Four For Friday | April 12, 2024
LF118 | Transforming food systems, oyster-tecture, AI uses less carbon than humans & limiting phones for kids
Welcome to Looking Forward’s Four For Friday. Four things that have piqued my interest this week. Enjoy!
Transforming the food system could be worth $10tn/yr
An extensive report, the result of four-years’ research by a distinguished group of researchers, calls for a radical transformation of our food systems. The current dominant large scale, monocultures, factory farming, high meat consumption and processed foods has met the calorie needs of the world’s growing population but at a massive hidden cost of $15tn / year. This is based on escalating health costs ($11tn / year), environmental costs ($3trn / year) and poverty ($1trn / year). As such today’s food system destroys more value than it creates.
According to this report, a ‘food system transformation’ would save 174m lives by 2050, boost income of rural workers, preserve biodiversity, reduce carbon emissions and save 1.4 billion hectares of land. The challenge is a predicted 30% increase in food prices, which would require substantive policy interventions and funding to protect the vulnerable. The report concludes that even with these costs the reduction in the hidden externalities that are killing people and planet would be well worth the price.
The So What? Food systems are the biggest driver of climate change and the health crisis, and this is a challenging policy, bold conversation that needs to be had.
Oysters will save us
A wonderful idea in the category of nature-based solutions: Oyster-Tecture; using oyster beds as a living breakwall to protect coastal cities from rising flood waters and damaging storms.
The So What? A simple, ingenious and relatively affordable ($60m to protect NY’s coastline) model that allows humans and nature to co-exist.
AI uses less carbon than humans for the same jobs
We’re used to seeing stories of the growing carbon impact of AI, but this research flips the script, and shows that the carbon footprint of a human composing a piece of work is hundreds of times greater than AI doing a similar job.
The So What? Lies, damn lies and statistics. Framing is everything.
Time to restrict kids’ phone use
It’s not often that Silicon Valley tech billionaires, Florida’s Ron DeSantis and China’s mandarins agree, but they all have taken steps to limit kids’ use of phones. Several countries in Europe are banning them in schools, given the well-established links with the youth mental health crisis.
The So What? This is a classic collective action problem that will take large scale behavior change, and families are on the front lines of enforcement.
That’s all for this week. As always, feedback welcome. Feel free to share insights or links of interest.
- Stephen