News Media Overlook Food System and Climate Change Connection

A study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows the nation's top newspapers have largely overlooked the food system as one of the more important contributors to global climate change. The two-year study, available online in advance of publication in Public Health Nutrition, analyzed coverage by 16 of the nation's largest circulation newspapers. According to the study, the contribution to greenhouse gas emissions from food production and agriculture was mentioned in only 2.4 percent of climate change articles.  In contrast, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in 2007 that 31 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and forestry (with much of the latter representing deforestation for food production).

Neff and her colleagues attribute the lack of news coverage t the origins of the climate change field; relative lack of quantifiable information on the food system contributions; the framing of food-related issues as individual rather than a social concern; initial lack of advocate interest. In addition, the U.S. food industry has not been involved in the climate change discussion until recently, while other climate-affecting industries have taken oppositional stances that led to media interest in tensions between them and advocates.   

Click here to review the entire article on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health website.

Research Paper

Yesterday's dinner, tomorrow's weather, today's news? US newspaper coverage of food system contributions to climate change

Roni A Neffa1 c1, Iris L Chana1 and Katherine Clegg Smitha2
a1 Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Room E2640, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
a2 Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA

Abstract

Background: There is strong evidence that what we eat and how it is produced affects climate change.

Objective: The present paper examines coverage of food system contributions to climate change in top US newspapers.

Design: Using a sample of sixteen leading US newspapers from September 2005 to January 2008, two coders identified ‘food and climate change' and ‘climate change' articles based on specified criteria. Analyses examined variation across time and newspaper, the level of content relevant to food systems' contributions to climate change, and how such content was framed.

Results: There were 4582 ‘climate change' articles in these newspapers during this period. Of these, 2·4 % mentioned food or agriculture contributions, with 0·4 % coded as substantially focused on the issue and 0·5 % mentioning food animal contributions. The level of content on food contributions to climate change increased across time. Articles initially addressed the issue primarily in individual terms, expanding to address business and government responsibility more in later articles.

Conclusions: US newspaper coverage of food systems' effects on climate change during the study period increased, but still did not reflect the increasingly solid evidence of the importance of these effects. Increased coverage may lead to responses by individuals, industry and government. Based on co-benefits with nutritional public health messages and climate change's food security threats, the public health nutrition community has an important role to play in elaborating and disseminating information about food and climate change for the US media.

Correspondence: c1 Corresponding author: Email Rneff@jhsph.edu