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With 2016 just around the corner, we’ve rounded up a bevy of what we think will be some of the top food and agriculture issues of 2016. From action on antibiotic overuse, to local aquaculture, to accounting for the true costs of industrial agriculture, 2016 is shaping up to be an important year as we work to create a more sustainable food system. There will be action on the overuse of antibiotics in livestock production in 2016. We just learned that despite promises to curb its use, the latest report from the FDA says antibiotic sales and usage is up. Antibiotic use must decline in the coming year if we want to avoid the worst effects of antibiotic resistance. When antibiotics are unnecessarily used to raise animals, bacteria have a chance to become resistant to the medicine, rendering it less effective for future use. The tide should be turning in the new year as voluntary programs to reduce antibiotic use kick in and statewide efforts, like California's SB 27, seek to limit antibiotic use. The recent announcement of a Peapod-Gotham Greens partnership reflects urban agriculture’s growing competitive edge in mainstream produce markets. In 2016, we will see expansions in both production sites and market share for city-based farms such as Gotham Greens, BrightFarms and AeroFarms. These businesses will need to balance competitive production with sustainable practices while working with communities to ensure the simultaneous success of small-scale industry. GMO labeling was a huge topic in 2015. Two major bills were introduced in congress: The pro-GMO labeling Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (H.R. 913 and S.511) and the anti-GMO labeling Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act (H.R. 1599), also known as the DARK Act, which seeks to overturn existing state laws requiring GMO labeling. Both of these controversial bills are likely to see action in 2016 since the food industry was unable to get anti-labeling language into the omnibus spending bill at the end of the year and advocacy groups on both sides of the issue will be eager for the federal government to take a stance on the issue. With surface water supplies drying up due to the prolonged, drought in California, groundwater supplies are dwindling in many rural communities as farmers rely heavily on groundwater to irrigate water-intensive crops. While richer farming corporations can afford to drill deeper wells, many are left without water for basic hygiene and must rely on the state and donations to fulfill their water needs. In Paso Robles, a group of farmers, ranchers and residents have formed a new agency to manage groundwater in their district. People across the state will be watching and, hopefully, using their model to manage supplies in other struggling districts. Shifting towards a more plant-based diet was a big topic in 2015 and will likely become more mainstream in 2016. Less meat-dependent diets have been proven to support health and lengthen your lifespan, and it seems that Americans are taking notice because meat consumption in the US us dropping. Despite recent research - summarized by miselading headlines - that suggested certain dietary combinations of fruits and vegetables can have higher greenhouse gas emissions than meat, reducing food waste (one of the main culprits in the study) and focusing on less meat but better meat will become more urgent in 2016 and beyond. Climate Smart Agriculture seeks to address climate change through sustainable practices that increase agricultural productivity, build food systems resilience and decrease atmospheric carbon levels. The focus of agriculture as both a cause of and solution to global warming came center stage at COP21, where we saw unprecedented global recognition of the urgency to prevent global temperature increases from reaching 2°C, at maximum. The need for tactics to decrease carbon emissions and amp up carbon sequestration (think carbon farming!) calls upon the climate smart agriculture movement to develop increasingly aggressive and innovative strategies. Cheap food isn’t all good. Embedded within that 99-cent burger and other industrially-produced food we buy and eat are costs like poor animal welfare, air and water pollution, soil degradation and more, none of which are included in the price of food despite their cost to human and environmental health. To counter that, true cost accounting is used to measure the many hidden costs and incorporate them into agriculture and food production in order to push out those problem practices. After the release of two recent true cost reports on behalf of the UN FAO and another interim report for TEEB, look for 2016 to get the real cost of cheap food on the books. Although the US trashes a staggering 40 percent of its food supply, as awareness of the food waste dilemma has continued to increase, the nation seems poised on the brink of a food waste revolution. In the coming year, we expect to see a variety of solutions to the problem emerge across the food system, from apps to entrepreneurial ventures, to innovative home cooking techniques to the redefinition of aesthetic standards for produce. Consumers are increasingly concerned about the problems plaguing our food system. Based on evidence from a recent poll, the public wants healthy food to be more affordable, favors government incentives to encourage environmentally friendly farming practices and wants to see higher wages for food system workers. As a result, we expect that the shift away from our current industrial farming model to a more sustainable system will continue to gain steam and will be an important issue for voters in 2016. Last year we all got a close look at the dangers posed by unethical fish farming to the environment, public health and workers. The good news that will make headlines in 2016 is that the movement to farm fish sustainably is growing fast. Organizations like the Recirculating Farms Coalition are showing that we can grow fruits, vegetables, herbs and humanely-raised seafood together, providing local sources of healthy, accessible food in any location; from rural towns to city neighborhoods. Finnley Hayes, works in the Aquaponics Facility, by IMCBerea College via Flickr
