It's little wonder. The Via Campesina Declaration casts small farmers in the developing world as both global warming's victims and a potential solution. ... While industrial agriculture is one of the world's biggest climate culprits, small-scale farmers actually cool the planet. Full Story »
Posted by Dwight RousuTo:
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Solid introduction to the need to revise our thinking about the drawbacks of our environmentally catastrophic mega-scale approach to food in favor of small, sustainable, local, organic systems.
Agriculture is responsible for 13.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions – largely from synthetic fertilizers and large animal operations. GHG emissions-soil carbon loss, methane, and nitrous oxide-are largely results of large-scale agricultural operations in which soil carbon is depleted, methane from large animal feedlot operations is released unchecked, and synthetic fertilizers release nitrous oxide-a gas with 300 times the warming power of CO2. The agricultural sector, including land use change for agriculture, has been estimated to make up anywhere from 28-33% of global emissions. Combined with the emissions created transporting food in our increasingly globalized food economy where the average bite to eat travels 1200 miles from field to fork, the industrial food system may be the largest single contributor to global warming.
Mega-agri-biz also causes soil depletion, weaker and less nutritious produce through monoculture of hybrid varieties bred for automated harvesting and durability during transport instead of taste, nutrition or quality; and insupportable quantities of fuel and chemicals to keep the system going. Our commercial agriculture is akin to a comatose patient on life support: kept alive by chemistry and machines.
Small-scale sustainable agriculture is also vastly more resilient to climate change. After Hurricane Mitch devastated much of the Central American countryside, a study of over 1800 conventional and sustainable farms showed that farmers using sustainable practices suffered less “damage” than their conventional neighbors. Diversified plots had 20% to 40% more topsoil, greater soil moisture, less erosion, and experienced fewer economic losses than their conventional farm neighbors. Not only can small-scale sustainable agriculture help cool the planet, it can provide a buffer against the worst effects of global warming.
In my home state, prime, irreplaceable agricultural land is being paved and turned into business parks, strip malls, mega-malls and parking lots. And the major proportion of the food in our commercial grocery stores comes from other states and other continents. In this region prone to natural disasters of incomprehensible size (volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, landslides) our transportation networks are often broken down for substantial periods of time. If we can’t produce our own food locally, we’re in BIG trouble.
Any “vision” that may emerge from negotiations in Poznan, Poland this week must include creating a food system that is more resilient, less polluting, and ultimately more just. Peasant farmers, who comprise more than half of all farmers worldwide, have much to offer a warming world. The fact that greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture was on the agenda of farmers themselves before it is talked about on the world policy stage should send a strong message to Poznan: It is time we opened the climate debate to the ills of industrial agriculture, and the home-grown solutions that could save us.
The “small is beautiful” concept has been around since humans learned to walk on their back legs. I believe it is time to expedite a transition back to local sustainability while it is still possible: local, sustainable agriculture, small-scale energy generation through solar and wind power tied in to the energy grid. It’s time.
We must face the negative impacts of global agri-biz, with an intent to refocus on the cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of locally-grown, organic agriculture. Affordable, culturally appropriate food, clean water and clean air are fundamental human rights. Isn't it ironic that most online news stories come with built-in ads for diets or how to "flatten your stomach" while the poor villagers who harvest crops to be shipped to our stores are starving?