Collection

Just Food Production in a Changing Climate

Submission status
Closed

With the Sustainable Development Goal 2 of “Zero Hunger”, the global community aims to end by the year 2030 hunger and malnutrition in all their varied forms. However, to meet the demands of a growing human population, food production will need to increase by at least fifty percent by 2030. Intensified agriculture is likely to exacerbate environmental degradation and climate change. Strategies are therefore needed to mitigate climate change and adapt agricultural production to radically changing climatic conditions. Furthermore, in order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement of 2015, it will be necessary to implement negative emission technologies to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. However, the most widely adopted of these technologies are likely to exacerbate food insecurity, as the agricultural land required for their implementation will require using significant portions of the land needed for food production.

The contributions in this collection address ethical issues related to food production and climate change. The three main themes of the collection are as follows:

- Climate mitigation and food production: Trade-offs and conflicts between climate change mitigation and food production are crucial challenges for an adequate low-carbon transition without endangering those most vulnerable to climate change. This concerns first and foremost technological innovations to reduce emissions from food production, but also the production and use of biofuels. Both can have negative impacts on food availability.

- Geoengineering, agriculture, and land: The need to install large-scale carbon capture technologies to achieve net-zero emissions poses a major threat to stable food production. Many of these technologies depend on large amounts of agricultural land or can have negative impacts on agricultural food production. Facing these challenges means addressing the trade-off between avoiding dangerous climate change and sufficient food for all.

- Adapting agriculture to climate change: Adapting agricultural production to improve the food resilience of communities will become increasingly important in the near and distant future. Precipitation will decrease and droughts will increase in many regions of the world due to changing climatic conditions. Biotechnology will be critical, but so will the division of responsibilities to ensure food security despite changing climatic conditions. Engaging local communities will become key to sustaining food security

Papers of the topical collection:

a.Wallimann-Helmer / Schübel / Eggel: Introduction to the collection (forthcoming)

b. Moyano-Fernández, Cristian: The Moral Pitfalls of Cultivated Meat: Complementing Utilitarian Perspective with Eco-Republican Justice Approach. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10806-022-09896-1

c.Nydal, Rune (corresponding author), Giovanni de Grandis, Lars Ursin : When is a Techno-Fix Legitimate? The Case of Viticultural Climate Resilience.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10806-023-09900-2

Asveld, Lotte (corresponding author), Zoë Houda Robaey, Sara Francke & Patricia Osseweijer: Capability Approach and Inclusion: Developing a Context Sensitive Design for Biobased Value Chains.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10806-023-09901-1

e. Kortetmäki, Teea; Markku Oksanen: Right to Food and Geoengineering. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10806-023-09898-7

Editors

  • Hanna Schübel Hanna Schübel , 

    Hanna Schübel

    Hanna Schübel is a PhD student and research assistant at the University of Fribourg. In her project she addresses ethical challenges for the governance of carbon dioxide removal methods. Her interests include justice considerations in the policy context and individual moral responsibility for climate change.

  • Ivo Wallimann-Helmer Ivo Wallimann-Helmer  &

    Ivo Wallimann-Helmer

    Ivo Wallimann-Helmer is professor in Environmental Humanities and Director of the University of Fribourg Environmental Sciences and Humanities Institute. The core areas of his work investigate conceptual and normative issues of justice in climate action and environmental protection, technological innovation for sustainability, and the fair differentiation of responsibilities in environmental practice and food systems.

  • Matthias Eggel Matthias Eggel

    Matthias Eggel

    Matthias Eggel is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer in Bio-Ethics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. His research interests include animal research ethics, gene editing in animals, Ethics of agriculture, Ethics of veterinary practice, and Human germline gene editing.

Articles (5 in this collection)