Tackling the climate crisis with a food systems approach — Kenya on the front line
By Olivia Adhiambo, Project Officer, Civil Society Partnerships and Policy, WWF-Kenya, and Clement Metivier, Senior Advisor, International Advocacy, WWF-UK
A catastrophic climate emergency is hitting the Horn of Africa.
Kenya, and many parts of East Africa, is suffering its worst drought in 40 years. The impacts of five consecutive poor rainy seasons are devastating. The ongoing drought is crippling local food production, which is largely dependent on rain-fed farming systems. With rainfall consistently below normal levels, crops have failed and millions of livestock have died. As a result, more than 32 million people are facing “high levels of acute food insecurity” across Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia this year. In Kenya, food systems play a vital role for the economy and livelihoods. Agriculture represents a third of the Gross Domestic Product and employs more than 40% of the population, so the drought is also worsening poverty.
Scientists have argued that climate change has increased the severity of the drought in Eastern Africa. When extreme weather events hit, local food systems suffer, with devastating implications for local livelihoods and food security. But food systems are actually at the centre of the ‘big climate challenge’. Around 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to increasingly unsustainable food systems. As a result, an urgent and profound transformation of the global food system is necessary to tackle the climate crisis, while also nourishing all people within planetary boundaries and preventing irreversible biodiversity loss.
While drought brings the plight of Kenyan farmers and the fragility of the local food system into sharp focus, local food producers have actually already been adapting to climate change, for example by cultivating drought-resistant crops. Yet adopting production practices that are resilient to climate change impacts will not be enough.
It is important that a more systemic and holistic approach to growing and consuming food is adopted to minimize climate impacts: a food systems approach that encompasses all stages from the production to disposal of food, and provides benefits for people and nature. To be effective, a food systems approach should incorporate dramatic reductions in food loss and waste and a shift to healthier, more sustainable diets and nutrition, in addition to scaling up production practices that restore nature, such as agroecology.
In Kenya, some inspiring initiatives provide a compelling case for how a food systems approach can deliver solutions for people, climate, and nature.
Since 2018, WWF-Kenya has been working with coastal counties and local fisherfolks to install cold storage facilities at the fish landing sites at beaches and harbours, with the aim of reducing post-harvest fish losses without increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Those facilities include freezers powered by solar panels, as well as portable cooler boxes. Since being built, the cold storage facilities have kept the fish fresh, therefore significantly reducing fish losses. The higher quality of the fish has led to increased income for fisherfolks, who enjoy better livelihoods.
In Naivasha town, WWF-Kenya supported the creation of an innovative vegetable shop called Vasha Greens. Owned by smallholder horticultural farmers, it sources fresh produce grown sustainably within the landscape. Vasha Greens is Kenya’s first vegetable shop selling fruits and vegetables grown to the specific Kenya KS 1758 Certification Standard. The grocery boasts a solar-powered chiller to prolong the shelf life of the food sold. The shop has created over a thousand jobs, directly and indirectly. The 146 smallholder farmers supplying produce to the shop have completed rigorous training to adapt their agricultural practices to a changing climate. They are now reporting improved soil health, higher productivity, reduced land degradation and increased climate resilience.
These two projects demonstrate how food systems approaches, which look beyond just new production methods, help communities adapt to climate change while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving the livelihoods of local food producers, and providing local populations with healthy and nutritious food.
It is now imperative that governments better integrate food systems approaches in global efforts and national policies to tackle climate change.
WWF and more than 100 other organisations have called on governments to do exactly that, and it was a welcome step when countries agreed a new four-year framework to deliver climate action on agriculture and food security at last year’s UN Climate Summit (COP27). However, this framework now needs to become operational: governments must establish a clear action plan for the next four years and agree on which specific topics to prioritize.
The Bonn climate conference provides an opportunity to anchor food systems approaches in national climate policies, and direct finance towards healthier, more equitable, sustainable, and resilient food systems. By shifting to healthy and sustainable diets and nutrition, slashing food loss and waste, and adopting nature-positive production practices, we can bring food-based greenhouse gas emissions within a manageable limit, adapt to climate impacts, and nourish all people within planetary boundaries. Governments and stakeholders involved in the UN negotiations on climate change need to urgently support the necessary transformation of the global food system and endorse a food systems approach.
Limiting the worst impacts of climate change is not yet out of our hands. As shown in Kenya, inspiring solutions already exist, even in the face of drastic climate impacts. Now, it is time for governments to step up and take a leading role in accelerating implementation and the transition towards healthier, more equitable, sustainable, and resilient food systems.
