Pradesh tell me, “We are on 24-hour duty all the year round, with no holidays.

Many a time, we go without a bath for days and weeks. We are used to it because we have been doing it since childhood. But our children cannot work so much. They find cow shit and goat shit smelly and dirty. Their bodies start smelling if they don’t bathe for two days.” Other pastoralists have also told me that they no longer get the respect they used to get from other communities and when they migrate.

Now, pastoralists have been socially

Idea Lab Interview branded as illiterate and uncivilized. I remember one pastoralist explained, “We are told that the rest of the world has moved on, but we have not progressed.” These narratives have greatly influenced the youth. When these children go to school, they are further influenced by children from other communities who are considered more ‘civilized’ and ‘progressive’.

Perhaps we need an alternate education model which can balance literacy and traditional knowledge.

You have been actively engaged in promoting the links between land tenure, food security, food sovereignty, and pastoralism in India. This has led you to remote villages and to UN meetings.

Can you explain how these issues are related?

To put it simply, food sovereignty is not possible without land sovereignty, and land sovereignty is not possible without peoples’ sovereignty. Pastoralists in India remain the unheard and unseen people. Pastoralists are always moving in search of greener pastures and water for their livestock, and they depend on common property resources, such as grasslands, fallow lands, forests, even what are called wastelands. Technically, their mobility helps them to convert otherwise unproductive resources in dry and arid regions into livestock products. Traditionally, they have co-existed with these commons and managed and maintained these resources. Because pastoralist livelihoods are tied to being able to graze animals, many pastoralists live mobile lives. But, because they are moving to find food for their animals, they face barriers to political engagement and activities, like voting.

Consequently, they have very little influence or say in the policies that directly affect them. On top of that, the current lack of people-centered land

governance results in unfavorable land policies for pastoralists which, over the years, has led to reduced access and control of commons lands. No access to land means no grass and no water, and hence, no livestock. This obviously means no pastoralism.

People sovereignty and land sovereignty are interrelated and essential for realizing food sovereignty.

Pastoralists have lived in relative isolation from one another, and that is why we lack a pastoralist movement in India. When I tell pastoralists in the Himalayas about pastoralist communities in Gujarat, they have never heard about them. There is an urgent need to organize so that their collective voices can be heard, and we are better placed to negotiate for their customary rights.

few decades. It started soon after the green and white revolutions in India and was exacerbated by liberalization and globalization. Let me illustrate with an example. Two weeks ago, I was with the Gaddis pastoralists. The Gaddis migrate between lower and higher Himalayan ranges throughout the year for alpine pastures and water.

In a few weeks, they will start migrating towards higher altitudes to reach the Lahaul-Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh where they will camp for the next three to four months, until early winter. Amazingly, they told me that during these months spent at these higher altitudes, they do not engage in any form of monetary transactions.

The people of Lahaul-Spiti provide them with all they need during their stay, such as food, grains, vegetables,

The beauty of pastoralist ways of life lies in their ability to convert the marginal resources in dry and arid regions to productive resources such as milk, meat, wool, and manure with few, if any, inputs.

Your work speaks to the importance of the commons—meaning cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society. Why is recognizing the commons an important step for food sovereignty?

Food was never a commodity for the pastoralists I have worked with.

Pastoralist culture is about the relationship that communities have with land, environment, livestock, and other people. Pastoralists have co-existed with nature because of these relationships. Alarmingly, this relationship has been drastically changing over the last

and any other requirements, in exchange for meat. The people of Lahaul-Spiti even arrange to send the Gaddis the provisions by mules. Can you imagine there still exist communities who practice age old traditions which are based on relationships of sharing and non-monetary exchange?

These relationships are the basis of food sovereignty for everyone involved in it. But, I need to be clear. This is not a simple exchange, but a complex web of life where each element of the relationship is mutually dependent on the other. Any change or dilution disturbs

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Idea Lab Interview the balance that exists in this web of life. Now, if farmers in Lahaul-Spiti start encroaching on common land for cultivation or if the government plans to put up solar park units on common lands (and this is in the pipeline), this relationship will be affected, and so too the ability of pastoralists and farmers to share common resources and ensure food sovereignty for each other.

Pastoralism is not about living off the nature, but living with nature.

You are working with the International Land Coalition on a National Engagement Strategy which aims to improve coordination and to aggregate the efforts of the Coalition in India, and other countries in Asia, by sharing lessons learned. Can you tell us about the major lessons for India that have come out of this strategy?

To say that India is diverse would be an understatement. There are 29 states in India. This diversity is good for many reasons, but it also serves to complicate governance issues. For instance, though land falls under the jurisdiction of states in India, issues related to land acquisition lie in the concurrent list which means both states and the central government have powers to legislate. One of the first lessons for us working with the International Land Coalition was to recognize this diversity and accept the contradictions within. Land governance in India is not people-centered. There is tremendous commercial pressure on land, but lately, while land has remained on the political agenda across India, there has been limited political will for land reforms. Communities traditionally dependent on land are increasingly alienated, and, most worrying for me is that there is no comprehensive policy framework for commons. The second important lesson for us is ‘unity in diversity.’ The Indian members of

Himalayan Drifters

A pastoralist cooks a meal of rice and lentils.

the International Land Coalition’s National Engagement Strategy platform recognize diversity, as well as different tools, as needed to address the challenges related to governing the commons. We need a multi-prong approach in India, including evidencebased research, new models, advocacy, networking, and, if required, dissent.

In the times to come, the National Engagement Strategy platform will be able to simultaneously address these issues, and move us towards peoplecentered land governance in India.

You also work with pastoralist communities to find creative solutions to engage youth and to take advantage of new technologies to promote pastoralism. In your view, what are the most promising solutions and what is needed to get those solutions implemented?

Currently, I am on a personal mission, travelling to live with pastoralists in different regions in India with the aim to find creative solutions to keep pastoralism alive. Everywhere I go, I

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ask, “How can we engage youth in pastoralism?” We cannot insulate small food producers from the impacts of globalization and capitalism. But, can we use these forces to our advantage?

There is very little value addition done by pastoralists themselves. I see hope in food technology to attract youth.

The technology that can create value addition in milk, wool, hide, hair, and get them better prices. Each pastoralist community is also known for their handicrafts. But these are also slowly vanishing. Why can’t we link their handicrafts to markets? We live in a mobile world ourselves, why can’t we experiment with mobile dairies?

Last week, I met a sixty-year-old pastoralist who migrated with his entire family for thirty years. He was forced to quit because of age and not one of his five children are interested in taking up pastoralism. I asked him, “How long will pastoralism survive?”

He replied, “I am not sure, but nature has its way. I believe in nature. Nature will do something.”

Idea Lab Interview

Himalayan Drifters

Gaddi pastoralist near Kareri Lake, Kangra District, Himachal Peadesh.

Pastoralism in its current form, existing alongside rapid developments underway in India, will not survive, but I believe we can certainly find models around pastoralism that can revive the dignity that youth no longer see. While I still have many questions around the use of new technologies, I do hope we can use technology and the digital world for the advantage of pastoralists. For example, I want to engage with social media to spread real, positive stories about pastoralists in India. I am also now working towards setting up a pastoral museum in India.

Imagine a future in which the pastoralists of India have food sovereignty.

What does that look like, and what needs to happen now to get us there?

We need to continue to work to find ways to develop favorable policies so that the drudgery can be reduced. I imagine an ideal future where there are pastoralist corridors and adequate infrastructure support provided to them when they migrate. More importantly, I imagine a future where there is widespread societal awareness of pastoralist ways of life and positive narratives about pastoralism. This future would mean engaged youth whose needs and aspirations are compatible with the traditional livelihood. There would be pastoralist-owned institutions that bring together pastoralists from different parts of India, enabling them to engage in effective policy advocacy while simultaneously experimenting with creative solutions and new uses of technology. There is a huge global

demand for organic produce right now.

In the future, maybe we can have a market for pastoral foods in India.

When we look at pastoralism, there is a clear justification for supporting this livelihood whether we look at it from the perspective of food sovereignty, the environment, biodiversity, culture and tradition, even employment. We often say that pastoralism is a solution to the major crises in the world—the food crisis, climate crisis, job crisis, peace crisis, and energy crisis. But, first and foremost, we need to stop both romanticizing pastoralism and undermining it. We need to work with pastoralists and other stakeholders towards building solutions that will work. Let there be a business case too, for the pastoralists themselves to continue doing it.

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Coleman, R. (2016). Valuing What Really Matters: A Look at Soil Currency. Solutions 7(4): 18–21. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/valuing-what-really-matters-a-look-at-soil-currency/

Perspectives Valuing What Really Matters: A Look at Soil Currency

by Randall Coleman

W

e have all heard the expression “cheaper than dirt.”

But many experts disagree. Soil is a vital resource that the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates contributes about USD $16.5 trillion in ecosystem services annually.1 In fact, FAO named 2015 the International Year of the Soils in order to highlight the importance of soils in our food system.

Unfortunately, arable soil is depleting very rapidly due to erosion, by around 24 billion tons each year.2 This rate of erosion is 10 to 100 times greater than the rate at which soil is being replenished.3 The major contributing factors are urban development, desertification, and industrial agriculture. The use of chemicals, intensive machinery, and monoculture are increasing productivity in the short term but leading to fallow soil and desertification over the long term.

The most widely discussed solutions around these issues include polyculture, reforestation, and climate-smart agricultural practices. But, what if the reason we do not see soil being replenished is because we are not properly valuing it? I believe soil can provide a way to increase food access in urban food deserts, increase healthy diets among low-income communities, and shield communities from increasingly volatile global markets. To do this, we can look to the world of economics for a solution.

Some practitioners, artists, and scholars are exploring the idea of soil as a currency. Economists, agronomists, and ecologists have already agreed and estimated the economic benefits we receive from soil ecosystem services.

Because we can create certain types

of topsoil and because we know how valuable it is, we can create an economic system that is based on the value of soil.

Imagine a world where households provide their organic waste to urban gardeners and farmers in exchange for currency or points. After a prescribed amount of time, that household will collect enough points to “buy” produce from that farmer. Both parties benefit in this arrangement. The farmer needs inputs to create valuable compost for his/her operations, and the household has free access to healthy local produce. In addition, nearby restaurants and cafes can get involved, providing input materials for farmers, buying ingredients for their menus, and selling salads and sandwiches to participating households, all with an alternative currency based on soil.

The points accrued could be based not only on the quantity of waste, but also on the type. For instance, to create quality compost, you need both materials high in nitrogen (greens) and materials high in carbon (browns).

The volumes required for each of these differ as well, contributing to the waste-food calculation. To be clear, the waste in question is primarily actual waste that cannot or will not be consumed as food again. Examples include egg shells, coffee grounds, used paper towels, and kitchen scraps.

This system does not incentivize throwing out edible food. Participants will be trained on what constitutes “waste” and would be encouraged not to throw out food simply to acquire soil currency. Furthermore, there are components to this system that will help to check this moral hazard. Soil currency can only buy more fresh

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produce, so the participant does not gain anything by throwing out edible food. Different growing seasons for different crops will limit participants’ ability to game the system. Lastly, a part of this system could be to provide participants with waste bins designed for the right amount of browns and greens, further encouraging the right kind of participation.

There is a lot of research on how much food is wasted in both the industrialized and developing world, and where in the supply chain this happens, before or after the consumer.4 Households and industry are wasting perfectly good food at the same time that millions of people are experiencing hunger and malnutrition. Food waste is becoming more and more accepted as a serious issue to be addressed and soil currency should not undermine this progress. The goal of soil currency is to incentivize people to compost who ordinarily would not, and, to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

This might sound like pie in the sky, and in many ways it is still just an idea at this point. There are, however, groups who are trying to make this a reality, like Hello Compost in the Bronx, NYC. Hello Compost is a “home composting service” that collects waste from residents in specially designed pouches and delivers that waste to a nearby urban farm called Project EATS.5,6 Participating residents receive “credits” for the waste they produce via a mobile app, where they can track their progress and redeem their credits for food grown at a Project EATS site. The urban farm can use the compost it has made or sell it to make income. The Hello Compost operation is still in the early stages and has yet to include nearby businesses that serve food, as described earlier. However, after one year in operation, this project has contributed significantly

Perspectives

Ron Nichols, USDA NRCS North Carolina

A farmer inspects the health of his soil through look, feel, and smell in Greensboro, North Carolina.

to making soil currency a reality for working class residents of the Bronx.

Soil currency provides answers to several problems. First, soil currency raises awareness of the importance of soil by placing a monetized value on it.

This economic incentive will not only produce more soil, but should increase the amount of fresh produce a household consumes, because the resulting kitchen scraps now have value as the inputs to make compost. If households are buying more produce because it equals “free food,” we might be able to assume these households are eating healthier, whole fruits and vegetables.

This is an area that needs further study, but if true, even in some cases, could be a groundbreaking solution that would encourage healthy eating

habits. However, the issue of moral hazard still needs to be addressed in such a study and through the implementation of the project.

Second, this economic system will work best in low-income and marginalized communities, where the need is greatest. Often, people in low-income communities do not have access to healthy food either because it is too far away (in communities located in so-called “food deserts”) or it is too expensive. Soil currency could help subsidize access to healthy food, without spending any legal tender to get it.

Third, soil currency will decrease the potency of greenhouse gases (GHG), and perhaps, the amount that is emitted into the atmosphere. When organic waste is sent to a landfill, it

decomposes anaerobically (without oxygen), which produces methane.

If that same waste is put toward a compost pile that is being turned, the waste decomposes aerobically (with oxygen) and therefore produces carbon dioxide, a GHG 21 times less potent than methane. Landfills and methane are significant contributors to emissions and climate change in the United States.7 If enough soil is produced, we may see an offset of the CO2 created because the soil (with the help of plants) will sequester carbon from the atmosphere.

Lastly, it directly addresses the issue of declining arable soil by incentivizing ordinary citizens to make more of it, albeit in much smaller quantities than is needed. Although raising

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Perspectives

Rebecca Murphey

Household compost.

awareness is a central objective of soil currency, it does so in the practical application of creating compost. It should be noted that compost is but one of many types of soil, most of which take millennia to form, so this concept will not replenish all soil types. However, finished compost is a very good one for growing food and is considered one of the best ways to replenish the Earth with sustainable agriculture. Furthermore, when using space-efficient vertical gardens and composters like those designed and built by the non-profit Can YA Love,8 one maximizes the limited amount of space for food and compost production as well. This is critical in an urban setting where there is not much space for composting or agriculture.

The example of Hello Compost shows that soil currency can have an impact. But, some critical questions need to be answered in order to scale this up and across different communities. Mainly, what is the correct monetary value to assign soil?

This is difficult to answer from a technical perspective, as well as a practical one. Soil provides many services for our planet, and is, therefore, hard to valuate. The main service soil provides in a waste-to-food system, such as this one, is acting as the medium to grow food. Therefore, to place a monetary value on that soil, you would need to know the cost of various crops in your area, the amount of compost needed to grow said crops, and the amount of waste needed for the correct amount

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of compost. Once this exchange rate is calculated for a particular area, a farmer can then plan how much he/ she would need to grow for the participating households throughout the season, as well as how much inputs for compost he/she would receive.

However, the question remains: will the value of soil be enough for people to change their behavior? This key question has not been answered because soil currency has not existed nor been implemented (until very recently). Perhaps the price of a particular crop is not enough to persuade people to make compost out of their waste? However, adding the value of carbon storage, water retention, and of other ecosystem services soil provides, could push the value high enough to

Perspectives

Tiffany Woods / Oregon State University

Finished compost soil at Oregon State University’s student-run organic farm in Corvallis, Oregon. Compost soil is ideal for growing food.

make this idea worthwhile. If there is adequate demand for the compost produced, could it be sold in other markets, thus adding more value and more incentive? Other studies have already shown that improvements in soil health (increased humus content) directly correlate to increased economic value for farmers.9 This information is being used to persuade farmers to go organic. This same beneficial relationship can be used to persuade households and urban gardeners to compost.

If we can place an accurate and high enough value on soil, it may change people’s behavior to eat more

healthy foods, create quality topsoil, increase community resilience, and mitigate food insecurity. Soil currency will not be a panacea, but it could be another tool in our arsenal to help us plan for a more food secure future.

3. Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures. A Sustainable Model for Intensive Agriculture [online] (2015). http://grantham.sheffield.ac.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2015/12/A4-sustainable-model-intensiveagriculture-spread.pdf.

4. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Global Food Losses and Food Waste [online] (2011). http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/

References

mb060e/mb060e00.pdf.

1. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United

5. Hello Compost [online] http://hellocompost.com/.

6. Project EATS [online]. http://projecteats.org/about-

Nations (FAO). The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture: Managing Systems at Risk [online] (2011). http://

us/.

7. United States Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA Overview of Greenhouse Gases Methane

www.fao.org/docrep/017/i1688e/i1688e.pdf.

Emissions [online]. http://www3.epa.gov/

2. United Nations Convention to Combat

climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html.

Desertification (UNCCD). Land Degradation Neutrality: Resilience at Local, National and

8. Can YA Love [online]. www.canyalove.org.

Regional Level [online]. http://www.unccd.int/Lists/

9. Sait, G. Humus Saves the World. Nutrition Matters

SiteDocumentLibrary/Publications/V2_201309-

[online] (April 2013). http://blog.nutri-tech.com.au/

UNCCD-BRO_WEB_final.pdf.

humus-saves- the-world/.

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Klassen, S. (2016). Decreasing Distance and Re-Valuing Local: How Place-Based Food Systems Can Foster Socio-Ecological Sustainability. Solutions 7(4): 22–26. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/decreasing-distance-and-re-valuing-local-how-place-based-food-systems-can-foster-socio-ecological-sustainability/

Perspectives Decreasing Distance and Re-Valuing Local: How Place-Based Food Systems Can Foster Socio-Ecological Sustainability

by Susanna E. Klassen

Never Mind the End

Street art in Washington, DC.

W

ith the global agricultural system in crisis, there is growing public understanding of issues surrounding food insecurity and the negative environmental impacts of agriculture. As a result, consumers are increasingly aware of the impacts of their food choices, weighing concerns about animal welfare, pesticide use, nutrition, and genetically modified foods. The advice to ‘eat local’ is one of several proposed rules of thumb to ease decision-making at the grocery store or farmers’ market. Promoted by activists

and academics alike as a remedy to the dual problem of food insecurity and agriculture’s ecological impacts, the local food movement has gained significant momentum in recent years.

But does supporting your local food system contribute to sustainability?

The drive for localization is premised in part on the concept of ‘food miles,’ suggesting that reducing the distance food travels between farm (producer) and fork (consumer) will minimize the environmental impact of consumers’ food choices.

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However, this claim has been critiqued by several studies showing that ‘food miles’ don’t necessarily represent a substantial portion of the energy usage involved in food production and that choosing imported food produced in more suitable climates can be more environmentally friendly in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.1 As a result of these findings, some critique the localization trend for being a false solution to the environmental problems created by a globalized and industrial food system.2

Perspectives These critiques of local food as a false panacea are not completely unfounded; however, they risk condemning an entire movement based on an incomplete evaluation of its merits. Greenhouse gas emissions are one useful indicator of impacts on climate, but they are not the only environmental parameter of interest.

Furthermore, social and economic aspects of local food systems are central to sustainable farm systems, livelihoods, and community functioning, such as maintaining local farmland and creating fair employment opportunities.

While the word ‘local’ may have lost some ground in terms of its efficacy as an environmental indicator, a more holistic look at the contributions of the local food movement, and indeed of food production in general, will help revalue local food as a potential pathway to address social and ecological ailments within the food system. The concept of ‘local’ is still meaningful—it can and should be central to addressing global food security challenges. However, the term ‘place-based’ encompasses a broader conceptualization of scale and proximity, beyond simple geography, that includes a consideration of trade relationships and acknowledges the role of governance at territorial and national scales.

In order to advance the discussion on the role of scale and context in finding future solutions for a food secure world, I will explore the concept of a ‘place-based’ food system in consideration of the value of localized agricultural production. Through a discussion of the importance of social and ecological diversification, sustainable nutrient cycling, and cultural connection, one can distinguish between a local food system defined by a geographic boundary and one that is reflective of

and responsive to social, ecological, and economic contexts at multiple scales. Local food systems that are place-based can reduce negative environmental and social impacts by helping to foster ecological resilience, mitigate economic risk, facilitate the sustainable use of local resources, and create culturally significant connections to the landscape and within regional communities.

surrounding ecology. At the scale of farm field or agricultural landscape, biological diversity has been shown to increase resilience to disturbances such as climatic fluctuations and pest threats.3–5 Depending on the type of crop, diversification is important for other biological elements of crop production, including pressure placed on both managed and wild pollinating insects.6–8

At the scale of farm field or agricultural landscape, biological diversity has been shown to increase resilience to disturbances such as climatic fluctuations and pest threats.

Promotes Social and Ecological Diversification The global agricultural landscape is increasingly characterized by industrial-scale food production shaped by comparative advantage, where regions specialize in particular agricultural commodities that can be produced most efficiently. In general, food production systems based on this model depend on export-oriented trade to sell crops. For example, in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada, a large proportion of productive land is devoted to growing blueberries. This is due in part to ideal environmental conditions and access to trade facilities, resulting in a saturated local market and a reliance on these export channels to sell berries overseas, sometimes at the expense of local food security and environmental resilience.

In contrast, agricultural production that prioritizes local markets could be oriented to meet both the diverse needs of citizens and the

Diversification does not only have ecological benefits—growing an array of agricultural commodities can also help reduce exposure to market fluctuations.9 If a farmer or community is highly dependent on a single crop such as blueberries, they face significant economic risk from volatile global commodity prices. By encouraging diversity, a regional food system could have a built-in buffer for adapting to changing markets, both locally and globally.

There is also an important relationship between agricultural diversity and demands on human labor systems.10 Agriculture is inherently a seasonal endeavor, but activities and crops (and different varieties within a single crop) tend to vary in their peak demands on labor. If we were able to distribute our labor demand throughout the season, rather than concentrating it to a few months or even weeks, seasonal pressures on farmers and workers would decrease, creating conditions for a more socially just food system.

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Perspectives

Houston Marsh

Blueberry fields in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada.

Facilitates Sustainable Nutrient Cycling Sustainable resource use is one of the most significant challenges facing our society today, and the need to optimize resource use in the food system is urgent. While comparative advantage aims to increase efficiency through specialization, local food systems can bolster resource use efficiency through connectivity and complementarity.

Nutrient management in food production exemplifies this concept.

The management of nutrient inputs to maintain soil fertility and achieve optimal crop yields is challenging farmers around the world. While the importance of nitrogen and phosphorus to plant growth is universal, the forms in which they

are most available to producers (e.g., as synthetic fertilizer or aquatic plant matter) differ depending on a variety of contextual factors. For example, if farmers do not have access to credit or capital but are located next to a farm that has livestock, cattle manure may be a more economically accessible form of nutrients for their crops. Moreover, the concentration in which each nutrient is needed in the environment differs based on biophysical parameters: different fields require different nutrient management strategies based on crop type and soil conditions. On the flip side of nutrient deficits, there are also major problems globally with nutrient pollution where excess fertilizers from agricultural areas have leached

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into waterways. Particularly in the case of phosphorus, an essential nutrient required for plant growth and a nonrenewable resource, addressing this dual problem of too little in the field and too much in the environment by recycling nutrients can help create more sustainable agricultural systems.

While the designation of ‘local’ prescribes nothing in terms of production methods—all food production is local somewhere—a diverse localized food system can facilitate the connectivity between components that would help address this imbalance. For example, if agricultural regions contained both crop production and dairy or other livestock operations, facilitating nutrient recycling between these systems

Perspectives could be more feasible than between distant regions specializing in each of these commodities. Managing the flows of goods in a global trade system presents its own challenges, but redistributing waste products as valuable inputs can be more feasible in place-based systems.

Fosters Cultural Connection Perhaps one of the most significant yet undervalued benefits to a thriving local food system is the connection that it fosters to the local landscape and the food producers that steward it. This is referred to by some academics as the “re-spatialization” and “re-socialization” of food, and can be accomplished by shortening supply chains in order to increase proximity and connection between people and the farms (spatial) and farmers (social) that produce our food.11 The distinction between placebased and local becomes particularly relevant in this discussion. All food can be considered local somewhere, and produced by someone, but the extent to which that food system is embedded in the local landscape—or that citizens are connected to the people that produce it—is dependent on the ‘distance’ between production and consumption. Distance here is not necessarily restricted to the geographic or spatial sense—people are also removed from their food system through social separations in time and through various institutions.

Undoubtedly, if a citizen’s ‘local’ food system is highly integrated into a global market, they are less likely to have a personal connection (whether physical, spiritual, or otherwise) to the food that they consume on a dayto-day basis.

The benefits of a strong cultural connection to food and food-producing landscapes should not be undervalued.

There is extensive work in the social

and political sciences that discusses the meaning of “place” as more than a geographical reference, extending it to encompass social and relational meaning stemming from everyday experience and practice, with roots in historical and indigenous landscapes based on strong relationships between people and the surrounding environment.12,13 Re-establishing this relationship with our agricultural landscape through food will be at the core of the social and political transformation we need to create a more sustainable and food secure future.

homogenous landscape. Local food systems cannot be separated from the influence of the global food system, but many agricultural outcomes of interest are spatially bounded and locally important. In other words, global forces may influence what a given region grows, but the consequences, such as pest threats, pollination pressures, labor demands, and market fluctuations, are experienced at the local level.

This paper contributes to a careful circumspection and greater clarity regarding how we delineate and

The idea of “food from somewhere” is not simply verbiage but a way to meaningfully connect people to issues that touch them daily through the food that they eat.

Final Thoughts Local food systems can be revalued for their diverse contributions to sustainability and our conceptualization of local food should be broadened beyond ‘food miles’ to enhancing connection to place. Localized food systems have the capacity to build resilience, facilitate complementarity, and connect individuals to their landscape. The idea of “food from somewhere” is not simply verbiage but a way to meaningfully connect people to issues that touch them daily through the food that they eat.

In addition to this re-anchoring of the food system in a given locale, we will still need to recognize the significance of global ties. The elimination of trade or specialization is not desirable; instead, I suggest that considerations of fossil-fuel efficiency should be balanced with far-reaching socio-ecological consequences of a

understand the ‘local.’14 In doing so, we will also need to acknowledge the connections to other places that are no longer so distant, and the role of global economic integration as a driver of local socio-ecological changes.15,16 If we are to successfully re-embed our food system—including policy incentives, governance structures, production practices, and individual choices— within a given place, the multi-scalar and nested nature of these connections will need to be considered.

Whether through policy frameworks or consumer choices, developing thriving and diverse local food systems is an alternative to the inherent risk involved in specialization. Elucidating the precise benefits associated with supporting local food, as well as the challenges and trade-offs,17,18 will be central to advancing the legitimacy of the local food movement.

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Perspectives

Suzie’s Farm

A farm in Imperial Beach, California sells produce to community members from a roadside stand.

References 1. Weber, CL & Matthews SH. Food-miles and the

7. Di Pasquale, G et al. Influence of pollen nutrition on

relative climate impacts of food choices in the

honey bee health: do pollen quality and diversity

United States. Environmental Science & Technology 42,

matter? PloS one 8 (2013).

3508–3513 (2008).

2. Mariola, MJ. The local industrial complex?

8. Carvalheiro, LG, Seymour, CL, Veldtman, R, Nicolson, SW. Pollination services decline with distance from

Questioning the link between local foods and energy

natural habitat even in biodiversity-rich areas. Journal

use. Agriculture and Human Values 25, 193–196 (2008).

of Applied Ecology 47, 810–820 (2010).

3. Kremen, C & Miles, A. Ecosystem services in

9. Darnhofer, I, Fairweather, J & Moller H. Assessing

biologically diversified versus conventional farming

a farm’s sustainability: insights from resilience

systems: benefits, externalities, and trade-offs.

thinking. International Journal of Agricultural

Ecology and Society 17 (2012).

Sustainability 8 (2010).

4. Altieri, MA & Toledo, VM. The agroecological revolution in Latin America: rescuing nature, ensuring food sovereignty and empowering peasants.

Journal of Peasant Studies 38, 587–612 (2011).

5. Kremen, C, Iles, A & Bacon, C. Diversified farming systems: An agroecological, systems-based alternative to modern industrial agriculture. Ecology and Society 17 (2012).

10. Otero, BG & Preibisch, K. Citizenship and Precarious Labour in Canadian Agriculture (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Vancouver BC, 2015).

11. Renting, H, Marsden, TK & Banks J. Understanding alternative food networks: exploring the role of short food supply chains in rural development.

Environment and Planning A 35, 393–411 (2003).

13. Escobar, A. Culture sits in places: Reflections on globalism and subaltern strategies of localization.

Political Geography 20, 139–174 (2001).

14. Feagan, R. The place of food: mapping out the “local” in local food systems. Progress in Human Geography 31, 23–42 (2007).

15. Adger, NW, Eakin, H & Winkels A. Nested and teleconnected vulnerabilities to environmental change. The Ecological Society of America 7, 150–157 (2009).

16. Liu, J et al. Complexity of coupled human and natural systems. Science 317, 1513–1516 (2007).

17. Harrison, JL & Getz, C. Farm size and job quality: mixed-methods studies of hired farm work in California and Wisconsin. Agriculture and Human Values, 617–634 (2015).

18. Johnson, R, Fraser, E & Hawkins, R. Overcoming barriers to scaling up sustainable alternative food

12. Altamirano-Jiménez, I. Indigenous Encounters with

systems: A comparative case study of two Ontario-

Neoliberalism: Place, Women, and the Environment in

based wholesale produce auctions. Sustainability 8,

impacts and drivers. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 25,

Canada and Mexico 1–66 (Vancouver BC, UBC Press,

1–16 (2016).

345–353 (2010).

2013).

6. Potts, SG et al. Global pollinator declines: trends,

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Bush, S.R. (2016). Reversing the Burden of Sustainable Aquaculture. Solutions 7(4): 27–30. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/reversing-the-burden-of-sustainable-aquaculture/

Perspectives Reversing the Burden of Proof for Sustainable Aquaculture

by Simon R. Bush

Simon Bush

Small-scale pangasius fingerling nursery in An Giang province, Vietnam.

I

magine a fish farmer in a developing country, with poor literacy and minimal capital, having to comply with international sustainability standards in order to sell their fish.

Then, imagine they have not been involved in setting these standards and in fact, no one came to consult them on what makes their farms sustainable or not. However, to comply with these standards and maintain market access, they will need to make changes to how they manage water quality, biodiversity, and demonstrate good labor practices. In the short term, these changes will directly affect their livelihoods and incomes through increased costs and efforts, while any benefits from sustainability remains a long-term and uncertain proposition.

For such farmers, the biggest irony is that buyers requiring compliance to sustainability standards are also dependent on their fish as one of the

most important meat proteins for global food and nutrition security.

Given this dependence, demonstrating compliance with these standards might seem like a disproportionate burden.

In Asia, export markets must seem like a double-edged sword to the more than 16 million smallholder fish farmers in the most productive aquaculture region of the world.1 On the one hand, farmers in major production regions like Asia and many other parts of South America and West Africa make an increasingly important contribution to a healthier and more sustainable source of animal protein than other meat products in major export markets.2 Accessing export markets also offer the opportunity to charge higher prices and therefore increase incomes. But on the other hand, the global boom in aquaculture production, with production now

equivalent to ‘capture fisheries’ production,3 has led to increased concern for NGOs, consumers, and governments about environmental and social impacts. This has resulted in greater surveillance over production through audited compliance to voluntary sustainability standards.

As many supermarkets have pledged to only purchase sustainably certified seafood, including fish from aquaculture, a core group of standards have emerged as de facto barriers to market access.4 Arguably the two most dominant standards have also taken on a divided geography between the two largest importing markets in the world. The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standards are more recognized in Europe, while the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) is dominant in the US. More than ever before, access to these export markets requires producers to demonstrate their sustainability through respective certification from these organizations.

It is commonly assumed by academics, NGOs, and policy makers alike that the burden of proving that compliance to sustainability standards, like any other legal or market requirement, lies with producers.

Indeed, this assumption is the very basis of voluntary certification; farmers should actively demonstrate their ‘good’ production practices. But globalized seafood markets also mean that producers are far from one homogenous group. Over 85 percent of the volume of fish traded to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries comes from the developing world.3 Shifting the burden of proof to producers in developing countries does not consider the capacity of individual producers to demonstrate compliance with international standards.

Major buyers of seafood, including both wholesale importers and

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Perspectives retailers, are also able to dictate the terms of trade to their suppliers. Not only do they demand sustainable seafood, they establish contracts in order to deliver high volumes with the lowest possible unit cost. It remains unclear whether any market premiums are observed for those products certified, and even less clarity as to whether these are passed up the chain to producers.5,6 Instead, it is the cost of certification that is pushed back up the chain to producers, placing a disproportionate burden on smallholders. In classical Marxist terms, by instituting diminishing returns to their suppliers these lead firms risk undermining the very producers upon whom their own supply of seafood is based.

One way to overcome this is to reverse the burden of proof, so that it is not the 117 million fish farmers worldwide that need to demonstrate sustainability,7 but instead the buyers and retailers who receive a disproportionate benefit from their production.

But what would this look like?

A first step could be to shift the demonstration of sustainability compliance down the chain from producers to buyers. This would mean that standards become a tool for retailers and importers rather than for producers. Instead of setting environmental and social metrics at the farm level,these standards would, for instance, regulate how retailers support producers and others in their supply chains to improve their sustainability performance and demonstrate legal compliance. Under such a system, top–down regulation of producers would give way to what has been termed by Ivarsson and Alvstam as a ‘developmental’ mode of chain governance.8 Retailers would be certified based on a requisite level of technological and organizational assistance, co-innovation, developing

human capacity, and financial and administrative advice, all aimed at supporting environmental and social performance.

Such a developmental approach to sustainable seafood would remain market based to the extent that companies would be recognized for the support they provide rather than the individual products on their shelves.

Competition to be the greenest grocer on the high street would therefore still drive investment in sustainability.

The sustainability impacts of certifying retail support to aquaculture improvement are potentially greater than in current producer oriented standards. Voluntary farm-based standards are most commonly taken up by producers who already exhibit a degree of compliance.9 But by inadvertently cherry-picking better performers, the degree of overall improvement across the industry is limited. Recognizing and promoting continuous improvement towards sustainability would increase the involvement of less well-performing producers who cannot currently comply with high-level ASC or GAA standards. Such an inclusive approach is of key importance, because it is with these aquaculture producers where the greatest overall sustainability gains are still to be made.

In practice, retailers are already making investments in currently ‘un-certifiable’ producers through aquaculture improvement projects (so called AIPs). This support comes in many forms, including paying for direct support for improved farm practices like water purification, training on stocking, and pharmaceutical use as well as paying for consultants to assist with the paperwork required to demonstrate improvement.10 But unlike product-based certification, which provides market recognition through eco-labelling, retailers receive very

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little recognition for these more direct and in many cases locally engaged forms of support they provide. They are limited in making sustainability claims around their support because there is no standardization of what makes a credible and effective aquaculture improvement project.11 Retailers therefore run the risk of not being able to make claims in the market place because there is no third party substantiating the support they are providing to suppliers. It is here that retail level certification would fill the gap by providing a system of verification, market recognition, and ultimately greater incentives for further investment in smallholder support.

Retail level certification could expand the overall scope of impact that market-based sustainability approaches can have on the aquaculture industry and beyond. Currently, the expansion of farm-level certification is limited by the willingness and capacity of each producer who applies for certification.4 If this farm-level mode of certification is removed, so too is an important barrier to the expansion of certified sustainability practices. Making retailers responsible for demonstrating a developmental mode of sustainability support could also lead to considerable gains in sustainability because the cost, and therefore the choice to improve, is no longer dispersed across many producers.

Shifting the cost of certification down the value chain would also put pressure on retailers and suppliers to search for innovative and more efficient forms of organizing aquaculture sustainability. One outcome would be the need for greater efficiencies for retailers to deliver support to individual producers beyond the farm through, for example, cooperative forms of management. Cooperative management of aquaculture has

Perspectives

Simon Bush

Pangasius farm on the banks of the Mekong River near Can Tho, Vietnam. The farm shows the integrated nature of farms in the riverine landscape of the Mekong Delta.

been met with mixed success, largely because of poor internal capacity, weak state support, and the complexity of environmental and health issues such as water quality and disease.12 A developmental approach with buyer investment may prove more successful than current cooperative approaches because it would link the level and quality of producer support to the reputation and market demand of buyers. Because buyers would still be driven by environmental outcomes, the cooperatives they support may also engage in ecosystem or area-based forms of management, and in doing so, link farm-level practices to issues like water quality that extend well beyond the boundaries of a single farm.13 More coordinated support and organization of producers by buyers could also lead to improved risk management in the industry. By moving certification beyond the farm

level and creating contractual support from buyers in export markets, opportunities for insurance and new forms of financing may also emerge. Such opportunities would be transformative in the aquaculture sector in developing countries given the high degree of production risk experienced by producers and the associated lack of formal insurance and finance opportunities.1 The outcome would be two-fold: producers would benefit from receiving the necessary capacity to reduce production risk and sustainably intensify production, while buyers would benefit from a more stable supply of sustainably produced fish.

Would such a system need new certification schemes beyond the ASC and GAA? Not necessarily. The goal of these certification schemes is to assure responsible aquaculture production. While this goal would

remain the same, new standards would be required that focus on verifying that a developmental-chain approach like AIPs are leading to real and continual improvements in aquaculture production. However, new models of certification or other forms of verification would also be possible, as long as retailers and other buyers were held to account for the support they claim to provide. So while goodwill and stable supply can provide incentives, the biggest incentives for retailers to ensure the claims they make around producer support are met will be the risk to their brands should they be called out for not complying to standards.

A developmental-chain model for aquaculture sustainability would inevitably create new kinds of dependencies between buyers and producers.

And there is no guarantee that buyercertification will improve conditions for developing world producers to

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Perspectives

Marjorie-Ann D. Sumaya / WorldFish

Milkfish harvesting in Iloilo, Philippines.

be incorporated into global seafood value chains. But by giving recognition for ‘developmental’ modes of chain coordination, we can ensure that the responsibility for sustainable aquaculture is not placed on those with the least capacity for independent improvement. Instead of retailers undermining the capacity of farmers to respond to sustainability demands, responsibility will be placed at the feet of retailers (and other buyers) who do not replace the end consumer but do orchestrate global demand for fish products. If aquaculture can get this right, it will hold substantial lessons for any global food sector looking for successful models of fostering sustainability improvements.

References 1. WorldFish. Financing smallholder aquaculture enterprises [online] (2011). http://pubs.iclarm.net/ resource_centre/WF_2798.pdf.

2. Béné, C et al. Feeding 9 billion by 2050—putting fish back on the menu. Food Security 7, 261–274 (2015).

3. FAO. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (Rome, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, 2014).

4. Bush, SR et al. Certify sustainable aquaculture?

Science 341, 9–10 (2013).

5. Ha, TTT, Bush, SR, Mol, APJ & Van Dijk, H. Organic coasts? Regulatory challenges of certifying integrated shrimp–mangrove production systems in Vietnam. Journal of Rural Studies 28, 631–639 (2012).

6. Marschke, M & Wilkings, A. Is certification a viable option for small producer fish farmers in the global South? Insights from Vietnam. Marine Policy 50, 197–206 (2015).

7. Valderrma, D, Hishamunda, N & Zhou, X. Estimating employment in world aquaculture. FAO

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Fisheries and Aquaculture Newsletter 45, 24–25 (2010).

8. Ivarsson, I & Alvstam, CG. Supplier Upgrading in the home-furnishing value chain: an empirical study of IKEA’s sourcing in China and Southeast Asia. World Development 38, 1575–1587 (2010).

9. Tlusty, MF. Environmental improvement of seafood through certification and ecolabelling: theory and analysis. Fish and Fisheries 13, 1–13 (2011).

10. Ca Mau Shrimp Aquaculture Improvement Project [online] (2016). https://www.sustainablefish.org/ aquaculture-improvement/ca-mau-shrimp-aip.

11. Sampson, BGS et al. Secure sustainable seafood from developing countries. Science 348, 504–506 (2015).

12. Ha, TTT, Bush, SR & Van Dijk, H. The cluster panacea?: Questioning the role of cooperative shrimp aquaculture in Vietnam. Aquaculture 388– 391, 89–98 (2013).

13. Soto, D, Aguilar-Manjarrez, J & Hishamunda, N. Building an Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Rome, 2008).

Baum, S.D., D.C. Denkenberger, and J.M. Pearce. (2016). Alternative Foods as a Solution to Global Food Supply Catastrophes. Solutions 7(4): 31-35. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/alternative-foods-as-a-solution-to-global-food-supply-catastrophes/

Perspectives Alternative Foods as a Solution to Global Food Supply Catastrophes

by Seth D. Baum, David C. Denkenberger, and Joshua M. Pearce

Pablo Tosco/Oxfam

Arid soils in Mauritania. In 2012, crops failed in the region after a severe drought, causing a major food crisis in the Sahel region.

D

espite technical advancements and an abundance of food globally, food security is a major ongoing challenge. Eight hundred seventy million people do not have enough to eat and undernutrition contributes to the premature deaths of over six million children annually.1 Land degradation, fresh water scarcity, overfishing, and global warming all threaten to diminish food supplies. Meanwhile, food demand is increasing due to population growth and a rising middle class in the developing world that is purchasing more foods, and more

resource-intensive foods. Improved technologies have helped farmers grow more, but extreme wealth inequality still leaves the world’s poorest struggling to afford enough food. These and other trends virtually guarantee that feeding humanity will require major dedicated efforts into the future.

It is critical to keep in mind that these trends show gradual shifts in food security under otherwise “normal” circumstances. However, a range of extreme events could cause large abrupt declines in global food

production from conventional agriculture.2 If one of these events occurs, humanity could face a global famine of historic proportions. The collapse of our civilization or even the extinction of the human species are possible outcomes, with other species around the world also likely to go extinct, including those that may have survived the extinction event being caused by humans that is underway now.

One major threat comes from events that block sunlight by sending large quantities of dust, smoke, or ash into the atmosphere. Sunlight could be

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Perspectives comparison, biosecurity experts are actively debating the potential for certain “gain-of-function” experiments to create dangerous new pathogens that could escape from laboratories and cause deadly human pandemics,5 and similar research may be able to bring crop pandemics. And these are just some known scenarios—additional threats may lurk beyond the current horizon of scientific awareness.

As an illustration of how bad things could get, consider a scenario in which there is a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. Smoke from the burning cities would block sunlight across the planet and could reduce global temperatures by 1ºC for a decade.6 Crop simulations project potential global food production could decline by 20 to 50 percent.7 Combining that with existing poverty and malnourishment equals an estimated two billion people at risk of starvation.8 And that is for a war with “only” 100 nuclear weapons.

A war using more of the world’s current total of 15,800 nuclear weapons would bring even worse consequences.

Solutions to Global Food Supply Catastrophes Unibio

The Unibio food made from feeding natural gas to bacteria.

blocked if Earth collides with a large asteroid or comet, such as the one believed to have caused the dinosaurs’ extinction, from a super volcanic eruption, such as the Toba eruption 75,000 years ago that some scientists propose almost killed off our early human ancestors,3 and also from a nuclear war, with the atmosphere coated by the ashes of incinerated cities.

Some abrupt food supply threats also come from rapid environmental change and direct threats to crops.

These may not be as severe as sunblocking catastrophes, but can still cause large and abrupt declines in food production. For example, global warming could cross thresholds in the Earth’s system,4 rapid changes and disruptions to ocean circulation could bring dramatic shifts in global weather patterns, specific crops could be threatened by natural pests, as in the Irish Potato Famine, or biotechnology could bring even more devastating engineered-crop pathogens. For

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Abrupt global food catastrophes are rare events; however, the possibility exists and if one does occur, the damages could be so large that it would merit immediate attention and quick responses. This raises the question: What solutions are available?

There are several responses to abrupt global food catastrophes. If agriculture is still possible, it can be diverted from livestock and biofuels production to foods intended for direct human consumption, keeping in mind larger catastrophes would leave less food to divert. Additional food could also come from oceans, though this is a limited option and could further

Perspectives threaten and deplete marine biodiversity after a period of time. Another solution is to stockpile food prior to the catastrophe, though this is expensive and can worsen pre-catastrophe food security by diverting food from regular food supplies.

In light of the enormous threat of global food supply catastrophe and the shortcomings of other solutions, we propose a new solution, to produce food with energy from sources other than the sun. Ultimately, crops do not need sunlight per se. They just need energy. We call our solution “alternative food,” because it uses alternatives to sunlight, just like alternative energy uses alternatives to fossil fuels. Alternative foods are already in limited production and could be scaled up following a major catastrophe.9 Alternative foods can play an important role in the mix of responses to a global food supply catastrophe.

The simplest type of alternative food is plants grown from artificial light. Today, indoor agriculture powered by light-emitting diodes is being explored as a solution to land scarcity and resource-intensive outdoor agriculture.10 These indoor farms could produce any of the crops currently grown around the world. However, a lot of energy is lost converting the initial energy source into electricity, then into light, then into plants. As a result, all of the world’s current electricity could feed only a small portion of the world’s population. To feed everyone, other solutions are also needed.

A better solution comes from foods powered by fossil fuels. Today, the Danish biotechnology company Unibio grows bacteria from natural gas and sells it as livestock feed.11 The same livestock could feed some people after a catastrophe. More people could be fed by adapting the Unibio process for direct human consumption—as odd as it might seem,

getting food from bacteria could keep many people alive in a catastrophe.

And thanks to progress in food science, the resulting foods may even taste good.

One might hesitate to promote foods like Unibio’s because of the environmental harms caused by fossil fuels, but this would be a mistake. Unibio’s process does release greenhouse gases, but would only do so at a large scale

mind that collecting a lot of biomass could damage ecosystems. This creates a potential trade-off, though it would only be faced in the event of a food catastrophe. Furthermore, in the event of extreme sun-blocking, some or all trees would die anyway, depending on how much light is available. This makes alternative foods from biomass an especially attractive solution in this scenario.

Ultimately, biomass foods cannot provide everything found in a grocery store, but they can keep people from starving to death.

in the event of a food catastrophe.

Instead of continuing to burn fossil fuels now, it would be much better to save them for such an event. However, if fossil fuels are needed during food catastrophes, so is the infrastructure for extracting, refining, and distributing them, but without on-going production, the infrastructure becomes defunct. In that case, there could be a difficult trade-off between avoiding fossil fuels because of global warming and keeping them around because of the risk of food catastrophes. However, some fossil fuels require less infrastructure to extract and could be more easily extracted during a food catastrophe.

One example is coal deposits located near the surface, which strengthens the case for abandoning coal burning now.

However, there is a different energy source which does not require so much infrastructure: biomass. After a catastrophe, biomass would be available from surviving trees and plants. Biomass could be harvested by foraging or lumbering, though it is important to keep in

Biomass can be fed into the food supply in several ways, as illustrated in the food web. Wood can be fed to beetles, which can in turn be fed directly to humans. For those who don’t find beetles so appetizing, they can be fed to a more palatable intermediate species, though this would greatly reduce the amount of food available to humans. Horses, cows, goats, and sheep can be fed leaves and nonwoody plants. Mushrooms can grow on many types of biomass. Finally, if woody biomass is partially consumed by mushrooms or bacteria, this could be fed to rats or even chickens.

Some plants and plant parts can be fed directly to humans. Familiar foods include nuts and edible leaves.

Less familiar options could also help during a food catastrophe: some leaves (such as pine needles) can be boiled to make tea, and some biofuels turn cornstalks and other residues into sugar with enzymes that are fed to a fungus to make ethanol—and if people are short on food, they could just eat the sugar.

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Perspectives Ultimately, biomass foods cannot provide everything found in a grocery store, but they can keep people from starving to death. Some of these techniques can even improve food security during “normal” times, such as by feeding sawmill wood waste to mushrooms. As the food web illustrates, the waste from one organism can become the food for another organism.

The best solutions for abrupt food catastrophes will vary from place to place.12 Local social and environmental factors are important. Some places have more energy for indoor agriculture, or more biomass, or more fossil fuels. Some places have technical and political capacity that is better suited for certain solutions. Some places have cultural preferences for certain types of foods. For these and other reasons, food catastrophe solutions should be developed locally to ensure that each community has a solution that works for itself.

There is another reason to develop these solutions locally.

In the aftermath of a major global catastrophe, regions could become isolated from each other. Travel, trade, and communications all depend on complex systems of infrastructure. A catastrophe big enough to damage global agriculture could also disrupt these systems, though agriculture is usually more sensitive to environmental catastrophes than most built physical infrastructure.

Self-sufficient communities will be best positioned to ‘weather out the storm.’13 Finally, the solutions presented here could also be used to protect biodiversity, which is critical in reestablishing flourishing ecosystems.

Plant biodiversity is relatively easy to preserve by storing seeds, such as in the Svalbard “doomsday” seed vault, but protecting animal biodiversity is harder. For that, alternative foods

Joshua Pearce

A food web of alternative foods from biomass and fossil fuels.

can help. If no food is available in the wild, humans could divert some alternative foods to preserving nonhuman animal species. It would be impossible to keep every animal alive, but it should be possible to keep each species from going extinct. As few as 100 individuals can be enough to prevent a species from going extinct, which should be able to be fed in catastrophic conditions without any significant loss to the human food supply. Therefore, in addition to keeping many or even all humans alive, alternate foods could save most of the animal biodiversity that would have been lost in a catastrophe.

Biodiversity conservation groups should thus be developing contingency plans for food catastrophes.

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Everyone should hope that no abrupt global food supply catastrophe ever occurs. But while people should hope for the best, they should prepare for the worst. Alternative foods are a solution that could keep millions or billions of people alive during even the most severe food catastrophes. They require only modest advance preparation and no diverting of food into stockpiles.

Indeed, alternative foods can even strengthen food security now by opening up new means for food production and using resources more efficiently. For these reasons, and given the extremely high stakes with abrupt global food supply catastrophes, we believe alternative foods are a solution well worth pursuing.

Perspectives

Mari Tefre/Svalbard Globale frøhvelv

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a secure seed bank in Norway currently housing over 860,000 seed samples originating from nearly every country in the world.

References 1. UNICEF. The State of the World’s Children (UNICEF, New York, 2006).

2. Denkenberger, D & Pearce, J. Feeding Everyone No Matter What: Managing Food Security After Global

6. Mills, MJ, Toon, OB, Lee-Taylor, J & Robock, A. Multidecadal global cooling and unprecedented ozone loss following a regional nuclear conflict. Earth’s

of the future today. Newsweek [online] (22 October

Future 2(4), 161–176 (2014).

2015). http://www.newsweek.com/2015/10/30/feed-

Catastrophe (Academic Press, Waltham, MA, 2014).

7. Xia, L, Robock, A, Mills, M, Stenke, A & Helfand, I.

3. Ambrose, SH. Late Pleistocene human population

Global famine after a regional nuclear war. Earth’s

bottlenecks, volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution 34(6), 623–651 (1998).

4. Lenton, TM et al. Tipping elements in the Earth’s

Futures 72, 57–68 (2015).

10. Isaacson, B. To feed humankind, we need the farms

Future 3(2), 37–48 (2015).

humankind-we-need-farms-future-today-385933. html.

11. Unibio. Technology Introduction [online]. http://

8. Helfand, I. Nuclear famine: two billion people at risk. International Physicians for the Prevention of

www.unibio.dk/technology/introduction.

12. Baum, SD, Denkenberger, DC Pearce, JM, Robock,

Nuclear War/Physicians for Social Responsibility

A & Winkler, R. Resilience to global food supply

climate system. Proceedings of the National Academy of

[online] (2013). http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/two-

catastrophes. Environment, Systems, and Decisions

Sciences 105(6), 1786–1793 (2008).

billion-at-risk.pdf.

5. Lipsitch, M & Inglesby, TV. Moratorium on research

35(2), 301–313 (2015).

9. Denkenberger, DC & Pearce, JM. Feeding

13. Maher, TM Jr & Baum, SD. Adaptation to and

intended to create novel potential pandemic

everyone: Solving the food crisis in event of global

recovery from global catastrophe. Sustainability 5(4),

pathogens. mBio 5(6), e02366-14 (2014).

catastrophes that kill crops or obscure the sun.

1461–1479 (2013).

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Shumo, M. (2016). Black Soldier Fly: A Bio Tool for Converting Food Waste into Livestock Feed. Solutions 7(4): 36-39. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/black-soldier-fly-a-bio-tool-for-converting-waste-into-livestock-feed/

Perspectives Black Soldier Fly: A Bio Tool for Converting Food Waste into Livestock Feed

by Marwa Shumo

Marwa Shumo

Adult black soldier flies.

A

rise in the global human population at a rate of 75 million annually, paired with rising living standards in emerging economies are causing an increase in global food demand. This is particularly pertinent for animal protein, for which demand is expected to grow by 70 percent by the year 2050. In addition to traditional systems, the everincreasing demand is currently met by a constant expansion in intensive and

modern livestock production systems.

However, depending on current agroecosystems to meet this demand is environmentally challenging when one considers the over-exploitation of fertile lands, water resource scarcity, and cutting down of forests.

For example, it is estimated that one billion people in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa depend on livestock production alone for food and livelihoods.1 However, livestock

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production occupies the largest share of agricultural land used for either grazing or growing feed crops, which could be used for growing foods for direct consumption. It also emits the highest amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) through enteric fermentation and manure production in comparison to other sources of GHG emissions, and thus plays a significant role in climate change. Livestock production can also negatively affect natural

Perspectives resources such as land, water, and biodiversity that are already subject to degradation and climate change.

Therefore, there is a need to find alternative methods to increase agricultural production other than intensifying the use of current ones.

It is possible to find a solution for livestock feed other than increasing the amount of lands used for growing feed crops.

On the other hand, around one third of total annual global food production at both pre- and post-consumption stages is wasted, and vegetables and fruits account for almost half of that waste. Pre-consumption in the form of postharvest loss accounts for around 40 percent of food lost in the developing world. This is mainly due to poor infrastructure, harvest facilities, transportation, and lack of farmers’ support.

On the contrary, nearly half of food losses in the developed world occur at retail and consumer levels due to quality standards that overemphasize appearance.2 Traditional efforts are normally applied to produce compost and animal feed from food waste.

However, these efforts depend on slow thermodynamic processes of either composting or depending on farm animals that are capable of feeding on food wastes and reprocessing them into manure. Bioconversion—the process of converting food waste into insect larval biomass and organic residues—can be an alternative to these inefficient traditional practices.3 There are various reasons to favor bioconversion over traditional waste management processes. Bioconversion reduces the amount of organic material by biological processing agents such as microorganisms or enzymes that transfer organic material into usable products or energy sources, thus providing greater spatial potential for landfills and waste containers.

In addition, waste reduction limits odors associated with landfills and waste sites, preventing the accumulation of unwanted material on solid surfaces that are associated with recyclables and the blockage of sewer pipelines by solid wastes.

Bioconversion also limits methane production due to the anaerobic degradation of organic materials in landfills and waste sites.4 Furthermore, bioconversion is a natural process that can be used and adapted within households, bringing down the costs related to the transport and recycling of waste.

illucens) (BSF) for feed production and as a potential candidate for the bioconversion of organic waste. BSF are particularly interesting, as they efficiently convert various organic wastes into high-profile protein through decomposition, have global distribution, including moist tropic and subtropical regions, and can tolerate extreme temperatures.5–8 BSF have been used for waste management within the context of bioconversion, and they can also make use of various nutrients abundant in waste streams.9 In particular, their

Bioconversion is a natural process that can be used and adapted within households, bringing down the costs related to the transport and recycling of waste.

As a food source, insects contain high quality protein, vitamins, and amino acids. They have a food conversion rate that requires up to six times less feed than livestock for the production of the same amount of protein.

In addition, they emit less greenhouse gases and ammonia than traditional livestock and can be reared on organic waste. Insects are thus a potentially powerful source for direct human consumption as food or indirectly as a protein source in livestock feed meal mixtures.

I work with a group of researchers who are exploring various insects for food and feed and targeting small farmers who not only can decompose their organic waste in an environmentally friendly way, but can also invest in crop production for direct human consumption, rather than livestock feed. My main research looks at the use of black soldier flies (Hermetia

larvae can reduce a significant amount of food, animal, and sewage waste.

Furthermore, they are not pests and actually deter the common houseflies that are normally linked to waste and low hygiene and health standards.10–12 BSF are not known to be vectors of any disease linked to animal or human health, unlike other insects such as the common housefly or mosquitoes.

In addition, BSF can be used as a food protein source. When compared to livestock products, they exhibit some advantages. One is that they are cold-blooded and thus can convert feed much more efficiently into edible product. In addition, they produce less ammonia and GHG than traditional livestock, and occupy less space physically.13 Although this field of research is still in its infancy, studies have indicated that BSF have the ability to inactivate and reduce harmful

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | July-August 2016 | Solutions | 37

Perspectives

Marwa Shumo

Black soldier fly larvae.

microbial contaminants present in waste samples by modifying waste’s microflora.14 BSF also showed some potential in reducing heavy metal traces by incorporating and concentrating nutrients from waste samples into livestock feed. This reduces the waste’s nutrient concentration and bulk, thereby reducing the pollution potential by 50 to 60 percent or more.

The remaining BSF-decomposed waste can be used as a biocompost that can be readily applied to agricultural lands. This can also act as a solution to replace the use of chemical fertilizers, which can deplete soil if applied in excessive amounts and are costly.

Insect meal is a food product prepared by drying and pulverizing insects, and is proven to promote food assimilation and growth in animals.

It is also rich in animal protein and vitamins. It can substitute for the costly components of fishmeal, soymeal, and grains that are added to livestock feed in order to promote food assimilation and growth in animals.15 Insects like BSF are good candidates because of their ability to efficiently transform waste into high protein products. Yet, there are many challenges to be addressed regarding their use, such as the ability to harvest these insects in a sustainable way while also meeting global demand. Until now, edible insects have been collected from nature and their potential future use as feed meal will require large-scale production. Therefore, methods to produce insect meal should be developed in a way to meet the rising demands sustainably. In addition, legislation

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on their production and use needs to be developed and food safety matters addressed.

Ultimately, edible insects provide a promising future source for animal protein. In particular, BSF show a great potential in providing us with livestock feed by utilizing organic waste in an environmentally sustainable fashion.

Acknowledgments This research was carried out under the supervision of Christian Borgemeister, Dr. Sunday Ekesi, Dr. Isaac Osuga, and Dr. Fathyia Khamis, and is funded by the INSEFEED program at ICIPE and its donors: International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

Perspectives

Marwa Shumo

A black soldier fly bioconversion chamber.

References 1. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Livestock and the environment [online] (2015). http://www.fao.org/livestock-environment/ en/.

2. Lyons, K et al. Produced but never eaten: a visual guide to food waste. The Guardian (August 2015).

3. Barry, T. Evaluation of the economic, social and biological feasibility of bio converting food wastes

long established in Australia and New Zealand.

Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine 109, 232–234 (1974).

7. Gullan, PJ & Cranston, PS. The Insects: An Outline of Entomology (Blackwell Science, London, 2000).

Nations. Assessing the potential of insects as food and feed in assuring food security (Summary

9. Sheppard, C. House fly lesser fly control utilizing caged layer hens. Environmental Entomology 12(5),

unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4639/.

1439–1442 (1983).

(Diptera, Stratiomyidae). Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 30, 165–170 (1935).

6. McCallan, E. Hermetia Illucens (L.) (Dipt, Stratiomyidae), a cosmopolitan American species

13. Food & Agriculture Organization of the United

Malaysia. Malayan Nature Journal 48, 281–285 (1995).

Digital Library [online] (2004). http://digital.library.

5. James, MT. The genus Hermetia in the United States

of Georgia Entomology Society 10(2), 179–183

Diptera) of Temengor Forest Reserve, Hulu Perak,

the black soldier fly in manure management for

Environment (MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2000).

in poultry houses in north central Florida. Journal (1975).

8. Kovac, D & Rozkosny. R. Stratiomyidae (Insecta:

with the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens). UNT

4. Goudie, A. The Human Impact on the Natural

12. Tingle, FC et al. The soldier fly, Hermetia illucens,

Report). Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [online] (2012). http://www.fao.org/ docrep/015/an233e/an233e00.pdf.

14. Erickson, MC, Islam, M, Sheppard, C, Liao, J & Doyle, MP. Reduction of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and

10. Sheppard, C et al. A value added manure management system using the black soldier fly. Bio

Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis in chicken

Resource Technology 50, 275–279 (1995).

manure by larvae of the black soldier fly. Journal of

11. Furman DP et al. Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus) as a factor in the natural control of Musca domestica

Food Protection 67, 685–690 (2004).

15. Feed meal. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia 3rd ed.

Linnaeus. Journal of Economic Entomology 52(5), 917

[online] (1979). http://encyclopedia2.

(1959).

thefreedictionary.com/Feed+Meal.

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Hoover, C., S. Ostertag, C. Hornby, C. Parker, K. Hansen-Craik, L.L. Loseto, and T. Pearce. (2016).

The Importance of Hunting for Future Inuit Food Security. Solutions 7(4): 40–51. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/the-importance-of-hunting-for-future-inuit-food-security/

Feature

The Continued Importance of Hunting for Future Inuit Food Security

by Carie Hoover, Sonja Ostertag, Claire Hornby, Colleen Parker, Kayla Hansen-Craik, Lisa Loseto, and Tristan Pearce

Mike Beauregard

The heads of two harvested bowhead whales at the entrance of a harbor in Repulse Bay, Nunavut.

In Brief Inuit living in the Canadian Arctic have undergone rapid societal changes in the last half century, including moving into permanent settlements, the introduction of formal education, participation in the wage-economy, mechanization of hunting and travel, and increased consumption of store-bought foods. Despite these changes, country foods—locally harvested fish and wildlife—continue to be important in the lives of many Inuit for food security. However, fewer people are hunting full-time and some households are without an active hunter, limiting their access to country foods.

This shift has increased reliance on processed foods purchased at the store to meet their daily food needs. These foods are often expensive, less nutritious, highly processed to endure long shelf lives, and less desirable than country foods.

An entry point to strengthen Inuit food security is to support the acquisition of culturally-appropriate country foods through subsistence hunting and fishing. This entails supporting the transmission of environmental knowledge and land skills important for subsistence among generations, providing harvesters with necessary resources, and securing reliable cold storage in communities (e.g. community freezers) to preserve country foods during increasingly warmer summer months.

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I

nuit, the Indigenous People inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and the Russian Far East, have adapted to living in the harsh Arctic conditions for thousands of years. In Canada, there are more than 50 Inuit communities across the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (Northwest Territories), Nunavut, Nunatsiavut (Labrador), and Nunavik (Quebec), with many located above or near the Arctic Circle (66º30’N), and nearly all of which are in remote locations accessible only by airplanes. Communities across the Arctic range in population size from 110 (Sachs Harbour, NT) to 6,254 (Iqaluit, NU), with up to 97 percent of each community identifying as Inuit.1 While summer temperatures can reach upwards of 35°C, winter temperatures can drop below -60°C when factoring in wind chill effects, with wind speeds ranging from 50 to 80 km/h, and temperatures remaining below freezing for up to eight months of the year.2 In high-latitude Canadian communities, polar nights (24-hour period with no sunrise) last up to four to five months, and 24-hour daylight can last over five months.3 The resulting short growing season combined with extensive permafrost (soil frozen throughout the year) limits agricultural approaches to food production. Historically, Inuit have relied heavily on wild populations of terrestrial and marine species for food, warm clothing, and tools, with the historical movement of Inuit centered on seasonal food availability (e.g., caribou, whales, and fish).4 Food security is a growing challenge for many Inuit living in the Canadian Arctic and requires diverse, locally relevant solutions.5 Food security exists when people can acquire safe, nutritionally adequate, and culturally acceptable foods in a manner that maintains human dignity at all times.6,7 However, Inuit living in the Canadian Arctic aged 15 and over experience higher rates

of food insecurity than in southern Canada (41 percent compared with eight percent).8,9 Where food security relates to physical and economic access to food, food sovereignty includes the ability to shape one’s own diet, “including production,

Key Concepts • Canadian Inuit experience higher levels of food insecurity than the average Canadian, with the high cost of store-bought foods being a contributing factor.

• Changes in the subsistence food system have increased reliance on store-bought foods, however, households with active hunters are more food secure and allow access to culturally-relevant and nutritious foods.

• To encourage greater involvement in harvesting activities, opportunities must be created for Inuit to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills for participation in subsistence harvesting.

• Hunters often travel long distances in harsh climates in order to secure food, yet the high cost of equipment, gas, and maintenance prevents many Inuit from hunting. Increased access to hunter support programs will allow more Inuit the opportunity to secure their own food.

• More reliable long-term food storage solutions, such as community freezer programs, are needed so families can store and share harvested foods.

This is especially important as many families have limited personal freezer space, and increasing Arctic temperatures result in increased food spoilage.

distribution and consumption of food with respect to their own cultures and their own systems of managing natural resources.”10,11 Food security is a precondition of food sovereignty, however, sovereignty includes the ability to shape one’s own diet in a way consistent with one’s culture,

includes local food systems and food distribution, and enhances community independence.12 It is increasingly difficult to find ways to support local food systems contributing to both food security and food sovereignty.

Food sovereignty is not always explicitly stated as a goal within Arctic communities, however, ideas relating to food sovereignty are noted in community’s food security goals, with the ability to access traditional foods as a high priority.13 Historically, subsistence hunting and fishing were the primary sources of food production for Inuit in the Arctic. Today subsistence continues to be important in the lives of many Inuit, even though Inuit society has undergone profound changes in the last half century, placing new pressures on the subsistence food system.

These changes include, but are not limited to, moving into permanent settlements, increasing populations, attendance in formal education, the rise of the wage economy, and the increasing cost of hunting. Unlike their parents or grandparents, younger Inuit generally spend less time involved in subsistence activities, but comparatively more time in formal education, wage employment, and community socialization (e.g. sports, Internet, and television). Formal schooling and employment limit the amount of time youth and hunters can spend on the land, resulting in less hands-on training of hunting and land skills. As a result, many younger Inuit do not possess the skills and knowledge necessary to participate in subsistence harvesting activities, in addition to the high costs associated with harvesting of country foods (i.e., foods that have been hunted, fished, or gathered locally).14,15 Research shows that households with active hunters are more food secure.16 It is unrealistic, however, to expect that the ecosystem and subsistence economy can fully meet the food needs of a growing Inuit population.

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Inuit now live in permanent settlements and hunt more intensively in nearby areas, raising questions about environmental limitations of species important for subsistence.

Superimposed on these challenges are changes brought on by a warming Arctic that includes alterations to the local ecosystem influencing access, availability, and abundance of traditionally harvested foods.17 To some degree, most Inuit depend on imported foods, which tend to be nutrient-poor and expensive to purchase.18,19 This shift away from a subsistence-based diet consisting mainly of country foods (primarily fish, caribou, seals, whales, muskox, and birds) to a diet high in store-bought foods (lower nutritional value, no cultural relevance, and high in preservatives) has been identified as a key issue for food security in terms of the ability to access nutritionally adequate and culturally acceptable foods.20,21 Current research on food security in the Arctic suggests that opportunities to support Inuit food security must be driven by communities with involvement from regional and national stakeholders,22 thereby contributing to food sovereignty. For example, the Nunavut Food Security Coalition, an organization addressing food security in the Nunavut portion of the Canadian Arctic, has identified six key themes for improving food security: country food, store-bought food, local food production, life skills, programs and community initiatives, and policy and legislation.23 As part of this food strategy, the Coalition aims to increase awareness of food prices across communities and empower communities to produce food locally.

Programs across the Arctic, such as community greenhouses, have strived to promote local food production.24 In addition, initiatives such as country food markets, whereby hunters can sell local foods through a market to improve food security and share country foods, have been successful

Rosemary Gilliat / Library and Archives Canada

A young girl carries a bag of sugar in Iqaluit, Nunavut, in 1960. The last half century has seen Inuit communities become increasingly reliant upon imported food products.

in other Arctic countries such as Greenland. While this remains a long-term goal for Canada, with some initiatives in place (Project Nunavut),25 regulatory issues surrounding the commercialization of country foods remain a hurdle to implementing country food markets.26 While this multi-faceted food strategy includes a variety of initiatives, here we elect to discuss some general, Inuit-identified starting points to support food sovereignty, specifically focusing on the subsistence hunting and fishing aspect of the Inuit food system: enhancing opportunities for the transmission of knowledge and skills for subsistence among generations, supporting harvesters by providing access to equipment and

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supplies, and improving food storage options. These solutions focus on ways to improve food sovereignty by allowing culturally relevant options for improving food security within the local food system. They alone do not cover all possible points to support Inuit food security, but rather represent starting points to an increasingly important discussion on food security that must establish Inuit as key decision makers.27 Improvements to food security have occurred through increased availability of foods within numerous programs such as greenhouse initiatives and the Nutrition North subsidy.28,29 Yet, the cultural relevance of food is important to Inuit across the Arctic, and approaches should be focused on the consumption of food with respect to Inuit culture.

Claire Hornby

Beluga muktuk is processed after harvest. Muktuk (or muktaaq) is the layer of skin with blubber attached, and is an important cultural food across the Arctic.

Current Approaches to Supporting Food Security in the Arctic Nutrition North is the largest national food subsidy available in the Canadian Arctic. It offers air freight subsidies directly to northern retailers in remote communities to help lower the costs of “healthy” foods (i.e. produce, dairy, cereals, meats, etc.).29 However, lack of transparency within the system does not confirm whether all subsidies make it to the consumer.30 Furthermore, discounts only apply to certain items, which may be less culturally appropriate, while the cost of other food items and grocery products remains high (see Box 1). Nutrition North helps alleviate costs for some food items, but taken alone it can best

be described as a “band-aid” solution.

Rather, a greater regional focus needs to be placed on people and cultures to better understand their food requirements and adjust subsidies accordingly.31

New Approaches to Supporting Food Security in the Arctic While federal and regional governments have a clear responsibility to ensure their citizens have access to appropriate and adequate foods, how these programs are administered is critical to their success. In Canada, a number of specific government initiatives impact nutrition and food security. Most of the initiatives are federal programs that are delivered

in the provinces and territories; there is limited evidence of territorial or provincial programs that deal comprehensively with the issue of food security.32 Given the cultural diversity within each territory, it is important that a regional or local approach is used to ensure an effective design that supports community needs. We recognize that addressing food security in the Arctic is complex, and that interventions are likely to be highly localized in order to work within the diversity of governance structures under different land claims. Here, we recommend that federally-derived funding should include bottom-up initiatives rather than the current topdown approach. The 2016 Canadian Federal budget has allocated CAD$8.4

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Jeff W. Higdon

On the left, maqtaaq, or the skin and outer blubber layer, from a narwhal prior to being packaged (at right) for return to the community (Admiralty Inlet, NU, August 2008).

billion over the next five years, “to improve the socio-economic conditions of Indigenous peoples and their communities, and, bring about transformational change.”33 While food security is not mentioned explicitly, numerous programs within the federal budget support education and training and could be adapted to include the proposed solutions. In addition, new approaches are needed that engage community members throughout the decision-making process, including program design, implementation, monitoring, and review.34

Enhance Opportunities to Transmit Knowledge and Skills across Generations Historically, traditional knowledge and skills related to subsistence were passed down from one generation to the next through a process of cultural transmission, generally involving hands-on training and practice.35 Residential schools in Canada removed Aboriginal children (including Inuit) from their families, in part to weaken their culture and replace it with the culture of the Euro-Christian Canadian society.36 These schools existed for more than 100 years in Canada, with successive generations of children attending. Given that subsistence involves the transmission

of social norms and cultural values,37,38 the destruction of Aboriginal culture associated with the residential school system also negatively impacted subsistence activities. The legacy of the residential school system, together with other societal changes, has resulted in some younger Inuit not learning the knowledge and skills important for safe and successful hunting.35,39 Knowledge sharing within and among Arctic communities provides an important opportunity for spreading knowledge about harvesting and food preparation, especially in cases where new species become available due to changes in migration or abundance. Subsistence skills, such as navigation, hunting, and meat preparation, are important factors in determining one’s ability to participate in hunting and subsequently in their ability to contribute to country food production.40 Hunting plays an important domestic economic role, but also allows for the continuation of traditional practices and supports the re-establishment of ties with the land.41 In addition, promoting country foods at a young age (in daycares and elementary schools) encourages an appreciation for cultural knowledge and subsistence living.21,42 Hunting and food preparation programs need to receive consistent and universal

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support in Inuit communities to foster inter-generational and intercommunity knowledge transmission regarding the harvest and preparation of local foods.

Existing on-the-land programs have been developed to support knowledge sharing within communities, to ensure this knowledge is passed down to the younger generation to support subsistence harvesting activities.43 Programs in the Northwest Territories (NT) such as “Take your kid trapping and harvesting,” community hunts, and other harvesting programs teach youth skills and knowledge about trapping, fishing, hunting, outdoor survival, boating skills, gun skills, onthe-land skills, and preparation of food and animal skins.40,44 However, even with available programs, not all children and youth in the area have access to the same level of skills development and training. Furthermore, adequate training in the preparation of country foods is necessary to ensure foods are safe for consumption.45 Therefore, on-the-land programs should also be linked to classroom programs that teach hands-on skills necessary for country food harvesting and preparation. Examples of such programs include nutrition education classes occurring in smaller Nunavut communities (led by the Nunavut Food

established to support the transmission of knowledge within and between communities. Changes in animal distribution and populations associated with climate change may increase the need to support inter-community knowledge transmission.

Non-traditional avenues such as social media and technology to support the transmission of knowledge already play a role in the Arctic.

Electronic platforms such as the Inuit siku (sea ice) Atlas was developed, in part to respond to Inuit Elders’ and hunters’ expressions of interest in sharing their knowledge with youth.46 Many components of the Atlas were incorporated into the school curriculum for Nunavut schools through a partnership with the Government of Nunavut and the Department of Education. Social media is also used to communicate about harvesting activities and observations (e.g. the Facebook group NT Hunting stories of the day), and may play a role in supporting inter-community knowledge transmission.47 Greater accessibility and diversity of programs is necessary in order to re-instill the skills and knowledge necessary to participate in harvesting activities.

Support Harvester Access to Equipment and Supplies Tristan Pearce

Arctic char, a traditional country food, is hung to dry as an alternative to freezing the fish.

Security Coalition) and pilot programs in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR), NT that bring elders and hunters into the classroom.

Knowledge exchange between communities has occurred for the beluga harvest in the ISR following changes in beluga migration routes, making beluga available to new communities. This exchange provides necessary insight about how to successfully harvest new species for which traditional knowledge does not exist in an area. In the case of beluga,

where migration changes led to an increase in access for certain communities (Paulatuk, NT 1980s; Kugluktuk, Nunavut 2000s; Ulukhaktok, NT 2014), inter-community hunter exchanges and community meetings are important methods for teaching hunting techniques and meat preparation to less experienced hunters.

Currently, costs and logistics are generally shared between federal, territorial, and local governments, depending on the program. However, universal programs and funds have not been

Lack of access to harvesting equipment and/or supplies due to financial constraints is a barrier to hunting for many Inuit.39,48,49 Country foods are expensive to acquire relative to storebought foods, with gear being a large investment. The high cost of equipment is not only a limitation, but often means that acquiring country foods is not profitable, potentially costing the hunter more money than purchasing equivalent foods at the store.49 This cost discrepancy is made worse by the fact that store-bought foods receive federal subsidies divided among national taxpayers, while country foods costs

Continued on Page 46

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Nutrition North and Arctic Food Prices: Nunavut Average Canada Average Nunavut-Canada (CAD$) (CAD$) Ratio

Nutrition North is currently the largest national subsidy available in the Canadian Arctic. It offers airfreight subsidies directly to northern retailers in remote communities in order to lower the costs of healthy foods (i.e. produce, dairy, cereals, meats, etc). 29 While the current subsidy works to reduce transportation costs to the retailer, it is unclear how much of these discounts are passed on to the consumer. Proposed changes to the program include showing discounts on customer receipts. However, as food prices continue to rise in the Arctic, major retailers, such as the North West Company (controlling NorthMart and Northern grocery stores in the Arctic), report large profits (CAD$15 million net profits during the fourth quarter of 2015).61 The estimated cost to feed a family of four is CAD$360–$450 weekly for northern residents, but the same foods would cost $200–$250 for southern Canadian residents. 29 The following grocery items show prices in the Canadian Arctic vs. southern Canada, and include food items that may be receiving current Nutrition North Subsidies.

Item

Size

Milk, 2% Butter, Salted Eggs Frozen French Fries Evaporated Milk Instant Coffee Tea Bags Soda Crackers Canned Baked Beans Canned Tomatoes Macaroni Cooking Oil Flour, All Purpose White Sugar, White Orange Juice Tomato Juice White Bread Bananas Oranges Carrots Celery Onions Potatoes Sirloin Steak Stewing Beef Whole Chicken Sliced Bacon

1L 454g Dozen, Large 650g-1kg 385ml 200g 72x227g 450g 398ml 796ml 500g 942ml-1L 2.5kg 2kg 1L 1.36L 675g per kg per kg per kg per kg per kg 4.54kg per kg per kg per kg 500g

Continued from Page 45

Harvester Assistance Program (ISR, NT) operate at territorial scales and provide some applicants with financial support to purchase both large (snowmobiles, boats, ATVs, motors, etc.) and small equipment (GPS, fish nets, sleeping bags, sewing machines, etc.).52,53 However, even with programs available, not all community members qualify for programs, and navigation through current programs can be difficult, resulting in less participation in harvesting.54

fall only on the individual hunter, or immediate family. This willingness to pay for country foods is due to the cultural importance of hunting activities and consuming country foods.50,51 Even when hunters have access to equipment, repair costs and high prices of fuel (gas, oil, and naptha) often prevent hunting trips.51 Programs such as the Nunavut Harvester Support Program (Nunavut) and the Community

3.16 7.20 3.94 6.66 3.33 12.30 8.22 7.09 4.30 5.29 4.39 9.17 13.58 8.72 5.57 9.16 5.01 4.61 7.94 6.17 9.26 4.12 12.15 32.06 29.17 10.36 12.13

2.34 4.59 3.34 2.66 1.88 6.52 4.47 2.80 1.30 1.62 1.57 4.18 5.03 2.81 2.07 2.48 2.81 1.73 3.28 1.98 2.57 1.68 5.56 21.86 15.99 7.42 6.75

1.35 1.57 1.18 2.50 1.77 1.89 1.84 2.53 3.31 3.27 2.80 2.19 2.70 3.10 2.69 3.70 1.78 2.66 2.42 3.12 3.60 2.45 2.19 1.47 1.82 1.40 1.80

Table 1. Comparison of select grocery prices in Nunavut compared to the Canadian average as provided by Statistics Canada.62

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Increased funding support to hunter assistance programs is an important factor in reducing the high costs to individual hunters in order to allow participation in subsistence harvesting. Currently, funding resources determine the number of hunters supported, with some being denied funding. In addition, lack of knowledge regarding programs combined with difficulty navigating the system prevents qualified hunters from applying.52

Improving and expanding existing programs by increasing awareness of the program and its application processes, simplifying that process, and increasing funding will help to reduce barriers to program participation.55

Improve Food Storage Options Most harvesting activities take place in the spring and summer, with country foods being stored in freezers to last the rest of the year. During the cold winter months, food may be stored outside or on the porch, so individual household freezers may be unplugged to save on high electricity costs. However, in warmer months, limitations on freezer space can lead to food waste or the need to give food away to other families to make room for newly harvested foods. As seasons are becoming warmer and temperatures fluctuate more, the period that freezer storage is required is becoming longer, leading to increased household energy costs and limited ability to stock country foods for the less active winter months.

This may be addressed through various food preparation techniques such as drying, smoking, or fermenting meats, but cultural preferences also emphasize access to fresh (including raw) meats throughout the year.

“Yeah. Freezer space. Icehouse, walk-in freezer, it’s a big issue.

It was so nice to be able to get seals in the summer, freeze them whole in the walk-in freezer, in the icehouse without skinning them and then pick them up around Christmas during your family suppers and stuff, and bring them in and skin it and it’s not freezer burnt, it’s like new because you froze it whole. It’s so nice to be able to do that for the winter months.”

—Emily Kudlak, Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories56

As an alternative to household freezers and preservation, community freezers have been built in a number of communities (as a preferred choice over traditional icehouses, which are melting along with the permafrost in which they are encased).57 Community freezer programs exist in select communities across the Arctic, whereby harvesters supply country foods to the freezer for access by the greater community. The viability of community freezers generally depends on a variety of factors including cost of operation, management structure, availability of country food, willing participants (hunters), and compensation for participants (i.e. equipment,

funding was cut to community freezer programs), due to their role in facilitating food sharing and promoting country food consumption.5 Whereas household freezers require family members and friends to ask for country food when they are in need, community freezers allow users to access country food without embarrassment, serving to strengthen and perpetuate a cultural ethic of sharing.60 Overall, food storage through culturally appropriate mechanisms, such as community freezers, is an essential component in preserving harvested country foods for future use and facilitating food-sharing.

Given the cultural diversity within each territory, it is important that a regional or local approach is used to ensure an effective design that supports community needs.

money).5,57 The costs of powering a community freezer is a key deterrent for many communities, and prevents programs from being established, even when identified as a priority by community decision makers. These costs may be addressed through renewable energy alternatives (e.g. solar or wind power), thereby reducing operational costs and reliance on diesel generators.

Although alternative power sources have high implementation costs, successful wind power programs are running in remote polar locations such as Kotzebue, Alaska and the Jang Bogo Station in the Antarctic.58,59 Though community freezers are increasing across communities, they are not universal and require greater support for awareness and management. Community freezers may also be more culturally appropriate than family freezers (which were widely distributed in the ISR when territorial

Final Thoughts Inuit are highly adaptable and continue to thrive in a challenging environment that is undergoing rapid change. Due to Inuit reliance on subsistence hunting, fishing, and trapping, this food system is sensitive to changing environmental conditions. Taken together with socioeconomic and political changes, such as population growth and the rise of the wage economy, the Inuit food system is in a time of flux and many Inuit are described as being food insecure.

We argue that subsistence hunting, fishing, and trapping will continue to play a vital role in Inuit food security.

If culturally-relevant solutions in the subsistence sector are driven by Inuit, they have the potential to also improve food sovereignty for Arctic Inuit communities. We propose re-evaluating current top-down subsidies in favor of locally-supported, culturallyrelevant opportunities to promote the

www.thesolutionsjournal.org | July-August 2016 | Solutions | 47

Jeff W. Higdon

Selection of equipment needed for successful hunting, clockwise from top left: a harpoon being used during a walrus hunt (Foxe Basin, NU, July 2007); a boat and motors used during a successful narwhal hunt (Admiralty Inlet, NU, August 2008); a scoped rifle in use during a bearded seal hunt (Foxe Basin, NU, July 2009); a seal hook, or niksik in Inuktitut (Foxe Basin, NU, July 2009).

transmission of knowledge and skills important for subsistence among generations, to increase harvesters’ access to hunting equipment and supplies, and improve food storage options in communities.

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to acknowledge ArcticNet for project funding (1.8 Knowledge Co-Production). In addition, we thank additional funding source and project partners: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, W. Garfield Weston Foundation, Fisheries Joint Management Committee, Arctic Science Partnership, Northern

Scientific Training Program, Environmental Studies Research Funds, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Health Canada, Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (OceanCanada Partnership). Thank you to our research partners from the communities of Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik, Paulatuk, and Ulukhaktok (specifically Emily Kudlak, Adam Kudlak, Phylicia Kagyut, Susie Malgokak, Harold Wright, and Winnie Akhiatak), who are the source of many of the insights shared in this paper. Finally, we would like to thank Kate Snow, John Iacozza, and reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

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The Ulukhaktok community freezer, closed since 2004 following funding cuts to the program across the ISR. State of Food Insecurity in the World 2001. (Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, 2002).

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23. Nunavut Food Security Strategy and Action Plan 2014–16 (Nunavut Food Security Coalition, 2014).

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knowledge and land skills among Inuit men in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada. Human Ecology 39, 271–288 (2011).

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27. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami & Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada. Inuit and the Right to Food: Submission to the United Nations Special

websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Honouring_ the_Truth_Reconciling_for_the_Future_ July_23_2015.pdf.

37. Marks, SA. Hunting behavior and strategies of the Valley Bisa in Zambia. Human Ecology 5, 1–36 (1997).

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(2006).

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Nunatsiaq News [online] (2006). http://www. nunatsiaqonline.ca/archives/60331/news/ nunavut/60331_09.html.

55. Pearce, T et al. in From Science to Policy in the Western and Central Canadian Arctic: An Integrated Regional Impact Study (IRIS) of Climate Change and Modernization (Stern, G & Gaden, A, eds) Ch. 10 (ArcticNet, Quebec City, 2015).

56. Parker, C. Assessing Inuit Food Security in Light of Climate Change and Examining Adaptation Options: A Case Study of Ulukhaktok, NT. MSc. University of Guelph (2016).

29. Nutrition North [online] (2014). http://www.

41. Condon, RG, Collings, P & Wenzel, G. The Best

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Part of Life: Subsistence Hunting, Ethnicity, and

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30. Galloway, T. Is the Nutrition North Canada Retail Subsidy Program Meeting the Goal of Making

42. Collings, P, Wenzel, G & Condon, R. Modern Food

Nutritious and Perishable Food More Accessible and

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Affordable in the North? Canadian Journal of Public

Central Canadian Arctic. Arctic 51, 301–314 (1998).

Health 105, e395–e397 (2014).

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Nature 458, 148 (2009).

32. Boult, D. Hunger in the Arctic: food (in)security in Inuit communities. National Aboriginal Health Organization, 1–11 (2004).

33. Government of Canada. Budget 2016: Growing the Middle Class [online] (2016). http://www.budget. gc.ca/2016/docs/plan/ch3-en.html.

34. Huet, C, Rosol, R & Egeland, GM. The Prevalence of

43. Pearce, T et al. Transmission of environmental knowledge and land skills among Inuit men in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada. Human Ecology 39, 271–288 (2011).

44. Guide to Government of the Northwest Territories Grants and Contributions Programs, 1-108 (Government of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, NT, 2014).

45. Pearce, T et al. Transmission of environmental knowledge and land skills among Inuit men in

Food Insecurity Is High and the Diet Quality Poor in

Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada. Human

Inuit Communities. Journal of Nutrition 142: 541–47

Ecology 39, 271–288 (2011).

(2012).

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46. Inuit siku (sea ice) Atlas [online]. http://sikuatlas.ca/ index.html.

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Wild Food Access in Nain, Nunatsiavut. Health & Place 30, 251–59 (2014).

58. New Korean Antarctic Base Features Windside Turbines [online] http://www.windside.com/ company/news/kopri_-_jang_bogo_station.

59. A renewable energy success story above the Arctic Circle [online] (2015). http://www.eenews.net/ stories/1060026559.

60. Searles, E. Food and the making of modern Inuit identities. Food and Foodways 10, 55–78 (2002).

61. North West Company Earns $1.5 Million Profit in 4th Quarter. CBC News [online] (2015). http://www. cbc.ca/news/canada/north/north-west-companyearns-15m-profit-in-4th-quarter-1.2992562.

62. 2015 Nunavut Food Price Survey. Nunavut Bureau of Statistics [online] (2016). http://www.stats.gov.nu.ca/ en/Economic prices.aspx.

Traditional Qayaqs are Symbols of Community, Culture,and Food Security for Inuit

by Kevin Floyd Traditional qayaqs are making a resurgence in the Inuvialuit community of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, Canada, due to an interest in returning to traditional harvest methods. For Inuit, the qayaq is a symbol of resiliency, ingenuity, and connection to the natural world.

The building of a qayaq requires the expertise of an entire community, from the carpentry to build the frame to the sewing of the skins to make the cover, with these skills passed down from one generation to the next. Advances in technology have allowed hunters access to modern boats and equipment for hunting activities.

With this change, traditional knowledge of qayaqs has decreased. As a traditional qayaq maker, I interpret available traditional knowledge to design qayaqs for individually prescribed uses. Through the construction of qayaqs, paddles, and harpoons, I have had to learn to use traditional materials, find sources to incorporate into builds, and have witnessed communities come together in the process.

Kevin Floyd

Inuvialuit qayaq frame.

With the opportunity to harvest in a traditional manner, many Inuit are re-examining modern hunting skill sets and considering the benefits of traditional approaches. For example, qayaqs are quieter than modern boats, enabling hunters to get closer to prey species, where they are within range to use harpoons rather than guns. This can result in increased harvests of fish, birds, seals, and even caribou. In addition, qayaqs allow greater access to hard-to-reach areas, as they can be dragged over ice. This allows hunters earlier access to harvesting areas or seasonal species. Increasing range and access to species means a greater harvesting capacity.

When these harvesters return from a hunt, they are met by a community that comes together to share in the processing of food. Through community qayaq builds, generations of Inuit are brought together to re-learn traditional building techniques and become stronger threads in the fabric of the community.

The Center for Wooden Boats has featured more accounts of Inuvialuit qayaq projects on their website.1 References 1. Reuten, M. Inuvialuit Qayaq Project. The Center for Wooden Boats [online] (2011). https://cwb. org/2011/07/01/inuvialuit-qayaq-project/.

Jen Lam

Inuvialuit qayaq gliding through water.

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Hardee, E. (2016). Crediting Farmers for Nutrient Stewardship: Using Carbon Markets to Create Positive Environmental Change. Solutions 7(4): 52–57. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/crediting-farmers-for-nutrient-stewardship-using-carbon-markets-to-create-positive-environmental-change/

Feature

Crediting Farmers for Nutrient Stewardship: Using Carbon Markets to Create Positive Environmental Change

by Elizabeth Hardee City of Geneva

A farmer in Geneva, Illinois fertilizes his crops with biosolids, a supplement provided to farmers by the local government at no cost.

I

t is impossible to discuss future food security without discussing climate change, a global problem that threatens the foundations on which our modern agricultural systems are built—stable weather patterns, well-balanced soils, a favorable temperature range. According to the IPCC, “All aspects of food security are potentially affected by climate change, including food access, utilization, and price stability.” Likely impacts include heat stress, flooding, drought, and changes in precipitation and in the distribution of invasive weeds and pests.1 Changes in precipitation and temperature resulting from climate change are also likely to alter the microbiomes contained in soils, in turn altering patterns of soil productivity. Climate change will not impact

every region uniformly, but studies provide clear evidence that further warming will increase the need for creative adaptation.2–4 Agriculture itself currently accounts for roughly 10 to 12 percent of annual global emissions.5 Most of these emissions come from gases with global warming potentials over a 20-year timeframe that are 86 and 265 times that of carbon dioxide, respectively: methane, primarily from livestock production, and nitrous oxide—the focus of this article— primarily from crop production.6 However, even as agriculture is threatened by climate change, it is capable of creative solutions that will not only contribute to global climate mitigation efforts but have benefits beyond this as well. This paper focuses on

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In Brief Carbon crediting holds the potential to incentivize optimal nitrogen fertilizer usage on farms, avoiding negative environmental consequences like climate change while supplementing revenue to farmers. Realizing the potential of this solution will depend on key factors including the adoption of nutrient management crediting structures for compliance carbon markets, increased data collection and usage efficiencies, and economies of scale for project expenses such as credit verification. This paper explores the potential, key barriers, and solutions for nutrient management crediting at scale.

one such solution: the generation of environmental credits from increased fertilizer use efficiencies.

Nitrogen fertilizers have led to an unprecedented increase in agricultural productivity, but nitrogen applied to soils can be converted to other forms—including nitrous oxide and nitrate—that can have negative environmental outcomes when lost from fields. Nitrous oxide emissions from soils are currently the second largest source of agricultural emissions and continue to rise—gaining efficiency here could have a significant impact on agricultural emissions overall.4,7 Though a worldwide potential exists, this paper focuses primarily on U.S. agriculture, as the consolidation of farms creates potential for larger impact from fewer farms.

When nitrogen fertilizer is applied to soil, biological processes within the soil convert some portion of it to nitrous oxide and, as a global meta-analysis study concluded, “N2O emissions tend to grow in response to N fertilizer additions at a rate significantly greater than linear.”8 The loss of excessive nitrous oxide from farms into the atmosphere is preventable and depends on matching the application of fertilizers more effectively with the needs of crops.

Collectively referred to as nutrient management, there are several practices that do this—applying smaller quantities, applying different fertilizer products, use of nitrogen inhibitors, injecting fertilizers into soils rather than broadcasting applications, and/ or optimizing the timing of fertilizer application for the plant’s nutrient uptake.9 Nutrient management practices are quickly catching the attention of farmers looking to save money on inputs, companies wishing to reduce the GHG emissions footprint of their supply chains, and the carbon markets— systems with potential to provide revenue to farmers on the basis of increased fertilizer use efficiencies.

In a carbon market, a farmer generates a credit for each unit of nitrous oxide emissions avoided by a change in nutrient application practices, and this credit can be sold to a company or other entity that wishes to offset its own emissions. The value each credit produces is distributed through that credit’s value chain; a portion of it goes to pay for the development of the

Key Concepts • Nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 280 times that of carbon dioxide, can be created and released into the atmosphere when nitrogen fertilizers are applied to soils, contributing to climate change.

• Nutrient management practices could generate carbon credits, allowing for a supplementary revenue stream to farmers who are implementing these practices and driving positive environmental outcomes.

• The potential for scalability of carbon crediting for nutrient management is very large, and lessons learned from the successful deployment of nutrient management crediting projects on large corn farms in the U.S. may be applicable to other crops and regions worldwide.

• Scalability depends upon several factors including increased focus on lowering project costs through economies of scale, increasing revenue potential through carbon markets, and prioritizing environmental integrity using established, credible standards.

carbon project, a portion to verify that the intended outcomes of the project are met, and a portion becomes an alternate stream of revenue for the farmer—important, as crop farmers are typically subject to the volatility of commodity crop prices in predicting their revenue stream.

This means that the generation of credit from nutrient management changes is beneficial from multiple

angles: millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions are avoided, farmers are compensated, and jobs are created to handle the carbon accounting. Even water quality may improve, as the optimization of fertilizer applications also limits the creation and distribution of nitrate—an anion salt that has been implicated in adverse water quality conditions in several areas worldwide.10 One reason to be optimistic that carbon markets can create value for conservation practices in crop agriculture is that they have been deployed to aid conservation efforts for other agricultural practices. In the US, California’s cap-and-trade system allows the creation of offset credits for the management of livestock manure through the installation of anaerobic digester systems. Since its inception in 2013, the program has created over two million credits from over 70 distinct livestock digester projects throughout the US.11 With these credits able to be sold to entities with compliance obligations under the program at prices in the range of USD$8 to $11 per credit, the total value created for those in the crediting value chain can be estimated at between USD$16 million and $22 million to date.

With so much monetary value involved it becomes even more critical for emission offsetting programs to be designed effectively. In the past, offsetting programs lacked accountability and offsets were sometimes created for emission reductions that had occurred in the course of business as usual, or had not occurred at all. The UN’s Joint Implementation Mechanism is one such example; under this system, Russia and the Ukraine were able to register credits for projects that would have happened in the absence of carbon revenue (in the language of carbon markets, such projects are referred to as nonadditional).12 In response to questions about the quality of credits, markets

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have instituted standards that prioritize the environmental integrity of offset credits.

Environmental integrity, in the context of offset credit quality standards, means that the emission reduction represented by the credit is real (accurately calculated), measureable (able to be compared with a baseline condition), verifiable (able to be confirmed by an independent third party), permanent (unable to be reversed), additional (above and beyond business as usual, the most common practices in a region, or existing law structures), and enforceable (able to be withdrawn, should it be discovered credits were created fraudulently).13 Carbon accounting systems all over the world have accepted these principles as the best way to ensure the environmental integrity of credits.

However, environmental integrity is only one piece of the triple bottom line for carbon projects. An evergreater emphasis has been placed on the social outcomes of carbon projects.

Responsible sellers and buyers consider local community impacts when considering transactions, and standards have emerged to certify these variables as well, such as the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity framework, which considers variables such as property rights, stakeholder input, and continuous monitoring, particularly for areas of the world where these variables have been of concern historically.14 The benefits of offset projects that are managed with integrity cannot be overstated or overlooked.

For agriculture, crediting could be a boon—a way to generate revenue that does not rely on crop prices.

However, significant barriers remain to making carbon crediting a viable solution for agricultural emissions; breaking these will require continued cooperation between agricultural and carbon market stakeholders and a focus on prioritizing the proper balance between environmental integrity

Nestlé

A livestock farmer in Panama with his biodigestor, which turns animal waste into gas for cooking and liquid fertilizer.

and ease of use. The most pressing barriers yet to be broken are related to data collection and storage, credit calculation protocols, and the price of carbon—each discussed in further detail here.

Data Collection and Storage In order to prove reductions, carbon calculation methodologies require that certain parameters be tracked and that records are kept long term.

Carbon projects typically last about 10 years; however, protocols also advise that data used to generate credit be kept a decade or more after credits are issued. The California Air Resources Board requires data be stored for 15 years after initial credit issuance.15 In addition, calibration of credit calculation models typically requires at least three to five years of historical data on a farm’s use of fertilizer to establish a baseline. As most agricultural data is currently very fragmented, farmers

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receive advisement on their fertilizer applications from a variety of sources and data may be kept by multiple parties in a variety of formats, complicating data collection substantially.

Agriculture is beginning to use the power of big data to drive efficiencies; however, it could benefit from increased standardization. U.S. health care, another industry to have recently implemented this type of transition, may contain lessons that could be applied to agriculture.

Like health data, much of the data collected by farmers needs to remain confidential. The standards applied by the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have helped the health care industry to reform its data processes for greater accuracy and better data security. HIPAA uses a staged phase-in approach, ties usage to incentives, and is working to standardize the format of collected and stored data.

Tracy Robillard / NRCS Oregon

A farmer on his organic dairy farm in Tillamook, Oregon. The farm uses only cow manure to maintain soil nutrients, and has partnered with the United States Department of Agriculture to create a nutrient management plan. This plan monitors nitrate levels in soils to reduce fertilizer run-off.

If agriculture were to do the same, the privacy needs of producers could be satisfied—farmers would own the data (in the same way patients do in health care) and would be able to provide permission for access to limited datasets by stakeholders like buyers, agronomists, and carbon offset project developers. Agricultural data storage would ideally be handled through independent third parties with expertise in data security.

Carbon Price In addition to adding greater clarity to data requirements, the scalability of carbon offset crediting for nutrient management practices relies on the price of carbon being high enough to provide a margin to farmers once project costs are accounted for. National

and subnational carbon pricing is on the rise worldwide but is by no means universal, so nutrient management projects that generate credit are currently largely left to sell their credits to voluntary buyers—usually companies or municipalities with an emission reduction target.16 Prices can vary greatly in these markets, creating uncertainty as to whether project costs can be recovered. Ecosystem Marketplace, which tracks voluntary carbon markets worldwide, notes that the worldwide average carbon price across all sectors in the voluntary markets has fallen to a low of USD$3.80, and that a substantial portion of credits offered on voluntary markets go unsold,17 offering limited incentive for the development of these types of projects.

The ability of farmers to sell credits into systems created by regulation— known as compliance markets—such as the EU Emissions Trading System or California cap-and-trade market would be an ideal solution to the issue of pricing, as both systems clearly articulate the price of each ton abated, and provide more certainty in credit demand than voluntary markets.

Protocols High carbon prices would do much to bolster enrollment in crediting programs, but are not enough on their own to solve this important challenge.

Many barriers to enrollment still exist within the credit calculation protocols themselves. Current protocols only mark the first generation of mechanisms to calculate the emissions

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reduction potential of nutrient management and have much room to improve. Designed primarily for environmental integrity, rather than to flexibly account for the complex dynamics of soils, these methodologies are highly prescriptive, with high implied upfront costs to farmers for the generation and verification of credits.

Additionally, even if a farmer does commit to the costs associated with a carbon project, there is no guarantee that they will receive credit for their efforts. Failure to provide historical data, an ineligible soil type, and unexpected decreases in crop yield are all grounds for the withholding of credit.

Though the ability of farmers to sell their credits into compliance markets would at least provide higher certainty around the carbon price, and therefore the ability to recoup project expenses, developers of carbon projects still need to ensure project costs remain low to minimize financial risks to farmers.

Nutrient management offset markets are nascent, and each of these issues will be resolved in time; however, efforts by carbon market project developers, protocol writers, credit verifiers, government agencies, and many others are underway to ensure barriers are removed sooner rather than later.

One final consideration: because nutrient management projects have both an atmospheric benefit and a water quality benefit, it may be possible to sell environmental credits for each benefit from the same plot of land—a process known as credit stacking.18 Stacking has long been discussed as a way to maximize revenue benefits to landowners, but its success depends on being able to verify that no one environmental benefit is attributed to more than one credit type. Pilot water quality credit trading programs have emerged throughout the U.S., but to date no transactions of carbon credits have been completed from the same lands. Because they typically address different practice changes, carbon

Kyle Spradley / Curators of the University of Missouri

A farm worker in Missouri utilizes an ATV equipped with sonar reading sensors to measure pasture growth. The resulting data allows farmers to manage nutrient applications.

offset payments also usually do not preclude farmers from receiving other types of conservation payments, such as Environmental Quality Inventive Payments from the U.S. Department of Agriculture or direct “Greening” payments from the European Commission Agriculture and Rural Development division.19,20 The carbon mitigation potential of optimized nutrient management practices is vast. In the U.S. Corn Belt alone, potential from practice changes on continuous corn or corn–soy rotational fields is estimated to be between 0.77 to 2.7 million offset credits per year (each credit represents one metric ton of emissions avoided).21 Add in the rest of the world’s regions and crops, and the sector becomes not only a major carbon mitigation player, but potentially very lucrative for farmers, particularly if carbon prices continue to rise—which is likely to happen with increased international focus on emissions.

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Some may argue that we need whole new systems to address climate change, and they would be correct—but we need to improve our existing ones as well. The scale of this problem is simply too wide to leave anything to chance, and improving existing systems is equally as valid as creating new ones in pursuit of its resolution. If we reimagine revenue models for farming, we could end up creating a sustainable food system and staving off the worst impacts of climate change at the same time— a true win–win for humanity.

References 1. Porter, JR et. al. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5th Assessment Report Chapter 7: Food Security and Food Production Systems [online] (2014). https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ ar5/wg2/WGIIAR5-Chap7_FINAL.pdf.

2. National Climate Assesssment [online] (2015). http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/sectors/ agriculture.

3. Oleson, J and Bindi, M. Consequences of climate change for European agricultural productivity, land

Kyle Spradley / Curators of the University of Missouri

A farmer plants corn on a farm in Missouri.

use and policy. European Journal of Agronomy 16,

9. International Plant Research Institute. Stewardship

15. California Air Resources Board. Final regulation

specifics #9: Managing nitrogen to meet crop

order, article 5: California cap on greenhouse

demands while protecting water [online] (2016).

gas emissions and market-based compliance

the face of climate change: Final report from

http://www.ipni.net/publication/stewardship.nsf/0/

mechanisms (November 2015). http://www.arb.

the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture

E856D0B18949B44D85257BE500552FCC/$FILE/

ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/capandtrade/unofficial_

and Climate Change (Copenhagen, Denmark

StewSpec-EN-09.pdf.

239–262 (2002).

4. Beddington, J et. al. Achieving food security in

2012). https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/

ct_030116.pdf.

10. International Plant Research Institute. Stewardship

16. International Emissions Trading Association. Rapid

handle/10568/35589/climate_food_commission-

specifics #17: Soil nitrate and leaching [online]

uptake of emission trading systems globally [online]

final-mar2012.pdf?sequence=1.

(2016). http://www.ipni.net/publication/

(2014). http://www.ieta.org/resources/Resources/3_

stewardship.nsf/0/9B970014A1DE1EA685257BE500

Minute_Briefings/international%20markets%20

5. Smith, P et. al. Agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) in Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to

554B0E/$FILE/StewSpec-EN-17.pdf.

brochure.pdf.

11. California Air Resources Board [online] (2016).

17. Hamrick, K & Goldstein, A. Ahead of the curve:

the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental

http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/offsets/

State of the voluntary carbon markets 2015 [online]

Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge University

issuance/arb_offset_credit_issuance_table.pdf.

(2015). http://forest-trends.org/releases/uploads/

Press, Cambridge UK, 2014).

6. Myhre, G et al. Anthropogenic and natural radiative

12. Kollmuss, A, Schneider, L & Zhezherin, V. Has

SOVCM2015_FullReport.pdf.

joint implementation reduced GHG emissions?

18. Gardner, R & Fox, J. The legal status of environmental credit stacking. Ecology Law

forcing in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science

Lessons learned for the design of carbon market

Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth

mechanisms [online] (2015). https://www.sei-

Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel

international.org/mediamanager/documents/

on Climate Change (Cambridge University Press,

Publications/Climate/SEI-WP-2015-07-JI-lessons-for-

Conservation Service [online] (2016). http://www.

Cambridge UK, 2013).

carbon-mechs.pdf.

nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/

7. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United

Quarterly 40(4), (2013).

19. US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources

13. Offset Quality Initiative. Ensuring offset quality:

States. Agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions on

integrating quality greenhouse gas offsets into

the rise [online] (2014). http://www.fao.org/news/

North American cap and trade policy [online]

story/en/item/216137/icode/.

(2008). http://www.c2es.org/docUploads/OQI-

8. Shcherbak, I et al. Global meta-analysis of the nonlinear response of soil nitrous oxide emissions

programs/financial/eqip/.

20. European Commission Agriculture and Rural Development [online] (2016). http://ec.europa.eu/ agriculture/direct-support/greening/index_en.htm.

Ensuring-Offset-Quality-white-paper.pdf.

21. Hardee, E. Promoting increased nutrient use efficiency

14. The Climate, Community and Biodiversity

through carbon markets [online] (2015). https://

to fertilizer nitrogen. Proceedings of the National

Alliance. CCB Standards [online] (2013). https://

www.climatetrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/

Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

s3.amazonaws.com/CCBA/Third_Edition/CCB_

Promoting-increased-nutrient-use-efficiency-through-

111(25), 9199–9204 (2014).

Standards_Third_Edition_December_2013.pdf.

carbon-markets-The-Climate-Trust.pdf.

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Pascucci, S. and J. Duncan. (2016). Circular Solutions for Linear Problems: Principles for Sustainable Food Futures. Solutions 7(4): 58–65. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/circular-solutions-for-linear-problems-principles-for-sustainable-food-futures/

Feature

Circular Solutions for Linear Problems: Principles for Sustainable Food Futures

by Stefano Pascucci and Jessica Duncan

Thomas Williams

Products of linear industrialized food production systems are displayed on supermarket shelves around the world.

In Brief Industrialized food production has failed to meet the longer-term needs of societies and ecosystems. A major limitation of industrialized food production is that it is designed so that products are made, used, and disposed of, with limited attention to the ecological impacts associated with each of these stages of production. This paper proposes redesigning food production in line with three principles of Circular Economy: only use materials that can be reused, make use of renewable energy, and celebrate local diversity by taking inspiration from nature and cultures.

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T

hink about the food in your fridge. It is very likely that most of it has come in nonbiodegradable packaging and from far distances. It is also likely that at least one-third of this food will be wasted or was lost before production.1 Increasing evidence shows that the industrial food system is having a destructive impact on our well-being, while simultaneously degrading ecosystems, reducing biodiversity, and accelerating climate change.2–4 When we ask the question, “can industrial agriculture feed the world?,” the answer is no: industrialized food production has failed to meet the longer-term needs of societies and ecosystems.3,5 The question is, what comes next?

As a way of designing a system that can meet our long-term needs, we are inspired by the idea of the Circular Economy. The term Circular Economy has been proposed to describe an economy that is designed to be restorative and regenerative; one that aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times. When it comes to food production, there is a growing buzz around the Circular Economy concept, and for good reason. At the same time, there is a risk that the term gets hijacked, diluted, and employed as a form of “green washing.” To avoid this, there is a need to develop clear design principles that address the deep-seated problems of how we grow, produce, and consume food.

A key limitation of industrialized food production stems from a tendency towards linear design.6 This means that industrialized food systems are typically organized around the idea of a production line where resources (i.e., materials) are extracted, made into products (e.g., food, feed, or fiber), consumed or discarded, and finally disposed of by way of incineration or landfill.7 Linear designs are supported by a set of technological and institutional assumptions, principles, and practices that result in the

standardization of processes. While standardization has traditionally been championed for offering economies of scale, it has also reduced the diversity of our food sources.8,9 Furthermore, because of this linear design, industrial food production systems tend to disconnect places of production from places of consumption, reinforcing a disconnect between where food is produced and where it is consumed. It’s why we get to enjoy daily cups of coffee, but also why many children struggle to identify common fruits and vegetables.10

Key Concepts • The linear design of industrial food production cannot meet the needs of people and the planet.

• Redesigning food production processes around circular metabolisms can address many current limitations.

• Three principles used in Circular Economy can be applied to food production processes.

• The first principle is “waste is food,” meaning nothing should be wasted and any by-products should be reused in the production process.

• The second principle is to make use of renewable energy.

• The third principle is to celebrate local diversity by taking inspiration from nature and cultures.

Awareness is growing of the constraints of linear approaches.9 Environmental degradation and contributions to climate change connected to industrial activities are increasingly being measured through impact assessments, such as life cycle assessments (LCA), carbon footprinting, and eco-efficiency.7,11 These tools are all concerned with using less resources and producing less emissions, and thus being more efficient and environmentally sustainable.

But they don’t go far enough. While

a move towards eco-efficiency can result in short-term cost reduction as a result of using fewer materials, these tools often fail to incorporate meaningful social–cultural, economic, and environmental benefits that lie at the core of sustainability.7 Most notably, what these impact assessments fail to do is to challenge the very system itself—let alone reimagine their linear design, the disposal of materials, or different models of ownership.12 If one key problem of industrial food production is linear design, one solution can be found in designing systems that apply the cyclical metabolism principles of the Circular Economy.13 The concept of metabolism refers to how energy and/or materials are shared and reused in a given system, so that it mimics the flows, loops, and cycles found in nature.

As explained in Cradle-to-Cradle design, the two metabolisms are defined as biological and technical.9 Biological metabolisms are flows of biodegradable nutrients, such as wood or cotton, which can return to nature in order to be decomposed and reused by means of biological processes.

Technical metabolisms are flows of nonbiodegradable nutrients, such as metals, which can be reused by means of technical processes. This means that all materials and products that are used in a given metabolism can be seen as a temporary depot of materials (or nutrients) that will become the input for new products after their lifecycle.14,15 Therefore, designing a Circular Economy means deliberately designing food production systems that do more than recycle their constitute parts—it goes one step further to design processes that are restorative, building greater resilience and flexibility into the system.7 While there are emerging examples of production systems that have embraced the Circular Economy approach, there are very few examples when it comes to food production.

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Royal Tropical Institute, From sorghum to shrimp: a journey through commodity projects, Kit Publishers, Amsterdam, 2011.

Figure 1. Representation of a value chain.

Given the impacts of industrial food production, there is no time to waste.

At the same time, implementing a circular design takes time and careful consideration. So how to begin the transition from linear to circular thinking?

One guiding principle of Circular Economy design—“waste equals food”—means that a product has to be designed eco-effectively; that is, in such a way that the use of hazardous and toxic materials is eliminated.

As such, any product used must contribute to a synergistic relationship between ecological and social systems and economic growth.14–16A circular design can stimulate restorative solutions so that the value of each material used in the process is

maintained.7 In an ideal situation, a circular design treats materials as nutrients for the metabolisms, keeping their properties pure, and adding value(s) derived from the knowledge and labor applied for their usage.

For example, a tendency in linear food production systems is the use of key elements, such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and water, in an unsustainable way. While in principle these resources are all renewable, the poor design at the base of industrialized and large-scale food production systems imposes an intensity of usage such that these elements need to be extracted or mined from the earth in their fossil form, thus as nonrenewable resources. Organic agriculture, agro-ecology, and permaculture are all

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examples of agronomic approaches that consider the natural cycles of these elements and aim to avoid using them in any kind of fossil forms. For instance, nitrogen and phosphorus are added to the soil by using manure and carefully rotating crops.8 Inspired by industrial ecology, the principle of “waste equals food” is also related to designing products such that their biological and technical components are not mixed.13 In practice, this means food products will be designed to use biodegradable/compostable packaging or any packaging that can be upcycled as a technical nutrient in a given metabolism (i.e., paper, glass, biodegradable cellulose bags).17 Thus, to uphold the principle is to never mix biological

Cradle to Cradle plants

organic – synthetic materials raw materials organic products

nutrients

biological

disassembly & waste separation

animal consumption

technical

manufacture product decomposers Zhiying Lim

Figure 2. Biological and Technical Nutrients in the Cradle to Cradle Design Framework.

and non-biological materials to avoid forming what has been defined as “monstrous hybrids.”9 Avoiding the mix of biological and technical (nonbiological) materials means designing food products, and managing materials during the process, in ways that allows for easy separation and reuse.

This is important to preserve the functionalities and values of each material, and to ensure the potentials of their use as “virgin materials” to foster restorative and eco-effective processes. Also incorporated in a circular design of the product is a plan for how residual components will be used by other actors or processes in the metabolism. In this way, within circular metabolisms more than products are being designed, “materials streams” are also being designed.

Managing streams in the food system is emerging as a new trend, with examples to be found in new business models and companies.

Particularly in the domains of food waste management, biodegradable packaging, and alternative source

of proteins, several new ventures have been launched with the explicit intention of using circular design principles, as for example the case of Protix NV in the Netherlands.18 This company developed a business model based on the idea of reusing food waste from food processors and retailers by transforming it into feed for a wide variety of insects. Insects are perfectly suited to transform all these materials into proteins and micronutrients in a very short time period. Insects are then used as feed by fisheries and poultries, which eventually are used as food for humans.

Although existing examples differ in terms of scope, these novel ventures all share similar features when we look at how they can provide solutions to support the transition towards more sustainable food systems: • They foster socio-technical innovation, promoting a different approach to use and reuse of materials and energy associated to food production and distribution.

• They introduce social and environmental goals through the introduction of new business models and practices.

• They challenge those operating in a linear way to re-think their strategies in a more circular way.

• They stimulate creativity and new forms of engagement between and among actors in the food system, for example, through the creation of innovation networks.

A Circular Economy-inspired food product fulfilling the principle of “waste equals food” will also have to be coupled with strategies to recover nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen, or water or will need to be produced though agricultural practices that avoid the use of fossil nutrients, as in the case of organic agriculture and permaculture. A typical strategy to recover nutrients after feed or food consumption is extracting phosphorus, nitrogen, and water from urine and manure.19 This has been done when designing food systems in

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urban environments.20 For example, several wastewater treatment plants have been experimenting with designing recovery of phosphorus to be eventually re-introduced into food production systems.21 In this type of approach, wastewater is treated with bacteria that form a removable sludge in which phosphorus is “captured.”

By further treating the sludge, phosphorus can be recovered and reused in agricultural cycles. However, these types of solutions are still energyintensive, which brings us to the next principle.

The second tenet of the Circular Economy is to use renewable energy.

This principle is meant to inspire a rethink of the type of energy used in the food production process.9 Agriculture and food production, distribution, and consumption processes are energy-intensive.8 Societal-level shifts towards the consumption of more processed food products as well as the increase of globally traded agricultural commodities and products are examples of trends leading to more energy-intense food systems.

This idea of using more sustainable energy is not particularly new. For example, several agri-food companies are participating in agroindustrial parks created around the idea of sharing materials (i.e., waste industrial streams) and energy. 22,23 Mimicking the concept of symbiosis, these companies advance a so-called ‘upcycling’ approach. As opposed to recycling, an upcycling approach tends to preserve the value (technical and economical) of any material and focus on using the materials in the best possible way. This results in a set of companies co-designing products with components utilized along the process, with a particular focus on innovative materials and management practices, as well as increasingly coproducing and using energy from renewable resources. Agro-parks like Bergerdenor Biopark Terneuzen in the Netherlands are examples of industrial

symbiosis applied to feed and food production, highlighting how biological and technological metabolisms can be co-designed to reshape food systems and reconnect food, fiber, and energy productions with regional economies.19,24, 25 The third principle of the Circular Economy is to celebrate diversity— which means understanding the effect that the metabolism of materials has on local diversity and how we can integrate community thinking and cultural diversity into the design process. Using an agro-ecological approach to design agrifood systems and practices is an example of celebrating diversity. It implies using larger varieties of species to balance ecological dynamics connected to the agricultural production. Also, usage of local varieties, adapted to the microclimatic conditions, is celebrating diversity. In more socioeconomic terms, celebrating diversity is connected to fair practices along the food supply chain, a careful assessment of competition between use of land for food or nonfood crops, and in general a conscious assessment of any competing issue related to use of natural resources that may hamper food security. For example, using water for agricultural purposes in a semi-arid environment could be considered as not complying with the principle. Celebrating diversity with a view towards designing circular metabolisms can inspire solutions that target key challenges related to natural resource scarcity and depletion, and unfair access to natural resources.

However, celebrating diversity as a circular metabolism design principle must also address questions such as ownership of natural resources.

Within circular design, there needs to be the possibility for management of natural resources through the commons and public goods, as well as opportunities for people and local communities to lead and monitor these processes.9

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This principle is also concerned with the rethinking of boundaries of creativity, thus inviting humans to be inspired by nature, for example, by mimicking natural ecosystems.

Celebrating diversity can be translated into locally defined practices of social fairness as guiding principles.

Celebrating diversity, as a key principle in the Circular Economy, also supports a more comprehensive way of approaching societal issues associated with food production and consumption, and problematizes the way values are associated to food and the resources used in food production and distribution.

Celebrating diversity demands that we rethink the way we manage not just natural resources but also access to these resources, as well as rethinking how we approach food production distribution and consumption. It is not just about a more integrated way of dealing with waste or materials management, nor is it a new way to frame (corporate) social responsibility. It is proposing structural-level changes to business as usual. It advances principles of locality on the basis of nutrient and resource flows, thereby supporting the localization of production while avoiding the so-called “local food trap;” that is, the tendency of food activists and researchers to assume something inherent about the local scale.26 Further, it invites actors involved in the food system to think about power imbalances, as well as collaborative design rules and decision making mechanisms to organize the food system.

However, even with successful examples, there are still questions that need to be addressed, like how to further democratize food production systems and how to foster collaborative interactions within metabolisms.

From this perspective, initiatives promoted by alternative food networks, in which food producers and consumers engage directly and at local levels,

Chaf Haddad

Biodegradable cups made from plants that decompose into soil within 12 weeks.

are indirectly supporting transitions towards circularly designed food systems.19 The application of these principles for a Circular Economy is, for the time being, limited, especially when it comes to food production.

Furthermore, the examples that do exist are scattered and often isolated initiatives. For example, the application of principles of Circular Economy to food production systems is mainly found in agro-park or urban metabolism pilots, projects related to corporate social responsibility strategies, and initiatives dealing with organic agriculture and agroecology such as community supported agriculture.

Furthermore, the concept itself still has some wrinkles that need to be ironed out. One issue is that

an application of these principles invites us to redesign food production systems in ways that can increase interdependencies amongst actors. While this can lead to positive relationships, it could also lead to conflict and inequitable relations of power. As we have learned from linear food systems, it is essential to guard against solving one problem only to create others.27 The inherent logic of circular design limits this as it should always bring you back to the start.

It is also presently unclear how to reconcile the idea of celebrating local diversity while also connecting places of consumption and production when they are geographically (or culturally) distant. A pending question would be whether to reconceptualize/reshape global trade as a circular metabolism,

and if so, how? Another question revolves around the controversial debate about the redefinition of property rights of natural resources and living organisms. For instance, it remains contested whether technologies based on genetically modified organisms could be seen as promoting and celebrating diversity too.28 Recently, an intellectual debate on extending fundamental rights to animals and all living organisms, including all materials, has been introduced in the Circular Economy community, with no consensus on the horizon.29 Linearity in our food system has led to some critical challenges.

Redesigning food systems in line with circular principles presents a possible solution. What is also clear is that Circular Economy is a term

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Use of renewable energy (P2)

Waste equals food (P1)

Food distribution (P1/P2)

Food consumption

(P1/P2)

(P1/P3)

Organic agriculture and processes of ecological intensification become mainstream

Current linear system

Food production

Celebrate diversity (P3)

(P1/P3) Symbioses/metabolisms created to jointly manage energy and/or waste streams from distribution and consumption

(P1/P3)

Consumers engaged in co-designing food products to maximise resource use as a diffuse practice (i.e. new business models)

(i) Resilient agricultural systems are designed and diffused; (ii) water, soil, biological nutrients used as renewable resources; (iii) new places/models of production connected to distribution and consumption are defined (i.e. urban agriculture); (iv) collaborative systems are enhanced (democratization, participation, social justice)

Authors

Figure 3. Circular Economy principles for designing sustainable food systems.

that is gaining in popularity. As a concept, its strength lies in the way it demands structural changes; however, to maintain this strength, we require deep social and scientific engagement and societal-level discussions about these principles and others. It is also important to review, assess, and engage with different applications of the principles, and to evaluate and monitor them to ensure that Circular Economy does not become a meaningless buzzword, but instead is applied in a way that helps to redesign our food systems so that they meet the needs of the future.

References 1. FAO. Food Loss and Food Waste [online] (2016). http://www.fao.org/food-loss-and-food-waste/en/.

2. Lang, T. Food industrialisation and food power: implications for food governance. Development Policy Review 21, 555–568 (2003).

3. Stuckler, D & Nestle, M. Big food, food systems, and global health. PLoS Med. 9, e1001242 (2012).

4. Booth, S & Coveney, J. Food Democracy (Springer, Singapore, 2015).

5. Tittonell, PA. Farming systems ecology. Towards ecological intensification of world agriculture.

Wageningen University [online] (2013). http:// edepot.wur.nl/258457.

6. Lang, T & Heasman, M. Food Wars: The Global

–a strategy for eco-effective product and system design. Journal of Cleaner Production 15, 1337–1348 (2007).

8. Kremen, C, Iles, A & Bacon, C. Diversified farming systems: an agroecological, systems-based alternative to modern industrial agriculture. Ecology and Society 17, art44 (2012).

9. Braungart, M & McDonough, W. Cradle to Cradle; Remaking the Way We Make Things (North Point Press, New York 2002).

10. Oliver, J. Potato or tomato? - Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. Ryan Seacrest [online] (2010). https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGYs4KS_djg.

11. Verfaillie, HA & Bidwell, R. Measuring eco-

Battle for Mouths, Minds and Markets (Routledge,

efficiency: A guide to reporting company

Oxon,2015).

performance [online] (2000). http://www.wbcsd.org/

7. Braungart, M, McDonough, W & Bollinger, A. Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions

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web/publications/measuring_eco_efficiency.pdf.

12. Ghisellini, P, Cialani, C & Ulgiati, S. A review on

Lance Cheung / USDA

Freshly picked organic radishes from Worden Farm ready for sale at a market in St. Petersburg, Florida. Worden Farm is a family-owned farm that provides certified organic produce to locals through CSA programs. circular economy: the expected transition to a

17. Borrello, M, Lombardi, A, Pascucci, S & Cembalo,

balanced interplay of environmental and economic

L. The seven challenges for transitioning into a

systems. Journal of Cleaner Production 114, 11–32 (2016).

bio-based circular economy in the agri-food sector.

13. Ellen McArthur Foundation. Towards the Circular Economy vol. 1: an economic and business rationale

Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture 8, 39–47 (2016).

18. Protix [online] (2016). http://www.protix.eu/.

www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/

19. Wiskerke, JSC in Cities and Agriculture: Developing

towards-the-circular-economy-vol-1-an-economic-

Resilient Urban Food System (eds Zeeuw, H. de &

(2015).

24. Bergerden. Glastuinbowproject Bergerden [online] 25. Terneuzen, B. Biopark Terneuzen [online] (2016). http://www.bioparkterneuzen.com/en/biopark.htm.

26. Born, B & Purcell, M. Avoiding the local trap: scale and food systems in planning research. Journal

Drechsel, P) 1–25 (Routledge, Oxon, 2015).

14. Tukker, A. Product services for a resource-efficient

20. Kalmykova, Y, Harder, R, Borgestedt, H & Svanäng, I.

and circular economy – a review. Journal of Cleaner

Pathways and management of phosphorus in urban

Production 97, 76–91 (2015).

areas. Journal of Industrial Ecology 16, 928–939 (2012).

15. Van Weelden, E, Mugge, R, & Bakker, C. Paving

Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 28, 353–374

(2016). http://www.bergerden.nl/.

for an accelerated transition [online] (2012). http://

and-business-rationale-for-an-accelerated-transition.

on the demand for a bio-based economy. Journal of

21. Venkatesan, AK, Hamdan, AHM, Chavez, VM,

of Planning Education and Researchs 26, 195–207 (2006).

27. Liu, J et al. Framing Sustainability in a Telecoupled World. 18, 26 (2013).

the way towards circular consumption: exploring

Brown, JD & Halden, RU. Mass balance model

consumer acceptance of refurbished mobile phones

for sustainable phosphorus recovery in a US

N. Compromising genetic diversity in the wild:

in the Dutch market. Journal of Cleaner Production

wastewater treatment plant. Journal of Environmental

unmonitored large-scale release of plants and

113, 743–754 (2016).

Quality 45, 84 (2016).

animals. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 25, 520–529

16. Smol, M, Kulczycka, J, Henclik, A, Gorazda, K & Wzorek, Z. The possible use of sewage sludge ash (SSA) in the construction industry as a way towards a circular economy. Journal of Cleaner Production 95, 45–54 (2015).

28. Laikre, L, Schwartz, MK, Waples, RS & Ryman,

22. Wubben, E & Isakhanyan, G. Stakeholder analysis of agroparks. International Journal on Food System Dynamics 2, 145–154 (2011).

(2010).

29. McDonough, W & Braungar, M. Building a cradleto-cradle framework for the biotech debate [online]

23. Zwier, J, Blok, V, Lemmens, P & Geerts, RJ. The ideal of a zero-waste humanity: philosophical reflections

(2003). www.mcdonough.com/speaking-writing/ between-biology-technology-and-culture.

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Bailey, M. and N. Egels-Zandén. (2016). Transparency for Just Seafood Systems. Solutions 7(4): 66–73. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/transparency-for-just-seafood-systems/

Feature

Transparency for Just Seafood Systems

by Megan Bailey and Niklas Egels-Zandén

ThisFish

This Nova Scotian lobster is fully consumer-facing traceable.

In Brief Supply chain transparency and traceability have been forwarded as solutions to overfishing of the global oceans.

Marine conservation funders, NGOs, and research partnerships are all jumping on board asking what traceability can do for environmental sustainability. Recent investigations into slavery at fisheries in Southeast Asia, whose products ended up on the shelves of American supermarkets, have also brought to light issues with forced labor in global fisheries. In what ways should we expect supply chain transparency and traceability to serve as possible solutions to also address social sustainability such as forced labor in fisheries production? Where transparency extends all the way to consumers, production improvements may be found. Similar movements in the garment industry are reviewed here to provide potential ways forward for seafood traceability. A future where all seafood is traceable and fisheries production practices are transparent could force a “race to the top,” where companies are forced to improve their practices for fear of reputational damage.

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A

n overfishing and overcon- sumption crisis has resulted in global declines of marine fish stocks. So while global population is increasing, the ability of our oceans to support that population through wild capture fisheries is becoming questionable. Despite major efforts by governments and marine conservation organizations to control fisheries production and seafood consumption, fraud, mislabeling, and illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing (IUU) continue to stall success.1–3 Additionally, in 2015 the Associated Press, with help from foreign media advocacy groups, broke the story of Burmese, Thai, Khmer, and Lao fish harvesters imprisoned on a remote Indonesian island. Thai fishing trawlers essentially owned these men: slaves to the global seafood industry. This and other recent investigations into labor abuses and slavery in seafood supply chains have added a further layer of complexity to the sustainability seascape.4,5 While debate continues to unfold within the scientific community as to the magnitude of the overfishing and overconsumption crisis,6 what is not up for question is the fact that we can and must do better. Sustainable seafood and aquaculture systems will be a necessary condition should the seas continue to be relied upon to contribute to global food security.

One newly voiced solution to the problem of how to regulate fishing is supply chain traceability, that is, the ability to trace fish and seafood from ‘boat to throat.’ Traceability has been common practice in food supply chains for decades to ensure food safety (the 2016 Listeria outbreak in the U.S. and Canada is an example of why traceability is so important). But increasing globalization and technological breakthroughs have paved the way for innovations in the way that seafood supply chains are managed, and so-called full-chain traceability is

emerging as the gold standard. When we talk about traceability, what we really mean is the structured flow of information through a supply chain that allows that information to be recalled at distant places and at future times.

In basic traceability, supply chain actors need only communicate with actors one node up and one node down in the supply chain. This limits the amount of coordination and transparency in the supply chain. In full-chain traceability, the consumer should be able to trace a code or scan

Key Concepts • There is a well-established environmental crisis in global fisheries.

Lesser known, however, is that social sustainability is equally problematic.

• Evidence from the garment industry suggests that when transparency becomes the norm, companies have to incentivize the possible external risk that bad social and environmental behaviors may bring them.

• Should a similar incentive exist for seafood, supply chain traceability and transparency, when extending to the consumer, may help to reward companies who currently support just seafood systems, and may incentivize companies with subpar practices to improve.

a label to bring up information about the supply chain, the fish species they are eating, the source of the product, etc. Where this information is available, to date it has centered on ecological sustainability claims.

What has been given less attention is an explicit attempt to figure out if and how traceability can address other aspects of sustainability such as theft, slavery, and violence at sea.

This is not just important for food as there is a similar emphasis on social traceability in other industries such as garments and electronics,7

with scholars and practitioners alike expressing belief that greater traceability will help solve sustainability challenges in global supply chains.

This may be especially true when traceability information is directly available to consumers, in what is called consumer-facing traceability.

Here, we explore what we can learn from this type of traceability attempt in other sectors to promote social sustainability for seafood.

As a catchall term, traceability has been forwarded as a major conservation breakthrough as it can be a tool to promote, operationalize, and verify transparency.8 Its ubiquity in the sustainable seafood vocabulary is likely a product of several things, including its inclusion as necessary for certification standards (like the Marine Stewardship Council and Fair Trade USA), reports on seafood fraud, like that published by Oceana in 2013,9 and a general movement for greater environmental disclosure.10 But the word itself remains obscure, and its uses and benefits not well understood. There are numerous barriers, including concerns over how information and the costs of setting up systems should be shared, how “interoperable” systems are, that is to say, how easily different traceability systems can talk to one another, and, arising from the global nature of seafood supply chains, concerns over the capability of different countries to implement equally robust systems.8,10,11 Additionally, how traceability may be operationalized in various contexts, for example, in small scale fisheries where middlemen often control access to the assets and capabilities of fish harvesters,12 is yet to be adequately questioned. Despite this, major marine conservation funders (Packard, Pew, Walton, Moore, etc.) are pairing up with traceability service providers to start breaking down these barriers. One key example is the Future of Fish-led traceability

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Megan Bailey

The origin of seafood displayed in a retailer may be noted, but what systems are in place to validate that information?

pod, which has gathered key providers together, such as ThisFish, Trace Register, Insight Solutions, and Point97, among others, to address the concerns of interoperability and cost sharing. The pod works to break down these barriers through a co-design process, where providers agree to work together, at the same time respecting the proprietary nature of one another’s businesses.

Efforts like these are likely, at least in part, due to a push for traceability requirements by the U.S. government through the U.S. Presidential Task Force, which was established in 2015 in order to combat IUU. The EU has launched a similar initiative this year, expanding from their original 2008 initiative,14,15 and a supply chain transparency provision (and subsequent guidance in the UK) has been outlined to address issues raised in

the Modern Slavery Act (2015).16 Additionally, academic research agendas targeting seafood traceability are arising to help investigate the conditions under which traceability can promote sustainable seafood systems. One example is “Improving Fisheries Information and Traceability for Tuna” (ifittuna.info), a partnership between Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Bogor Agricultural Institute in Indonesia, ThisFish traceability provider in Canada, and Masyarakat dan Perikanan, Indonesia, an Indonesian NGO working at providing sustainable supply chain support for Indonesia’s fishing sector. The partnership studies the implementation of traceability in Indonesia’s tuna supply chains, where processed product ends up with traceable codes on fish in the U.S. Part of the impetus of the research is the recognition that

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traceability norms appear to be forwarded by importing countries (for example the U.S.), before adequate engagement with exporting countries (often in developing countries) can be had.8 Because seafood traceability enables the flow of information along each step of the food supply chain, much of the conversation to date has focused on how greater internal transparency improves business efficiency, through better logistics and quicker recalls.17 Similarly, there is evidence that it can help retailers reduce their reputational risk through external transparency, communicating their seafood sourcing to civil society.17,18 Additionally, supply chain actors can share information externally with governments as a way to prove legality to importing countries (Figure 1).19 But continuing to view these functions as isolated misses an opportunity.

1. Flow of information out of the supply chain can help verify sourcing from legal, regulated and reported fisheries (LRR) 2. Full-chain internal flow of information can reduce supply chain waste and improve business efficiencies

Producer

1

1

1

2

2

3

3

2

3

3. When traceability is fully consumer-facing, increased transparency may lead to a race to the top, where sustainability performance is improved, including a move to more just seafood systems

Trader

Retailer

Consumer

Civil society

Regulators

Adapted from Bailey et al (2016) / Icons courtesy of thenounproject

Figure 1. Internal and external information flows for seafood traceability.

Promoting full-chain traceability where information is seamlessly transmitted internally and externally simultaneously may offer fish harvesting, processing, and trading businesses efficiencies, help governments increase the legality of their fisheries, and help retailers and civil society to have open discussions about what matters when sourcing sustainable seafood. Going a step further, when traceability is consumer-facing, seafood consumers are able to join that conversation and assert their desires for justly sourced seafood.

Although the sustainable seafood movement emerged over 20 years ago, it’s only been in the last two years that NGOs, researchers, and regulators have put a large effort into discussing the problems of slavery at sea and labor abuses in seafood supply chains.4 This is despite several interest groups

such as Human Rights as Sea, Slave Free Seas, Human Rights Watch, Environmental Justice Foundation, and the International Collective in Support of Fish Workers, among others, being active in this area.

Solutions to this problem have hardly even been forwarded, as stakeholders are only now beginning to grapple with the enormity of the problem. The recent exposés on trafficking and seafood slavery have primarily highlighted problems in the Thai seafood industry, but it’s important to note that unsafe and inhumane working conditions unfortunately are a characteristic of fishing fleets worldwide.4,20,21 Additionally, the globalized nature of seafood supply chains means that much of the unjust seafood caught and processed ends up on the plates of consumers all over the world, and thus consumption must be linked

with production through traceability or an equal transparency medium.

Consumers should be held accountable for the consumption decisions they make, but that accountability remains difficult when supply chains remain opaque.

While scholars have shown that full transparency can serve as a useful corporate tool to enhance legitimacy and increase sales, its ability to promote social justice in global supply chains is less studied. The underlying assumption is that greater openness will empower information users such as consumers and civil society organizations to exert influence on the disclosing company, that is, it is a tool for holding powerful corporate actors accountable for labor conditions in global supply chains.22 Such augmented influence is, in turn, envisioned to translate into more sincere and effective private

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Megan Bailey

Members of the IFITT project gather with children of Assilulu, one of the landing areas of the first Fair Trade USA certified fishery. Fair Trade USA requires traceability.

regulatory systems, such as codes of conduct and auditing, that then will improve labor conditions.23 Given the well-documented inability of existing private regulatory systems to improve worker rights,24 such positive effects would surely be welcomed.

Additionally, recent work investigating the effectiveness of tackling forced labor in Thai fisheries suggests that formal certification has extremely limited potential at promoting just seafood systems, but that internal supply-chain relationships and pressures, along with a desire to reduce reputational risk, may drive change.5

The validity of this line of reasoning hinges on the empirical question of whether or not consumers, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders actually leverage the disclosed information to exert influence. EgelsZandén and Hansson recently showed that this was not the case for consumers in the garment industry. Although limited to a single-case study in a predominantly Swedish setting, this raises a warning flag in relation to the transformative ability of greater transparency. Still, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence of civil society organizations leveraging disclosed

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information about, for example, factory names, locations, and labor conditions to make their campaigns more effective, indicating that they, rather than consumers directly, are the likely vehicle for change.

Furthermore, studies of a Swedish garment retailer’s attempts indicate that the most important mechanism might be found inside, rather than outside, the firm.7 Once top management, purchasers, and sustainability managers realize that sourcing decisions and indiscretions will be publicly disclosed for stakeholders to dissect, they internalize the

Megan Bailey

ThisFish, launched by Ecotrust Canada, is leading the way in full-chain seafood traceability and works to connect consumers and fish harvesters from around the world.

potential external critique and start questioning their own decisions.

This internalized control places restrictions on new supplier selection (“we can only use new suppliers where we have documented proof of just labor conditions that we can publish”), willingness to undertake corrective actions (“we have to fix this immediately to avoid scandals”), purchasing practices (“we cannot demand quicker deliveries as this would lead to overtime violations that we then have to disclose”), and so on. In sum, greater transparency to consumers is likely to positively

impact businesses, private regulatory attempts, and, consequently, labor conditions. However, and in contrast to previous studies, we argue that this is as much driven by internal as external mechanisms. What is promising for the seafood sector is that recent evidence suggests that consumers do display a willingness to pay for socially sustainable seafood; however, this willingness is in fact less than that for ecologically sustainable seafood.25 Interestingly, the results of this survey showed substantial overlap between social sustainability and local food

systems,25 which is problematic for a globalized supply chain like that seen in seafood.

Just because something is traceable, where information is communicated, does not in and of itself make that something sustainable. For all intents and purposes, one could offer traceability on fish coming from forced labor. There is a worry, then, that traceable products may dilute the transformative power of eco-labels, if they indeed have such power.26,27 But there is an implicit assumption that companies that are transparent and that risk exposing

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themselves may have less to hide than other companies,22 so that a company transparently communicating about ecological sustainability may be thought to also meet labor standards, for example. While many developing countries have difficulty obtaining ecological sustainability certifications, they may be more easily able to promote social sustainability vis-à-vis Fair Trade USA, for example.12 This means a consumer’s preference to prioritize one aspect of a company’s performance, such as transparency around labor issues, may mean said consumer accepts seafood without an ecological label. At the same time, we envision consumer-facing traceability and transparency as a ‘race to the top’—where the more transparent a company is, the more quickly they will continually try to improve their practices in other areas.

wealthier actors to benefit from the first-mover advantage that increased transparency may bring.8 Rather, transformation of seafood supply chains towards more just systems will require cooperation and coordination throughout, and an enabling technology and regulatory ecosystem must be prioritized. Work on seafood supply chain risk assessment frameworks, like the one currently being developed

by Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Seafish UK, may help to pave the way in identifying those supply chains that, with implementation of consumer-facing traceability, could result in the largest ecological, economic, and social sustainability gains. Working with these ‘low-hanging fruit’ may help to create some lessons learned and examples of successful implementation. Also positive is the fact that initiatives in

When we talk about traceability, what we really mean is the structured flow of information through a supply chain that allows that information to be recalled at distant places and at future times.

Studies in other industries, such as garment and food more broadly, have shown that full transparency is positively related to consumers’ willingness to buy. The first businesses to adopt full transparency measures are going to reap the benefits of that transparency, whether or not the impending regulations require consumer-facing and/or social requirements. But there are very real challenges with implementing full chain traceability.11 It is not enough for regulators to impose traceability programs onto supply chain actors, as this disproportionate burden on the global South will incentivize only

the global South, for example, the Improving Fisheries Information and Traceability for Tuna project in Indonesia referred to earlier, are working to link consumers and fishers in new ways, suggesting that what traceability offers is of interest to different members of society in different parts of the world.

Effective food traceability has been defined as “an outcome of businesses possessing a disciplined, professionally managed approach to data gathering, retention, analysis and collaboration, performed simultaneously at all points along the supply chain.”17 One does not automatically associate

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such a definition with sustainable food systems. We would argue that, in fact, effective seafood traceability is an outcome where verified transparency and interoperability rewards companies for communicating their fishing and purchasing practices.

Imagine a future where all fish and seafood was fully consumer-traceable.

Transparency would force those companies currently operating with substandard labor conditions, including forced labor, child labor, and slavery, to change their practices or risk being exposed. Important to note is that social issues extend beyond slavery, and thus social sustainability considerations in fisheries should begin to account for issues such as living wages, freedom of association, health, and safety. Interoperable full-chain traceability would enable supply chain actors to improve their efficiency while potentially decreasing their demand for raw materials.

All of these benefits would be in addition to the advantages that regulators and retailers could experience through verification that only legal, regulated, and reported fish and seafood products are ending up on store shelves. As the sustainable seafood movement starts to prioritize a social agenda, we see consumer-facing traceability as a socio-technological solution to promote just seafood systems.

References 1. Jacquet, JL & Pauly, D. Trade secrets: Renaming and mislabeling of seafood. Marine Policy 32, 309–318 (2008).

2. Mora, C et al. Management effectiveness of the world’s marine fisheries. PLoS Biology 7, e1000131 (2009).

3. Pitcher, TJ, Kalikoski, D, Pramod, G & Short, K. Not honouring the code. Nature 457, 658–659 (2009).

4. Couper, A, Smith, H & Ciceri, B. Fishers and Plunderers: Theft, Slavery and Violence at Sea (Pluto Press, London, 2015).

5. Marschke, M & Vandergeest, P. Slavery scandals: Unpacking labour challenges and policy responses within the off-shore fisheries sector. Marine Policy 68, 39–46 (2016).

6. Pauly, D, Hilborn, R & Branch, TA. Fisheries: Does catch reflect abundance? Nature 494, 303–6 (2013).

7. Egels-Zandén, N, Hulthén, K & Wulff, G. Trade-offs in supply chain transparency: the case of Nudie Jeans Co. Journal of Cleaner Production 107, 95–104 (2015).

8. Bailey, M, Bush, SR, Miller, A & Kochen, M. The role of traceability in transforming seafood governance in the global South. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 18, 25–32 (2016).

9. Warner, K, Timme, W, Lowell, B & Hirshfield, M. Oceana study reveals seafood fraud nationwide [online] (2013). http://oceana.org/sites/default/files/ reports/National_Seafood_Fraud_Testing_Results_ FINAL.pdf.

10. Mol, APJ. Transparency and value chain sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production 107, 154–161 (2015).

11. Future of Fish. Getting there from here: A guide for companies implementing seafood supply-chain traceability technology [online] (2014). http:// futureoffish.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/ fof-traceability_report-final_0.pdf.

12. Bailey, M, Bush, S, Oosterveer, P & Larastiti, L. Fishers, fair trade, and finding middle ground.

Fisheries Research 182: 59–68.

13. Presidential Task Force. Presidential task force on combatting IUU fishing and seafood fraud [online] (2015). http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ia/iuu/noaa_ taskforce_report_final.pdf.

14. Oceana. The EU IUU Regulation: Building on success and EU progress in the global fight against illegal fishing [online] (2016). http://eu.oceana.org/ sites/default/files/oceana_iuu_report_01_02_16_ web.pdf.

15. The Council of the European Union. Council Regulation EC No 1005/2008: Establishing a community system to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing [online] (2008). http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/ LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:286:0001:0032:EN:PDF. 16. Transparency in Supply Chains etc. A practical guide [online] (2015). https://www.gov.uk/ government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_ data/file/471996/Transparency_in_Supply_Chains_ etc__A_practical_guide__final_.pdf.

17. Sterling, B et al. Assessing the value and role of

Megan Bailey

seafood traceability from an entire value-chain

In Canada, some of Nova Scotia’s lobsters are fully traceable. Fish harvesters can see where in the world their lobsters are being eaten (or played with!).

perspective. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 14, 205–268 (2015).

18. Regattieri, A, Gamberi, M & Manzini, R. Traceability of food products: General framework and

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23. Doorey, DJ. The transparent supply chain: from

experimental evidence. Journal of Food Engineering

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resistance to implementation at Nike and Levi-

81, 347–356 (2007).

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Strauss. Journal of Business Ethics 103, 587–603

19. Martinsohn J. Deterring illegal activities in the

21. Phillip, A. Nearly 550 modern-day slaves were

(2011).

fisheries sector [online] (2011). https://ec.europa.

rescued from Indonesia’s fish trade. And that’s

eu/jrc/sites/default/files/jrc_rr_deterring_illegal_

just the beginning. Washington Post [online] (2015).

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20. Environmental Justice Foundation. Slavery at Sea:

24. Locke, R. The Promise and Limits of Private Power (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 2013).

25. McClenachan, L, Dissanayake, S & Chen, X. Fair

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The Continued Plight of Trafficked Migrants in Thai-

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Hebinck, A. (2016). Cities at the Forefront of Future Food Solutions. Solutions 7(4): 74–76. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/cities-at-the-forefront-of-future-food-solutions/

Reviews Book Review

Cities at the Forefront of Future Food Solutions

by Aniek Hebinck REVIEWING Cities and Agriculture Edited by Henk de Zeeuw and Pay Drechsel, Routledge, 2015

T

here is a growing consensus that many urban challenges can be addressed through policies and programs linked to urban systems of food provisioning.

Considering cities are increasingly stepping into the foreground as important actors in the development of resilient urban food systems, there is a pressing need to share the many experiences and solutions being advanced in urban regions throughout the world. This is exactly what the book Cities and Agriculture, edited by Henk de Zeeuw and Pay Drechsel, accomplishes, as such, it supports (local) policy advisors, researchers, urban planners, and urban development practitioners (among others) who are involved in urban food system development. From policy development to urban (agro-) forestry, this collection covers a wide range of elements that are associated with urban food system development.

As the populations of many cities expands, cities are struggling with a number of complex challenges.

In the opening chapter of this book Wiskerke notes that the most pressing challenges include: governance and infrastructure; resource use; growing inequalities; environmental pollution; and, food provisioning.

Wiskerke argues that by focusing on food provisioning, many of the other aforementioned challenges can also be addressed.

Conditions Shaping Urban Food Systems The book identifies four key conditions that are impacting, and thus acting as challenges to, urban food systems (UFS). Firstly, population growth, urbanization, and changing diets put pressure on food security, challenging accessibility, affordability, adequacy, and availability of food, especially for the urban poor. In chapter five, Moustier and Renting show, through examples from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, how urban agriculture improves accessibility, adequacy, and affordability in the Global South through short food supply chains of fresh foods. Due to the proximity of the producer to the consumer, urban agriculture gives consumers direct access to information about quality, and delivers lower prices and fresher products. These types of food flows can counter the impacts of ‘supermarketization’ on the urban poor.

Scarcity and depletion of resources are put forward as the second condition shaping UFS. Food provisioning relies heavily on scarce resources, such as fossil fuels, water, and land.

As a growing urban population also produces more urban waste, there are ample opportunities to connect flows and extract resources from these waste flows. In chapter seven, Drechsel et al. explore opportunities for the safe use of organic waste, as well as waste water, in urban agriculture. They emphasize a number of challenges

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Routledge

related to health risks in the valorization of waste streams that have to be overcome. However, especially in cases of water scarcity, techniques to treat waste water are promising.

Thirdly, climate change has substantially impacted agricultural production worldwide, especially living conditions in cities. According to Lwasa and Dubbeling (chapter eight), there are opportunities for urban agriculture in the mitigation and reduction of climate-related risks and impacts. When it comes to the adaptation to climate change, urban agriculture has the potential to contribute to diversification in food supply and sources of income for urban dwellers; reduce the heat island effect, and the impact of natural disasters such as storms and flooding; improve resource efficiency; and, preserve biodiversity.

Finally, public health and dietrelated ill health shape UFS, as obesity, malnutrition, and hunger are increasingly issues with which

Reviews Book Review cities are coping. This is very much connected to the first condition of urbanization and changing diets, as a transition from a rural to an urban diet based more on animal proteins and processed foods is taking place.

Gerster-Bentaya argues in chapter six that food security for the urban poor is tightly tied to their livelihood, considering the majority must buy their food. Although certain health risks are connected to urban food—from toxins accumulating in urban produce through contaminated soil on the one hand, to food safety concerns with street food—urban agriculture, nonetheless, improves access to food for the urban poor. Arguably, this also makes a more resilient urban food system, as consumers are less dependent upon international prices. Adding to this, Adam-Bradford and Van Veenhuizen argue, in chapter fifteen, that urban agriculture can contribute to better public health in the case of disaster risk management and the creation of resilience amongst communities, be they refugees or localities struck by a natural disaster.

The challenges manifest differently in cities all over the world. As shown in a number of chapters in the book, urban agriculture is already being implemented in various forms to address these challenges. It is essential to take a UFS perspective on food provisioning since this extends one’s focus beyond the city alone: it allows for the incorporation of the many locations at which food eaten in the city is produced, distributed, sold, and eaten, and, as such, touches upon all the major urban challenges. To guide others that have yet to venture into Urban Agriculture, Wiskerke offers some guiding principles that are flexible enough to be used in diverse city-regions.

Four Guiding Principles The conditions that shape the UFS all pose challenges that play out differently in every city, considering the sheer differences in shape, size, and characteristics of cities worldwide.

Wiskerke emphasizes that there is no such thing as a blueprint for resilient urban food systems, and instead he offers four guiding principles that can act as ‘stepping stones’ to address these challenging conditions. Firstly, a city-region perspective needs to be adopted, as this is the most appropriate level of scale and action. This is well elaborated from a spatial point of view by Viljoen et al. in chapter four, who argue that rural-urban relations should be seen as a continuum, giving space to a multitude of farming practices that differ in combining economic and social benefits and the use of technologies.

The second guiding principle is to connect different urban flows, allowing for a better usage of resources. This was partly addressed in chapter seven, through the useful oversight of opportunities to re-valorize waste streams.

Other ways of connecting flows can be through Moerman’s Ladder, which focuses on the maximized usage of food waste streams. However, the opportunities and possibilities in connecting flows depend mostly upon the specific character of a city-region.

Thirdly, the creation of spatial synergies is necessary in order to get multiple uses out of a place, and, by using food as a medium, to link different urban policy objectives. All authors urge readers to recognize the importance of synergies between multiple urban objectives and stakeholders from different scales. This will be vital in the creation of a broader and more resilient financial structure for urban agriculture, which Cabannes

shows in chapter fourteen. He argues that financing still remains the bottleneck in many cases, as urban farmers often lack credit, and current financial systems do not support farmers in the ways they expect and need it.

Lastly, planning for resilient UFS needs to be incorporated into urban policy and planning agendas.

Increasingly occurring phenomena are Food Policy Councils that are comprised of actors from public, private, and civic spheres, although a challenge here is to establish administrative and political responsibility.

A very detailed overview of different established food policies and programs is given in chapter two by Baker and De Zeeuw. They show that there is considerable diversity amongst the different policies and programs from the point of view of focus and spatial scope. Most of the examples mentioned are multi-stakeholder processes, and in chapter three, De Zeeuw and Dubbeling give a practical oversight of different phases in the process of multi-stakeholder planning and tools that can be used in UFS planning.

Especially important during the planning phase is the acknowledgement of power imbalances that shape the food system differently for men and women. Riley and Hovorka emphasize the social justice questions that are embedded in urban food security in chapter thirteen. This chapter provides a ‘snapshot’ of the relation between gender and urban food systems, what the main challenges are, and how they can be integrated in policies.

Forms of Urban Agriculture Besides these useful guiding principles and insights into the processes that shape UFS, the book also offers detailed insights into different forms of urban agriculture. De Bon et al. give

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Reviews Book Review Guiding principles Conditions shaping UFS:

3. Climate change 4. Decreasing public health

stones

2. Resource scarcity

Stepping

1. Urbanization, population growth & changing diets

Adopt a city-region perspective

Connect flows

Create spatial synergies

Goal:

Resilient Urban Food Systems

Prioritize planning

Aniek Hebinck

a good overview of recent trends and different techniques used in urban horticulture in chapter nine. Grace et al. describe urban livestock keeping, and show it is a much-practiced form of urban agriculture in the Global South (chapter ten), as it is a good source of revenue and shortens temperature-controlled sections in the supply chain (the cold chain) needed for animal and fresh products.

Urban (agro-)forestry is addressed by

Salbitano et al., who argue that there is a need to assess both the challenges and possible contributions that (agro-) forestry can make in terms of ecosystem services. Lastly, Bunting and Little provide an extensive overview of the possible urban aquaculture systems, their various forms of management, the risks involved, and how these different systems may prove useful to the urban poor and to sustainable development.

The book offers a very comprehensive overview of the multitude of aspects of Urban Agriculture.

It is accessible for practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers, and illustrates how these different groups can contribute to more resilient UFS through the incorporation of the four guiding principles that are based on multi-actor processes.

This book is a strong plea for a focus on urban agriculture as part of a solution to addressing (future) urban challenges in both the Global South and North. The book makes a convincing case, that in order to strengthen the current city-region practices towards resilient UFS, a continued sharing of experiences across cities is needed.

An e-copy of the book is available at no cost on the RUAF website, at http://www.ruaf.org/publications/ cities-and-agriculture-developingresilient-urban-food-systems

Media Reviews History Gets a Rewrite, This Time with Women

by Zeynep Karatas Women do not get a lot of airtime in history textbooks, but there is a new effort to change that.

The founder of Feminist Frequency, Anita Sarkeesian, announced that her website has launched a new project to incorporate important women into the retelling of history.

Women have long been excluded in history texts. Sarkeesian intends to bring women’s accomplishments over the centuries into the spotlight with a video series called Ordinary Women: Daring to Defy History.

The stories of “women like Ching Shih, who started out working in a brothel, and ended up commanding one of the largest pirate fleets in history,” or “Ida B. Wells, who was born a slave, and became a famous investigative reporter and civil rights leader,” Sarkeesian explains in Time Magazine, are just some of the women who will be featured in this special web series.

According to the prominent feminist, the story of women is not irrelevant in the way traditional history lessons have led us to believe; instead, it is just the reality we are often not told about.

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Mary Garrity, 1893 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Ida B. Wells, an influential investigative reporter and civil rights leader, will be one of many women featured in the web series.

Gahman, L. (2016). Food Sovereignty in Rebellion: Decolonization, Autonomy, Gender Equity, and the Zapatista Solution. Solutions 7(4): 77–83. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/food-sovereignty-in-rebellion-decolonization-autonomy-gender-equity-and-the-zapatista-solution/

Solutions in History

Food Sovereignty in Rebellion: Decolonization, Autonomy, Gender Equity, and the Zapatista Solution

by Levi Gahman

The battle for humanity and against neoliberalism was and is ours, And also that of many others from below.

Against death––We demand life.

—Subcomandante Galeano/Marcos

O

ne of the biggest threats to food security the world currently faces is neoliberalism. It’s logic, which has become status quo over the past 70 years and valorizes global ‘free market’ capitalism, is made manifest through economic policies that facilitate privatization, deregulation, and cuts to social spending, as well as a discourse that promotes competition, individualism, and self-commodification. Despite rarely being criticized, or even mentioned, by state officials and mainstream media, neoliberal programs and practices continue to give rise to unprecedented levels of poverty, hunger, and suffering. The consequences of neoliberalism are so acutely visceral that the Zapatistas called the 21st century’s most highly lauded free-trade policy, NAFTA, a ‘death certificate’ for Indigenous people.1 This is because economic liberalization meant that imported commodities (e.g., subsidized corn from the U.S.) would flood Mexican markets, devalue the products of peasant farmers, and lead to widespread food insecurity. As a response, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), primarily Indigenous peasants themselves, led an armed insurrection in Chiapas, Mexico on January 1, 1994—the day NAFTA went into effect.

Top: Juan Popoca / Bottom: Ángeles Torrejón

EZLN guerrillas circa 1994.

The Zapatistas, primarily Indigenous Ch’ol, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Tojolobal, Mam, and Zoque rebels, were rising up against 500 years of colonial oppression. For this piece, I draw from my experiences learning from them, not ‘researching’ them. Importantly, I neither speak for the Zapatistas nor do my words do them justice. In a sense, then, this piece is nothing other than a modest ‘suggestion’ that the Zapatistas may offer us some ideas about solutions to the problems of the food systems we find ourselves in.

The emergence of the EZLN dates back to November 17, 1983, when a small group of politicized university militants arrived in the Lacandon jungle of Chiapas to form a guerrilla army. Their efforts, which were being

supported by an intricate network of solidarity organizations with links to Marxist revolutionaries and Catholic liberation theologists in the region, were subsequently transformed by the Indigenous communities they encountered upon arriving. The success of the Zapatista uprising was thus the culmination of nearly 10 years of covert organizing that unfolded under the guidance of Indigenous people within the jungles and highlands of southeastern Mexico. And during the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 1994, thousands of masked insurgents from the EZLN stepped out of the darkness to say ‘¡Ya Basta!’ (Enough!) to the repression and misery that colonialism and capitalism had thrust upon them.

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Solutions in History

Levi Gahman

‘You are in Zapatista territory. Here the people lead and the government obeys.’

The stunning manner in which the Zapatistas presented themselves to the Mexican government, as well as the world, saw them descend upon several towns, cities, prisons, and wealthy landowners. During the revolt, EZLN guerillas liberated political prisoners, stormed military barracks, occupied government offices, set fire to trumped-up files that unfairly criminalized Indigenous people, and announced Zapatista ‘Women’s Revolutionary Law.’ In the rural countryside, Zapatista soldiers also reclaimed dispossessed land by kicking affluent property-owning bosses off plantation-like encomiendas that had been historically expropriated from impoverished Indigenous farmers. The skirmishes and exchange of bullets between the EZLN and federal army lasted a total of only 12 days, after which a ceasefire was negotiated.

Since that time, and despite an ongoing counter-insurgency being spearheaded by the Mexican government, the Zapatista’s ‘solution’ to the problem of neoliberalism, including the food insecurity and poverty it exacerbates, has been resistance. And for the Zapatistas, resistance is comprised of revitalizing their Indigenous

(predominantly Maya) worldviews, recuperating stolen land, emancipating themselves from dependency upon multinational industrial agribusiness, and peacefully living in open defiance of global capitalism. This ‘solution’ has subsequently enabled them to build an autonomous, locally focused food system, which is a direct product of their efforts in participatory democracy, gender equity, and food sovereignty.

Food sovereignty (an intensely debated concept) loosely described means that people are able to exercise autonomy over their food systems while concurrently ensuring that the production/distribution of food is carried out in socially just, culturally safe, and ecologically sustainable ways.

For the Zapatistas, food sovereignty involves agro-ecological farming, place-based teaching and learning, developing local cooperatives, and engaging in collective work.

These practices, which are simultaneously informed by their Indigenous customs, struggles for gender justice, and systems of nonhierarchical governance and education, have thereby radically transformed social relations within their communities.

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And it is these aspects of the Zapatista Insurgency that illustrate how collective (anti-capitalist) resistance offers novel alternatives to the world’s corporate food regime.

Autonomous Education and Decolonization Here you can buy or sell anything— except Indigenous dignity.

—Subcomandante Marcos/Galeano The relationship and obligation the Zapatistas have to the land is rooted in their Indigenous perspectives and traditions. And because exercising autonomy over their land, work, education, and food is crucial to the Zapatistas, their methods of teaching and learning are situated in the environmental systems and cultural practices of where they, and their histories, are living. This is evident in the grassroots focus they maintain in their approach to education, as well as how they consider their immediate ecological settings a ‘classroom.’2 Local knowledge of land and growing food is so central among their autonomous municipalities that each

Solutions in History Zapatista school often sees promotores de educación (‘education promoters’) and promotores de agro-ecología (‘agroecology promoters’) coming from the same community as their students.

Zapatista education is therefore emplaced within the geographies where people live. This holistic ‘placebased’ focus results in both children and adults viewing themselves as active participants in, and essential parts of, local food systems.

In order to understand food security, Zapatista students are frequently taught hands-on agro-ecological techniques outside the classroom.

This means they learn how to apply sustainable farming techniques while participating in the planting/ harvesting of organic crops. This area of experiential and localized education stresses the importance of working the land in order to attain the skills needed to achieve food sovereignty for future generations. It also provides an overview of how transgenic modifications and privatizations of seeds/plants/life are deemed to be overt threats to, and blatant attacks upon, their culture.

This perspective is held because the Zapatistas are ‘People of the Corn,’ a reality passed down from their Maya origin stories.3 And given that their autonomous education is anchored in defending, protecting, and preserving their Indigenous histories, languages, and ancestral territories, the Zapatistas effectively practice decolonization— the re-establishment and repatriation of Indigenous land, life, and realities—in every aspect of their teaching and learning.

In practical terms, the Zapatistas are decolonizing their food system through applied/experiential learning, communal subsistence farming, collectivizing harvests, refusing chemicals, and equitably distributing labor. This approach thereby provides communities the ability to eschew the profit-motives

Anonymous

Families in La Realidad honor Galeano, a Zapatista teacher assassinated by paramilitaries in 2014.

Dorset Chiapas Solidarity

One example of a Zapatista ‘classroom.’

promoted by capitalist conceptions of ‘productivity,’ in favor of foregrounding their local Indigenous notions of knowledge and nature.4 Through their refusal to participate in the commodification and privatization of learning and

land, the Zapatistas have created an integrated system of education and food security that functions as a solidarity economy. This means their efforts in both food and knowledge production/distribution are guided by an ethical imperative that takes into

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Solutions in History consideration the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities, and ecologies alike.

Given what the Zapatistas have created in rural Chiapas, one is left to wonder how local food systems might look if Indigenous peoples’ perspectives and (anti-capitalist) placed-based education were implemented into our own communities.

Women’s Struggle and Gender Equity Cuando Una Mujer Avanza, No Hay Hombre Que Retrocede (‘When a Woman Advances, No Man is Left Behind’) Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, produce roughly 70 percent of its food, and are responsible for over 80 percent of its domestic (socially

reproductive) labor. Despite this, they earn only about 10 percent of the world’s income, control less than 10 percent of all its land, own less than one percent of the means of production, and comprise nearly two-thirds of all its part-time and temporary worker positions.5 In disaggregate, the vast majority of these statistics apply to women who are rural, working class/poor, racialized/Indigenous, not ‘formally educated,’ and living in the Global South.6 It thus appears that capitalist exploitation has both a pattern and preferred target. Interestingly, all of these descriptors directly apply to Zapatista women, yet, it seems someone has forgotten to tell them… because they do not seem to care.

One of the most groundbreaking aspects of the Zapatista insurgency has been the strides it has made in destabilizing patriarchy. This social

transformation has largely been born out of the indefatigable work ethic and iron will of the Zapatista women. Given their recognition that any struggle against colonialism and capitalism necessitates a struggle against patriarchy, Zapatista women implemented what is known as ‘Women’s Revolutionary Law’ within their communities. The conviction they maintain regarding equality was poignantly captured in a communiqué written by Subcomandante Marcos (now Galeano) released shortly after the 1994 rebellion, which states: “The first EZLN uprising occurred in March of 1993 and was led by the Zapatista women. There were no casualties— and they won.”7 Broadly speaking, Women’s Revolutionary Law solidifies the recognition of women’s rights to self-determination, dignity, and

Levi Gahman and Dorset Chiapas Solidarity

Scenes from Zapatista agro-ecology. In the top left, a generator depicting an Indigenous origin story: ‘They cut our branches, and they cut our trunks; but they cannot cut our roots.’

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Solutions in History having their voices heard. More specifically, the laws mandate that women be equitably represented in the guerrilla army (i.e., the EZLN), the Juntas de Buen Gobierno (‘Councils of Good Government’), efforts in land recuperation (agro-ecological projects/work outside of the home), and the development of food/artisan/ craft cooperatives.8 These laws have restructured everyday life throughout Zapatista territory, as it is now not uncommon to see women involved in the public sphere (work outside the home), in addition to seeing men participate in socially reproductive labor (i.e., ‘women’s work’).

Women’s Revolutionary Law has also merged with the way in which the land and local environment is viewed and tended to. As a result of up-ending rigid patriarchal notions of what type of work women ‘should do’ and ‘could not do,’ as well as undermining regressive ideas that men are less capable of performing emotional labor, household chores, and nurturing children, Zapatista communities now have women exercising more influence over decisions being made surrounding food security and agro-ecological projects.9 In recently attesting to the gender equity the Zapatistas are advancing towards, Peter Rosset, a food justice activist and rural agro-ecological specialist, commented on the impact of Women’s Revolutionary Law by stating: Yesterday a Zapatista agroecology promoter was in my office and he was talking about how the young Indigenous women in Zapatista territory are different from before… …he said they no longer look at the floor when you talk to them—they look you directly in the eye.10

Dorset Chiapas Solidarity

Collective work.

Tim Russo

Compañeras.

In light of the emphasis the Zapatistas place on justice via both recognizing women’s struggle, as well as men’s responsibility to perform socially reproductive/emotional

labor, one cannot help but further wonder what agricultural production would look like if gender equity was promoted within the global food system.

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Solutions in History

Murals painted on the walls of a women’s cooperative.

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Solutions in History

Anonymous

A Zapatista child – one of most important ‘seeds’ the community is nourishing for a better tomorrow.

Final Thoughts

References

When viewed in its geopolitical context, the Zapatista insurgency has opened up space for a wide range of alternative ways of re-organizing societies, economies, and food systems. Consequently, what the Zapatistas prove through their resistance (i.e., efforts in autonomous education, decolonization, and gender equity) is that a recognition of Indigenous people’s right to self-determination, in conjunction with anti-capitalist collective work and movements toward food sovereignty, can indeed provide viable alternatives to the world’s neoliberal food regime as well as revolutionize the struggle for food security.

1. Marcos, S & de Leon, JP. Our Word is Our Weapon (Seven Stories Press, New York, 2002).

2. Anonymous Zapatista. Personal communication, Fall 2013.

3. Ross, J. ¡Zapatistas!: Making Another World Possible: Chronicles of Resistance, 2000–2006 (Nation Books, New York, 2006).

4. Lorenzano, L. Zapatismo: recomposition of labour, radical democracy and revolutionary project in Zapatista! Reinventing Revolution in Mexico (eds Holloway, J & Pelaez, E), Ch. 7, 126-128 (Pluto Press, London, 1998).

5. Robbins, RH. Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism (Allyn & Bacon, Boston, 2007).

6. Benería, L, Berik, G & Floro, M. Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered (Routledge, Abingdon, 2015).

7. Marcos, S. The First Uprising: March 1993. La Jornada (January 30, 1994).

8. Klein, H. Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories

Levi Gahman

Acknowledgements I offer my gratitude to the Zapatistas for accepting me into their school as well as the Mexico Solidarity Network for enabling it. I also thank Schools for Chiapas and the Dorset Chiapas Solidarity for sharing photos, as well as The University of the West Indies Campus Research and Publication Committee (Trinidad and Tobago) for their support.

(Seven Stories Press, New York, 2015).

9. Marcos, S. Zapatista Women’s Revolutionary Law as it is lived today. Open Democracy [online] (July 2014). https://www.opendemocracy.net/ sylvia-marcos/zapatista-women%E2%80%99srevolutionary-law-as-it-is-lived-today.

10. Rosset, P. Zapatista Uprising 20 Years Later.

Democracy Now! [online] (January 2014). http:// www.democracynow.org/2014/1/3/zapatista_ uprising_20_years_later_how.

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Shilomboleni, H. (2016). Shifting Power Relations and Poor Practices in Land Deals through Participatory Action in Marracune, Mozambique.

Solutions 7(4): 84–88. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/shifting-power-relations-and-poor-practices-in-land-deals-through-participatory-action-in-marracune-mozambique/

On The Ground

Shifting Power Relations and Poor Practices in Land Deals through Participatory Action in Marracune, Mozambique

by Helena Shilomboleni

A

lthough Mozambique has a fairly strong national legislation that protects the land-use rights of rural populations, the law is used poorly— privileging leases to agro-investors at the expense of small-holder farmers.

This discrepancy has been growing over the last 10 years as authorities welcome private investors to the agriculture sector in order to increase crop production and to bring about rural development. But land transfers are happening quickly and at a large scale: in a period of just four years, from 2004 to 2009, official estimates show that 2.7 million hectares were leased to land developers in the country.1 The process has displaced a large number of peasants, while others face growing pressure to give up their lands.2,3 An example of this is the district of Marracune, located 35 km south of Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, along the Incomati River. Communities there are seeing increased pressure on land use, as local authorities prioritize investments from sugarcane planters and housing developers. Being in close proximity to Maputo, city dwellers with rising incomes are looking to buy second homes in the area.

In response, the National Union of Mozambican Peasants (UNAC) has assisted over 5,000 Marracune farmers to learn about the Land Law and officially register their lands in order to obtain land titles. This participatory approach to safeguard peasant landuse rights matters for two reasons.

First, it demonstrates that appropriate solutions can emerge when marginalized people are given a real voice and

the capacity to engage with authorities and the outside world. This can tip the balance in shifting power relations and poor practices. Second, it incentivizes communities to invest in sustainable land-use practices, which can increase crop yields and improve food security.

Problems with the Land Law In Mozambique, land is a property of the state, and as such, it cannot be sold or mortgaged. However, individuals and communities can occupy or use land based on one of three conditions outlined in the country’s Land Law. Each of the provisions represent a state-granted land right, referred to as a “direito de uso e aproveitamento dos terras” (DUAT).4 The first is that people can occupy land based on customary norms or practices. This entails settling on land that has been passed down (or inherited) from one generation to the next.

The second condition is occupation based on ‘good-faith’ for a period of at least 10 years. This provision addresses an important historical account. Mozambique was affected by a long civil war, which ended in 1992, but saw a large number of internally displaced people. Therefore, the Land Law offers land-use rights to citizens who ended up in a new part of the country. Customary and good-faith occupancy-based DUATs are recognized automatically. As such, individuals and communities are not required to register their lands with local authorities.

The final condition upon which individuals can gain land-use rights

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is through applying for a lease from the state. Such leases are commonly known as investor-based DUATs and are predominantly reserved for private investors, including foreign companies. Investors seeking to obtain such a lease must also undertake community consultations in order to identify lands that are not occupied and/or negotiate their use with communities.5 If there are no contested land claims, the state can approve the DUAT for up to 50 years, which can be renewed once for another 50 years.

In the vast majority of cases, however, land deals have not worked in the public’s best interest; they are often characterized by corruption and improper or no community consultations. The process has also displaced many peasants, while others face pressure to give up their lands.

In Marracune, farmers are regularly intimidated by authorities over their land occupancies. An example is a group of UNAC farmers who farm collectively on land that previously belonged to a Portuguese plantation farmer. At the time of Mozambique’s independence in 1975, the owner fled the country. Peasants settled on the vacated land and continued to use it until they formed an association in 1997 under UNAC’s union branch in their district, the Uniao de Cooperativas Agrricolas de Marracune (UCAM). But now the local government wants to take away the land. Farmers were informed that they did not have legal papers to occupy it.6 Such legal documentations are technically not required, as the farmers have occupied the land for over 10

On The Ground

Helena Shilomboleni

A UNAC member cultivating her farm in the morning hours.

years, and thus have achieved their DUAT based on good-faith occupancy.

However, many rural populations are unfamiliar with the law and their rights. UNAC and other civil society organizations frequently lobby the government to uphold communities’ land rights and to improve the administration of land transfers.7 But such efforts have seen little success.

Teaching Practices to (re)Claim Land Rights A significant majority of rural Mozambicans use land to produce their food and for various subsistence purposes, such as collecting wild

produce. UNAC’s struggle for peasants’ land rights, therefore, comes from an understanding that land is central to food security—both at the household and national level. A staffer explains that: We cannot talk about food security in Mozambique when people who live and work the land do not have secure access to it. Peasants conserve our traditional food systems—the place where our national food security will come from—and those at its center cannot be dispossessed of land.8

In Marracune, UNAC together with its member union UCAM have taken a proactive approach to increase community land rights through education and skills training. The movement teaches farmers about their legal rights to land use and assists them in formalizing their DUATs by registering their land with the public land registry services.

Community awareness of the land law and use of its legal framework offer a solution to slowing down the pace of land transfers and potentially prevent the worst forms of land dispossession. This participatory process has also contributed to the

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On The Ground rise of sustainable land-use practices, which helps to meet the region’s food security demands.

Gaining a comprehensive understanding of the land law empowers rural populations to exercise their land-use rights more effectively.

Communities can a) refuse land deals, b) address internal land conflicts, and c) negotiate better terms of engagement, including compensation in land transfers.

Greater emphasis, however, is placed on refusing land deals. Although land investors commonly promise attractive compensation packages, employment opportunities, and infrastructure projects, the likelihood for such benefits to materialize is far from clear.9 UNAC has watched helplessly as many of its peasant members in other regions lose their land to large-scale agro-investors, such as in northern Mozambique where vast areas are feared to be transformed into industrialized operations that grow crops for export.10 Those farmers who received the land law training in Marracune articulate that the experience of empowerment comes with understanding their rights. Farmers are now well aware that the land they occupy belongs to them and no one is allowed to take it away without adhering to the law.11 This newly acquired knowledge has given them a voice to engage with authorities and the outside world to (re)claim their rights. Some explain that: The land law training…has helped us so much because every day we are fighting against authorities and people who want to take our land. We have copies of the land law so we are able to invoke the articles that protect us.6

Helena Shilomboleni

Road construction site in Marracune.

Because authorities often expropriate land from peasants on the basis that they do not use it efficiently, “in ways that maximizes production,”12 UNAC farmers have adopted agroecological farming practices to give visibility to their land occupancies.

Agroecology replicates peasants’ traditional agriculture by diversifying cropping systems and using natural inputs, such as animal manure, in order to regenerate soil fertility and to maintain productivity.13 Crop diversity, in time and space, provides nutritionally diverse diets to farmers in circumstances where they often have limited external support, or allows them to engage in alternative livelihood opportunities.14 Moreover, high levels of agrobiodiversity help communities adapt and build resilience to climate change. Extensive research on agroecological management practices demonstrates that

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these have significant impacts on the sustainability of food systems and overall food security.15 In Marracune, agroecology is helping farmers meet their food security needs, while acting as a physical buffer for their land security.

Finally, farmers learn how to formalize their DUATs through a technical process known as “delimitation.”

This procedure involves a (verbal) testimony from a community leader about the applicant’s customary or good-faith occupancy and registering that DUAT with authorities.16 This offers further protection from land dispossession, as land that is visible to authorities in government databases is less likely to be targeted for investment purposes. In the event that land under a formalized DUAT comes under investment interests, investors are actually forced to negotiate its use with communities.17

On The Ground

Helena Shilomboleni

Members of UNAC Farmers Association water their land in the early morning hours.

Take Away Lessons The success of this case study provides timely lessons for land deals elsewhere in Africa. The phenomenon of land deals, also referred to as “land grabs,” has grown substantially following the 2007–2008 global food crisis as foreign investors seek land-use rights on the continent to grow crops for global markets. But these land transactions are occurring in some of the most food insecure (and poorest) countries, including Mali, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia.18 As in Marracune, rural communities in these countries are susceptible to losing their lands, often their only source of livelihood. Rather than address local development challenges, many land deals inadvertently contribute to the further marginalization and food insecurity of rural populations.

Reversing poor practices in land deals would require participatory processes that build greater transparency and empower marginalized

people. Many countries in Africa have in place legal provisions that recognize land occupancy based on customary traditions. Equipping rural communities with this knowledge can help them understand that they too are important stakeholders in land affairs. Well-informed farmers are also more likely to be better prepared to engage in discussions with investors and authorities and be in a good position to negotiate favorable terms on their land leases, for example, by demanding fair compensation. At the same time, being aware of the growing market demand for land in the region can motivate communities, like those in Marracune, to invest in sustainable land-use practices as a way to not lose land to investors.

Nonetheless, there remain challenges surrounding the need for African governments to increase funding support towards peasant-based agriculture, particularly efforts to scale-up agroecology.19 Despite policies

that promise to do so, states often fail to allocate sufficient resources to increase the productivity of smallscale farmers.20 In Marracune, farmers explain that they would like to gain access to improved farm inputs and technologies, such as seeds and farm machinery, in order to scale up production and to market their produce widely in the country. But their needs are not being met, as their government prioritizes investor-based agriculture that tends to resemble industrial monocultures.

Greater support for traditional food systems through well-targeted investments can significantly improve agriculture productivity while stimulating rural economic development.

It is about time that Mozambique’s agricultural policies start to look for solutions from within rather than from the outside.

Acknowledgements This paper is based on the author’s PhD field research conducted in Mozambique for a period of seven months in 2014 and 2015. Research in Marracune was carried out in the period of May to June 2014. A total number of 24 semi-structured interviews were carried out with farmers, UNAC, and UCAM activists as well as a government official.

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EARTHACTION

Gund Institute

for Ecological

Economics

University of Vermont

The Alliance for Appalachia

National Council for Science and the Environment Improving the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking

Associated Socie<es International Society for Ecological Economics

Nina Montgomery / Creative Action Network

We must all work together to find solutions to protect and preserve the natural world. From the food we eat, to the transport we choose, to the items we purchase, we all have an impact, and we can all contribute to solutions.