Climate Change and Food Security: setting the track for the ... - FAO

20. Alberto Saldamando from the International Indian Treaty Council, USA
There are many related themes with regard to Climate Change and Food Security. I would
suggest the following: water and false market solutions.
There is no doubt that global warming has caused flooding, drought, the melting of glaciers and
other water related phenomena that affect the production of food and food security, most
directly and immediately felt by Indigenous Peoples (such as the Caribou, Reindeer, and other
species relied upon by Indigenous Peoples of the North). Effects of climate change on rainfall,
flooding and drought on subsistence are also a major concern not only on Indigenous Peoples
but local subsistence communities throughout the world.
The affect of climate change on the world’s water and its relation to food production and
distribution is surely soon to be felt by urban cultures. Previously rare storms and tornados are
already being felt in food production in the mid-west of the United States, the so called “farm
belt.”
False “market solutions” are related to the theme of water and food security. The production of
bio-fuels, as an example, are already affecting the availability and access to food and
contributing to food insecurity throughout the world.
False solutions such as carbon trading and carbon offsets also negatively affect the ability of
Indigenous Peoples to provide for their own subsistence, particularly those close to greenhouse
gas carbon emitters in so-called “developed countries”. Allowing these industries to continue
producing greenhouse gasses and to encouraging the increase of their output of these poisons
severely affect the environment and abilities of subsistence cultures and their food security in
“developed” countries such as the United States and Canada (e.g., tar sand development in
Alberta, Canada, severely affecting groundwater, rivers and streams. These polluters also have a
severe effect on fishing and hunting, relied upon by many Indigenous Peoples.)
Alberto
Alberto Saldamando, General Counsel
International Indian Treaty Council
2940 16th Street, Suite 305
San Francisco
21. Rudolf Hermes from the Andaman Sea Fisheries Research & Development
Center, Thailand
Dear Colleague,
From a fisheries point of view, an uncertainty which could be added is the impact of acidification
on resources (and habitats – corals).
In addition, though coastal people and fishers are mentioned on page 2, please make sure that
the differences of the fisheries sector (in particular, marine capture fisheries) to the agriculture
sector are well covered.
Cheers
Rudolf
Dr Rudolf Hermes
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Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition
http://km.fao.org/fsn
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