Making a meal of climate change
This farmer turned environmental warrior has written a book breaking the challenge into bite-sized changes every family can make, writes Lisa Mayoh
Climate change can feel like a problem plaguing the world at levels far greater than can be helped by the individual. But NSW farmer and scientist Anika Molesworth takes a different tack in her new book, Our Sunburnt Country.
In it, the 2015 Young Farmer of the Year breaks down the challenge into bite-sized pieces we can all manage – and it starts right on our own dinner tables.
“Climate change threatens every meal on every plate,” she writes.
“The way we are devouring the planet is unstainable … the food system is broken.
“Climate change is impacting what we eat, and what we are eating impacts climate change.
“For those of us in developed countries, food that is neither seasonal nor local travels thousands of kilometres and is smothered in plastic and chemicals to satisfy our insatiable appetites.
“Our food system is fragile and so is the life that depends on it.”
Originally from Melbourne, Molesworth, 33, was introduced to the country life when her parents moved 1000km away to a rural sheep station near Broken Bill when she was 12. She developed a deep connection to the land and with that love grew a vow to protect it.
And that’s something she says we can all do.
“Between 2000 and 2010, very little rain fell in much of Australia,” she said.
“My home became dry and dust storms turned the skies red.
“My heart ached watching the land suffer and how that pain was felt by my family and community. That’s when I started to join the dots between the land, the climate and the food on my plate.
“It was at this point that I started to read about climate change and to learn about the damage we humans are doing to our planet.
“I began to understand that extreme weather events – droughts, bushfires and floods – are becoming more frequent and intense.
“I knew I had to do something.” Molesworth, who has a PHD in agriculture and environmental management, told Saturday Extra every one of us had the power – and responsibility – to help fight climate
change every time we sit down to eat.
“What we choose to eat, how we choose to consume or waste it impacts the larger system, the environment, and the people that are involved in growing the food,” she said.
“When we sit down and look at that, there has to be a recognition that a lot of energy and hard work has gone into growing that food.
“So can I make better food choices? “Is what I’m paying for my food proper compensation for the farmer?
“Am I celebrating local food culture that is native to Australia? There’s such an abundance of solutions on the plate in front of us, and I think that’s super exciting and inspiring.”
Families can start with a simple step many of us have already cultivated through Covid – the lockdown veggie garden.
“When you start growing your own vegetable garden, you start to appreciate your food more,” Molesworth said.
“You have this real sense of joy when you see little tomatoes growing on a vine behind the lettuce that you grew, and you celebrate it when you put it on a plate in front of your family.
“It’s that love and celebration of food, our connection to it and the connection to everything else that has to do with it – the health of the soil, the water, the nutrients – the realisation is that we’re very much part of this whole ecosystem, and we have to look after it.”
She writes that hotter temperatures cause heatwaves and devastating bushfires, while evaporation dries out soils and causes droughts.
More moisture in the air causes floods, while livestock disease spreads and crops spoil. Pollution, overforesting, mining – the environment, our environment – is crying out for help. For change.
And while it may seem too hard, too broken, according to Molesworth, it’s easy for us all to do our bit and bring it back to life.
“When we talk about the possibilities within our reach, I think people can very easily feel inspired by this topic, and they gravitate towards, OK, well, what can I do to be part of the solution,” she said.
“I think we’ve got to recognise that in my world, in my home, in my community, I can do this. We have to be more proactive in looking ahead and realising we’re all part of this and it’s going to require community involvement.
“The solutions are out there and they are relatively simple and it’s really going back to basics.”
In tackling Our Sunburnt Country, the 2017 NSW finalist for Young Australian Of The Year writes there had been a lot of “poor and misleading” information about climate change in Australia.
“I think it’s been terribly unhelpful and completely dangerous,” she said. “And it’s not always easy.
“You have the setbacks and you feel the frustration, you collapse in grief when conversations are not going in the right direction.
“But now the majority of the population want action when you ask them, and are concerned.
“And I think we need to give them the next piece of the puzzle. OK, this is what you can do.
“This is how we can get out of this mess together.
“I feel like we are at this social tipping point where enough people are engaged, enough people are aware and if we all just take a few steps, do our actions, raise our voices, we will see this tremendous movement of positive action.
“And that will really change the world for the better.”