Food Security in the South Pacific: An Annotated Bibliography
Silke Groeneweg
What are the effects of climate change and subsequent rising sea levels on the food production and security of the inhabitants of islands in the South Pacific? In the past few decades, climate change has become a more prevalent problem in the minds of researchers and the public alike. For the inhabitants of small island nations in the South Pacific, there is no issue more pressing or potentially detrimental to their lives.
Scientists, policy analysts, government officials and Pacific Islanders have all recognized the problem and realize the need for action to be taken and the need for long-term goals to be made. Several organizations and researchers are dedicated
…show more content…
They suggest things such as enhancing agricultural productivity and investing in education and development. These policies are discussed in such length because the poor and disadvantaged of a nation are the first people affected by something as drastic as a decrease in available food.
Barnett, J. (2007). Food security and climate change in the South Pacific. Pacific Ecologist, 1(14), (1-4). http://www.pacificecologist.org/archive/14/food-security-climate-change.pdf
Dr. Jon Barnett evaluates and discusses the impact of climate change and how it will increase threats to food security, through its impacts on food production, health, infrastructure, the ability of countries to import food, and the ability of households to purchase food. Barnett debates the impact of international business and trade and how it has caused an influx of cheap food that have little nutritious value. He suggests more immediate reactions to climate change because the traditional ways of life found on the South Pacific islands are at risk
Morrell W, & Scialabba El-Hage, N. (2009). Climate change and food security: Policy brief. Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from
…show more content…
(2014, September 20). Climate change, gender, and food security in the Pacific. UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office Report. Retrieved from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2015/1/climate-change-gender-and-food-security
The authors discuss the impacts of climate change and the challenges of securing food security on women in the South Pacific. The authors suggest that one way to address food security and production issues is to eliminate barriers that prevent women from contributing and that economies should utilize their skills. The involvement of women is so important because of their vast amount of knowledge regarding resilient crop production and their role in the production of food used for consumption rather than the production of cash crops.
Wairiu, M., Lal, M., Iese, V. (2012). Climate change implications for crop production in Pacific Islands region. In Anna Aladjadjiyan (Ed.), Food production - Approaches, challenges, and tasks. (67-68). doi:
Humans are damaging the planet to live comfortably, we must change the way food is distributed worldwide, support local farmers and switch to a healthier diet in order to stop global warming. The current global has been getting better for us humans over the years, from eating bread and eggs 3 times a day in the XV century, now we can eat better than the kings of those times, however the much of the food in not healthy and the global food system still fails in getting food to every individual in the planet and in addition it contributes to the destruction of our world. Ms. Anna Lappe explains how the food system contributes to around 1/3 of the global warming issue in her essay “The Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork”, while a group of Plos one explains the issues about the export and import of food growth over the last 50 years in the
One of the largest issues facing the Global South today is food security. In many cases food security is closely associated with agriculture in a specific area. Due to several issues faced by post war agriculture in Sierra Leone a food security issue has arisen leading to income/consumption poverty. One of the issues facing in Sierra Leone is the number of citizens choosing to work in the mining industry as opposed to working in agriculture. Another issue faced by the agriculture industry in Sierra Leone is the displacement of many farm families due to the civil war and the affect it has on food production. The agriculture industry in Sierra Leone also faces this issue of rice importation into the country which lowers the income of farmers. These issues faced by the agriculture sector in Sierra Leone have lead to problems with food security and poverty.
In order to get a comprehensive picture of these issues, this chapter reviews literature on climate change and vulnerability. It begins by defining climate change and analyzing global climate change in general and its impacts on local smallholder farmer’s livelihoods in a developing country such as Zimbabwe. Lastly the chapter also assesses the measures of adaptation which smallholder farmers can use to increase their coping capacity and resilience to climate change and variability.
World Food Programme. (2013). Comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis (CFSVA): Uganda. Retrieved from http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp256989.pdf
O’Hara, Sabine U., and Sigrid Stagl. "Global Food Markets and their Local Alternatives: A Socio-Ecological Economic Perspective." Population and Environment 22.6 (2001): pp. 533-554. Web.
...cause and effect relationship of climate and human activity, and climate and human need, the ability to redesign the way we produce and cultivate food staples can be created. With this ability the longevity of agricultural systems can influence a decrease in food prices, in turn increasing the number of food secure populations.
Food insecurity and poor nutrition is an alarmingly large problem for low income families, especially in developing countries. Many strategies exist to fight this problem, although not many of these address all the factors contributing to it along with all the possible solutions to solve it. In many cases, multiple strategies must correlate and work together so that all the determinants of this issue are addressed and can fight food insecurity from different angles. This essay will discuss the significance of the problem, a range of possible strategies to solve the problem, and go into detail on a select few that will correlate and work together to solve different factors of food insecurity and poor nutrition.
It’s impossible for poor rural women and their communities to cope with the effects of climate change when both are perpetually in crisis mode. Their capacity to adapt must be strengthened. Compared to men in poor countries, women face additional cultural, social and economic barriers that make them more vulnerable to climate change. They have limited access to productive assets such as land, credit, and extension services, and they continue to lack voice and decision-making power on agriculture policies and programs. As a result, they are in many cases the first casualties of volatile climate conditions, falling into food insecurity and malnutrition. This reality demands a gender analysis toward climate change mitigation” (Hunger report 22) This being said, our increase in involvement improving women’s rights for education, ability to voice their opinions and breaking cultural norms that restrict them will result in less stress as well as more food. This will break the cycle of poverty. Educating women agriculturally will benefit them and increase their involvement in growing and cultivating produce, which will lead to them selling what they make and gives in increase in their home’s
The ability to create an action plan that would provide enough “sustainability food for the future” gives off a very powerful message that we must change the way we perceive the world around us. To start viewing the earth as an “island” the natural resources the earth provides are slowly deteriorating right before our eyes. Population growth has exceeded the earth's capacity to sustain the growing demand for food. There have been warnings that seemed like “whispers” but now the earth, our island is speaking “loudly” and now is showing the damage our carelessness has caused. The Political of Sustainable Consumption and Production (PSC) has become more involved in the growing issues surrounding food consumption and production “because of its impact on the environment, individual and public health, social cohesion, and the economy (Reisch L., 2014).
Given the importance of climate change impacts on local agriculture and food security, this paper attempts to give an overview of observed and projected climate change in Sri Lanka, its impact on the agriculture sector and climate change adaptation strategies through reviewing recent literature on climate change. To develop appropriate strategies and institutional responses to climate change targeting smallholder farmers, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the local farming environment in terms of farmer perception about climate change, key issues faced by farmers in overcoming climate adversities, local knowledge and strengths on climate change adaptation. There is a dearth of such research studies undertaken in Sri Lanka.
Sayers, Ian. "New Approaches to Feeding the World's Population." International Trade Forum. July-Sept. 2011: 30. Global Issues In Context. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.
One of the most complex issues in the world today concerns human population. The number of people living off the earth’s resources and stressing its ecosystem has doubled in just forty years. In 1960 there were 3 billion of us; today there are 6 billion. We have no idea what maximum number of people the earth will support. Therefore, the very first question that comes into people’s mind is that are there enough food for all of us in the future? There is no answer for that. Food shortage has become a serious problem among many countries around the world. There are many different reasons why people are starving all over the world. The lack of economic justice and water shortages are just merely two examples out of them all.
The tropics are effect by many weather conditions which makes the jobs of farmers difficult. Overall subsistence and the GNP are effected by changes in weather, which for the most part is not always predictable. In a world that is divided up into the haves and the have nots, government influence is crucial in regulating practices and the overall distribution of wealth Despite this fact, programs implemented did not always succeed in benefitting the Filipinos. One major attribute of the Philippines is the wide variety of crops produced in this region. Crops which many not be able to grow during the rainy season may grow during in the period of December - May when there is little rainfall (and vice versa).
There are those that believe our planet has reached its maximum capacity to sustain humanity and we need to reduce our population to rectify it. It is also said that our planet is well capable of providing both the nutrition and caloric needs for humanity, both now and into the future as well. Regardless of where one’s opinion of the facts fall between these two arguments, global food security is not where it should be. Uneven development could be argued to be a cause of this. But it is not the only issue affecting the planet.