Climate Change & Food Security: Implications & Management Strategies
Choose a topic and check the resource I gave you carefully, this is very important for me, please be carefully and foucs. thank you so much!!
Research Paper Instructions – CFNY403
You can either do a field study of a food initiative in your community or a desk study.
A] Field study
The ideal way to find out about the reality of food security is to go out into your community and see what activities there are concerning food and people’s access to it. Therefore, this research paper is about going into the “field” i.e. out into your community to study a food activity.
Instructions
- Identify a potential food activity in your community that may have an impact on food security
- Contact people involved in the food activity and ask if you might use it as a study for a paper you need to write for this course – you need this clearance from the people running the activity. If you are already involved in a food activity of some kind; then, you may write about it, but critically.
- Inform the instructor about which food activity you wish to study so that you can get assistance in how to plan your research – everyone must contact the instructor about their proposed study by Saturday, February 1, 2020
Objectives of the study
- To understand and assess the possible and/or actual impact of a food activity on food security in your community
- Determine whether the activity is worthy of replicating in other communities to strengthen food security and explain your reasons
- To identify the learning you have gained from doing this study
Length of paper, etc.
The length is 2,000 to 2,500 words – there should be an explanatory title, introduction, methods (if you use any particular approach to the work), assessment, conclusions/summary of your learning outcomes and a reference list.
You will need to consult some references about the food activity – these can be documents produced by the group involved in the food initiative; papers you have found in other places that provide insights from other communities on similar food initiatives etc. Please follow the guidelines for Citations and References on the “Important Files to Download” board. With regard to citations of personal communications; if you speak to anyone and want to present what they said, then, it is a personal communication. You indicate this in your paper as I have explained in guidelines I provided and you do not list it in the references.
In a research study, I expect that you to refer to information sources to back up your findings where appropriate.
Tips on structuring your study
Here is a list of questions that may help in organizing your study once you have decided on a food initiative to assess:
- When did the food initiative start?
- Why did people feel it was necessary?
- Who was involved at the start from the community?
- What were the initial objectives of the initiative?
- Have these objectives changed over time, if so why?
- What has been the impact of the initiative on the community?
- Do the current organizers of the initiative see a need to modify and change their approach to what they are doing, now that they have been running the project/program for some time?
- Is this initiative having a direct, indirect, no impact on food security?
- What are the learning outcomes for you with regard to assessing this type of food activity?
Types of Food Initiatives
In the past, students have looked at:
- Community gardens
- Community supported agriculture programs
- Food banks
- School meal programs
- School gardens
- Urban farming
- Food literacy programs
- Good Food Boxes
- Meal deliveries to seniors
- Mobile Food Markets
- Food Cooperatives
- Etc.
There are many different kinds of initiatives in your community that you are probably not aware of but once you get out there, you will be surprised what is going on.
Timeline – Very Important
- By Saturday, February 1, 2020 – Everyone must contact the instructor by email about the food initiative you want to study and a short explanation of how you intend to do the study. The instructor can then assist you with planning your study
- You should start your research as soon as you have contacted the instructor so that the field work is finished before the end of June
- Paper due no later than Sunday, March 29, 2020
NAMING YOUR ASSIGNMENT FILE: Please give your assignment a filename as follows:
Research paper Jane Smith – CFNY403 – Food Initiative’s name
This is very important as it saves the instructor time from having to rename every file and no assignment should be handed in without the correct filename.
FILE TYPE: Submit a WORD or RTF file NO PDF’s – Never submit a PDF file
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B] DESK STUDY
If you cannot do a field study, then you can do a desk study. This will be a critical review and analysis of some aspect of food security. The paper length is the same as for the field study and you must contact the instructor to indicate a suitable topic of interest to you. You can choose a topic or the instructor will present you with some examples of topics to choose from.
Timeline – Very Important
- By Saturday, February 1, 2020 – Everyone must contact the instructor by email about the food initiative you want to study and a short explanation of how you intend to do the study. The instructor can then assist you with planning your study
- You should start your research as soon as you have contacted the instructor so that the desk study is finished in good time
- Paper due no later than Sunday, March 29, 2020
Below are examples of alternative topics for a paper if you cannot do a field study
- Climate change and food security - what are the implications of climate change for food security? How can it be addressed effectively?
- Biotechnology and food security - Is the current development of genetically-modified organisms justified as a means to ensure food security?
- Land tenure and food security - what are the implications of the current land grabbing in the global south and what should be done about it?
- Sustainable food systems and food security - why should we be concerned about food systems being sustainable - what needs to change in how we grow, process, distribute and market food in order to achieve sustainability?
- Localizing food systems - how can strengthening local food systems contribute to improving food security and reducing food insecurity?
- Creating socially-just food systems - what needs to change in our society in order to ensure we have a socially-just food system that ensures a right to food and subsequently food security? What will be the challenges?
- Urban agriculture and food security in urban populations - Can development of urban agriculture have any impact on reducing urban food security or do other things have to be in place to do so?
- Food Policy Councils - what value do they serve to communities and are they effective?
- Food aid - what role does food aid play in addressing food security - what are its pros and cons and how can it be used effectively to create more food secure communities that do not have to rely on aid?
- The "western diet" and its impact on food security - what are the food security implications of the spread of the western diet of highly processed foods? What challenges does this present and how should we address them?
- etc.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I have provided a topic area and then tagged on a question about that topic. You could pose a different question if you chose one of these topics. I find that once you choose a topic; if you pose a question about it; then, it provides a focus for your research and discussion about the topic. If none of these topics are of interest, this is fine. Come back to me with some ideas and I will assist you in finalizing a topic to work on.
For a desk study; you must come up with a question you want to answer or a hypothesis which you want to test and to see if your assumptions are correct. I do not want a review or essay. The paper must have a very specific study objective to be a research paper.
NAMING YOUR ASSIGNMENT FILE: Please give your assignment a filename as follows:
Research paper Jane Smith – CFNY403 – Research paper topic
This is very important as it saves the instructor time from having to rename every file and no assignment should be handed in without the correct filename.
FILE TYPE: Submit a WORD or RTF file NO PDF’s – Never submit a PDF file
Rubric for the paper:
Writing, grammar – 10%
Layout and organization of the paper – 10% (i.e. paper has a logical flow of ideas, is paragraphed appropriately and is well-presented in how diagrams, tables and/or photos are used)
Correct citations & Referencing – 10% - you are expected in a research paper to have at least 8 to 10 references; if you have more, this is fine. You should be mostly using information sources which are peer-reviewed and/or reports, policy briefs and other sources from professionals in the field and organizations known for their work on food-related issues.
Introduction of the paper’s topic and objectives for the paper – 10%
Explanation of study methods – 10%
Presentation of findings – 25%
Analysis of the implications of the findings – 25%
References
References You should seek information from peer-reviewed sources and/or reports from national government agencies, national NGOs and research institutions and/or international agencies and institutions.
Media sources should only be used to show what the prevailing public opinions are on a food security topic but not as research evidence for analyzing a specific issue in food security.
All references must be in APA style – please use the Ryerson Basic Guide to APA Style. Marks will be deducted for more than four citation and reference errors. If you are unsure of how to cite or reference a source, please contact me to help you.
Note: The Citations and References comprise slightly more of the assignment mark now as you are expected to be more proficient having done two assignments – if you have any queries about citing and referencing, please contact the instructor before submitting your assignment, if you need any advice.
Note on capital letters: Do not use capital letters in the middle of titles for your references – capital letters should only be used for people’s names, place names, recognized official names of organizations, methodologies, etc. All other words in a title should not be capitalized. See below for two examples:
Edited book example:
Koc, M., MacRae, R., Mougeot, L., & Welsh, J. (Eds.). (1999). Hunger-proof cities: Sustainable urban food systems. Ottawa, ON: International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Retrieved November 2, 2008 from https://www.idrc.ca/en/book/hunger-proof-cities-sustainable-urban-food-systems
Blog example:
Williams, S. (2017, September 25). Can food help in the battle against climate change? An insight on Paris-compliant healthy food systems. [Web log comment]. Retrieved, September 26, 2017 from https://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/blog/can-food-help-battle-climate-change-insight-paris-compliant-healthy-food-systems/
Running head: CLIMATE CHANGE & FOOD SECURITY1
Climate Change & Food Security: Implications & Management Strategies
Student Name
College/University Affiliation
CLIMATE CHANGE & FOOD SECURITY
2
Climate Change & Food Security: Implications & Management Strategies
I. Introduction
There is, probably, no one most-argued and least-understood phrase as “climate change” in current debates about natural ecosystems and sustainability. In recent years, climate change debate has become a global staple of government policy, environment activism, social discussions and, not least, precipitous signs of conflict. The climate change, only a few decades a matter of low-profile debate among “excessively” concerned academicians and activists, is now, for all to see, a matter of everyday life. The scenes of once “cool” cities in North America, Europe and Asia are now giving way to a warmer reality of melting glaciers, heat waves in winters and growing casualties to increasingly unbearable heat. The question of climate change is, interestingly, anchored on underlying assumptions of carbon emission mitigation policies which, if strictly applied, would reduce considerably, so argue supporters, not only heat but overall climate change risks. These assumptions are at best misinformed about what is at stake in current climate change debate. Specifically, climate change is a complex construct whose implications – and, for that matter, management strategies – are far too interdependent and evolving to be reduced into one or a few issues. Indeed, just as heat is felt everywhere due to climate change, so are a broad range of climate-change-related issues – yet less so seriously discussed. For current purposes, food security as a function of climate change is of central interest.
Given current global situation of and response to climate change, food security management strategies are still in bud. True, a growing body of literature, as shown in next section, is further highlighting implications of climate change for food security and possible mitigation strategies However, a general consensus about one or more effective strategies to help minimize growing gaps in food shortages due to climate change effects across economic and social lines is only a matter of speculation. In essence, extant literature highlights, in an exploratory manner, major challenges for food security – and, reasonably enough, food supply chains – under current, rapidly evolving climate
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change conditions but apparently fails to address food security challenges properly, let alone put forward solid, sustainable management strategies. Interestingly, mitigation has come to be, given extant literature, a key concept in proposed strategies or action plans. This calls into immediate attention whether current or proposed food security strategies are effective enough to reduce negative impacts of climate change or not. Put succinctly,
RQ: Are current climate change mitigation strategies effective enough to generate sustainable solutions for growing global food security challenges?
The next sections are an attempt to answer above mentioned question.
II. Climate Change & Food Security: Mitigation or Sustainable Management Efforts?
The question of food security under current climate change conditions receives due attention in extant literature. Notably, food security is largely framed not only as a matter of basic human need but, more importantly, as a nutrition challenge response to which should be in parallel to “proper” climate change mitigation strategies (Myers et al., 2017; Fanzo, Davis, McLaren & Choufani, 2018). This approach to food security, while properly addressing food security in a frame of a major food challenge, i.e. nutrition, does not only offer vague strategies, let alone action plans, to address food supply challenges but, critically, fails to account for policy challenges across world regions should one or more courses of action are prescribed. Specifically, whilst climate change is properly addressed as a macro challenge – i.e., a challenge which, in contrast to a current and vaguer discourse about climate change as a carbon emission problem, cuts across a variety of ecological, economic, social, and political lines – actionable policies are a big missing elephant in a room calling for change.
The lack of more rigorous, actionable food security management strategies is, perhaps, most notable in world regions climate change has become a matter of immediate survival. Consider underdeveloped economies in Africa and South America. For all risks, identified or projected, of climate change and potential impact on food security, a growing body of research is increasingly
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shifting focus away from climate change per se as an immediate influencer on food security and to economic and demographic factors. In Africa, for example, Hall et al. (2017) conclude, based on FEEDME (Food Estimation and Export for Diet and Malnutrition Evaluation), a modeling framework termed used to model future climate changes impacts, that population growth, not climate change, is a dominant driver of change in food security systems in a continent long lagging in economic development. The study authors emphasize, in response, economic solutions – e.g. yield gap reduction and mutual economic agreements – in order to avoid “catastrophic future food security.” This conclusion, not uncommon for Africa – and similar underdeveloped regions, as shown shortly – only undermines food security as a function of climate change and hence shifting policy attention to questionable issues, economic development in current case, as leading contributors to food security challenges.
The case for, or perhaps against, food security as a function of climate change in Africa is dismissed in a similar way in South America. As mentioned, climate change construct has largely been reduced into a micro, as opposed to a macro, issue about carbon emissions. This characterization of climate change as a carbon emission problem, not a complex construct cutting across multiple areas including food security, is identifiable in a number of mitigation-oriented studies, so to speak. For instance, Sá et al. (2017) characterize South America as “a terrestrial C sink” which, if low-carbon strategies are applied to agricultural lands between 2016 and 2050, would help mitigate – again – negative, global climate change effects and advance food security. As in Africa, mitigation prescriptions for reduction of negative climate change effects based on carbon emissions in South America, fail, accordingly, to address climate change as a macro construct of implications – and, for that matter, management strategies – not be limited to a one-dimensional approach. The adoption of an economic approach to address food security challenges under climate conditions (considered by Sá et al. yet dismissed by Hall et al. as a major contributor to food security challenges) becomes more
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problematic, moreover, when no clear policies or actions are discussed to help replace economic activities largely contributing to economic development and growth in low-income, underdeveloped economies in Africa and South America. Instead, sustainability is used as a surrogate for clearer and actionable policies.
The current mitigation strategies are put under further scrutiny once wider impacts of climate change are factored in.
Consider biodiversity. Having carbon emissions front and center of current debates about
climate change, food security is less discussed as a matter of biodiversity. However, attention has
grown in more recent years to negative impacts of climate change on biodiversity, particularly in
marine ecosystems. Notably, biodiversity redistribution is considered a possible major contributor to a
global food security challenge due to climate change (Pecl et al., 2017; Ding, Chen, Hilborn & Chen,
2017). The most vulnerable countries to biodiversity challenges are – again – countries in less
developed continents including Africa and South America and, partly, Asia. Interestingly, mitigation
strategies are developed in broad, i...
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