Climate Justice is Food Justice

Interfaith Glasgow in partnership with Nourish Scotland invite you to:

Climate Justice is Food Justice

Food unites. It is both a basic human need and something that can bring meaning and joy to our lives, particularly when it is shared together. But the food that we are eating and the way it is produced causes a third of total greenhouse gas emissions, which is driving climate change. If the global food industry was a country, it would be the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. Moreover, most of the damage to biodiversity is caused by the food system. It is also driving inequality and poverty, particularly in the global south – but also here in Scotland, with low wages and harsh working conditions endemic globally both among small producers and in other parts of the supply chain and with corporations controlling most of our crops.

In this first event of a 3-part series exploring various aspects of Climate Justice – we consider this enormous piece of the puzzle. We can’t tackle climate change without tackling the food system, and, as we’ll see, food intersects with lots of other issues too.

Join us to hear from expert speakers with real-life experience from the UK, South Africa and India – they will explain the complex global food system and how we connect with it, and point toward the solutions that we can all be a part of.

Speakers:

Pete Ritchie, Executive Director, Nourish Scotland

Pete is the founding director of Nourish Scotland, a charity working for a fairer, healthier and sustainable food system in Scotland and globally. Nourish works across the whole food system, from supporting innovation in agriculture to campaigning for the right to food in Scotland. Until recently Pete also ran a diversified organic farm in the Scottish Borders, and previously worked in the field of disability and human rights.

Shantanu Mandal, Facilitator for Environment and Faith, United Nations Environment Programme, India

Shantanu is the facilitator for Environment and Faith in the Steering Committee for United Nations Environment Programme Major Group for Children and Youth (UNEP MGCY), Brahma Kumaris’ contact point for Youth Non Governmental Organisation (YOUNGO), United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS), Global Youth Diversity Network (GYBN) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Faith Plans. He is a mentor in the Climate Ambassadors’ Programme of Care about Climate organisation. He lives in the Brahma Kumaris community in Mt. Abu, Rajasthan, India. His main area of work has been benevolent, holistic activism with a shift in consciousness, as he believes that consciousness and climate are deeply connected. For him, an inner shift in consciousness can help us look into solutions because the same consciousness that was responsible for the problems isn’t going to create the solutions needed. One of his strongest beliefs are reflected in the statement, “Simplicity is Kindness”.

Zarina Ahmad, Climate Change Communicator and Researcher, University of Manchester

Zarina is Climate Change Communicator and PhD Researcher at University of Manchester. One of the mighty women on Woman’s Hour’s 2020 Our Planet Power List, Zarina has dedicated herself to creating pathways for under-represented groups to work in environmental organisations. In response to the lack of specific data about ethnic minority groups and environmentalism, Zarina is now researching sustainable behaviours within BAME communities in the UK for a PhD at the University of Manchester and is also a researcher on a Food Justice project, JustFACT in London. Zarina has created spaces for marginalised women’s voices to be heard about climate issues, such as the Climate Sisters who exhibit their creative work at various venues such as the Glasgow Science Centre, the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Vrinda Watson, Krishna Eco Farm, International Society for Krishna Consciousness Scotland

Vrinda is attracted to the simple harmonious lifestyle and philosophy. She joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness – ISKCON – community in 1985 and became a full time volunteer living a monastic life. During that time, she has been a full -time missionary, guest master, volunteer coordinator, deputy manager, and supported her husband in initiating an Ahimsa Dairy project at their Krishna Eco Farm.

Florian Kroll, Food Systems Researcher and Facilitator, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Florian is a food systems researcher with an interest in the biopolitics of urban food systems governance in African cities. Beginning in 2006, he worked with the Wits Health Promotion Unit to promote agro-ecology and nutrition and has conducted urban food security surveys and policy evaluations in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Gauteng. His collaboration with the Southern Africa Food Lab inculcated an interest in social innovation and dialogues. He is an alumnus of the IVLP programme on food security and foreign policy in 2014. Currently, he works with the Department of Science and Innovation-National Research Foundation (DSI-NRF) Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of the Western Cape, convening and facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogues with the Western Cape and Gauteng Communities of Practice in Food Governance to promote democratic and sustainable food governance. He is enrolled as a PhD candidate with the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS).