Hey everyone! In this last post, let’s take a break from frogs and look at the larger picture: the environment and food security. The link between the two seems evident, especially after the last few weeks of discussing the human consumption of insects and frogs, but I would like to dive deeper.
The environment is becoming increasingly securitised especially after the Cold War, when notions of what “security risks” were broadened to include non-conventional threats. This may legitimise extreme measures against climate change as climate change is portrayed as a security threat against nations, but if we see how political discourse constructs the threat of climate change, this could lead to a separation of the root causes of climate change and its impacts, encouraging measures that only address one side of a problem.
Why do I bring this up? Because food security is often one of those issues which is inadvertently separated from “climate change” through the securitisation of nature. Although we see the rise of sustainable agriculture (like how frogs are involved in rice farming), it is also possible that by trying to convey and convince people of the danger climate change plays to humans, direct human impacts such as the risk it plays on our food security, rather than impacts it has on nature, is emphasised.
This could lead to an idea that food security is separate from other impacts of climate change, encouraging solutions that only deal with the issue in an isolated way. For example, this paper analyses measures in Africa to increase food security, and it was found that most measures involved increasing production of food, and mainly through expansion of cultivated area. These activities, although successful in increasing farming production output, scored negatively in terms of sustainability.
I may have only delved deeper into a few topics on this froggie blog, but I hope to not lose sight of the big picture in addressing problems. Food security and climate change go hand in hand, it is not a matter of prioritising one over the other.
<3 Anna
Hi Anna! I definitely agree with you that there isn’t enough emphasis on the relationship between food security and nature. Looking at how you mentioned food security in this post definitely reminded me of something I learnt about in Geography. Have you heard of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus? I’ll leave a link to an article on the WEF nexus below. According to the FAO, this approach suggests that these three resources are interdependent and ensuring the security of each one would involve taking care of the other two as well. If all three aspects are well taken care of, not only can we improve resource security, we can also greatly reduce environmental degradation from unsustainable practices related to resource consumption and curb the impacts of climate change. What do you think of this concept? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Article by FAO on the WEF nexus: http://www.fao.org/3/a-bl496e.pdf
Hello Anna, chanced across your blog and is it possible if we had a more in depth discussion regarding frog farming? I’m actually somewhat of a practitioner myself and would love to discuss and/or share more.
Hi there!
Thanks for reaching out! I would love to learn more about the topic from you. I am no expert, everything I know is from finding readings so as to write some blog posts. Sharing your knowledge and experience would mean a lot to me!
If you are interested in a casual discussion via video call/ other modes, do message me at annalow@u.nus.edu. I’ll look out for your email.
– Anna
Nice to see that post, because I read same content on: anchor.