Jeremy Rifkin’s recipe for addressing climate change

FOOD, GREEN, IMPRESA, SOCIAL 24 luglio 2009

Jeremy Rifkin’s recipe for addressing climate change

Climate change has a lot to do with the daily lives of each of us in a cause-effect relationship without geographical or political boundaries. The ways we live and eat, produce and travel have a direct impact on the health of planet Earth and its populations.

And with us to speak about it in a very recent VIDEO INTERVIEW by the journalist Carlo Alberto Pratesi, is Jeremy Rifkin. This is an exclusive interview offered by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, a multidisciplinary think tank inaugurated in March 2009 and focusing on themes associated with food and nutrition. Click here for details.

THE INTERVIEW

Jeremy Rifkin, founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends (FOET) and president of the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation, has no doubts: the world economic meltdown, the energy crisis and the increasingly evident effects of climate change are driving us into the center of a perfect storm. We have no choice but to undertake both a revolutionary conversion of our industry to renewable energy resources, and a change of consciousness that will enhance our mutual sense of responsibility.

Among the topics identified by the Denver professor as crucial to resolving climate change are agricultural food production and politics. According to Rifkin, a more ecologically oriented consumption model, with a drastic reduction in meat consumption, would help steer our planet toward recovery. The worldwide expansion of meat farms, which currently use 40% of agricultural lands to sustain their growth, is the second leading cause of global warming after the CO2 production of our homes and buildings, and actually a bigger factor than transportation.

Rifkin is of the idea that a cultural approach, even more significantly than a political approach, and one based on the European model, could make a difference. “The EU is the lead economy in the world today,” explains the economist. “(…) When you look at the American dream, it’s a frontier dream (…) but we’re no longer in a frontier. (…) We can’t have six billion cowboys, it won’t work, each pursuing their own self interest. The European dream is quite interesting because it feeds into a global consciousness. If you ask a European what is the dream, most will say quality of life. (…) we’re all part of a community and so my wellbeing can only be maintained if your wellbeing is maintained. (…) We need to start a global cultural discussion (…) People live by dreams (…) the European Community is beginning. (…) We have to do it now in the next twenty years and then sustain it for the next two hundred.”

Watch the exclusive video interview with Jeremy Rifkin

Find out about the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition

A GLOBAL ECOLOGICAL DEFICIT: THE CENTER’S STUDY

The Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition has put out a new POSITION PAPER (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food) investigating cause and effect relations and proposing lines of action to cope with global warming. Written by the prominent scholars and experts in energy, environment, medicine, economics and nutrition on the BCFN Advisory Board, the document concentrates specifically on the connections between climate change and the agricultural food production sector.

It has been calculated that, under current conditions, it would take the earth one year and four months to regenerate the resources consumed by people in one year and assimilate all the wastes produced. If we do not make a significant change of course, this ecological deficit threatens to grow even further, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

The scenarios implied by global warming, highlighted in the latest report of the IPCC (2007), leave no doubt as to the repercussions that global temperature rises, glacial melting and rises in sea levels, coupled with an increased frequency of extreme events such as storms, flooding and drought, will have on ecosystems, populations and economic sectors that depend on local climatic conditions for their prosperity. Agriculture, in particular, is responsible for some 33% of total yearly world greenhouse gas emissions as a result of livestock raising, rice cultivation and, to a lesser degree, soil fertilization. Yet at the same time, it will also bear much of the brunt of climate change in terms of reduced productivity and increased threats to food security.

By using the statistical indicator of the ecological footprint, we can get a picture of how much we are demanding of the earth in terms of natural resources. This indicator is based on the quantities of resources we consume and of wastes we produce and expressed as hectares of biologically productive land. The countries with the highest per capita ecological footprint are the United Arab Emirates and the United States. For Italy, ranking twenty-fourth, the ecological footprint per capita amounts to 4.76 hectares, more than six soccer fields.

Scarica integralmente il position paper Cambiamento climatico, agricoltura e alimentazione in italiano

Download the entire position paper Climate Change, Agriculture and Food in English

6 PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE BARILLA CENTER FOR FOOD & NUTRITION

Given the threats implied by climate change, the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition has formulated the following recommendations to promote sustainable development of the agricultural food production sector:

promote and disseminate the use of objective, simple and understandable environmental impact indicators;

encourage fair and effective economic policies and incentive/disincentive measures;

relocalize crops, reduce livestock farming, safeguard forests;

favor technological innovation and promote sustainable cultivation techniques (best practices);

promote transparent advertising policies (including green labelling);

promote ecologically sustainable lifestyles and eating habits.