cheryl
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Food that feeds the world and heals it too - The Conversation
According to experts, today’s global agriculture system faces a crisis. Intensive farming with heavy ploughing machinery is causing soil to be lost up to 100 times faster than it is formed – and valuable stored carbon with it too. The soil that remains is becoming depleted of nutrients, thanks to repeated cultivation of the same staple crops without respite.
To delay the consequences of this “cereal abuse” and soup up crop yields, farmers artificially fertilise soils with synthetic nitrogen, typically made using natural gas or coal. This, combined with methane released by cattle and the loss of stored carbon from deforestation for agriculture, means that a quarter of all planet-heating gases come from how we feed the world. These gases are bringing weather patterns so extreme that some experts believe multiple crop failures and food system collapse could be a possibility in as little as a decade.
Agriculture is eroding wildlife too. Run-off of fertilisers is causing dead zones in downstream rivers and oceans. Pesticides and the conversion of wild habitats to farmland are harming the insects that pollinate crops, and the plants they rely on to thrive.
According to experts, today’s global agriculture system faces a crisis. Intensive farming with heavy ploughing machinery is causing soil to be lost up to 100 times faster than it is formed – and valuable stored carbon with it too. The soil that remains is becoming depleted of nutrients, thanks to repeated cultivation of the same staple crops without respite.
To delay the consequences of this “cereal abuse” and soup up crop yields, farmers artificially fertilise soils with synthetic nitrogen, typically made using natural gas or coal. This, combined with methane released by cattle and the loss of stored carbon from deforestation for agriculture, means that a quarter of all planet-heating gases come from how we feed the world. These gases are bringing weather patterns so extreme that some experts believe multiple crop failures and food system collapse could be a possibility in as little as a decade.
Agriculture is eroding wildlife too. Run-off of fertilisers is causing dead zones in downstream rivers and oceans. Pesticides and the conversion of wild habitats to farmland are harming the insects that pollinate crops, and the plants they rely on to thrive.