EurSafe 2021 Conference - Justice and Food Security in a Changing Climate

The 2021 Congress of the European Society for Agriculture and Food Ethics (EurSafe) focused on ethical issues concerning food security in times of a changing climate. 

With the Sustainable Development Goals the global community has agreed to end hunger and malnutrition in all of its forms by 2030. However, the number of chronically undernourished people has increased continuously each year from 775 million in 2014 to 821 million in 2017. Ongoing climate change and the necessary action to be taken are very likely to aggravate this situation even more.

This makes necessary strategies to mitigate climate change but also adapting agricultural production to radically changing climatic conditions. However, to reach the goal agreed upon at COP 21 in Paris (2015) ‘to limit global warming to well below 2 °C’, the implementation of negative emission technologies becomes necessary what will increase food insecurity even more as this will result in unprecedented competition for agricultural land.

Topical Collection

Just Food Production in a Changing Climate (2023), edited by H. Schübel, I. Wallimann-Helmer, M. Eggel in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

Conference Proceedings

H. Schübel & I. Wallimann-Helmer (2021) Justice and Food Security in a Changing Climate at Wageningen Academic Publishers. 

  • Topics

    The EurSafe Conference 2021 in Fribourg focused on the key concerns of ethics and justice as a consequence of these climate change challenges, encouraging papers exploring the following areas: 

    Climate mitigation and food security:

    To avoid dangerous climate change, the economic system and energy production in both developed countries and developing countries must change radically. Recent studies have shown that mitigation action most probably increases food insecurity. Many mitigation efforts require agricultural land, which increases prices for land and food. With regard to world hunger, this has disastrous consequences. How must these trade-offs between mitigation and food security be analysed? What entitlements with regard to food security must be granted. Is zero hunger enough? Does there exist a higher level of nutrition entitlements?

    Geoengineering, agriculture and land:

    Most models showing that limiting global warming well below 2 °C is possible, assume negative emission technologies (NETs) to be installed to a large extend. If implemented, some of these technologies, like Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), or afforestation, demand vast agricultural areas. This will lead to potential conflicts between interventions into the climate system and food security. How should these conflicts be addressed? What priorities should be set in different regions of the world? Which technologies should be prioritized and on what grounds?

    Adapting agriculture to sustain food security:

    In order to sustain food security, agricultural systems need to adapt and build resilience. The increased competition for agricultural land from both mitigation action and geoengineering technologies makes such adaptation even more difficult. Strategies for adapting agricultural production to improve the resilience of communities are of key importance, particularly in tropical and dryland regions. What role does climate adaptation play for sustainable food supply and vice versa? Which biotechnologies can be developed and applied and how should responsibilities be distributed in order to ensure food security despite changing climatic conditions?

    Animal ethics, veterinary ethics and food security: 

    Animals will be affected by climate change in various ways, such as new or wider spread of infectious diseases, through changes in the systems of production and with application of novel animal biotechnologies. In addition, new fields of research might emerge where more and diverse types of research animals will be used. How should we deal with the effects of climate change on animals, theoretically and practically? What solutions do animals, veterinary ethics and agricultural ethics provide?

    The topics of the congress range from the four key themes  across fundamental ethical issues and areas that relate to veterinary medicine, transparency in the food chain, professional food ethics, etc. Besides more conceptual and theoretical contributions, we also welcome papers that use case studies and studies that examine and propose guidelines on how to deal with key challenges of food security.

  • Keynotes
    • Guntra Aistara -Networked climate sovereignties: Linking agroecology, food sovereignty, and climate justice
    •  Jessica Duncan - The most-affected principle: Representation and justice in the food sovereignty movement
    • Angela Kallhoff - The Climate Emergency: Elements of a Repair of the Future
    • Teea Kortetmäki - Geoengineering, food security and justice 
    • Cristian Timmermann - Adapting agriculture to a changing climate: a social justice perspective
  • Conference Proceedings

    The conference proceedings are published as an open-access e-book by Wageningen Academic Publishers:

    https://www.wageningenacademic.com/eursafe2021

  • Collection: Just Food Production in a Changing Climate

    Following up on the 2021 conference, several of the contributions have been expanded into full research articles and published in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics: https://link.springer.com/collections/iifhddbjbb