About us
With the world changing daily, our group, consisting of Stacy Albertus , Marlon Husmann, Amandine Bruyère, and Marin Daenen, decided to engage in research concerning the future of our continent. Climate change is affecting various aspects of our lives and causing crises within governmental fields such as agriculture, migration, food security, economics, EU regulatory powers, and the allocation of food.
We want to focus on what can be changed or adapted to make the future look beneficial and lively for everyone. With this series of blog posts, we would like to come up with solutions to help fix these issues and inform politicians and citizens on how to help solve these common issues and how it can be done differently to save our planet for future generations. Additionally, we want to raise awareness about the Regulatory power of the EU in agricultural governance, climate governance, economics, migration, and food safety areas, by proposing recommendations for policymakers.
Agriculture affects us all. Whether we are kids, teenagers, parents or grandparents, we all eat food thanks to farmers and to the technological and technical improvements that over the years made a large distribution of food in Europe possible. Because of the ongoing climate change problem, the agricultural sector is having a hard time facing changes within the climate that endanger our production of food. In fact, in a recent study 75 percent of people suffering from food insecurity (and poverty) depend on natural resources and thus on agriculture. As this is an essential part of all of our lives, we feel the importance of raising awareness about this subject since it is one of the fundamental challenges of EU agricultural policy to be a catalyst for transformation in the impacted regions.
Our six themes, namely agriculture, migration, food safety, economics, EU regulatory powers, and the allocation of food, do not appear to be directly linked at first sight. However, in our closely intertwined systems of different economic factors, societies, and ecosystems, knocking over one domino piece will change parts elsewhere in the system as well. To illustrate this, we consider the impact of droughts in southern Europe and its externalities.
The droughts do not only affect the farmer’s livelihoods but also increase migration flows and tense competition over scarce resources. Also, droughts provide the fuel for wildfires, some of which have already ravaged Sweden, Greece, and Italy. Without embarking too much on the aspects of this example right now, we will use this blog to give policymakers and readers an idea about the complexity of our themes.
Needless to say, the amount of challenges and complexities will seem overwhelming at times, but in this blog, we pursue to provide guidance through the rough sea of the impact of climate change on European agriculture. In terms of geography, we will focus our area of assessment on Europe, including the EU and non-EU countries such as Great Britain.
Outline
Blog 1 – Soil Protection and Wildfire Mitigation
Marlon Husmann writes about challenges and opportunities for EU governance in the area of agriculture and forest management. His first post is concerned with our soil and how we can protect ourselves from the changes brought along by climate change. In a second post, he provides insights in which policy the EU should pursue to mitigate wildfires in Southern Europe.
Blog 2 – The consequences of heatwaves in Europe
This blog is about the consequences of the heat waves occurring in Europe. One of the main consequences of climate change in the world is global warming. Here I focus on the consequences these heatwaves have for the agricultural sector, and thus, the impact it has on everyone now and in the future. It is written by Amandine Bruyère, a second-year student in European Studies at Maastricht.
Blog 3 – The severeness of climate change concerning migration
The information within this blog is written by Stacy-Ann Albertus, a second year student of European Studies. Within this blog the severity of climate change regarding migration is explained in order to inform the European society about this extreme issue. First, the effects of climate change will be explained. Secondly, migration will be defined and related to the effects of climate change with the aid of economics. Finally, recommendations about possible solutions will be provided in order to strive for a better future with a hold on climate change.
Blog 4 – A future without food?
This blog post is written by Marin Daenen, a second-year student of European Studies in Maastricht. It discusses the effects of climate change on nature, its influence on agriculture and the negative consequences for food safety and security. Several natural disasters, caused by climate variation, will be considered here. Additionally, this blog also exchanges views about the influence of climate change on the nutritional value of crops.
