A Short Version of Your Title – page numberPolicy Brief: Your Title (NO TITLE PAGES NECESSARY)
•
Summary of key points in your analysis (no more
than 4-5 brief points)
Background
Identify the issue in your podcast topic. What background information do we need to
know to understand what is going on? You will likely be focusing on Canada/US or a
global issue. Give us some basic information here to introduce us to the issue. End this
section by telling us what the current state of the issue is, or in other words – where are
we with the issue today?
Debate
Is this issue contentious or controversial in any way? Who is involved in this issue?
Does everyone agree on this topic/issue? If not – what are their positions? This should
not be a simple pro or con section; these issues are more complex. You may find that
some groups focus on aspects of the issue and identify them as important versus other
parts. Look at what different non-governmental organizations, multilateral institutions,
companies, research institutes, etc. are saying.
This is a good spot to look at so-called “grey literature” which is from non-governmental
organizations, research institutes, government, interest groups, etc. Be consistent with
the scale you are focusing on – especially in the next section. For example, if you are
focusing on migrant labour in Canada – your analysis should not be talking about an
interest group in Europe. They likely do not discuss the same policies or issues. If you
are talking about a global issue, you should be looking at international organizations,
but you can still add the perspectives of countries that are very vocal or have a strong
interest in your issue.
Analysis
How do you make sense of this topic/issue using your “sociological imagination”? This
is where you must apply concepts/theories from class/other readings/your research you
have seen to explain the issue. How and why did it come about? For example, does
something about culture, race, neoliberalism, etc. help us better understand the issue?
Where does the issue fit into the broader social/political/economic
structure/relationships/patterns? Look at your corresponding week’s lecture to find
A Short Version of Your Title – page number
concepts if you are at a loss. This is where you will be using a lot of academic articles to
understand your topic/issue conceptually. In other words, this section is academic
article heavy, and more abstract than the others.
Recommendations (can be in point form)
Based on what you presented in this analysis and the evidence your provided, what do
we do? These should not be out of left field; your previous sections should be building
up to this point. This should not be a long section.
References (do not count toward your 1500 words)
You must have academic and grey literature (government/research institutes/etc.) in
your assignment to support your claims and provide evidence. Remember that this is
not based on your opinions or gut feelings. You must do the research!
Academic = peer reviewed articles, academics books
Grey literature = government websites/sources, non-governmental websites/sources,
policy institute websites/sources, multilateral institution reports (i.e. UN or FAO)
Food and the Environment
Climate
Change
(Gillon, 2019; Weis,
2017)
•
Agriculture produces most of greenhouse gas emissions
(GHGs) in the food system ~ 30% (Mason & Lang, 2017)
• Livestock manure
• Nitrogen fertilizers
• About 10% of Canada’s GHGs are from crop and livestock
production (not including fossil fuel use and fertilizer
production) (Government of Canada, 2020)
• Comes from carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O)
• Amount of GHGs based on type and intensity of agriculture
• Adaptation: plan and respond to changes that are currently
happening
• Mitigation: attempts to reduce climate change and the
intensity of it
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/dossiers/emissions-food-and-farming-germany
https://croplife.org/news/infographic-how-does-climate-change-impact-agriculture
How
sustainable is
our modern
industrialized
global food
system?
• Highly mechanized
• Dependent on oil
• High use of agri-chemicals
• “Food from nowhere” ! long and
complex supply chains
• Standardization
Monocultures/
Factory farming
• Simplification
What is
“sustainability”?
• “sustainable development is
development that meets the
needs of the present without
compromising the ability of
future generations to meet
their own needs.”
(From the Brundtland Report “Our Common Future” by
the Brundtland Commission part of the UN World
Commission on Environment and Development, 1987)
https://www.michelle-tyler.com/2020/07/22/lets-talk-about-the-3-pillars-ofsustainability/
Water (Weis, 2017)
• Agriculture uses almost 75% of the
Earth’s fresh water supply
• Water is often polluted by agriculture
• Run-off from land (agri-chemicals)
• Run-off from factory farms (manure,
pharmaceuticals)
Eutrophication: process where nutrients
dumped into water causes the growth of
oxygen-depleting algae blooms which are
very harmful to aquatic life
http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/38954977/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-florida-red-tide/
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
Land
• Demand for more land because agriculture is
expanding
• Most of this demand is in developing countries
• Deforestation occurring
• Largely in the developing world
• 73% of deforestation in developing world
occurring because of large-scale farming and
subsistence agriculture (large-scale farming
accounted for 70% of deforestation in Latin
America)
• Forests are crucial for climate change mitigation –
carbon sinks (International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2017)
Deforestation
https://ccafs.cgiar.org/bigfacts/#theme=food-emissions
Loss of Biodiversity
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
Biodiversity: the genetic richness and variety
of animals and plants in a given area
• Industrial food system has reduced the space
for different species
• More of the same crops grown globally on large
scales (Martin, 2019)
• 10 crops make up about 75% of global plant-based
calories (Weis, 2017)
• About 5 types of livestock produce all the meat,
eggs, and dairy globally (Weis, 2017)
Consumption as a
Contributor to Environmental
Degradation
“Meatification” of Diets (Weis, 2013)
• Meat
was not a dominant part of the
human diet for a large part of our
agricultural history
• Ecological hoofprint – the ecological
consequences of our increased meat
production
• expansion of agricultural land, fossil fuel use,
GHG emissions, soil erosion, nutrient
pollution, toxic runoff from industrial factory
farms
• Very inefficient way to produce food
Fisheries (FAO, 2018)
• We have never consumed so much fish
or depended so much on the fishery
sector (FAO, 2014)
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
• Increase in trade of seafood, declining
stocks In 2015 33.1% of wild fish was
overfished and biologically
unsustainable
• 7% of fish still have room for increased
catches
• 59.9% of fish no longer have room for
increased catches
Transition to a more
sustainable and resilient food
system is urgently needed
AGRICULTURE BOTH CONTRIBUTES TO AND IS AFFECTED
BY CLIMATE CHANGE AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL
PROBLEMS
The carbon cycle in an agricultural ecosystem
Agriculture can also
be the solution!
• Carbon can be stored in “soil as organic matter,
perennial vegetation, and in trees” which will
decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere
• Carbon sequestration (or carbon storing)
• Farmers are able to rebuild carbon stores in the
soil through specific practices (which also
improve soil and water health)
• Ex: reduction in tillage, adding animal manure to
soil, restoring wetlands, planting shrubs/trees as
shelterbelts, etc.
• However, others (ex. World Resources Institute)
disagree about the significance of carbon
sequestration in our fight against climate change
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
(GoC, 2020)
A lot of climate change mitigation
and adaption can happen on the
farm
• Use of best management practices (BMPs) to achieve
various environmental benefits like increasing
biodiversity, achieving better soil health, less runoff
(example of BMP: cover cropping)
• Government of Canada is committed to using natural
climate solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and sequester carbon in soils
• Natural climate solutions: improved land management
through conservation, restoration, protection of different
types of land – forests, wetlands, grasslands, agricultural
lands (Griscom et al, 2017)
What we eat and how we produce our
food are inextricably linked to the
climate crisis
• To avoid the worst of climate
change, we must tackle greenhouse
gas emissions across the entire food
system.
• Our food system must shift to one
that is sustainable environmentally,
socially, and economically.
https://www.fao.org/policy-support/tools-and-publications/resources-details/en/c/1308923/