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Climate Change is Becoming a Problem You can Taste

by Amanda Little | TED Salon: Dell Technologies

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Towards the end of her TED presentation, Little proclaims, "Human innovation that marries old and new approaches to food production can, and I believe, will usher in this third way and redefine sustainable food on a grand scale." In the talk, she explains that our food systems have not been designed to adapt to major disruptions like climate change. Little goes on to explain how the climate crisis could devastate our food supply -- and introduces us to the farmers, entrepreneurs and engineers who are radically rethinking what we grow and how we eat, combining traditional agriculture with state-of-the-art technology to create a robust, resilient and sustainable food future.

Ethical Reflection Points:

Little explains that, "the International Panel on Climate Change has predicted that by mid-century the world may reach a threshold of global warming beyond which current agricultural practices can no longer support large human civilizations." How are we as individuals meeting the challenges of global warming on the food supply? Is this even a thought on our ethical radar when we eat our next meal?
There is a strong ethical battle between two schools of thought with regards to the climate crisis. Little explains, "Huge flows of investment are funding new methods of climate-smart and high-tech agriculture. But many sustainable food advocates bristle at this idea of reinvention. They want food 'deinvented'. They argue for a return to preindustrial and pre-green revolution, biodynamic and organic farming." Which of the two 'ethical camps' do we fall into? Do we support local farmers in our community or do we choose to purchase food produced using sustainable, climate-smart and high-tech agriculture?

Ethical Connection to Text:

Reflect on the similar ethical dilemmas present in Book 3: The Harvest of the Food from The Food of the Gods

In the final chapters of the novel, set 20 years after the initial discovery, the reader learns that leaking packs of Herakleophorbia IV around Britain and the world have transformed the environment, creating giant flora and fauna, grass like trees, flowers like rainforests, insects the size of horses,
The group of giant young people come to maturity 20 years after the initial discovery and become impatient with a world run by ‘little people’. Are they justified in their frustrations? Are they included within their society's laws and considerations?
The climax of the novel comes when a political leader, Caterham, comes to power on the back of concerns about the wrecking of the environment and by stirring up anger against the handful of ‘giants’.

Amanda Little is the author of The Fate of Food: What We'll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World, a five-year adventure into the lands, minds and machines shaping the future of sustainable food. She has a particular fondness for far-flung and hard-to-stomach reporting that takes her to ultradeep oil rigs, down manholes, into sewage plants and inside monsoon clouds. She has written about energy, technology and the environment for the New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Wired, Rolling Stone and NewYorker.com. She has interviewed notable figures, like Barack Obama and Lindsey Graham, and has been interviewed by journalists, including Terri Gross and Fareed Zakaria.

The Fate of Food: What We'll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World

Amanda Little | Harmony (2021)

Our food systems have not been designed to adapt to major disruptions like climate change, says environmental journalist Amanda Little. In this eye-opening talk, she shows how the climate crisis could devastate our food supply -- and introduces us to the farmers, entrepreneurs and engineers who are radically rethinking what we grow and how we eat, combining traditional agriculture with state-of-the-art technology to create a robust, resilient and sustainable food future.