Agriculture is rapidly finding itself at the center of the climate change debate at national and international levels. In the U.S., members of Congress from farm states have threatened to block climate legislation unless agriculture is explicitly included as part of an offset program (including support for chemically intensive no-till practices, Grist's Tom Philpott reports). And this week at the global talks on a new climate pact in Bonn, farming was mentioned for the first time within the negotiating text.
Yesterday in Bonn, IATP co-organized a discussion on the effects of global climate change on agriculture and agriculture's potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. You can view the PowerPoint presentations of Doreen Stabinsky of Greenpeace International, IATP President Jim Harkness and Lim Li Lin of Third World Network. The International Institute for Sustainable Development has a rundown of the discussion as well as photos (scroll down to the bottom).
One of the most complicated questions associated with including agriculture in climate talks is how new rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could affect efforts to combat global hunger. As we reported in March, the global climate, food and water crises are interconnected. We cannot effectively address each separately. Or as IATP President Jim Harkness noted in a Reuters story from Bonn, "We ignore these connections at our peril."
