Home » Posts tagged 'sustainable food trust'

Tag Archives: sustainable food trust

Food security – life is changing

October 14, 2022

It seems hard to comprehend, living as we do in the twenty first century, that food security would ever be something we would need to concern ourselves with. But it’s a thing now. It’s a sign of the times when a cargo ship full of grain sailing across the Black Sea becomes a major international news story. And you’d better believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg; the impact of war, as terrible as that is, is nothing compared to the effect that climate change is going to have in terms of our food security.

One thing that we really must be doing, both in terms of preventing the worst-case scenario of climate change and also helping us cope with the inevitable food security troubles we will face in the future, is to create resilient local food economies. And for qualification of that statement, should it be required, simply cast your mind back to the lockdown in March 2020 and remember how local food enterprises up and down the country not only continued to supply their customers, but quickly scaled up to meet the surge in demand, while supermarket shelves were bare for weeks.

Such local food economies would be characterised by an abundance of independent food enterprises: farmers and market gardeners who grow food specially for the local market, artisanal processing businesses who lovingly add value to locally grown food, and independent shops and restaurants which sell local food. And more to the point, when a local food system has taken root, it is possible to coordinate the supply-chain between these local enterprises according to ‘circular economy’ principles, and dramatically reduce the environmental impact of food in comparison to the industrialised system currently in place.

…click on the above link to read the rest…

Why are farmers in the Netherlands protesting?

September 3, 2022

Blamed for much of the climate crisis, biodiversity decline, water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, farmers and farming are at the centre of a worldwide debate which is only gaining heat. This argument has come to a head in the Netherlands, where farmers have been involved in high-conflict protests, blocking roads with tractors and farm waste, and setting fire to bales of hay. Police response to protests has been reportedly heavy handed – even shooting at protestors.

Why are they protesting? Dutch courts have insisted on a 50% (up to 70% in some areas) reduction in nitrogen pollution by 2030, to be achieved by drastic reductions in livestock numbers. Farmers feel singled out, and the Government has taken a U-turn on its previous support of intensive farming.

The problem

For decades, in the Netherlands, government policy has promoted the intensification of the livestock sector, and a lack of intervention in the market has meant that prices have been pushed down, leaving ever-greater intensification as the only means to stay afloat for many. The Netherlands have Europe’s highest livestock density, with 3.8 ‘livestock units’ (a measure of animal numbers) per hectare of agricultural area, which, being a small country, leaves it with a huge issue when it comes to the volume of waste these animals produce. When manure and urine mix, ammonia, a compound of nitrogen, is released, and can damage natural habitats and result in air pollution. While the focus of much of the coverage has been on dairy farms, pig farms in the Netherlands, in particular, are also a major source of nitrogen and phosphate pollution, with much of the nitrogen coming in the form of high protein soybean meal, often imported from recently deforested areas in South America.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Honeybees: A holistic perspective on a superorganism

May 25, 2022

Honeybees: A holistic perspective on a superorganism

It is a great privilege to call myself a beekeeper. Having bees in my life, constantly reminds me to notice the sheer wonder of the world around me and often leaves me with a visceral sense of my place within this world. Honeybees have seen a dramatic rise in public awareness and beekeeping has exponentially increased in popularity, however the mindset of industrial farming is still alarmingly prevalent in beekeeping practice, and how it is discussed and taught to the next generation of beekeepers.

I trained as a beekeeper about 10 years ago, and when I started I had already completed training as an organic grower. As I studied beekeeping, I was alarmed at the similarities between the methods I was being taught and the mindset of industrial farming. I was unsettled by some of the practices that seemed to be very common. Routine use of miticide within the hive, routine disturbance of the nest space, routine suppression of reproduction and routine sugar feeding, all seemed at odds with what I had learnt as an organic grower. A defining moment was a visit to a teaching apiary to inspect the bees. We opened the hives and carefully checked through the brood nest, the area where the young bees are developing, if we found any developing queens we would kill them. Our presence obviously disturbed the bees who defended their nest space, in hive after hive that we opened, by attacking us. The bees were clearly communicating the threat they felt and I was struck by the violence of this process which was charged with conflict – even putting on the beekeeper’s suit had the feel of preparing for battle. There was a clear cognitive dissonance between this experience and my imagined harmony between beekeeper and bees…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Is ammonia from green hydrogen a false prophet?

April 17, 2022

Is ammonia from green hydrogen a false prophet?

Defra has just launched a package of measures to help farmers facing huge increases in the price of fertiliser. The cost of nitrogen fertiliser is currently three times higher than it was last year. This makes it an appropriate moment to consider the dependence of intensive agriculture on synthetic nitrogen and whether the prospect of green hydrogen to make fertiliser with a lower environmental footprint offers a long term solution.

A brief history of nitrogen fertiliser

Since the Second World War, synthetic fertilisers, especially those made from ammonia, have played a major role in agriculture on almost all farms except those using organic methods. These have driven a dramatic increase in production through higher yields, but that has come at a high environmental cost in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution from ammonia, water pollution from high levels of nitrate and biodiversity decline in terms of delicate wild flowers and plants outcompeted by ranker vegetation better able to ulitise nitrogen.

Today, the UK uses just over one million tonnes of nitrogen every year, in over three million tonnes of nitrogen fertiliser, with different products containing different proportions of nitrogen. Ammonia is produced by the Haber-Bosch process – named after German scientists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch who developed a method to produce synthetic ammonia in 1911. This process turns the inert nitrogen in the air we breathe into reactive nitrogen, by breaking the triple bond which holds nitrogen atoms together in pairs, then forcing them to combine with hydrogen. This requires a temperature of 500°C, 250 atmospheres of pressure (approximately 120 times the pressure in a typical car tyre) and an iron catalyst.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Thinking food: What’s ‘healthy’ and ‘sustainable’?

February 12, 2022

Bowl of sustainable vegetables for vegan diet

Thinking food: What’s ‘healthy’ and ‘sustainable’?

What constitutes a ‘healthy diet’ has been endlessly debated and the advice on eating changes almost year on year. With the dangerous rise in non-communicable diseases (such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes) which has occurred over the last fifty or so years – significantly accelerating from the 1980s onwards with increasing industrialised food production – it has never been more important to think about what you eat.

The rise of veganism has brought a sea-change in how many people eat, even for those who haven’t fully given themselves over to a wholly plant-based diet. ‘Veganuary’, which started in 2014, has been a compelling campaign to change people’s diets, urging them to forego any animal-based food. Veganism is increasing in interest – a recent YouGov poll (commissioned by Veganuary) found that 36% of adults thought that it was ‘admirable’, which implies it is something that many people may think about doing, but only the remarkable would pursue.

Healthy diets don’t come from the overconsumption of processed foods and that goes for veganism as much as for any type of diet. The vegan market has opened up a huge door to industrial food producers and out of it has come a raft of ultra-processed foods: vegan ‘cheese’, fake meat and products that are heavy on salt and additives. Have a good hard look at the Impossible Burger which garnered so much attention when it was introduced – its key ingredient is a ‘vat-grown, genetically engineered form of the heme iron’ called Soy leghemoglobin. It’s important to remember that just because it’s vegan, doesn’t make ultra-processed food healthy.

A vegan or ‘plant-based’ diet, as it is often called, eschews meat, dairy, fish and bugs as well (which are eaten in many parts of the world)…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How healthy is your soil?

December 3, 2021

How healthy is your soil?

In celebration of World Soil Day, December 5, 2021, we want to help farmers around the world to better understand their soil.

Our soils are an incredible resource – they have a remarkable ability to clean water and help mitigate climate change, they support biodiversity and are the reason we can grow nourishing food. However, the ability of soil to deliver these benefits has been compromised by widespread intensive farming – so much so it’s been estimated we have only 50 harvests left until our topsoil is degraded beyond repair. But not all is lost. Every day, farmers are transitioning to more sustainable farming practices which can not only prevent further deterioration of the land but can regenerate it too.

But where do you start? You can’t manage what you don’t measure – a clear indication of the health of your soil can help show you where to go next and illustrate the effectiveness of new management practices. Here are three simple soil tests from the Global Farm Metric that you can do to understand, manage and protect the health of your soil and the vital services it provides.

These tests indicate the state of your soils in terms of structure, the amount of organic matter and biodiversity. You can do this in your garden, allotment or farm.

On farm scale, choose three fields that are representative of your land (e.g. with different soil types or different enterprises such as arable or permanent pasture). Follow the sampling protocols – time of year and weather (e.g. after heavy rainfall or frost) can sometimes affect your results, so tests are best done throughout the year, when soil is moist and not waterlogged or frozen. Let’s get digging!

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why the Climate Change Committee should reconsider their approach to farming

November 20, 2021

https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/why-the-ccc-should-reconsider-their-approach-to-farming/

Food Insecurity: The exacerbating factors

November 20, 2021

https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/food-insecurity-the-exacerbating-factors/

Media briefing: Farming can be a climate change solution, so why is it missing in action at COP26?

October 30, 2021

Media briefing: Farming can be a climate change solution, so why is it missing in action at COP26?

Our planet is at a tipping point. Climate change threatens all our futures if we do not act now. All sectors must look at their impact, and agriculture is no exception. Agriculture is currently responsible for up to one quarter of all emissions globally. Current industrial farming practices are major contributors to escalating climate change and nature loss – this must urgently be addressed.

But farming is also unique. Not only could it reduce emissions through more sustainable practices, it also has the potential to remove carbon from the atmosphere and become perhaps the biggest nature-based solution to climate change. In addition, sustainable farming can restore nature and deliver healthy food from resilient food systems. These issues – climate, nature and health – are interlinked and should not be treated in silos.

So why is food and farming not on the agenda of COP26? As talks begin in Glasgow, there is a risk that governments could be missing a major opportunity.

“Agriculture could play a central role as part of the solution to climate change, not only by reducing emissions but by sequestering carbon in the soil. Yet, at present, the scale and importance of this potential seems to have gone largely unrecognised by global leaders. In order to harness the potential of agriculture to address climate change, we need a global farm metric that measures our impacts, we need trade agreements that are conditional on sustainability and we need to acknowledge the role of soil and grassland as a major carbon sink.” Patrick Holden, Chief Executive of the Sustainable Food Trust.

We believe the following three issues are key to harnessing the power of agriculture as a solution to climate change:

1. Global Farm Metric

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Homage to soil

October 23, 2021

Homage to soil

Perhaps surprisingly, given that I worked for more than 20 years for an organisation called the Soil Association, my striving to understand the full significance and importance of the soil is still an evolving process which continues to be inspired and illuminated by ongoing revelations derived from my farming, my reading and my role in the Sustainable Food Trust. I thought it would be relevant to reflect on some of these recent milestones, particularly bearing in mind the various planetary emergencies which are now occupying the attention of citizens throughout the world in the run up to the COP26.

Everyone now knows that the soil is one of the world’s great carbon banks, actually second only to the oceans in its capacity, and arguably the only element of the Earth’s bank of natural capital where changes in farming practice could sequester significant amounts of CO₂ out of the atmosphere during the next 10 years. For that reason alone, it deserves to receive a huge amount of attention at the Glasgow summit. In writing this, I am mindful of the vision and leadership shown by the French minister Stéphane Le Foll at COP21 in Paris, launching as he did the so called ‘Quatre pour Mille’ (4 per 1000) initiative inviting all farmers to increase their soil carbon bank by 0.4% per year. Many governments and organisations signed up to this initiative but, due to the lack of financial incentives and the absence of adequate record keeping, little progress has been made towards achieving the French minister’s objectives, which is why the COP26 should be seen as a huge opportunity to implement the scheme.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Feeding Britain one farm at a time

October 13, 2021

Feeding Britain one farm at a time

On Farming Today this morning, in a conversation about food security and climate change, it was suggested that two fifths of the people on planet earth would not be alive today were it not for the use of mineral fertilisers – an interesting assertion and one with which Malthus might well have agreed, were he still alive.

The issue is important, not least because of the impact of chemical fertilisers on climate change. I read in last weeks’ Farmers Weekly about a farmer who had recently undertaken a carbon audit which concluded that 80% of his emission footprint came from the use of nitrogen fertiliser. Whether or not that is accurate, what is beyond question is that agriculture’s umbilical dependence on nitrogen fertiliser is now being questioned as never before.

After I finished milking and was moving the electric fence for our cows’ daily parcel of mob grazed herbal ley, I was quietly marvelling at the extraordinarily productive capacity of their 12 and a 1/2 acre field. This field has not only produced three excellent cuts of silage but over the last week has fed 80 cows who have produced around 7,000 litres of milk which will convert into around 3/4 of a ton of cheese! All this from the field which has now been around our seven year rotation four times and is more productive than ever.

Marvelling at this productivity, which has been achieved with few external inputs, just crop rotation, herbal leys and recycling of animal manures, I realised that I am in an unusual and interesting position, having been farming without any nitrogen mineral fertiliser for nearly 50 years and observing the impact of my farming practices on yield outcomes. Not many farmers in the developed world can claim to be part of this cohort, since the overwhelming majority of food producers have been nitrogen fertiliser dependent since the post-war period.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Local food ecosystems: A conversation with entrepreneur and author Duncan Catchpole

October 6, 2021

Local food ecosystems: A conversation with entrepreneur and author Duncan Catchpole

Duncan Catchpole, founder and owner of Cambridge Organic Food Co., and an entrepreneur and author, talks to us about his new release, Local Food Ecosystems: How Food Can Help Create a More Sustainable Food System. Duncan advocates for system change, painting the scene of how a transition towards a local food ecosystem brings local communities together to create a vibrant, thriving, healthy space, which is good for the wellbeing of people, planet and nature.

What is a local food hub?

A ‘food hub’ could be described as a space (physical or virtual, temporary or permanent) for the convening of food enterprises and their products. Typically, these enterprises come from a local geographical area and have shared values (such as environmental sustainability and artisanal production). Coming together this way brings mutual benefit to the enterprises who are participating, such as access to markets and economies of scales. And this can also bring social and environmental benefits, such as a shorter supply chains and improved transparency. The role of the food hub is to support this community of enterprises through the provision of services and facilities.

Does a local food ecosystem increase food resilience?

A very emphatic yes! ‘Just in time’ food deliveries have been exposed as lacking resilience. As we speak, we’re hearing about possible supply chain breakdown as a result of CO₂ shortages, leaving farmers unable to slaughter their animals. Local food systems are inherently more resilient as they’re better distributed and far more adaptable. If there’s failing in one part of the system, another part of the system will spring into action…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Bristol Food Producers: Who feeds us?

September 30, 2021

Bristol Food Producers: Who feeds us?

A significant proportion of people are disconnected from where their food comes from. Where once there were strong relationships between farmers and consumers, many people now have little idea where the food they eat is produced or who the people are who are growing and raising it. This disconnection means that there is little understanding of agriculture or land management, and a lack of awareness about how the food we eat impacts on the environment and ecology of our land.

Faced with competition from supermarkets and cheap imported food, many farmers and producers are struggling to run viable businesses, especially those who are choosing to farm in ways which preserve the countryside and conserve nature and the environment. In addition, this lack of connection means that local producers are not being valued or supported by their community, meaning that food is often transported from further afield and abroad, leading to higher food miles and produce that isn’t as fresh or healthy.

This project, run by Bristol Food Connections, aims to reconnect people with our rural hinterland by introducing some of the farmers and food producers in and around Bristol, capturing the stories of the people who feed us and why they farm, what their life as a farmer is like, and how COVID-19 has impacted them as producers.

To learn more about some of the local producers in and around Bristol and where you can buy their produce, visit the Bristol Food Producers members page or the Bristol Food Union website.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Food and farming reads of 2021

August 2, 2021

Food and farming reads of 2021

We share some of the most interesting reads from the past year, on everything from toxic weedkillers to bringing back beavers.

Toxic legacy: How the weedkiller glyphosate is destroying our health and the environment

Stephanie Seneff

Stephanie Seneff is an MIT scientist who has now dedicated her life to debunking the myths around the safety of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup. Her book, Toxic Legacy, rests on a foundation of comprehensive, objective and accessible science – the credibility of which is assured through Seneff’s impressive academic credentials, achieving four different degrees and publishing over 200 articles.

With a dry wit and powerful sincerity, Seneff takes readers on a meticulous journey that details the toxic impact of glyphosate on people and the planet. First navigating the history of glyphosate and how it works as an herbicide, Toxic Legacy unearths the roots of our glyphosate dependency and extent of our exposure. Seneff then unravels the science exposing glyphosate’s toxicity, exposing its links to the degradation of the microbiome, liver disease, infertility, antibiotic resistance, depression, soil degeneration, water contamination and mass biodiversity loss. Ending on a note of cautious optimism, Toxic Legacy concludes with a call to transition towards organic, regenerative and sustainable agriculture, offering guidance on how to ‘take control’ of our health and protect ourselves against glyphosate’s toxicity.

The tone of Seneff’s writing is understated yet powerful, scientific but accessible, providing a fresh and vigorous review of research on glyphosate. But considering such a wide scope of evidence often comes with drawbacks. While Seneff’s credentials are flawless and the evidence persuasive, Seneff often draws a correlation between rising disease rates and glyphosate use, the relationship of which is unsubstantiated in certain cases…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Finding meaning in the hard work of farming and growing: What will drive the next generation?

June 19, 2021

Finding meaning in the hard work of farming and growing: What will drive the next generation?

My husband Nathan and I run a small-scale organic farm in West Wales that specialises in edible horticulture and we are currently looking for an assistant grower. Having lost our last assistant grower after about a year and half of employment, we have been posting the job description pretty much anywhere we can for more than three months now. We had two good applications that went nowhere and a few conversations with less experienced people who didn’t really want a full-time job. In the interim, we have taken on a temporary assistant grower finishing up a postgraduate degree in Sustainable Food and Natural Resources – that’s a road that likely doesn’t lead to the field. And we don’t seem to be the only ones struggling to hire…

There’s been a lot of talk post-Brexit about where farm labour is going to come from. We all know the story – the average age of farmers is around 60 and while there are young people interested in farming and growing, especially on the organic and regenerative end of it, it’s not something that’s seen as either lucrative or easy. And the rush of interest in farming and growing that brought in many young first-generation farmers in the last decade is waning, I fear. The seminal 2014 New York Times piece, Don’t let your children grow-up to be farmers argued for the futility of the endeavour in the face of well-heeled ‘non-profit’ farms sucking up grants, ‘hobby farmers’ taking space in local farmers’ markets and the brutality of carrying heavy student loans while breaking your back in the field. While this is an American context, it is still not so very far from the reality in Britain – that economic playing field is still very uneven.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Tag Archives: sustainable food trust

Content

Post categories

Economic Links

Energy/Resource Links

Environmental Links

Geopolitical Links

Liberty Links

News Links

Other Links

Survival Skills

Post Archives by Category

The problem

Post navigation

Latest Posts