TED Explores: Food for the Future | TED Countdown

food is very important because it's part of our daily life food is culture food is life it's part of who we are you remember the moments that you share over food It's Magic this is what binds people together what we eat really shapes our world when we think about the environment and climate change and things like that we usually think about smoke stacks and tail pipes and burning fossil fuels and that's fair but it turns out Agriculture and our food system are actually one of the biggest things we've ever done to the planet and it's only number two to fossil fuels when it comes to climate change every day we make hundreds of decisions about food what should I eat for dinner will it taste good is it healthy but we also need to ask what's it doing to the planet I'm man zamari a long time journalist a Ted speaker and a mom I care about the planet I'm well informed but I didn't know until recently that as much as a third of emissions that are warming the globe come from food a third The Way We Grow process package transport all we eat and throw away is a problem for the climate but changing what we eat can go a long way food can also be a solution on this show we are talking to chefs climate experts and scientists all kinds of people who are finding ways to help us eat sustainably and make sure it's still delicious and to understand exactly what that means we need to start with why things have to change about 10,000 years ago humans began to farm this Agricultural Revolution was a turning point in our history that enabled people to settle build and create in short agriculture enabled the existence of civilization today approximately 40% of our planet is Farmland in the future how can we feed every member of a growing population a healthy diet meeting this goal will require nothing short of a second Agricultural Revolution the first Agricultural Revolution was characterized by expansion and exploitation feeding people at the expense of forests wildlife and water and destabilizing the climate in the process that's not an option the next time around agriculture depends on a stable climate with predictable seasons and weather patterns this means we can't keep expanding our agricultural lands because doing so will undermine the environmental conditions that make agriculture possible in the first place we can feed Humanity within the environmental limits of the Earth but there's a very small margin of error so we know food contributes a lot to climate change but a third of all emissions how did we get to such a huge number Jonathan Foley an environmental scientist from Project draw down breaks it down by the Numbers this is the land that we use on Earth just to grow our crops here in green here's the land we use to graze our animals here in red together that's a huge amount of land it means that there's some massive environmental impacts just from the sheer real estate of our food system we find that agriculture land use and the food system as a whole contribute about 22% of global emissions let's look under the hood and see what's involved in this the first is deforestation that's about half of all those food emissions at 11% of global emissions put that in perspective the entire US economy emits 10 to 11% deforestation's even bigger second is methane from livestock now we hear a lot of jokes about what cows do and all that kind of thing but the science is actually really clear livestock are a huge emiter of methane and methane's a very big driver of climate change and we have to make that connection third is basically industrial farming methods especially overusing chemicals like fertilizers and treating soil really badly we have to think about that too and then finally we have rice production another methane producer at around 2% but that's not all Beyond these direct emissions of food that 22% there are some indirect ways the food system emits greenhouse gas as well for example discarded food might end up in a landfill somewhere rotting and producing methane and then we have to think about all the energy and materials it takes to grow food and then later to process transport package and prepare it so when we look at these data tells us that yes

food releases 22% of greenhouse gases directly but when we add all the other sources it grows to something like 34% roughly a third of all the greenhouse gases on Earth in other words we cannot solve climate change unless we also address the problems of food alongside fossil fuels and energy we also need to look at diets now this one gets a little bit tricky and people don't like to talk about it but we're going to need to because it turns out some foods end up emitting a lot more greenhouse gases than others just look at the top things on this list of greenhouse gas emissions per pound of food what do they all have in common they're all animal products and then look at beef at the top of the list it's literally off the chart so this is kind of a big deal and that's one of the reasons among many that shifting diets towards more plant-rich options is a good idea for climate so the way we produce food and the food we choose to eat certainly affects our climate but it's also a 2-way street our warming climate is already affecting our ability to grow food in more dramatic and personal ways than you might think to learn more I went to a very unusual dinner party with Chef Sam Cass a decade ago Sam was both a White House chef and Senior policy adviser for healthy food initiatives then in 2015 frustrated that food wasn't on the global climate agenda he hosted a much talked about last supper featuring Foods threatened by climate change he's been hosting these dinners ever since let's start with the crab cakes in the Pacific Northwest two years ago they closed the snow crab fishery for the first time in its history that fishery had gone from 11. 7 billion crabs to 1. 9 billion last year that's over an 80% collapse of that population in just 5 years let's turn to fruit last year we lost 95% of the Georgia Peach craft in our lifetimes I don't believe we'll be growing peaches in Georgia at all there are going to be some people listening who are like well boohoo you and your fancy friends can't have your champagne your Cava and your crab cakes exactly how do you explain the stakes to them oh I wish I could stop there uh so let's keep going let's talk about wheat and rice and chickpeas Staples 60% of the world's calories comes from wheat rice and corn 60% from those three crops okay the models on wheat so wheat will be around for our kids it's just going to become more expensive for one degree of warming we'll see about a 7 and 12% decline in yield that's also true in rice they go up to 40% declines of yields for rice if we start to hit the 2 degre warming 3 and5 billion with a B people rely on rice for a daily part if not the majority of their calories it is impossible to comprehend genuinely the economic implications of declines of Staples on that magnitude the malnutrition and food insecurity implications of those Commodities getting disrupted like that and the political in ility that will bring how soon I mean in some ways it's already starting to happen but you start to get into those numbers in the next 15 years like that's not that far away I think there's going to be some people who are like oh my God first you told me what I needed to eat for my brain health for my body then you told me I needed to go to the farmers market and buy organic when I can MH and now what do you want me to do them to do and they're right I'm annoyed too this is the one place in our daily lives that we can collectively have a really big impact and exercise that feeling inside of like wanting to do right by the Next Generation wanting to help play a positive role in this and how we eat gives us a shot every single day to try to do a better job and it doesn't have to be some big overhaul I'm not saying don't eat meat I eat meat once a week you know making a shift to not do a steak and to do something else is it well adds up to really big numbers okay so let's talk about it meat love it or hate it produces more greenhouse gas than anything else humans eat and no one likes to give up something that they love but eating sustainably doesn't have to mean giving up on enjoying food it does mean introducing more people to different kinds of food which can be way more fun than you might think Atlanta entrepreneur pinky Cole is

famous for a chain of fast food restaurants called vegan hello to all my fellow in the audience Yes you heard that right at a recent event the crowd went crazy for her because she's done the seemingly impossible made the idea of eating vegan fun when you come into the doors of vegan the first thing that you're going to hear is we got a in the building I went to check out the secret behind the sauce for myself hi okay what are we making okay so we are making the Hollywood hooker okay and the secret to this is like you just put your mayonnaise on the side and you have to like gooey it with mayonnaise I mean let's be clear this is not like health food right technically no pinky grew up in a vegan rosarian household but she's taken pains to create a brand that doesn't equate going vegan with anything remotely Pious or righteous taste she leaves has to come first it's delicious people love that sandwich they go crazy over it this is fun food this is the brand where every single time somebody comes to the door they want to take pictures okay the weird part is like fun sexy yes vegan like sexy vegan cuz historically vegan has always been looked at as boring very green it's a salad and I'm like I want to debunk that myth I want to add some razzled dazzle to vegan food because people identify to cool yeah and if I can make it cool then I can teach you about the planet why it's good for you you need to do this cuz this is the wave is that what we need to do in other parts of dealing with climate change we do because the minute people hear climate change they like check out the average person in America is not thinking about climate change so I think that the messaging and how we as a people navigate through this is make it relatable for people to understand if that's what it takes to get there if we can get to the Finish Line then again it's a win for everybody do meat eaters come in here that's my audience what 70% of my audience is the meat eater 70% a lot of people come up to me and say hey pinky if it wasn't for you I never would even knew what vegan food was like people don't even realize you eat vegan food every day most of your sides are vegan right what we do is we hold out the hand we grab your hand and we bring you into this community and then you look up and you don't even realize like oh I'm vegan and oh I love this movement and then we can begin to start having those conversations and I feel like it is my responsibility as a vegan restaurant tour in this Hospitality space in a space where still this you know people are still trying to figure it out it is my responsibility to be that change agent in this space so changing our eating habits isn't easy but it is doable but what about the food that gets left on our plates every year in the us alone nearly 40% of the millions of tons the food produced goes unsold or uneaten we need to waste less food one of the most and let's say lwh hanging fruits that we have when it comes to sustainability is reducing the amount of organic waste that we're putting into the environment the amount of food that is wasted in Europe is equivalent to the amount of food that is produced in Africa every year anerobic decomposition of organic matter this is without oxygen generates methane and so when we leave food in a landfill with no uh oxygen it starts spum this methane 1 kilogram of organic waste is 3 Kg of CO2 equivalent basically 1 kgam of organic waste is like 1. 3 l of gasoline 800 million people suffering physical hunger every day it's nuts and at the same time wasting the food is wasting a lot of money so it's not only morally inadequate environmentally inadequate financially is absolutely absurd so how do we solve that problem the people are hungry and food that gets tossed usually ends up in a landfill where it's covered with other garbage emitting massive amounts of Planet warming methane someone who understands the full scope of this problem is Jasmine Crow Houston hunger is not an issue of scarcity it's a logistics problem and in the US particularly we spend $218 billion on food we never eat she's the founder of a company named gter that's redirecting uneaten food from grocery stores restaurants and businesses instead of getting tossed gter workers sort them into three broad categories if they haven't expired gter puts them aside to take to food kitchens schools and churches if the food isn't rotten it gets delivered to farms for animals to eat the rest gets composted and turned back into good dirt Jasmine says companies pay for Waste Management

anyway they might as well pay to have their excess food donated plus this way they get a tax deduction the goal is to turn food waste into a win win better for Hungry people the climate and businesses so what is specifically being brought in today so lots of breads lots of breakfast items snacks Bagels um English muffins you get people who are like ah this is so annoying this company is creating more hassle for us you know sometimes at the top but not at the bottom a good example of that is when the Atlanta airport is one of gutter's customers what we found is when we went over to the airport and I started talking to different employees about it these are people that themselves are living on the marginal poverty line making $9 $10 an hour at the airport and so many of them said I love good I used to hate having to throw this food away when I needed it at home for my family somebody's watching this and they're like yay Jasmine goter yeah but what can I do if you're an everyday person and you're working and you're supporting your local stores your local businesses ask them what they're doing with their food waste this is your opportunity to get them to do something and that has been the Catalyst for a lot of the customers that we have today Jasmine's got a great solution to get food that would be wasted to those who need it but what can we do how can each of us waste less food at a grocery store in New York City I roam the aisles with food waste expert Dana gunders in grocery stores often times in the produce section you see this like piles right I don't know it puts us into a headp space we want to buy more yeah Dana says that food waste has five times the greenhouse gas footprint of the entire aviation industry and we all contribute to it every day this is a lot of cilantro and I feel like it always ends up at the bottom of the drawer wilted I actually store them in a jar of water in my refrigerator and I find it helps double triple the amount of time that cilantro can last small changes at home like the way we store fresh produce can add up to big change Dana's got other tips too shopping is really where we commit to food and so we need to be careful not to over bu old school things like shopping lists and meal planning really help next as I tell my friends at the end of dinner love your leftovers they are the only true free lunch and when you get sick of them you can move on to number three which is freeze your food your freezer is like a magic pause button and so many things can be Frozen that you don't think of bread milk cheese and that half jar of pasta sauce you didn't use next use it up be sure to shop your fridge before you restock it and lastly learn your labels Best Buy and enjoy by are really just guesstimates of when food is at its best they're not an indication that it's gone bad I think one of the things certainly when it comes to climate is people feel like well you know little old me if I do one thing really what difference does it make how do you explain to people that they should pay more attention I think one of the most important things to not be all or nothing you know if you do a little bit better at managing your food and you one night a week make a choice to you know use what you have instead of getting take out even if you're kind of tired that literally can avoid that food from going to a landfill and emitting methane okay and we as consumers are the largest source of food going to waste in the US so if we don't start to work on this as individuals we will not make a real dent in this problem these strategies are not earth shattering they're things that many of our parents and grandparents did and you can be sure that my son is learning them as well because as we tackle this massive climate crisis reducing food waste really is the low hanging fruit but no matter how sustainably we grow that fruit it's only a good use of resources and nutrition if we all do our part to make sure that it actually gets eaten clearly we cannot grow and eat and waste food like we've been doing but the global food system is complex it's intricate and different everywhere you go and that is why some food innovators are looking to pinpoint certain problems with approaches that may take more getting used to here's a peek at some of the exciting things happening in the field of food production that might help us bend the curve on our emissions from field to table one idea technologists are using animal meat cells to grow real beef chicken and duck meat in Labs so we take

these cells and put them in a cultivator that provides a safe and nurturing and warm environment for the cells to grow into chicken meat once we grow this meat for about 2 weeks we are ready to harvest it and shape it into the products that we love this can be done with beef salmon duck or any species that you can imagine it's a Kinder way to make meat but it's also kinder to the environment it is real animal tissue it's real animal cells The Taste is phenomenal it tastes just like chicken it could be a long time before you order a lab grown Burger in a restaurant but meanwhile Farms are using all kinds of AI sensors and robots to monitor their crops and cut down on resources there's also a lot of talk about regenerative farming using older traditional techniques that till the land less letting the soil restore itself and capture more carbon I would Define regenerative agriculture as farming with nature instead of farming against nature so that would be practices like applying compost planting cover crops reducing tillage managed grazing planting perennials basically anything that builds healthy soil we'll also be introduced to more types of food that may be less familiar to us now we will have to learn how to eat many more insects uh when it comes to animals we're normally eating about 10 species there are about 2,000 edible insects and we will have to learn how to incorporate that in our diets we'll seaweeds in a massive way we'll have to learn how to cultivate many crops in our cities vertically so we can use less land less water less energy vertical farming is no longer some fluffy futuristic concept but it's already here as we speak today to change our lives and our planet for the better we don't use any pesticides we can recycle most of the water that we use we don't even need aable land in fact one of our Farms used to be a Budweiser factory it will take all of these methods from the most high-tech to the lowest cost to revolutionize farming as we've heard we'll also need a global shift to more plant-based diets and much less food waste all of this combined can put less pressure on our planet and help us make more of what is available we can eat within the environmental limits of the Earth but we need to get going this is just the beginning of this new chapter for food but I hope we wet your appetite to learn more about the people working hard to make what we eat sustainable nutritious and tasty you can see the full talks from all of our speakers and many more at ted. com I'm man zamarod thank you so much for watching one up te