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From: Laurel Hopwood <
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To: CONS-SPST-BIOTECH-FORUM <
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Sent: Sat, Jan 14, 2017 8:12 am
Subject: Modern agriculture cultivates climate change – we must nurture biodiversity
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jan/09/modern-agriculture-cultivates-climate-change-nurture-biodiversity-olivier-de-schutter-emile-frison
Modern agriculture cultivates climate change – we must nurture biodiversity
Crop-breeding innovations are merely a short-term solution for falling
yields. Only agricultural diversity can ensure food security and resilience
by Olivier De Schutter and Emile Frison
January 9. 2017
(edited)
As a new year dawns, it is hard not to be dazzled by the current pace of
technological change in food and agriculture. Only last month, news
emerged of a crop spray with the potential to increase the starch
content in wheat grains, allowing for yield gains of up to 20%. This
development comes hot on the heels of major breakthroughs in
gene-editing technologies – using a powerful tool known as Crispr – over
the course of 2016.
A future of continually increasing food supplies and ever more
sophisticated manipulation of agro-ecosystems seems to be upon us.
However, there is a risk that these technologies blind us to the very
real problems facing modern agriculture – problems that are rapidly
undermining the previous round of technological advances.
While global crop yields rose rapidly in the early decades of the green
revolution, productivity is now plateauing in many regions of the world.
A 2012 meta-study found that in 24%-39% of areas growing maize, rice,
wheat and soybean, yields either failed to improve, stagnated after
initial gains, or collapsed.
The reason the productivity of industrial agriculture is now under
threat is because it has been systematically degrading the human and
natural capital on which it relies. Pests, viruses, fungi, bacteria and
weeds are adapting to chemical pest management faster than ever: 210
species of herbicide-resistant weeds have been identified. Meanwhile,
synthetic fertilisers are fast destroying the soil biota and its
nutrient-recycling potential. This creates a dangerous treadmill effect:
increasing resistance leads to increasing pesticide use, generating
mounting costs for farmers and further environmental degradation. This
in turn requires additional doses of nutrient application to keep
squeezing productivity out of the soils.
Meanwhile, food systems are responsible for up to 29% of global
greenhouse gas emissions – and are therefore driving the climate
instability that is itself the greatest threat to future agricultural
productivity. A major chunk of these emissions come from large-scale
monocultures and industrial animal feedlots in the global north, and
from the loss of carbon sinks in the global south as land is cleared –
often to make way for maize and soybean monocultures to export as animal
feed.
A viable alternative exists in the shape of diversified agro-ecological
systems. In other words, diversifying farms and farming landscapes –
replacing synthetic chemical inputs, optimising biodiversity and
stimulating interactions between different species, as part of holistic
and regenerative strategies to build long-term soil fertility, healthy
agro-ecosystems and secure livelihoods.
Too often, these arguments are dismissed as technophobia. We are told
that the opponents of industrial agriculture want to eschew
technological advance and keep developing regions mired in
non-mechanised, subsistence-style agriculture. However, this is a false
dichotomy.
A transition to diversified agro-ecological systems is needed, whether
the starting point is industrial agriculture or subsistence-style
farming. Moreover, the agro-ecological alternative is hi-tech and
knowledge intensive – it requires complex synergies to be built and
sustained between different crop varieties and species, and between
different farming systems (mixed crop-livestock systems, for instance).
The growing body of evidence reviewed by the International Panel of
Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (iPES-Food) shows the huge potential
of these systems to succeed where industrial systems are failing –
namely in reconciling concerns such as food security, environmental and
livelihood resilience, nutritional adequacy and social equity.
Crucially, where diversified systems raise productivity and improve
livelihoods, they do so durably, performing particularly well under
environmental stress and delivering production increases in the places
where additional food is desperately needed.
The social change that so often accompanies this shift paves the way for
revaluing local farming within new and often shorter supply chains,
providing vulnerable populations with a viable alternative to the high
and volatile production costs of industrial commodity agriculture and
the uncertainties of global markets.
The picture is far from complete. To date these systems have seen only
minimal investment and support. Either way, the burden of proof is on
the proponents of industrial agriculture to show how it can ever be
productive and sustainable, with or without miracle breakthroughs. In
the meantime, a less dazzling but highly compelling agro-ecological
alternative is taking shape and transforming food systems around the
world. It deserves our urgent attention.
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