Creating a climate for food security: the business, people & landscapes in food production

AbstractBalancing human and environmental needs is urgent where food security and sustainability are under pressure from population increases and changing climates. Requirements of food security, social justice and environmental justice exacerbate the impact of agriculture on the supporting ecological environment. Viability of the Australian rural economy is intrinsically linked to food production and food security requiring systematic evaluation of climate change adaptation strategies for agricultural productivity.This food-systems research drew on global climate change literature to identify risks and adaptation. The transdisciplinary team applied specialist experience through collaboration in social science, economics and land-management to provide comprehensive methods to engage researchers and decision-makers making decisions across the food-system. Research focus on the dairy and horticulture sectors in the SW-WA and SEQld provided a comparative context in food-systems and regional economies. Expert knowledge was engaged through a series of panel meetings to test and challenge existing practice applying conceptual and empirical approaches in Structural Equation, Value-Chain, Supply-Chain modelling and Analytical Hierarchy modelling. This iterative action-research process provided immediate generation and transfer of expert knowledge across the involved sectors. The scenarios and adaptive strategies provide evidence-based pathways to strengthen food-systems; account for climate change mitigation and adaptation; and weather-proof regional economies in the face of climate change. Balancing human and environmental needs is urgent where food security and sustainability are under pressure from population increases and changing climates. Requirements of food security, social justice and environmental justice exacerbate the impact of agriculture on the supporting ecological environment. Viability of the Australian rural economy is intrinsically linked to food production and food security requiring systematic evaluation of climate change adaptation strategies for agricultural productivity.This food-systems research drew on global climate change literature to identify risks and adaptation. The transdisciplinary team applied specialist experience through collaboration in social science, economics and land-management to provide comprehensive methods to engage researchers and decision-makers making decisions across the food-system. Research focus on the dairy and horticulture sectors in the SW-WA and SEQld provided a comparative context in food-systems and regional economies. Expert knowledge was engaged through a series of panel meetings to test and challenge existing practice applying conceptual and empirical approaches in Structural Equation, Value-Chain, Supply-Chain modelling and Analytical Hierarchy modelling. This iterative action-research process provided immediate generation and transfer of expert knowledge across the involved sectors. The scenarios and adaptive strategies provide evidence-based pathways to strengthen food-systems; account for climate change mitigation and adaptation; and weather-proof regional economies in the face of climate change. The triple-bottom-line provided a comprehensive means of addressing social, economic and ecological requirements, and the modelling showed the interacting dynamics between these dimensions. In response to climate change, the agricultural sector must now optimise practices to address the interaction between economic, social and environmental investment. Differences in positions between the industry sector, the government and research sectors demonstrate the need for closer relationships between industry and government if climate change interventions are to be effectively targeted. Modelling shows that capacity for adaptation has a significant bearing on the success of implementing intervention strategies. Without intervention strategies to build viability and support, farm businesses are more likely to fail as a consequence of climate change. A framework of capitals that includes social components - cultural, human and social capital-, economic components -economic and physical capital - and ecological components -ecological and environmental capital - should be applied to address capacities. A priority assessment of climate change intervention strategies shows that strategies categorised as ‘Technology & Extension’ are most important in minimising risk from climate change impacts. To implement interventions to achieve ‘Food Business Resilience’, ‘Business Development’ strategies and alternative business models are most effective. ‘Research and Development’ interventions are essential to achieve enhanced ‘Adaptive Capacity’.The individual components of TBL Adaptive Capacity can be achieved through ‘Policy and Governance’ interventions for building ‘Social Capital’ capacity, ‘Research and Development’ will develop ‘Economic Capital’, and ‘Business Development’ strategies will build ‘Ecological Capital’.These strategic interventions will promote food security and maintain resilience in local food systems, agricultural production communities and markets, global industrial systems, and developing world food systems. Climate change mitigation and adaptation interventions reflect a rich conceptualisation drawing from the Australian context, but also acknowledging the moral context of global association.Please cite this report as:Wardell-Johnson, A, Uddin, N, Islam, N, Nath, T, Stockwell, B, Slade, C 2013 Creating a climate for food security: the businesses, people and landscapes in food production, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 144.Balancing human and environmental needs is urgent where food security and sustainability are under pressure from population increases and changing climates. Requirements of food security, social justice and environmental justice exacerbate the impact of agriculture on the supporting ecological environment. Viability of the Australian rural economy is intrinsically linked to food production and food security requiring systematic evaluation of climate change adaptation strategies for agricultural productivity.This food-systems research drew on global climate change literature to identify risks and adaptation. The transdisciplinary team applied specialist experience through collaboration in social science, economics and land-management to provide comprehensive methods to engage researchers and decision-makers making decisions across the food-system. Research focus on the dairy and horticulture sectors in the SW-WA and SEQld provided a comparative context in food-systems and regional economies. Expert knowledge was engaged through a series of panel meetings to test and challenge existing practice applying conceptual and empirical approaches in Structural Equation, Value-Chain, Supply-Chain modelling and Analytical Hierarchy modelling. This iterative action-research process provided immediate generation and transfer of expert knowledge across the involved sectors. The scenarios and adaptive strategies provide evidence-based pathways to strengthen food-systems; account for climate change mitigation and adaptation; and weather-proof regional economies in the face of climate change. The triple-bottom-line provided a comprehensive means of addressing social, economic and ecological requirements, and the modelling showed the interacting dynamics between these dimensions. In response to climate change, the agricultural sector must now optimise practices to address the interaction between economic, social and environmental investment. Differences in positions between the industry sector, the government and research sectors demonstrate the need for closer relationships between industry and government if climate change interventions are to be effectively targeted. Modelling shows that capacity for adaptation has a significant bearing on the success of implementing intervention strategies. Without intervention strategies to build viability and support, farm businesses are more likely to fail as a consequence of climate change. A framework of capitals that includes social components - cultural, human and social capital-, economic components -economic and physical capital - and ecological components -ecological and environmental capital - should be applied to address capacities. A priority assessment of climate change intervention strategies shows that strategies categorised as ‘Technology & Extension’ are most important in minimising risk from climate change impacts. To implement interventions to achieve ‘Food Business Resilience’, ‘Business Development’ strategies and alternative business models are most effective. ‘Research and Development’ interventions are essential to achieve enhanced ‘Adaptive Capacity’.The individual components of TBL Adaptive Capacity can be achieved through ‘Policy and Governance’ interventions for building ‘Social Capital’ capacity, ‘Research and Development’ will develop ‘Economic Capital’, and ‘Business Development’ strategies will build ‘Ecological Capital’.These strategic interventions will promote food security and maintain resilience in local food systems, agricultural production communities and markets, global industrial systems, and developing world food systems. Climate change mitigation and adaptation interventions reflect a rich conceptualisation drawing from the Australian context, but also acknowledging the moral context of global association

Rural Farming Community Climate Change Acceptance: Impact of Science and Goverment Credibility

Independent research of Western Australian rural people’s attitudes to climate change and influences on their attitudes offered a preliminary assessment of the WA rural sector’s understanding of climate change and insights into potential barriers to communication. Of the farmers surveyed (N=255) only a third (33%) reported to the researchers they agreed climate change was occurring and just 19% believed climate change was human induced. Over half (52%) were uncertain whether human-induced climate change was occurring and only 31% thought climate change represented a major threat to the future of their farm businesses. Results also showed that only 33% of all respondents (N =411) found climate change information easy to understand. In addition, results indicated that generally respondents had concerns with the credibility of science and low levels of trust in government, which contributed to their attitudes to climate change.These results suggested the barriers to climate change communication resided with the very structures that sought to communicate with rural people and were embedded in the comprehensibility, relevancy and saliency of climate change information. The results indicated that science and government may need to consider utilising alternative strategies to distribute climate change knowledge within the rural sector. The results suggest that a better approach to distributing climate change information would be to frame the information within the local socio-cultural, economic and biophysical environment of the people it was intended to influence

Integrative Science to Achieve Long-Term Impact in Conservation: The Use of Participatory Mapping to Improve Trans-disciplinarity

International audienc

People in context: critical social dimensions in complex landscape systems

Landscape-based approaches to solving environmental issues have been widely recommended by scientists and policy makers. These issues are found at the interface of social and ecological systems. Understanding the social dimensions of landscape issues has been suggested as part of the solution. This doctoral research integrated theoretical concepts with survey-based numerical taxonomy and qualitative analysis to explore three social dimensions underpinning decision-making at the landscape scale in rural Australia. These linked social dimensions that provided a research focus were sense of place and accompanying social capital that is embedded within private, social and institutional practice in discourses of the environment. Complex systems theory provided the framework to explore the interactions and relationships between these dimensions and to describe the emergent processes. The first phase of this research developed theoretically and empirically derived conceptual models for the three dimensions. These models provided a basis for operationalisation for the survey-based numerical taxonomy in the second phase. Data for this analysis was collected through survey questionnaires (124 returned with 60% response rate) from two social catchments (the Katanning Zone in the Blackwood Basin in Western Australia and the Condamine Headwaters in the upper reaches of the Murray Darling Basin in Queensland). The results from the numerical taxonomy provided a focus for semi-structured interviews (24 representative participants) that provided further analysis through qualitative methods in the third phase. Combining conceptual models with quantitative and qualitative analysis was used to expose three emergent processes that maintain resilience in these landscape systems. The first was formed through the interactive social relationships between communities of place, identity and interest that constitute social catchments. The second emergent process formed at the nexus of local, scientific and Indigenous frameworks of knowledge. The interactive social catchment relationships and three knowledge frameworks dictated the relative weightings of social, ecological and economic values of the triple bottom line, which formed the third emergent process. It is suggested that the interactions of these emergent processes characterised resilience in these systems. The social dimensions in this thesis provided a focus that suggests that the interactions between community in a social catchment governs the predominance of knowledge form and the accommodation of the values in the triple bottom line. The integration of theoretical, quantitative and qualitative approaches can be couched within a complex systems framework. This contributes to a re-framing of the social relationships in landscapes to identify social catchments as the appropriate focus for interaction in decision-making at the landscape scale

Social relationships in landscape systems: Identifying values and variables that drive social interactions.

No abstract available

Value Connections between People and Landscapes

Biodiversity fits within a broader landscape, not only of ecological systems, but also of social, cultural and economic systems. Through identifying and understanding different voices, values and practices in biodiversity conservation we improve the potential for effective long-term biodiversity conservation that is peaceful and inclusive. This book draws on the collective knowledge of a linked cycle of theory and practice. The contributors benefit from being grounded by practical biodiversity communities and draw on experience at the global scale. Insights from practice in Indigenous, developing and developed contexts in Asian, Australian and African landscapes are included. The integration of landscape practice theory with technological, socially grounded and philosophical perspectives presents social justice as a rationale for biodiversity conservation with as much power as plant and animal conservation. This collective synthesis of Indigenous, scientific and local knowledge guides practice in effective and sustained biodiversity conservation in a breadth of contexts. This ecology of peace provides a compelling reason for working with compassion in biodiversity conservation. [Book Synopsis

Practices for Social Justice in Biodiversity

Biodiversity fits within a broader landscape, not only of ecological systems, but also of social, cultural and economic systems. Through identifying and understanding different voices, values and practices in biodiversity conservation we improve the potential for effective long-term biodiversity conservation that is peaceful and inclusive. This book draws on the collective knowledge of a linked cycle of theory and practice. The contributors benefit from being grounded by practical biodiversity communities and draw on experience at the global scale. Insights from practice in Indigenous, developing and developed contexts in Asian, Australian and African landscapes are included. The integration of landscape practice theory with technological, socially grounded and philosophical perspectives presents social justice as a rationale for biodiversity conservation with as much power as plant and animal conservation. This collective synthesis of Indigenous, scientific and local knowledge guides practice in effective and sustained biodiversity conservation in a breadth of contexts. This ecology of peace provides a compelling reason for working with compassion in biodiversity conservation. [Book Synopsis

Exploring the Determinants of World Class Agriculture and Food Systems: An Overview

No abstract available