Feeding 9 Billion Podcasts: "The Haven Project" and "Food Secure Future"

Feeding9Billion

***THE HAVEN PROJECT*** This post-apocalyptic audio drama will immerse you in a world where climate change has severely affected agricultural production, and humanity's survival is threatened by food insecurity. The citizens of Haven are a minority group that enjoys plentiful fresh food, partly thanks to their location in the now-temperate north, and partly due to proprietary technological advancements that they keep under wraps. How long can Haven thrive in this bleak world, and how will they deal with the threat of Outsiders? Explore some of the causes of food insecurity, as well as some real-world advancements that might help us overcome it in this interdisciplinary educational initiative from Feeding 9 Billion. ***FOOD SECURE FUTURE*** The Food Secure Future Podcast brings together experts from the field to discuss how to feed the future in a way that is healthy, sustainable, and nutritious. In this series of interviews, researchers from the University of Guelph tease out existing technical and social barriers to food security, and explore new technologies and policies that have the potential to improve global food security in the future. Hosted by Dr. Evan Fraser, Director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph. read less
EducationEducation

Episodes

The Haven Project E02 - The City
May 29 2020
The Haven Project E02 - The City
This episode takes a look at what life is like in a city not too far from Haven. Without the means to produce enough fresh food, residents of the city pay a premium for the fruits and vegetables imported from other parts of the world. Most people are living off of the more affordable processed food brand Real Meals. Desperate, two teens join a rebel group planning to steal food from the heavily guarded market where Haven is making a drop off.BACKGROUNDAccording to the 2020 PROOF report, drawing on data from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Community Health Survey conducted in 2017 and 2018, 12.7% of all Canadian households had experienced food insecurity in the previous 12 months. In comparison, the following proportions of northern populations experienced food insecurity during the same time period:57.0% of households in Nunavut;21.6% of households in the Northwest Territories; and16.9% of households in the Yukon.This is partially due to higher food costs in these locations. High food prices in Canada's north are caused by a number of reasons, including higher costs of transportation, unreliability of food availability, and low puchasing power due to smaller populations and fewer grocery stores. A family in northern Canada would pay around double what a family in southern Canada would for the same amount and type of food!Learn more:Tarasuk V, Mitchell A. (2020). Household food insecurity in Canada, 2017-18. Toronto: Research to identify policy options to reduce food insecurity (PROOF). Retrieved from https://proof.utoronto.ca/Veeraraghavan, G., Martin, D., Burnett, K., Jamal, A., Skinner, K., Ramsay, M., Williams, P., et. al. (2016). Paying for Nutrition: A Report on Food Costing in the North. Ottawa: Food Secure Canada. Retrieved from https://foodsecurecanada.org/Infographic summary
The Haven Project E01 - The End of an Era
May 25 2020
The Haven Project E01 - The End of an Era
The community of Haven exists in a world where climate change has severely affected the world's capacity to produce food, leading to skyrocketing food prices and widespread food insecurity. The citizens of Haven are part of a minority that enjoy plentiful food, partly thanks to the possibility of farming in the now-temperate north, and partly due to proprietary technological advancements that they keep under wraps. How did Haven come to exist, how long can they thrive in this bleak world, and how will they deal with the threat of Outsiders? In the first episode of The Haven Project, we join the community as they commemorate the recent passing of one of their founders, Chef Jacob Ascott, and take a closer look at the tensions that surround the issue of securing a safe supply of food for their community.BACKGROUNDThe fictional world in this podcast series may seem extreme, but it's based on real trends from our own world. Climate change is shifting growing conditions for globally important crops into higher latitudes and altitudes. Developing new climate-driven agricultural frontiers, however, could have serious environmental consequences, threatening biodiversity, water quality, and carbon storage.Learn more:Hannah, L., Roehrdanz, P.R., Krishna Bahadur, K.C., Fraser, E.D.G., Donatti, C.I., Saenz, L., Wright, T.M., et al. (2020). The environmental consequences of climate-driven agricultural frontiers. PLoS ONE, 15 (2), art. no. e0228305.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228305