Women, Wombs, and Bananas
Chronicling the impact of climate change on women and one of our favourite fruits
This week’s Thin Ink falls on the International Women’s Day and I have to admit I’m feeling quite ambivalent about it. I mean, I appreciate the gesture, but with so much setback around women’s rights globally, including in some of the world’s supposedly democratic countries, the day feels just that - a gesture.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate amazing women or that I don’t feel honoured to be in such illustrious company. I’m just tired of platitudes, and my mood has not been helped by news of us smashing another world record.
Last month, I wrote about the announcement from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service that 2023 was the hottest year on record and January 2024 the warmest on record too. Guess what? February 2024 was also the warmest February on record, “the ninth month in a row”, Copernicus said. In fact, for four consecutive days (Feb 8 - 11), the daily global average temperature was “exceptionally high”, reaching 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
Let me end this preamble with a brighter note - despite months of misinformation and attacks from right wing groups, the European Parliament on Feb 27 voted “yes” to the nature restoration law. The legislation has been severely watered down, but the fact it passed is very much welcome. About time too, since over 80% of European habitats are degraded and the law requires member states to restore at least 30% of habitats covered by the new law by 2030.
Oh and thanks Chat GPT for helping me to come up up with the title!
How women are already paying the price of climate change
Two key pieces of research that came out over the past week revealed the higher burden of climate change for women.
“The Unjust Climate” from the FAO, the U.N. food and agriculture agency, outlined how climate change disproportionately affects the rural poor, older people and women in low- and middle-income countries, but some of its most striking findings relate to the impact on women.
Heat stress causes households headed by women to lose 8% more of their income every year compared to households led by men. This translates to a per capita reduction of $83 or a total of $37 billion a year.
Floods reduce the income of female-headed households by 3% more, equivalent to a $35 loss per capita or a total of $16 billion a year.
A 1°C increase in long-term average temperatures is associated with a 34% reduction in total incomes of female-headed households.
In general, female-headed households lose significantly more of their incomes than male-headed households when extreme weather events occur.
What’s surprising is that the research found women farmers or plot managers are no less capable of adopting farming practices that can adapt to changes in climate, so it is unclear why they suffer more losses.
Only 6% of bilateral funds focused on agrifood systems are dedicated to gender equality and women's empowerment.
The report was based on an analysis of socioeconomic data from over 100,000 rural households across 24 low- and middle-income countries, and integrating that with 70 years of georeferenced data on daily precipitation and temperature.
The second report, from the International Institute for Environment and Development (iied), honed in on a specific state - India’s Maharashtra - to provide a detailed and harrowing example of how reduced rainfall and recurring droughts are affecting women and girls.
Essentially, women who migrated to work in sugarcane fields are resorting to hysterectomies - a surgical procedure where a woman’s uterus is removed - so they can keep working without having to take breaks. Because menstrual pain and/or giving birth requires women’s bodies to rest.
To me, this is a microcosm of what is likely happening in many parts of the world - a prefect shitstorm of climate change, gender inequality, government neglect, and power imbalances hitting the most vulnerable. Which is also why the whole Project 2025 thing (see below in Thin’s Pickings) both terrifies and infuriates me.
Anyway, let’s go back to Maharashtra, specifically Beed district, which has seen an an average annual decrease in rainfall of about 2.31mm per year between 1986 and 2022. The decline in precipitation has been consistent, but the level of deficit increased markedly since 2012.
What this means in reality is an increased occurrence of repeated crop failures, forcing families dependent on farming to migrate, and the IIED data - based on 423 households - showed the increased level of migration has coincided with the higher prevalence of drought.
Percentage of families migrating for work
30 years ago: 5.42%
In the last 20–30 years: 17.24%
In the last 10–20 years: 21.67%
In the last 1–10 years: 55.67%
Many end up working in sugarcane cultivation, which, thanks to political backing, is sucking up more than 70% of the state’s irrigated water despite growing only on 4% of total cropped area.
Once there, they come under the command of local labour contractors known as ‘mukkadams’ who hire labourers on informal agreements to cut the sugarcane on behalf of sugar mills. Workers are hired as pairs, typically husband and wife teams. They then join other pairs to form a harvesting group.
The living conditions are makeshift and the sanitary facilities are dire. Women and girls face the added burden of fetching water from distant communal sources and are forced to bathe without privacy. These difficulties are exacerbated during their menstrual cycles.
A lack of education, awareness, and access to proper menstrual hygiene products lead to increased risk of infections and if any health problems occur, they self-medicate so they can continue to work.
Missing a day’s work leads to a deduction in wages that could be as much as twice what they could earn working 12 to 16 hours a day. All of this results in a cycle of indebtedness. So women end up making a drastic decision to take out their wombs, which, while bringing an end to menstrual cycles, also takes away their ability to become pregnant.
“By opting for a hysterectomy, these women aim to eliminate the 'problem' of menstruation, which in their precarious economic situation, is seen as an impediment to continuous work and income stability. This grim choice, while offering a short-term solution to avoid financial penalties, overlooks the long-term health consequences and further exemplifies the severe impact of climate change on individual lives,” said the report.
“The interplay between economic pressures and non-economic loss and damage in the context of distress migration is a critical aspect of climate change's impact. Migratory decisions, while economically driven, result in significant non-economic loss and damage, including the loss of home and community, and life-altering health impacts.”
The non-economic loss and damage include intergenerational migration, girls being pushed into early marriages, the loss of basic human rights, and mental health troubles.
A national health survey conducted in 2015–2016 suggested that, on average, 3.2% of women in India undergo hysterectomies, but recent data from migrant women labourers from Beed showed that “an astonishing 55.73%” have undergone a hysterectomy.
It is a difficult report to read and quite technical in parts but should be compulsory reading for anyone who cares - or say they care - about women.
How we are growing bananas
I thought of ending the newsletter with some (mostly) fun facts about bananas. Thanks to the comms folks at the FAO for including interesting titbits in a press release about World Banana Forum, which is happening next week.
Did you know that:
Bananas are the world’s most exported fresh fruits, worth over $10 billion annually?
Over 95% of the global banana trade comes from Latin American and Asian producers?
The Cavendish variety of bananas makes up around half of the global banana supply and almost all of the exports?
Bananas and plantains are produced in more than 135 countries?
They are a staple crop for 400 million people?
COVID-19, heavy rains and hurricanes have particularly affected the Latin American and Asian producers?
A fungus known as Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR 4), which affects many varieties including Cavendish bananas, has been spreading over the past decades?
More than 80% of global banana production is thought to be based on TR4 susceptible germplasm?
Thin’s pickings
Back Forty: Red Plate, Blue Plate - Food & Environment Reporting Network
Brent Cunningham’s beautifully written piece on “gastronativism”, how certain foods came to be associated with certain political ideologies, and what it could mean for efforts to reduce the consumption of emission-heavy produce.
Voters Need to Know About Project 2025 - Covering Climate Now
I wasn’t paying full attention when newspapers last year covered details of Project 2025, a plan from The Heritage Foundation, a climate-denying rightwing think tank, on how to institutionalise Trumpism and dismantle Biden’s climate policies.
With election fever in the U.S. heating up, I’m glad groups like CCNow are re-upping this issue because Holy Cow, this is absolutely terrifying. And much as I’d like to ignore the crazy-ass shenanigans of U.S. politics, climate is one topic where the impact is global, not local.
The daunting reality of ‘clean fuel’ - The Continent
Pierra Nyaruai and the NGO Transport & Environment investigated the big promises made by Italian oil giant Eni on biofuels and the reality of Kenyan farmers who were given little training and left to bear the economic losses.
As always, please feel free to share this post and send tips and thoughts on mastodon @ThinInk@journa.host, my LinkedIn page, twitter @thinink, or via e-mail thin@thin-ink.net.