Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The industrialized food system, studies have shown, is linked to greenhouse gas emissions, algal blooms, pesticide pollution, soil erosion and biodiversity loss, to name a few ecological troubles.
The referendum vote in favour of Britain leaving the EU is causing uncertainty in many areas, not least in the future direction of agricultural policy.
A new report by leading sustainability experts has reaffirmed the case for a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems – fundamental to which is a call for redistributing power back into the hands of those who feed the world.
The primary obstacle to sustainable food security is an economic model and thought system, embodied in industrial agriculture, that views life in disassociated parts, obscuring the destructive impact this approach has on humans, natural resources, and the environment.
We’re going to be hearing a lot about grand solutions to our climate emergency in the coming years. Here are 3 valuable ways to distinguish real pathways to a better world from false solutions.
Five of the global issues most frequently debated today are the decline of biodiversity in general and of agrobiodiversity in particular, climate change, hunger and malnutrition, poverty and water. Seed is central to all five issues.
Far from peaceful co-existence, modern industrial farming is the prime cause of our wildlife’s decline – as demonstrated not just in Britain but the world over.
I think what this analysis shows is that, unlike extensive pastoralism, intensive, ‘organic’/ agroecological, local ‘peasant’ farming is feasible for national self-provisioning.
A new report by Foundation Earth and Watershed Media entitled Biosphere smart agriculture in a true cost economy calls on the World Bank (and other development banks) to assess the full ecological impact of agricultural development projects before providing loans, in order to account for the true cost of production.
It goes without saying that oil and coal companies should not have a seat at the policy table for decisions on climate change.
When talking about Growing Soil in the British Isles, we have long depended on the cow and its dung, whether dropped in the field or made into manure through composting with straw in the barn.
Farmers are observing changes in rainfall, temperature and other patterns in weather that have spurred them into shifting their farming methods.
