Presentation by Diana Francis at the 3rd Trinidad and Tobago Youth Forum on Climate Change, 7th December, 2013

3. 1. Climate change – key messages
2. Food sustainability – key messages
3. Policy – key messages
4. Towards a Practical Policy
Response

4. The causes or factors of Climate Change
have been and are still being studied.
Bottom line:- It’s a result of both human action
(decades of poor practices) and inaction
(decades of ignoring the potential problems)

6. The impacts of Climate Change have been
and are still being observed, measured and
documented!
• Rising Temperatures -> hot and dry days &
nights, heat stress, etc.
• Rising Sea Levels-> eroding coastlines, salt
water intrusion, etc.
• Changing Precipitation Patterns->
droughts, floods, falling water tables, etc.
• More Extreme Events -> more intense/shorter
duration rainfall; extreme heat; more
storms, etc.

7. To do this, there must be a clear
understanding of what climate change
is, why it has/is happening, and its projections
There must be a clear understanding of the
particular activities in agriculture that
contribute to climate change. This has also
been studied and very well documented!

8. Playing ostrich i.e., ‘burying our head in the
sand‘, won’t make the problem go away!
Playing opossum, i.e., ‘rolling over playing
dead’, won’t pause or delay the impacts to
come!

9. Sustainable production:- not a new concept;
been around for decades. Caribbean farmers
used to :• practice composting and crop rotation (for
healthy soils),
• establish windbreaks (for wind protection),
• collect and store water on-farm,
• mix formulated feed with crop residues to
‘stretch’ expensive feed, etc.

12. • Farming & food manufacturing are still
heavy users of chemical inputs,
biogenetically engineered organisms,
artificial additives and non-biodegradable
packaging, compromising environmental
resources.
• They are also very heavy users of water!
• But they are not the only culprit!

13. • inefficient use/waste of natural resources
(soil, water),
• poor allocation and/or ineffective use of
development resources
(financial, human, etc.), and
• growing level of waste in the food value
chain
compromises sustainability, placing more
pressures on sustainable food production!

14. The boundaries of ‘Food’ are now
expanding, e.g.,
• Edible insects may be closer now than
ever before to acceptance in the
Western World as a resource that should
be considered in trying to meet the
world's present and future food needs.
(Insects as Human Food from http://www.foodinsects.com/Insects%20as%20Human%20Food.htm);
Also see: http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3253e/i3253e00.htm

16. m.a.p - mindset,
attitudes and
practices: coined
for this context by
Diana Francis, 2013

17. . . . some scientists are working to convince the
world that a more environmentally friendly
meet is needed and can be made in the lab!

18. Policy is an ‘intention’ to
cause/influence a change through a/some
specific ‘interventions’, to either :
 make a situation ‘better’;
 make a situation ‘less worse’;
 maintain a desirable situation.

19. a ‘prescription’
• to an ailment
(problem) specific to
a patient’s health
profile (industry,
stakeholder or issue),
that needs treatment
(the intervention),
a ‘supplement, ’
• e.g., an ‘energy
drink’ to boost or
enhance a specific
health profile to
help achieve a
well-defined
goal, target, mission
, etc.
NB:
• prescriptions are either multi-symptom (which most people can
take) or very specific, prescribed of a particular symptom (these are
non-transferrable and should not be shared!);
• supplements should be just that:- a supplement and not the main
course or daily diet.

20. 3. Policy
 Policy is a response to a
need, situation, challenge, opportunity, etc. It
sets the stage or frames the interventions
which are the response actions.
 It essentially is a ‘take in-front ’ position
regarding a particular critical situation or
priority issue;
 The PROCESS by which policy is made is as
important as the CONTENT of the policy itself!

21. 3. Policy
 Policy cannot address everything for
everyone, at once or all the time!
 Everything does not need addressing and
everyone does not need an intervention at
the same time!
 Policy must drive change! but know that ‘if it
ent broke, don’t fix it!
 Policy is also DYNAMIC , since things change
all the time!

22. Policy
is one key element that will help us
deal with it

23. Poor/bad practices
in all conventional
economic, industrial, construction, domestic
, entertainment and other activities and
services have led to the current climate
change.

30. Adapted from U.S. Department of the Interior Natural Resource Stewardship and Science
National Park Service