Samantha Noll (Washington State University): Balancing Food Security & Ecological Resilience in the Age of the Anthropocene

Climate Change and Future Generations - Generations - Public Ethics International Seminars; a series of seminars organised in collaboration between the Public Ethics Research Group of the DIRPOLIS Institute and the Labont (Center for Ontology) of the University of Turin.
Live streaming on web-ex platform

ABSTRACT

Climate changes are harming the resilience of ecosystems and agricultural production. We live in an age where over one billion people are going hungry and this number is expected to rise as climate change impacts displace communities, separating them from their means of food production. In this context, prioritizing agricultural production, and thus food security, may seem like the ethical path that we should follow. On the other hand, ecological resilience is also harmed, as species go extinct or migrate due to fluctuating temperatures and shifting weather patterns. This reduction of resilience negatively impacts ecosystem services and the ability of the natural world to support life. From an environmental holist perspective, then, one could argue that the ethical path would be to focus on reducing negative impacts to species and/or local ecosystems rather than increasing crop yields. Thus, there appears to be a tension between the prioritization of crop yields and the mitigation of ecosystem impacts. This talk explores the tension between increasing crop yields and cultivating ecological resilience. Specifically, the first section of the talk outlines the growing problem of human and non-human climate induced migration and how migration impacts food security. After which, I go on to apply ethical theories prominent in food security and environmental ethics to the conflict, illustrating how dominant theories fail to resolve the dispute. I end by arguing that insights coming from food sovereignty movements could help resolve the tension, as they challenge agricultural paradigms and provide a blueprint for cultivating ecological resilience, as well as food-crops, in the age of the Anthropocene.