Re-Thinking Food: Transforming Food Systems for People and Planet | Frank Eyhorn | TEDxIHEID
Summary
TLDRThe speaker urges a paradigm shift in our approach to food, highlighting its potential as a solution to pressing global challenges. Drawing on personal experience with apple orchards, they expose the environmental and health impacts of conventional farming practices. Advocating for sustainable systems, they emphasize the need for consumer behavior change and policy reform to create a food system that nourishes both people and the planet, while combating climate change and biodiversity loss.
Takeaways
- 🍏 The speaker encourages a shift in perspective on food as a powerful lever to address contemporary challenges.
- 🧠 The analogy of Sir Isaac Newton's enlightenment from an apple is used to symbolize a fresh approach to understanding food systems.
- 🌳 Personal experience with apple orchards highlights the extensive use of pesticides and fertilizers, impacting both health and environment.
- 🌍 The food system's impact on the planet is profound, with agriculture significantly altering landscapes and ecosystems.
- 🐝 Pesticides reduce beneficial insect populations, disrupting natural pest control and necessitating further chemical use.
- 🏞️ The current agricultural practices contribute to soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, and negative environmental impacts.
- 🍽️ Despite the environmental toll, the food system fails to provide healthy food equitably, with many suffering from hunger or poor diet.
- 🌱 The potential for sustainable farming practices to mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration in soil is emphasized.
- 🛒 Consumer choices significantly influence food production methods, suggesting that collective behavior change can drive a sustainable food system.
- 💰 The economic argument is made for taxing unsustainable farming and subsidizing ecological practices to reflect true costs.
- 🌾 The script refutes the notion that ecological farming cannot feed the world, citing successful examples of increased yields and profits.
- 🌳 The push-pull technology in maize farming is highlighted as an effective ecological system improving yields and farmer profits in Africa.
- 🌐 The need for systemic change in the political economy and behavior to transform food systems for the better is underscored.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the speaker's speech?
-The main purpose of the speaker's speech is to encourage people to think differently about food, emphasizing its power to address key challenges of our time.
How does the speaker use the apple as a metaphor in their speech?
-The speaker uses the apple as a metaphor to illustrate the complex interactions and interdependencies in our food system, drawing parallels to how simple food items can reveal broader environmental and health impacts.
What personal experience does the speaker share about apples?
-The speaker shares their personal experience of growing up in a small village where their father had an apple orchard, describing how they helped with pruning, harvesting, and selling apples, and later realizing the extensive use of pesticides and fertilizers in apple orchards.
What environmental impacts are associated with current agricultural practices according to the speaker?
-The speaker highlights several environmental impacts of current agricultural practices, including soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and pollution from pesticides and fertilizers. They also mention that intensive agriculture contributes significantly to these problems.
How does the speaker suggest the food system affects global biodiversity?
-The speaker suggests that the food system significantly affects global biodiversity, with 70% of biodiversity loss attributed to agriculture and a decline in insect and bird populations due to intensive farming practices.
What is the speaker's view on the current state of global food security?
-The speaker believes that the current food system fails to produce healthy food effectively, as one in three people suffer from hunger or lack access to adequate food, and many people consume imbalanced diets.
What potential solution does the speaker offer to address the negative impacts of the food system?
-The speaker suggests that transforming food systems to adopt sustainable practices can produce enough healthy food while preserving the environment and improving livelihoods. They emphasize the importance of ecological farming and reducing the use of agrochemicals.
How does the speaker link food systems to climate change?
-The speaker links food systems to climate change by stating that one-third of greenhouse gas emissions come from the food system. They highlight that adopting farming practices that enhance soil carbon storage can help mitigate climate change.
What are the economic implications of the current food system according to the speaker?
-The speaker states that the current food system incurs hidden environmental, health, and poverty-related costs amounting to $20 trillion, which is double the sector's generated revenue. They criticize the use of public subsidies for unsustainable farming practices.
What specific farming technology does the speaker mention as an example of a successful sustainable practice?
-The speaker mentions the 'push-pull' technology used in maize farming in Sub-Saharan Africa as a successful sustainable practice. This technique uses cover crops to deter pests and fix nitrogen, leading to higher yields and profits for smallholder farmers.
What does the speaker propose as a key requirement for transforming the food system?
-The speaker proposes that changing the rules of the game, such as altering the political economy and encouraging behavior change, is crucial for transforming the food system. They emphasize the need for collective action to achieve sustainable food production.
How does the speaker view the role of consumers in the food system?
-The speaker views consumers as having a significant role in the food system, stating that consumer choices influence what is produced and how. They encourage consumers to adopt sustainable food habits and support organic and diverse food options.
Outlines
🍎 The Impact of Food on Society and Environment
The speaker emphasizes the importance of rethinking our approach to food, highlighting its significant impact on addressing global challenges. Using the example of an apple from their garden, they discuss the harmful effects of pesticides and fertilizers on health and the environment. The talk explores the complexities of food production and its broader implications, urging a shift in perspective to understand how our food choices shape the planet and societies.
🌍 The Consequences of Agricultural Practices
The speaker delves into the environmental repercussions of current agricultural practices, such as soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and erosion. They point out the extensive land use for agriculture visible from an aerial view and discuss how different farming methods impact rural communities and ecosystems. The alarming statistics on soil degradation and biodiversity loss are presented to underscore the urgency of changing our food production systems.
📉 The Inefficiency of the Food System
Highlighting the inefficiencies and inequalities within the food system, the speaker reveals that despite its vast impact, it fails to provide healthy food for a significant portion of the population. They discuss issues like hunger, malnutrition, and the paradox of food waste alongside food scarcity. The economic costs of the current system are also scrutinized, showing how subsidies and market choices contribute to unsustainable practices.
♻️ The Potential for Sustainable Food Systems
The speaker offers hope by discussing the potential for transforming the food system into a sustainable one that benefits both people and the planet. They emphasize the importance of adopting sustainable farming practices that sequester carbon, improve soil health, and support biodiversity. The role of photosynthesis in carbon capture and the benefits of humus-rich soils in climate resilience are highlighted as key components of a sustainable approach.
🍃 Practical Steps Towards Sustainability
Practical steps for individuals to contribute to a sustainable food system are outlined, such as buying organic, local, and seasonal produce, reducing food waste, and choosing a plant-based diet. The speaker stresses that consumer choices drive production practices and that collective action can lead to significant changes. The importance of not being dogmatic about food choices but rather making informed, health-conscious decisions is emphasized.
💡 The Economic and Health Impacts of Food Choices
The economic and health impacts of food choices are examined, revealing the hidden costs of cheap food and the burden on public funds and health systems. The speaker argues for policy changes to support sustainable farming through taxation of harmful practices and subsidies for beneficial ones. They highlight the discrepancy between the apparent and true costs of food, advocating for a shift in public spending to promote sustainability.
🌱 Success Stories in Sustainable Agriculture
Success stories in sustainable agriculture, such as the push-pull technology in maize farming in Sub-Saharan Africa, are shared to illustrate the feasibility and benefits of ecological farming practices. These examples demonstrate higher yields, better nutrition, and increased profits for smallholder farmers. The speaker asserts that sustainable methods can nourish a growing population without compromising the foundational elements of food production.
🔄 The Need for Systemic Change
The speaker calls for systemic change in the political and economic frameworks governing the food system. They argue that addressing climate change, poverty, public health, and environmental preservation can be achieved through a reformed food system. The talk concludes with a reminder of the interconnectedness of food-related issues and a call to action for society to prioritize food sustainability for a healthier planet and future.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Food System
💡Agrochemicals
💡Biodiversity
💡Sustainable Agriculture
💡Climate Change
💡Monocultures
💡Food Waste
💡Push-Pull Technology
💡Subsidies
💡Environmental Costs
💡Behavior Change
Highlights
The speaker aims to change the audience's perspective on food as a powerful lever to address key challenges of our time.
The comparison of the food system's impact to Sir Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity, using an apple as a metaphor.
Personal story of growing up in an apple orchard and the realization of the harmful effects of pesticides and fertilizers.
The revelation that apple orchards are sprayed about 20 times a year with various pesticides.
The connection between the use of fertilizers and the increased susceptibility of apples to pests and diseases.
The impact of agrochemicals on beneficial insects and the ecological balance.
The food system's influence on the planet and societies, evident from a bird's perspective view of landscapes.
The prevalence of large-scale monocultures and their environmental implications.
The alarming rate of soil degradation and its contribution to environmental challenges.
The significant loss of biodiversity due to intensive agriculture.
The paradox of the food system's poor performance in producing healthy food despite its environmental impact.
The call to action for changing the food system to address climate change, one third of whose emissions come from the food system.
The potential of photosynthesis and ecological farming to store carbon in the soil.
The barriers to fixing the food system, including consumer habits and the reliance on certain apple varieties.
The economic argument for taxing unsustainable farming systems and subsidizing sustainable ones.
The hidden costs of the global food sector, which are twice the sector's total generation.
The potential of ecological farming to nourish a growing population without undermining food production's basis.
The push-pull technology in maize as an example of an ecological system that increases yields and profits.
The need for behavior change and political economy transformation to achieve a sustainable food system.
The multifaceted benefits of transforming the food system, including addressing climate change, poverty, health, and environmental preservation.
The reminder to enjoy food while considering its impact on various issues.
Transcripts
let me start by openly declaring the
intention of my speech i want you to
think differently about food
because i'm convinced it's currently one
of the most powerful levers we have to
address key challenges of our time
i want you to adopt a different
perspective
an enlightenment similar to when sir
isaac newton discovered the laws of
gravity which
appeared to him as he sat under a tree
and an apple fell on his head
so i brought an apple with me
from my own garden
don't worry i won't throw the apple at
you
i love apple so i'd rather try to seduce
you
with this apple
i want you to tell you a bit about my
own relationship about the apple
because i grew up in a small village
where my father used to have an apple
orchard and i helped him look after the
trees
i helped him pruning them
harvesting the fruits
processing them into jews or selling
them to our neighbors
only when i grew up i realized
that apple orchards are sprayed about 20
times a year with various pesticides
many of them are known to be harmful to
people and to the environment
in order to boost the growth of the
trees
a lot of fertilizers are used which at
the same time make the apples more
susceptible to pests and diseases
so that again more pesticides have to be
used and to make things worse
beneficial insects which could control
the pests are denim
diminished by this chemical load
you may think hey come on what's new
about this i know that agrochemicals are
bad
what i want you to illustrate here is
that once we dig deeper into a simple
food item like an apple a whole system
of complex interactions and
interdependencies unfolds
and what is true for the apple applies
also to other food items and when we
look at the entire food system from farm
to fork
we realize that what we eat and how we
produce our food
shapes the face of the planet and of our
societies like no other human activity
this becomes particularly evident if you
adopt a bird's perspective
the next time you fly if you still do
interrupt the board entertainment system
for a moment and take a closer look
beyond
below you on the landscapes there
it's fascinating
you can see how much land is dedicated
to agriculture and how much is left to
nature or how little
in the agricultural land you can
distinguish large large-scale
monocultures
or highly diverse systems
and it's not difficult to imagine that
different land use patterns differently
affect people but also the rural
communities who live there
the current ways which we are using our
agricultural land have a very strong
impact on soils
about 52 of our arable soils are already
degraded every five minutes we are
losing the equivalent of a football
field to soil erosion
intensive agriculture is also one of the
most
determining factor for the loss of
biodiversity
about 70 percent of biodiversity laws of
land are allocated to agriculture
and studies show that in the last 30
years
we have already lost about three quarter
of our insect populations
and 13 percent of the bird eat insect
eating bird populations
all these environmental impacts don't
make really sense if you see that the
food system fulfills its purpose of
producing healthy food rather poorly
i mean one in three people
they either suffer from hunger or they
don't have access to adequate food
for about 3 billion people they are
consuming an imbalanced diet which is
not good for their health or they are
simply eating too much
not to forget that
the food system these activities
provide a source of livelihood for
billions of people who produce process
prepare or sell the food so it's an
enormously important
sector
i could go on and talk about
deforestation
water depletion pollution cruelty to
farm animals all related to the food
system
i deeply care about these issues and i'm
sure many of you do care as well
the good news is
we can change this
because food has such an enormous impact
on people and planet
setting the food system right
can really go a long way we can achieve
so much
we have the opportunity to
produce enough healthy food in a way
that preserves the environment and
allows people to earn a decent living
all in one go
if you get it right
we even have the possibility to address
one of the most pressing challenges of
our time climate change
one third of the greenhouse gas
emissions
stem from the food system
and by now we know that simply replacing
fossil fuels with renewable energies
won't be sufficient to achieve net zero
emissions we need technologies that
absorb and remove carbon from the
atmosphere
such a technology already exists
proven since billions of years and it's
called
photosynthesis
examples show that we can design farming
systems in a way
that part of the carbon fixed by the
plants is stored where it belongs
in the soil as humans
and soils which are rich in humus they
are also better able to absorb water in
times of strong rainfall
or to keep and retain the moisture in
times of drought
both obviously very vital functions in
the face of climate change
so
what keeps us from
fixing our food system from getting it
right
we all know you should buy organic food
local seasonal fare
not to waste too much food it's good to
consume a balanced diet mainly
plant-based
luckily what's good for your own health
is also good for the planetary health
but we also know that knowing all this
is not enough
let me get back to the apple
to the biblical fruit from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil
no need to turn food into a religion no
need to be dogmatic about it
of course you can turn vegan but you
don't have to
however it's definitely a good idea to
occasionally revisit your food habits
and take your own steps towards a
sustainable food system that is better
for your own health and the planet's
health
because we are the market
we determine what's produced and how
let me illustrate that with the apple
proven organic management practices and
robust tasty varieties like the one in
my hand they do exist
isn't it appealing it's
no chemicals used and i harvested it
about six months ago
but because
people are used to certain varieties
and most of them happen to be highly
susceptible to pests and diseases
retailers keep offering these varieties
in the shelves and farmers keep
producing them
and because we consumers refuse certain
apples of a small size or with a with a
small spot
farmers keep using a lot of
agrochemicals
we are all part of this system and we
can only change it together
from a macroeconomic perspective
if you look at the food system
we realize that seemingly cheap food
is enormously expensive
scientists have calculated
that
the global food sector causes 20
trillion dollars in hidden environmental
health and poverty related costs
which is about twice as much as the
entire sector generates
governments are using 540 billion
dollars every year for subsidies
for
mostly unsustainable systems
using public money in a way that harms
public good it doesn't seem rational
does it
instead of subsidizing unsustainable
farming systems shouldn't we tax them
and use that money to subsidize
sustainable systems so that they can
unfold their true competitive value and
become the new normal
i mean in the end we are
paying for cheap food four times
first at the cash counter
second when we pay taxes which are used
to pay subsidies or to
undo part of the damage cost
third with our health bills for food
related health issues
and finally as we pass on a heavy bill
to future generations
you may think wait a moment
can we really feed the world with
ecological
farming
isn't it that a growing population needs
more food higher yields and therefore
more agrochemicals and biotechnology to
produce them
well if overall food scarcity was the
problem
would we use 40 percent of our precious
arable lands to produce feed
for animals and i'm not talking about
pastures the cropland
would we waste one third of the food
produced
however yes yields do matter
particularly in contexts like
sub-saharan africa
where many farmers struggle to get
sufficient harvests
and my organization biovision is working
in these contexts since more than 20
years helping farmers and researchers to
develop clever productive ecological
systems and it works
i want to show you one of these systems
because i really think it's fascinating
the push-pull technology in maize
cover crops grown between the rays maze
rose
they have a smell which deters the
insect pests so that they are pushed
outside and at the same time they are
attracted by the scent of a grass crop
of a photograph
where they can't propagate
the cover crop also is suppressing weeds
and it's fixing nitrogen from the air
and makes it available as a free of cost
natural fertilizers to the maize plants
tens of thousands of smallholder farmers
in sub-saharan africa have adopted this
system successfully
realizing higher yields but also higher
profits and the better nutrition than
their conventional peers
and many such systems exist
i'm convinced that as a society we can
transform food systems we can
nourish a growing population
we have the technology we have the tools
we will not be able to feed the world
with
approaches which are undermining the
very basis of food production
which are healthy soil
clean water
biodiversity and healthy people
so we do have the possibility to change
our food systems
what is needed is
to change the rules of the game what is
needed is behavior change
and changing
the the political economy if you wish
because
in the end much is at stake
if we don't act
as we have just seen but if we do act
we have the possibility as a society
to address many challenges and
development objectives in one go
addressing climate change
fighting poverty
improving public health
and preserving the environment
all we need to do is to give food the
attention it deserves
because food matters
the next time
you eat an apple or something else
maybe you think about how many issues
are linked to food
but despite all these thinking
don't forget to enjoy food
[Applause]
you
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