ABSTRACT
Mitigating climate change and achieving food security are two of the major world challenges of the twenty-first century. Both are multifaceted issues with interactions that are affected by a wide range of biophysical and socio-economic drivers. There is now a strong indication that there are multiple connections between a globally changing climate and food systems, so that any significant change in one of these will have major implications for the other. As climatic conditions impact food systems in ways that affect food security, so also the effort to improve food security further increases the demands for expanding the production of food crops and livestock, food processing, packaging and distribution with significant increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, thus intensifying the determinants of climate change. Besides, none of the components are static, and the interface between climate and food represents a dynamic set of interactions. The climate is changing, but so also is the global population growing, urbanization increasing and food is in the midst of a major transition. A feature of the food transition is that traditional diets are often being replaced by less nutritionally beneficial options. The trend is towards higher consumption of calories, fats and animal products, as populations become influenced by the globalized marketing strategies of ‘big food’ which is changing food preferences, including those of the poor.
