{"id":32935,"date":"2018-03-29T08:15:13","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T13:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=32935"},"modified":"2018-03-29T08:15:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T13:15:22","slug":"we-know-how-food-production-needs-to-change-if-crisis-is-to-be-avoided-so-why-isnt-this-happening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=32935","title":{"rendered":"We know how food production needs to change if crisis is to be avoided \u2013 so why isn\u2019t this\u00a0happening?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"magazine\">\n<div class=\"magazine-title\">\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header class=\"grid-twelve large-grid-eleven\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"content-header-block\">\n<h3 class=\"entry-title instapaper_title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/we-know-how-food-production-needs-to-change-if-crisis-is-to-be-avoided-so-why-isnt-this-happening-92903\"><strong>We know how food production needs to change if crisis is to be avoided \u2013 so why isn\u2019t this\u00a0happening?<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<div class=\"grid-twelve large-grid-eleven\">\n<div class=\"grid-ten large-grid-nine grid-last content-body content entry-content instapaper_body\">\n<p>As the world races toward a projected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2015\/oct\/13\/agriculture-farming-food-addiction-meat-harvest-hungry-world\">9 billion<\/a> inhabitants, the failings of dominant food systems are impossible to deny. Current food production methods are severely polluting. They are the cause of malnutrition. They are also inequitable, and unjustifiably wasteful. And they are concentrated in the hands of few corporations. Entangled in the multiple crises humanity is facing, establishing global food security is considered a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/future-of-food-and-farming\">key challenge of our time<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Against the backdrop of climate change, resource shortages and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbantheorylab.net\/publications\/planetary-urbanization\/\">urbanisation<\/a>, the question of how to ensure adequate food supply for everyone looms rather large. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.weforum.org\/system-initiatives\/shaping-the-future-of-food-security-and-agriculture\/\">usual response<\/a>emphasises intensifying the output of agriculture through the common model of petrochemical, large-scale, one-crop, intensive farming.<\/p>\n<p>But business as usual is no longer an option for food and agriculture. The global agriculture system will have to be radically transformed to avoid further environmental and social problems, as was <a href=\"http:\/\/wedocs.unep.org\/handle\/20.500.11822\/7862\">concluded<\/a> by a three-year study commissioned by the UN and the World Bank involving more than 400 scientists. This report, as well as subsequent international studies by the <a href=\"http:\/\/unctad.org\/en\/pages\/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=666\">UN Conference on Trade and Development<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.srfood.org\/images\/stories\/pdf\/officialreports\/20110308_a-hrc-16-49_agroecology_en.pdf\">UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food<\/a>, have convincingly demonstrated that <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/grafting-timeless-farming-skills-on-to-modern-techniques-14866\">agroecology<\/a> \u2013 farming that imitates natural ecosystems \u2013 is the most promising pathway to sustainable food systems on all continents.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"align-center \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/211718\/original\/file-20180323-54875-xrm2qz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Industrial soybean farming in Brazil.<\/span> <span class=\"attribution\"><span class=\"source\">Alf Ribeiro \/ Shutterstock.com<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Agroecology<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Agroecology is based on the idea that farms should mimic the structure and functioning of natural ecosystems. In ecosystems, there is no \u201cwaste\u201d: nutrients are recycled indefinitely. Agroecology aims to close nutrient loops \u2013 returning all nutrients that come out of the soil, back to the soil. In the case of vegetable farming, for example, this could be achieved through composting of vegetable scraps, human and farmyard manure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We know how food production needs to change if crisis is to be avoided \u2013 so why isn\u2019t this\u00a0happening? As the world races toward a projected 9 billion inhabitants, the failings of dominant food systems are impossible to deny. Current food production methods are severely polluting. They are the cause of malnutrition. They are also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[19539,20,16398,181,299,1912,323,19540,19538,638,8487],"class_list":["post-32935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-nina-moeller","tag-agriculture","tag-agroecokogy","tag-crisis","tag-farming","tag-food-production","tag-food-security","tag-malnutrition","tag-michel-pimbert","tag-pollution","tag-the-conversation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32936,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32935\/revisions\/32936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}