Democratizing the Global Food Crisis

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Can science prevent the great global food crisis...

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The dangers of climate change aren't down the road; they're already here. And they're fueling a global food crisis.

This week, more than 60 scientists from around the world are meeting in Japan, to finish writing a comprehensive report on the impacts and dangers of climate change and global warming.

The report, which is being written at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the IPCC -- seeks to tell global leaders just how bad the climate change problem is right now.

And it's very bad.

While the report hasn't been released yet, leaked drafts have been, and they are painting a pretty frightening and disturbing picture.

According to the leaked drafts, the major risks and effects of climate change and global warming are far more immediate then was first thought. And those effects go beyond melting ice, rising temperatures, and threatened species of animals and plants.

Right now, climate change is driving everything from droughts and flooding, to war, disease, and hunger.

In fact, global-climate-change-driven food problems are behind most of the upheavals in the Middle East, from Egypt to Syria.

And, as climate change continues to worsen, those food problems and conflicts will become more widespread, and extend well beyond the Middle East.

That, according to the leaks we're hearing from this IPCC meeting this week in Japan, should cause the entire world to rethink how we produce our food.

Right now, much of America's -- and the world's -- food is produced by giant agribusiness companies.

Corporations like Cargill, ConAgra, Kraft, and PepsiCo dominate global food distribution, using large-scale homogenous single-product operations.

But as you can imagine, with just a few massive agribusiness corporations controlling food distribution for nearly the entire planet, the process is extremely inefficient, unsustainable, and fragile.

That's why there are 842 million people struggling with hunger worldwide.

In the face of global climate change and global food crises, common-sense -- and now, apparently, the IPCC -- tell us that in order to build a more resilient food system and future, we must decentralize global agriculture, break up the big agribusiness giants, and move towards local agriculture systems.

Cities like Detroit have already realized that.

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