1. Centre for Science and Environment Food Connection: Nutrition, nature, livelihoods (in an increasingly warming world) Sunita Narain Centre for Science and Environment

2. Counting wellbeing Sum of goal is human and environmental wellbeing Question is how to achieve this? What we decide to measure is important. SDGs reflect interconnections between goals and targets within goals SDGs are about a different theory of change Question is how to add the targets and not to subtract and then how to count

3. Centre for Science and Environment Lets deconstruct to construct Why hunger Why malnutrition Is it only about lack of food Or Is it about access to food because we have no safety net to put floor to poverty Is it because small food producers (who are also consumers) are impoverished Is it because extreme weather is double-whammy for vulnerable groups

4. Centre for Science and Environment Small scale producers Why do they lack productivity? Is it because they are poor Or Is it because we do not know how to value agriculture that is low-input and so low-output? Modern agriculture is expensive and so subsidized (green or amber) Or it is industrial and so built for large volumes of low-cost food, feed, fibre and fuel

5. Centre for Science and Environment Support systems Increasing productivity of small scale producers requires investment in support systems 60-80% agriculture remains rainfed. Dependent on increasingly variable rain and hit by extreme weather events Farmers invest in groundwater infrastructure This is private investment (but not recognized). In India 19 million well-owners

6. Centre for Science and Environment Groundwater more crucial

7. Centre for Science and Environment We use water in ‘decentralised’ manner. But we recharge water in ‘centralised’ manner. Lakes, ponds and tanks were the sponges, to harvest rain, to harvest the flood water so that groundwater could be recharged Critical for rainfed agriculture Critical for a climate risked world Rain is decentralised

8. Centre for Science and Environment But decentralised recharge structures disappear

9. Centre for Science and Environment Measure investment in water Recharge of groundwater critical Rain in decentralised and so must invest in water storage systems Can invest in labour intensive water holding structures, not only large irrigation systems Link water investment to increasing productivity of agriculture

10. Centre for Science and Environment Climate increases vulnerability Across our world farmers are hit twice Once because of increasing cost of agriculture and decreasing returns Twice because of increasing extreme and variable weather events Adding to loss Destroying coping ability

11. Centre for Science and Environment The face of India’s farmer Grief, despair, desperation Unseasonal rain, hail, freak storms have destroyed crops over millions of hectares

12. Centre for Science and Environment Not just normal variability

13. Centre for Science and Environment Extreme rainfall events Heavy rainfall events (> 100 mm/day) and very heavy events (>150 mm/day) are increasing and moderate events (5-100 mm/day) are decreasing.

14. Centre for Science and Environment Link method with resilience Increase of productivity has to low-cost Higher cost, higher risk, higher loss Measure resilience as managing risks Resilience is about multiple crops; need crops that are water resilient; need systems of agriculture that can improve coping abilities of farmers

15. Centre for Science and Environment Resilience is not technology It is about cropping pattern It is about food we eat Diets are about food we are ‘sold’ Need to make this link Need to change nature of food industry in climate risked world

16. Centre for Science and Environment Measure investment in resilience 1.Investment in weather forecasting and information dissemination systems 2.Investment in crop insurance systems 3.Investment in building water infrastructure that will improve resilience 4.Investment in complex agro systems – agro- silvo-pastoral systems – that provide fall back options All in ways that do not increase costs of agriculture and so burden on farmers

17. Centre for Science and Environment Measuring investment Small producers caught in spiral of debt Measure investment in their wellbeing For inputs – seeds, pesticides… For water infrastructure For health For education So SDG2 rural infrastructure investment has to be measured in all these areas

18. Centre for Science and Environment Food-sustainability link Cannot ‘green’ agriculture after we ‘brown’ it Sustainability is about what we grow – biodiversity rich and nature-friendly Sustainability is about who grows – local food for livelihood security Sustainability is about how we grow – less intensive and less toxic Sustainability is about what we eat – less processed and more bio-diverse and local

19. Centre for Science and Environment This is not sustainable

20. Centre for Science and Environment Measure sustainability Not in terms of what it takes to first grow food unsustainably and then mitigate its emissions Industrial size livestock management reduces cost of meat produced But it has high environmental costs that need to be measured and accounted for This will value small-producers method of production

21. Centre for Science and Environment Costs of food safety Input intensive agriculture requires greater surveillance and enforcement Farmers add pesticide, antibiotics etc, which needs to be managed safely so that human safety is not compromised Food safety and traceability becomes a new barrier for small producers Measure this cost so that we value and promote different methods of production

22. Centre for Science and Environment How to value good food Measure under-nutrition and over-nutrition World is moving from too little food to food that is high in salt, sugar and fat Has high health costs Governments need to regulate for over- nutrition Need to promote value of home-cooked, seasonal, diverse, organic food

23. Centre for Science and Environment Measuring genetic diversity Food Is nature Food diversity about biological diversity We lose one, we lose the other We lose culture, we lose nature Maintaining genetic diversity will need world to celebrate regional food diversity

24. Centre for Science and Environment First Food: taste of India’s biodiversity

25. Centre for Science and Environment Long, white not rice Huge diversity of rice lost today on our plates Rice for nourishment Rice for medicine Rice that can adapt to rising flood waters Kerala’s Navara Maharashtra’s Ambemohar Karnataka’s Kayame (drought and salinity resistant) Chattisgarh’s Alcha

26. Centre for Science and Environment Rice diversity: nutrition

27. Centre for Science and Environment Makhana: Protein from water-lily

28. Centre for Science and Environment Food Is about livelihood Business of growing, collecting, storing, selecting and improvising on its seed; its value and its taste Culinary tradition is about diversity

29. Centre for Science and Environment Food Is about culture Is about our lifestyles Do not first have to eat bad and then learn good food Celebrate nature, nutrition and food

30. Centre for Science and Environment Food culture Designing new food cultures for a different future Link to safety Link to nutrition Link to livelihood Link to biodiversity

31. Centre for Science and Environment SDG2: Different model This is about different model of growth – one that is affordable, inclusive and so sustainable It puts last person (woman) first Values their knowledge Values their frugality and rationality Values their diversity Our evaluation must capture this richness