THE DANGEROUS CONNECTION BETWEEN CLIMATE CHANGE & FOOD 

Rising Temperatures and Climate Disasters are Exacerbating a Growing National (and very Local) Food Insecurity and Food Apartheid Crisis

Reality Check | ecoWURD Food Lab

Charles Ellison, host of ecoWURD radio on WURD’s Reality Check, presents the ecoWURD Food Lab.  In this installment, experts discuss the widespread and very localized impacts of climate change and crisis on food insecurity.  ecoWURD Food Lab is a weekly exercise on Reality Check, in partnership with Resolve Philadelphia and Broke in Philly (a project of Resolve), to spotlight food insecurity and how we can achieve complete food sovereignty.  

Joining ecoWURD Food Lab during this discussion is NAACP Environment Justice Director Jacqueline Patterson and the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Lead Climate Analyst Adrienne Hollis.  

“The linkages between climate change and food insecurity are several,” says Patterson. “One is the ability of farmers needing to farm, as temperatures rise dramatically.  This impacts communities who are food insecure because we’re unable to fill crucial nutrition gaps. These are the kinds of things that are happening to food we all need for survival. We need to understand the connection between climate crisis and food.”

“I think that there is an issue around awareness and response from state and local governments,” says Hollis. “Some communities are not as aware as they should be about food insecurity and food apartheid.  It depends on where you are and not everyone is thinking about this crisis that is the issue of food and the lack of it. This is a threat multiplier”