PrintThe Food Energy Water Nexus:
Humanity depends upon the Earth's resources to provide key resources needed for human well-being and economic growth: food, energy, and water (FEW). In the face of growing pressure on our planet (see Lesson 1 - Planetary Boundaries), decisions about where and how to produce each of these must be considered carefully. There are clear trade-offs between the three, and multiple interdependences. In the face of these challenges, it is essential that we learn to think about the production of these resources in an integrated way. Geography has long excelled at thinking about such complex issues, as you have learned over the past weeks. We must find ways to best integrate social, ecological, physical and built environments to provide all three of these resources in a sustainable and just manner. The Food-Energy-Water Nexus is a new way of looking at things, and now supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Research publications proposing, testing and using FEW frameworks are only recently starting to emerge.
The NSF notes "Known stressors in FEW systems include governance challenges, population growth and migration, land use change, climate variability, and uneven resource distribution. The interconnections and interdependencies associated with the FEW Nexus pose research grand challenges. To meet these grand challenges, there is a critical need for research that enables new means of adapting societal use of FEW systems." (Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS)(link is external)).
As you progress through the following weeks of content in the course (Lesson 7: Food, Lesson 8: Energy and Lesson 9: Water) keep thinking about each through a FEWs Nexus lense and watching for the interconnetions between them.