Food and thriving people in the 21st century
Geoff Tansey
In this talk, Geoff Tansey reflects on why food security is not the best way of thinking about the challenges of feeding everyone well, the differing narratives around productivity and sufficiency used to characterise our food future, the big threats we face, paradigm shifts and system changes needed to meet them, and ways to take action.
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Running order:
Introduction: 0 - 1 minute 25 seconds
Part 1. Rethinking food security: 1 min 25 sec - 7 min 19 sec
Part 2. Four key threats: 7 min 19 sec - 10 min 12 sec
Part 3. A thought experiment: 10 min 12 sec - 12 min 42 sec
Part 4. Food at a crossroads: 12 min 42 sec - 18 min 25 sec
Part 5. Transforming food systems and societies: 18 min 25 sec - 21 min 08 sec
Part 6. Taking action: 21 min 08 sec - 26 min 31 sec
Part 7. Final reflections: 26 min 31 sec - end
(Published 2014)
Further reading
The issues raised in this talk are discussed further in my referenced article 'Food and thriving people: Paradigm shifts for fair and sustainable food systems', Food and Energy Security, vol 2 no 1, available here.
European Commission (2011), Sustainable food consumption and production in a resource-constrained world, 3rd SCAR foresight exercise, download here.Davies, J., S. Sandström, A. Shorrocks, and E. N. Wolff (2006), ‘The Global Distribution of Household Wealth’, Wider Angle, (2) 4-7, available here.
Fraser, E.D.G. and A. Rimas (2010), Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations, New York and London: Random House.
Gerard Hastings, ‘Why corporate power is a public health priority’, BMJ 2012;345:e5124, 21 August 2012.
International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). 2009. Agriculture at the crossroads, synthesis report. Island Press, Washington, DC. Available here.
Jackson, T. (2009), Prosperity without growth? the transition to a sustainable economy, London: Sustainable Development Commission, download here; revised and published as a book of the same name by Earthscan 2010, with a 2nd edition in 2016 by Routledge.
Donella H Meadows, ed by Diana Wright (2009), Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Earthscan, London.
Links
Evan Fraser's website, Feeding Nine Billion, has some short, illustrated videos discussing some of these issues.
New Economics Foundation - the UK's leading think tank promoting social, economic and environmental justice. You can download 'The Great Transition' report here.
The Sarkozy Commission's full title is Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress and its report is available to download here.
Colin Tudge's work today focuses on The Campaign for Real Farming.
The Worldwatch Institute was founded in 1974 by Lester Brown in Washington DC and produced annual state of the world reports until they closed in the late 2010s. Their 2010 report dealt with Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability.
Geoff Tansey works for fair, healthy and sustainable food systems as an independent writer and consultant. He is a member and a trustee of The Food Ethics Council.
His books include The Food System: a guide (with Tony Worsley) and co-editorship of The future control of food - A guide to international negotiations and rules on intellectual property, biodiversity and food security.
In June 2005, he received one of six Joseph Rowntree ‘Visionaries for a Just and Peaceful World’ Awards and, in 2008, he won the Derek Cooper Award for best food campaigner/educator, at the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards.
He has degrees in soil science (Univ of Aberdeen) and history and social studies of science (Sussex Univ). He helped found and edit the journal Food Policy in the mid-1970s, has worked on various agricultural development projects in Turkey, Mongolia, Albania and Kazakstan and travelled widely.
He was honorary visiting professor of food policy at Leeds Metropolitan University from 1996-99, was honorary research fellow in the Department of Peace Studies until 2015 and is now an honorary research fellow at Cardiff University, honorary teaching fellow at the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University and honorary visiting fellow at the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University.
Follow-up
If you want to arrange for follow-up discussions for a class with Geoff Tansey via the internet – over Skype or some other service - please contact him.
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