Building Micronesian Climate-Proof Food Security through Intergenerational Collaboration and Community Model Farms

Abstract

Pacific Island nations are some of the most vulnerable nations on Earth to the negative consequences of global warming. Despite the diplomacy of Pacific nations at global forums on climate change mitigation, commitments made at these forums consistently fall short of the scientific agreed minimum global reduction of anthropogenic carbon emissions needed to avoid irreversible damage to planetary ecosystems. Ocean acidification levels in the Pacific are already more than 100 times greater than the maximum safe limit. Fish such as tuna and corals are sensitive to even one degree of variation in average water temperature, while crop production is extremely sensitive to changes in rainfall and temperature. Food security is a mounting concern in nations where the majority of citizens rely on subsistence farming for sustenance (Vandenbroucke et al. 2015). In response, many Pacific Island nations are at the forefront of promoting low-emission, cost-effective energy and climate-resilient, healthy and locally grown foods. This In Brief discusses the results of a recently completed Climate Change Adaptation Project on the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).1 The FSM economy is distinguished by US Compact of Free Association funding, a rich tuna fishery dominated by foreign vessels, high migration rates to US territories, and declining traditional farming knowledge among younger generations as a result of wage employment stemming from Compact monies (Puas 2021).