Climate change, growth and human potential

There is growing concern that climate change is harming global agricultural capacity, especially through an increase in extreme weather events. At the same time, climate change is very likely to already be harming health in ways that interact with food absorption and utilization, for example by increasing the risk of diarrhoea and parasitic infections.Colin Butler has been recruited to the current IPCC assessment for this topic.

Method: synthesis of existing and emerging literature.

People: A/Prof Colin Butler

Climate change, food systems and rural health  – NHMRC project grant

The manifestations of climate change are pressing on Australia’s food and agriculture sector. Food related eco-systems are under extraordinary stress threatening food yields, producer livelihoods and national and regional economies. This will increasingly affect food yield, nutritional quality and food affordability, so increasing the risk of food poverty and insecurity. This will harm physical (e.g. nutrition-related child growth and development, and life-course disease processes) and mental health, directly via changes in food and nutrition security and dietary habits and indirectly via impacts of forced changes in agricultural practices and impaired rural livelihoods. The overarching aim of this project is to understand relationships between climate change, the Australian food system, rural living, and risks to health. Specifically, this research will assess the vulnerability of the Australian food system to climate change and investigate the hypothesised effects of drought and fires on various stages of the food supply chain and the subsequent affect on food availability, access and affordability, and health outcomes.

People: A/Prof Sharon Friel, Prof Tony McMichael, Ms Catie Bradbear, Dr Helen Walls, Dr Mark Howden, Dr Rob Dyball

Food trade policy: maximising benefits for the natural environment, food security, human health and the economy

ARC Discovery grant (submitted March 2011). The project provides a systems-based analysis of the inter-relationships and critical pathways between food trade agreements, climate change, food security and health inequity. Using system dynamics modeling it will model the effects of food trade agreements on health inequity, food insecurity and climate change in the Asia Pacific region, using the example of the new Australia-India Free Trade Agreement. In addition it will map and analyse the global and national governance capacity available to address food trade, climate change, food security and health equity in an integrated way;

People A/Prof Sharon Friel, A/Prof Adrian Kay, Prof Gabriele Bammer, Prof Fran Baum, Prof Ron Labonte, Prof Mala Rao, Prof Don Matheson.

Trade, climate change and health inequity

Underpinning human existence is Earth’s natural resources, and, as the science indicates, weare, in general, pushing the limits. The associated environmental disruption, particularly human-induced climate change, will affect human survival and health, mostly adversely. It will have greatest, and generally earliest, impact on the poorest and most disadvantaged populations on the planet. For more information on this research theme go to see the Health Equity research page.

People: A/Prof Sharon Friel

Identifying and Characterising Resilient Urban Food Systems to Promote Population Health in a Changing Climate

Globally, urban communities are at risk of food insecurity, creating significant challenges for the health and well-being of their urban populations. Food insecurity exists when individuals or households do not have regular access to sufficient, safe, nutritionally adequate, and culturally acceptable foods. The added pressures from climate change on food yields and price will likely exacerbate existing food insecurity in Australia and potentially globally, with consequences for food-related health inequities. Adapting to climate change in ways that benefit the population’s health and society at large therefore requires a food system that is resilient to climatic shocks and based on principles of sustainability and equity. In this project we use a complex systems framework to scope the diversity of urban food sub-systems in the Greater Western Sydney region. Urban food sub-systems may include highly industrial supply chains (e.g. supermarkets), alternative commercial food chains (producer co-ops, community supported agriculture, hobby farms), as well as civic agriculture chains based on household and community gardens. Each urban food sub-system is examined for its relationship with population health, food security, health equity and environmental health, including climate change, thereby allowing us to assess the relative merits of each sub-system in providing nutritious and safe food in an affordable, socially acceptable and sustainable way.

People: A/Prof Sharon Friel, Dr Jane Dixon, A/Prof Gillian Hall, Prof Tony Capon, Mr David Mason, Ms Libby Hattersley, Ms Bronwyn Isaacs, Ms Ferne Edwards, Dr Katrina Proust