Food security in a warming world: Key points from our recent webinar

First, the good news…

Food prices have remained fairly stable through the Covid-19 crisis, with no sign of the kinds of drastic price increases that shocked markets in 2007-08. Back then, the surging price of rice, corn and other staples led to civil unrest across vast swathes of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Dr Nazia Mintz Habib, Director of the Resilience and Sustainable Development Programme at the University of Cambridge notes that, so far, we have seen no similar events. “One good thing about the Covid-19 crisis is that it has shown the resilience of the modern food supply chain.”  

…and the not so good news

The ongoing lockdown is likely to further stress a supply chain already severely strained by climate change.

“Because of social distancing, the labour market is struggling to put enough people on the ground to collect, produce and distribute food,” says Dr Habib. Due to comparatively large manpower requirements, livestock farming has been particularly hard hit. Nonetheless, the problem cuts across sectors and geographies: curbs on seasonal migration in the EU, for instance, have hampered fruit yields over the summer.

“So far, the shops and consumers have been well supplied,” says Christine Zimmermann-Lössl, Chairwoman of the Association for Vertical Farming. “The real impact will be felt in autumn.”

Climate change is a pandemic too…

So says Ibrahim Al-Zu’bi, Chief Sustainability Officer, Majid Al Futtaim Holding. For him, effective collaboration among those countries hardest pressed by planetary warming will be key. “Countries in the middle east and neighbouring regions can boost resilience of their food systems through better integration of agriculture and markets. This is a great opportunity to speed up the economy of the food industry, boost the circular economy, reduce food waste and improve fertilisers.”

…and the combined effects of the two pandemics are felt most acutely by the most vulnerable

Researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Resilience and Sustainable Development Programme have monitored the impact of the pandemic in 160 countries. Among their most staggering findings, was the full effect of lockdown on children’s nutrition. “We found that about 80% of the schools were closed across these 160 countries,” says Dr Habib. “That translates to about 87% of school going children suffering from malnutrition. They are not getting access to school meals, which are an important source of food for many children.”