Socialism must be our future

The World Bank predicts approximately 143 million people will become climate migrants seeking more viable places to live in 30 years. The impact of climate change is already felt in reduced yields and extreme weather conditions affecting crops and livestock. It will also make it hard to feed the forecasted 10 billion of the world’s population in 30 years. For much too long, climate change has been seen only from the physical science point of view. When in reality, the social perspective is no less frightening. Food production around the world will be at risk because of higher temperatures, erosion of coastal zones, degradation of soil layer, the spread of pests and diseases, an uncertain pattern of precipitation and increased frequency of extreme events.

 The number of people at risk of hunger will increase as droughts occur more frequently and more severely in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Southern Europe, and Australia. The effect of this on livestock and water availability coupled with the rapid population growth and urbanization rate will create a catastrophe. Secure livelihood and one’s well-being are the minimum standard human beings hold up to in order to lead a fully functioning life. Changes to the local environment caused by climate change will inevitably harm one’s quality of life and force them to unwillingly leave their homes. These people are what we call climate refugees or environmental migrants.  A recent report for the G7 detailed the likelihood that climate change will increase competition for resources, intensify existing tensions and destabilize market -all leading to a substantial increase in the vital risk of social unrest. Unfortunately, factors that determine a state’s resilience to climate change are (1) wealth, (2) strong institutions, and (3) cohesive societies. All the things the fragile states at risk lack.

The highly profitable agriculture industry currently occupies over 1/2 of the world’s arable land resources, uses the majority of our freshwater stores, and drives GHG emissions. Additionally, this system causes rampant air and water pollution, land degradation, and deforestation and is forcing countless species to the brink of extinction. A global shift toward healthy and more plant-based diets, halving food loss and waste and improving farming practices and technologies, are required to feed 10 billion people sustainably by 2050, a new study published in the journal, Nature, finds. "When the solutions are implemented together, our research indicates that it may be possible to feed the growing population sustainably,” said lead researcher Marco Springmann of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford.

Eric Holt-Giménez in A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism. Holt-Giménez contends that, even as local, organic, and gourmet food have spread around the world, billions go hungry in the midst of abundance, obesity is a global epidemic, and crop-related global warming and environmental pollution are increasing. Capitalism and our food system co-evolved, he says, and “our food system is in crisis because capitalism is in crisis and is passing off the worst effects — or ‘externalities’ — of the crisis onto society and the environment.”

Socialism would be the creation of a zero-waste circular economy, whereby everything we produce and consume returns safely to nature or is recycled and reused. It would replace the market-based, investor-focused production for profit system.

Consider textiles production, which in 2015 generated greenhouse-gas emissions totaling 1.2 billion tons of CO2-equivalents. These massive emissions – more than the combined total for all international flights and maritime shipping – reflect a “fast fashion” culture that produces garments as cheaply as possible, with the expectation of constant turnover in people’s wardrobes. If each garment were replaced half as often, the industry’s total greenhouse-gas emissions would plummet by 44%.

The way we eat is going to have to change—that is, if we are to preserve a livable climate on Earth, a recent international study suggests.  Over the next three decades, the food system’s impact on the environment stands to at least double if humanity carries on eating the way it does now. The negative effects include pollution and species loss, but the greatest threat by far is posed by greenhouse-gas emissions from growing, processing, packaging and transporting food.

More than two-thirds of those food-related emissions come from meat production.  Hence, the researchers' recommendation that consumers, especially those living in certain high-income countries where meat is a significant part of the daily diet, are going to have cut back on eating meat and adopt a more plant-based “flexitarian” diet. If the most harmful 1/2 of meat and dairy production was replaced by plant-based food, this still delivers about 2/3 of the benefits of getting rid of all meat and dairy production.

if people worldwide who heavily rely on meat switch to a more plant-based diet, they could potentially decrease food-related greenhouse-gas emissions by almost half by 2050. The number of vegans in the U.S. has increased six-fold in the last three years, and more than tripled in the U.K. over the past decade. But commercial self-interest may hinder such growing popularity in future as the meat market will be worth $7.3 trillion by 2025, with a 73 percent increase in demand by 2050.

 Genetic engineering could increase crop yields by 22 percent globally, from boosting crop resistance to pests, to improving nutritional contents, as well as help pre-empt pre-harvest losses.

There have been major advances in cellular agriculture. Cellular agriculture combines biotechnology with food and tissue engineering to produce agricultural products like meat or leather from cells cultured in a lab. In just two months, 50,000 tons of pork cells could be grown per bioreactor by using starter cells from 10 pigs. This could dramatically reduce the production cost of meat, and also its environmental cost: 6 times less water is needed and 4 times less greenhouse gas is emitted per pound of clean meat compared to “traditional” meat.

Why don’t we eat more vegetables? We know that most vegetables are low in calories but high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. People who eat more vegetables and fruits as part of an overall healthy diet are likely to have a reduced risk of several chronic diseases. The vast majority of people in the US are not eating enough fruits and vegetables and there’s a cultural element to choosing to eat plants over a juicy steak or a sizzling sausage.

La Via Campesina shows, the industrial food system’s emissions – including those from production, fertilizers, transport, processing, packaging, cooling, and food waste, and from deforestation associated with the expansion of industrial agriculture – account for 44-57% of the global total.

A peasant agro-ecological production system based on food sovereignty, small-scale farming, and agro-ecology could, La Via Campesina argues, halve carbon emissions from agriculture within a few decades. 

We are racing against time. We need to act now.