The Not-So-Humble Hunter Gatherer

Before I start, I would like to address the fact that there has been a lack of terrible food puns in this blog so far. My good friend (rightly) pointed out to me that I was not delivering on the goods, as promised. Therefore, I would like to apologise if this has caused you as much upset as it caused him. I will be trying to make more of a conscious effort to include some from now on. I just hope they don’t sound too corny… CORN-y…

Anyway, moving our focus back to realm of food production… Today we will be having a butchers (I stole that one) at how food was obtained prior to the dawn of agriculture. To do this, we must first transport back in time, approximately two million years ago, to when early human civilisation was largely comprised of hunter-gatherers, originating in the African continent.

The timeline of food preparation from early to modern man. Source: www.packofpacks.com

The main societal role of our nomadic ancestors was to forage and collect food for themselves and their social groups, with their menus mostly consisting of wild plants, nuts, berries and raw meat. Fire used for cooking was not introduced until approximately 100,000 years later, which has evidently revolutionised modern diets and the way we prepare food today. However, the environmental impacts of heightened fire activity may have been far-reaching, for example, through the disruption and change of natural environmental cycles. Fires (particularly wildfires) are mainly prevalent during wet seasons, due the higher probability of lightning strikes, but, (by using modelling) we can demonstrate how the use of fire by early man may have caused rapid spread of fire during dry seasons, due to the flammable nature of dried vegetation. This may have contributed to changes in climate, habitat and ecosystems, as well as alter the behaviour of certain species.

                           Source: http://papre.com      Source: http://kohlerhistory.wikispaces.com

The development of tools, such as the spear, would have permitted our ancestors to catch fish and hunt larger prey more efficiently, allowing a more versatile diet. However, this prevalence of tools led to increasing landscape changes through quarrying, and the moving and fracturing of rock (Foley and Lahr 2015). This extraction of raw material may have negatively affected the ecology of local areas by altering the natural habitat, but on the other hand, these pockets in the rock would have collected water more efficiently, allowing new ecosystems to thrive.

 Source:  www.networlddirectory.com                                Source:  https://i.ytimg.com

During the late Pleistocene epoch (~10,000-15,000 years ago), it is postulated that the increasing intelligence and innovation of early man enabled them to engage in some sort of a killing frenzy by hunting more animals than necessary. (I guess you could say that they were having their cake and eating it to…) The hypothesis proceeds to suggest that this contributed to the Quaternary extinction event, which saw a massive decrease in megafauna, including the mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger. This is known as the Overkill Hypothesis, which (more specifically) suggests that as human’s migrated into North America, they were faced with a vast number of large species, too naïve to see humans as a threat, making them easy to hunt. This idea is widely debated, with some claiming that it is outdated, but I can’t help finding it interesting due to the coincidental timing of the booming population of man and decreasing population of megafauna. Then again, there could be other factors at play here, such as climatic changes. However, we cannot ignore the possibility that human intervention may have directly or indirectly contributed to this extinction. Regardless, current climate models suggest that this decrease in megafauna may have led to major changes in vegetation, causing an approximate 0.4 degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature in localised areas.

So, despite the common conception that early hunter-gatherers were perfectly in tune with nature and their surroundings, it is possible that our ancient ancestors were the initial drivers of climate change, over 10,000 years ago. (Although, clearly on a much smaller scale than today!) Which leaves me thinking... Is it possible that climate change is somewhat a natural product of human evolution, and is maybe imperative to our survival? I hope to gain some more insight in to these questions over the next few months.

Join me next time as I pick up where we left off, 10,000 years ago, at the dawn of agriculture...

Global Food Insecurity

Welcome back to the Global Hot Potato! For the first few weeks of our blogging journey, we will be looking specifically at one side of the coin: how food production practices impact the environment. So make sure you strap in, as we will be exploring a combination of research, articles, reports, and environmental models to measure past/present impacts and predict future events. But, before we delve into the gritty details of the food production industry, we should first take a brief look at the current challenges we face today when it comes to feeding the planet.

To adequately address these challenges, we must first consider what it means to be without them, i.e. food security. In 2002, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation defined food security to be “a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.[1]  We know through the prevalence of poverty across the globe that this has not yet been achieved. But why? Are there too many of us? Is there not enough food? What’s going on here?

A growing population has a massive impact on global food insecurity. Although it is hard to predict the potential carrying capacity of the Earth, the World Food Programme states that there is enough food produced globally to feed the entire population, which was last measured to be nearing 7.4 billion people. Yet, despite this, an estimated 793 million people live undernourished and in food poverty. Although there has been a decline since 1990-92 (Fig.1), that's still a whopping 10% of the world population!!! But, if there isn’t a global shortage of food, then why are there so many people living in food poverty?

Fig. 1: a comparison between the proportion and location of people in food poverty in 1990-1992 and 2014-2016

Image Source: Food and Agriculture Organization

The World Health Organisation considers there to be three cornerstones affecting food security: access, availability and use.

• Limited access to food can be largely attributed to increased poverty, where individuals do not possess the resources necessary to obtain sufficient nourishment. This was a particular topic on concern in 2008, when food prices reached an all-time high, seeing many people with decreased access to healthy, nutritious food across all parts of the planet. However, in today's world, approximately 98% of the malnourished population are living in less economically developed regions (Fig.1), showing us that the economy plays a huge role in global food security. 

• One of the biggest factors influencing the availability of food is climate change. Certain regions are experiencing increased drought, flooding and unprecedented natural disasters, which is having a major impact on our ability to grow certain food in affected areas and decreasing potential yield. Not to mention that food production itself is contributing  largely to climate change, creating a unsustainable cycle of food insecurity (but I will get into that more later).

• The way food is used can refer to the knowledge and care for our food, (e.g. understanding nutrition and food hygiene). It can also refer to what we actually DO with our food. Did you know that one third of all food produced is thrown away? ONE THIRD!?!?! What?!?! We destroy landscapes, produce tonnes of greenhouse emissions and waste precious water to produce our food just to throw ONE THIRD of it all away?!!! I can't help but find that truly horrifying…

It seems clear that our current methods of food production are unsustainable. With an increasing population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, how do we intend to cope with this increasing demand sustainably, without irreparably damaging the Earth, and without leaving millions in food poverty? Before we can even begin to contemplate this huge question, we will need to take a look at what current food production practices are being utilised across the global and evaluate the environmental and social impacts these practices have. We will then consider the role modelling has in measuring these impacts and predicting the future. In my next post, I will starting by focusing on the industrial livestock production: past, present and future.

Follow me on Twitter: @chlobular for extra snippets regarding food production and climate change!

[1] FAO. 2002. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2001. Rome.

The Beginning of the Road...

Dear Adventurer,

Welcome to The Global Hot Potato! We are about to embark on a voyage through time and space, exploring the complex relationship between global food production and significant changes to our environment. I can't say that I am much of a blogger (yet!), but I am still rather excited to be writing one as part of my degree module: Global Environmental Change. (Please note: terrible puns will be included).

Literally a hot potato... Mmm... Image hosted by: http://www.improbable.com

To introduce myself, my name is Chloe and I am studying an MSc in Environmental Modelling at UCL. Coming from a mathematical background, I have long felt compelled to utilise the power of mathematics to explore areas of growing environmental concern in the world, such as the modelling of climatic trends, population dynamics, resource depletion and intensive farming.

My inspiration for focusing on the topic of food production was ignited after watching Ron Fricke's Samsara, a powerful film demonstrating the parallels between human behaviour and the Earth's natural processes. Within it, we are shown graphic scenes of current food manufacturing practices carried out in small corners of the world: out of sight, out of mind. And this really got me thinking about how a large proportion of us choose to suppress thoughts of this vast industry and its environmental impact, despite being confronted with food choices multiple times a day, every day. And I am no exception to this majority, but as an avid cook (and wannabe environmentalist), I feel it is my duty to raise concerns for such matters and address some general, burning questions within this blog, such as:

• How is food production impacting the environment?
• How is climate change affecting global food security?
• What is society's role in influencing production practices?
• What can we do to stop being part of the problem?

I hope this has given you some food for thought (yes, cliché food pun #1), and a general idea of things to come. With today aptly being the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, and yesterday World Food Day, I will bid you farewell with an incredibly interesting article from the International Business Times about how the discrimination of women within the agricultural industry may be increasing food poverty and decreasing food security.

Hit me up with any questions you have (big or small) in the comments section, and I will happily answer!

¡Hasta luego amigos!