The document discusses the connections between food, climate change, and soil health. It summarizes that the global food system has been overlooked as a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Climate change now poses an immediate threat to food production worldwide. Adopting agro-ecological practices like organic farming can help achieve food security while mitigating climate disruption. The document also outlines various manifestations of climate change like extreme weather, shifting rainfall patterns, and rising temperatures. It argues that rebuilding soil organic matter on a global scale through practices like carbon sequestration in soil is key to addressing food and climate problems simultaneously.

1. Food & Climate
Connecting the Dots
Diana Donlon
Cool Foods Campaign Director,
Center for Food Safety
Tufts University
November 22, 2014

2. The Global Food
System has been
ignored as a source
of GHGs. It has also
been overlooked as a
source of global
solutions. Climate
change is an
immediate threat to
food production.
Agro-ecological
practices, including
organic, are the
means by which we
will be able to
achieve food security
in an era of climate
disruption.

3. The Anthropocene
Climate Change Manifestations
• Extreme Weather
• Deluge & Drought
• Shifting Weather Patterns
• Rising Temperatures

4. Extreme Weather
Extreme Weather

5. Deluge & Drought
• IPCC: Rainfall patterns will shift
• More intense precipitation
events by early 21st century
• Prolonged, acute drought by
late 21st century
• Estimated annual water deficit
is 160 billion tons
• The water needed to
produce 160 million tons of
grain.
• 533 million people are fed
with grain produced with
unsustainable water use.

6. Shifting Weather Patterns
• Earlier Springs, Warmer Winters
• Higher survival rates of pathogens
• Northern migration of invasive species
• Shifting spatial and temporal distributions of
pathogens

7. Rising Temperatures
• IPCC: 1982-2012 was likely
the warmest 30-year period of
the last 1,400 years.
• IPCC: Warming will continue
through 2100.
• More frequent, warmer
nights.
• Evaporation and
Evapotranspiration

9. Where is carbon going?
Carbon is constantly cycling through major pools.
• Too much carbon in the
atmosphere is heating the
planet.
• Too much carbon in the
ocean is causing it to
acidify.
• But, carbon in the soil not
only has the capacity to
absorb excess carbon, it is
beneficial.

10. Carbon is “plant
food” and plants
can rapidly
transfer carbon
from sky to soil.

11. Cool Foods sees soil health as the key to solving
multiple food and climate problems.
we need to rebuild
soil organic matter on a global scale.

13. is part of an emerging
community communicating
“soil solutions to climate problems.”
Thank you “Bio4Climate” for helping us
disseminate this critical message!