There may be some truth in bumper stickers that say, “No farmers, no food,” said Kelley Mosher.
The senior environmental design and environmental studies major attended a talk held at South Campus on Friday by David W. Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology in the department of horticulture at Cornell University. Wolfe presented “Climate Change and the Future of Food.”
Subhashni Raj, a Ph.D. student of the urban and regional planning department at UB, helped host Wolfe, who discussed the current climate state and the effect it has on today’s food systems.
Wolfe said farming is often overlooked in urban and regional planning decisions and urban living has damaging effects on not only the climate but food as well. He said with the Earth’s carbon amount steadily increasing, farmers would be most affected because of the effects of excess carbon on the Earth’s surface.
“I’ve worked with farmers for a while,” Wolfe said. “I’ve never met a farmer who isn’t concerned with extreme weather events.”
During his research, Wolfe learned farmers generally hold apple production earlier in the year, which caused the fruits to experience frost, something that may occur to other food productions with constant weather change. He said the worst part is that there isn’t access to a wide supply of nutrients in today’s food system.
The lecture pointed to what Mosher said was the need for “adaptability and mitigation” in our food system as well as the stress the system puts on farmers.
She said this increases the necessity of shifts in farm practices.
“If we begin demanding foods that are produced locally/regionally and within the growing season, we have the ability to make an impact on the production,” she said in an email. “And alternatively, if our diets shift more toward consciously produced foods, be it local sourced fruits/veggies/grains and/or animal products, production and manufacturing emissions not only decrease but become more manageable within the atmosphere.”
Wolfe said the only way to reach climate stability would be to receive help from all people as well political help. He is looking into building up farming soil and has partnered with The Climate Corporation and Cornell Climate Change Program.
Mosher said farmers should move toward sustainable practices and energy efficiency, but they will need funds and sourcing to make those shifts.
Will Becker, a graduate student of urban planning and architecture at UB, worked alongside Raj to organize lectures for Growing Food Connections Project in The Food Lab. He said it was a “thrill” for him to hear Wolfe speak.
The Food Lab is focused on research to test the role of planning and policy in simplifying sustainable food systems and healthy communities.
UB is part of research projects like Growing Food Connections, a five-year integrated research initiative to “strengthen food systems in the Untied States,” according to American Farmland Trust. The organizations hope to do research, educate and plan hand-in-hand solutions for concerns of struggling farmers.
Mosher said it was “empowering” to hear Wolfe talk about how passionate he was about food and the environment and his optimistic perspective for the future.
“I have been passionate about the environment and about food since I was a young child and I've grown up in a time when the negative effects of our human actions are framed solely as ‘looming crises,’” Mosher said. “I have never believed any problem is too big to tackle and firmly support the belief that with solutions both simple and complex we can combat these changes to adapt as a society and as a global community.”
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