Dr. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, encourages Trent students that if they want to “do something as individuals, the most important thing is to eat less meat.” Global meat consumption is responsible for enormous amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, “having significant impact upon climate that will be very difficult to reverse.”
Chair of Trent’s International Development Studies Program, Professor Akram-Lodhi teaches agrarian political economy as part of his ongoing research into a need for basic change within global food systems. His recent book, Hungry for Change, documents global struggles to survive on a planet that produces enough food for ten billon people, while one billion go hungry.
Prof. Akram-Lodhi’s commitment as a writer, educator and activist, popular among students for his enthusiasm and passion, finds inspiration in a community he feels provides students with ample opportunity to participate in global issues as part of their education. “Trent is one of the pioneers of the notion that students should be engaged global citizens,” he says.
Trent recently initiated the Sustainable Agriculture and Foods Systems program. Among the first to offer B.A and B.Sc. degrees of its kind in the country, the program promotes education regarding the fostering of a more sustainable climate-friendly food system.
According to Prof. Akram-Lodhi, industrialized food distribution in neighbourhood supermarkets destroys food systems and contributes to recent concerns such as the horse meat scandal in the U.K. and types of bird flu that have been rising in recent years. Responsible for 20 to 40 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions, the industrialized structures that feed us are destroying our food supply.
Combining personal interviews with research addressing “the creation, structure and operation of world food systems as it marginalizes family farmers, small-scale peasant farmers and landless workers, Hungry For Change is attracting considerable attention across North America. The book has been described by Raj Patel - considered "the rock star of social justice writing” - a “must-read for anyone who cares about understanding food and the planet today."
An excerpt from Hungry for Change reads:
“It is little appreciated that the tumultuous events in the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 constituted, in many places, a food rebellion. At the heart of the upheaval in Egypt in particular, the cry for freedom and against poverty was a cry for bread ... we as humanity need to enforce a basic right to food as a public good and create the conditions whereby that right can be met in a sustainable, ecological and socio-economically equitable way. This can only come about if all of us resolve to build a new food system. The time for prevarication has passed. The time for action has arrived.”
Book launches events in Ottawa, San Francisco and New York City, coupled with extensive media coverage have kept Dr. Akram-Lodhi very busy promoting his passionate plea. He points out that right here in Canada, large urban populations are either “underserved or do not have enough money for a nutritious diet. He cites The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, as a document enshrining the basic rights to food that many individuals are denied: "Everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food ..."
Posted on Friday, April 12, 2013.