Climate activists attack use of fertilizers, mass-produced food – Increase profits from that?

Essay by Eric Worrall

“…Without a drastic reduction in fossil fuel emissions, some places may have to give up farming altogether in the near future. …”

Industrial farming causes climate change. The ‘Slow Food’ Movement Wants To Stop It

VIA ARYN BAKER
September 28, 2022 1:10 PM EDT

The one-year anniversary of the international small-scale farmers, ranchers, fishermen and food producers has just been held in Turin, Italy. Gathered by the Slow Food movement, one particular phrase has dominated Terra Madre Salone del Gusto The festival’s long list of discussions and seminars: “Food is the cause of the environmental crisis, but it can also be the solution.”

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Contributing food production approximately 37% global greenhouse gas emissions, making farmers both contributors and victims of climate change. But it doesn’t have to be, say Slow Food advocates, a movement that started in Italy 36 years ago promoting “good, clean and fair food” with stronger connections between people and the food they eat. Adopting climate-smart farming methods and taking a more flexible approach to what is farmed where, will help produce food that is more resilient in the face of change. climate. But even then, that may not be enough – without drastic reductions in fossil fuel emissions, some places may have to give up farming altogether in the near future.

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Improved recovery

Conventional agriculture seeks to maximize yields through large-scale farms that rely on monoculture crops grown with greenhouse gas-emitting fertilizers, protected by pesticides that damage diversity. biological and harvesting by tractors and combined machines with fossil fuel injection. Industrial agriculture can produce food cheaply, but it comes with large environmental costs, Edward Mukiibi, the new President of Slow Food. The pursuit of profit above all has led to the soil being stripped of nutrients to the point where farmers have no choice but to add more and more chemical fertilizers and pesticides to maintain production in the future. a downward spiral of additive addiction.

But by focusing on soil health — by leaving fields fallow, rotating crops, planting hedges, or letting livestock dig the ground and fertilize with their manure, among other things — farming Farmers can improve the quality of their crops, with the added benefit of increased biodiversity and carbon sequestration. That’s how smallholders used to farm, back in the days when the crops were for the farmer’s kitchen as well as for the market. Today, this method is known as agroecology or regenerative farming, but it’s something Slow Food has advocated for for decades.

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Read more: https://time.com/6217813/slow-food-movement-climate-change/

Aryn Baker is Time Magazine’s senior international correspondent on climate and environment.

Not Sri Lankan food disaster enough lessons about our absolute need for modern agriculture and chemical fertilizers? I used to buy Time Magazine at least a couple of times per year, the stories were very interesting, before they all went into all of it and embraced climate change.

I have no problem with shop farms that produce delicious food using Paleolithic agricultural techniques for wealthy customers. I am happy to occasionally buy a slice of delicious handmade cheese, tomatoes or love-grown olives, but it would wreak havoc on my finances if I had to live on such produce full-time. A lot of people simply cannot afford to eat.

To feed the world today, we need mass agriculture, fossil fuels and chemicals, not stupid theories and disastrous policy choices.

I will stay CPAC Australia in Sydney this Saturday and Sunday – I look forward to meeting some of you in person.