The return of a historic crop, hemp, could engender not only a resurgence in local economies, but also in the cultivation of crops that are more sustainable for both the farmer and the land itself.
Boosting yields by growing more food on the same area of land inevitably leads to more pesticide use. Of particular concern to many is pesticides’ toll on human health. However, research is showing that farmers can boost yields and eliminate pesticide use entirely.
Cuba, it turns out, is a rare oasis of organic and sustainable agriculture. For reasons of politics, geography and philosophy, the nation was forced to abandon much of its large-scale, chemical-based farming and replace it with a network of smaller farms and more natural methods.
North Dakota’s researchers are tallying the ecological cost of the state’s recent economic boom and warn that the ecosystem could be nearing a tipping point as corn and soybeans continue their march north into the last vast stretches of prairie pothole grassland in the eastern Dakotas — more than 90 percent of which is privately owned.
One of the founders of Regeneration Vermont, Will Allen, has graphed data on herbicide and nitrogen fertilizer use from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. Farmers used 1.54 pounds of herbicide per acre in 2002; that number increased to 3.01 pounds per acre in 2012.
Humans are not the first creatures to alter Earth’s climate. Termites and dinosaurs have had an impact on climate, too. But modern agriculture is undoing millions of years of grass-grazer co-evolution. Luckily, regenerative agriculture or carbon farming can reverse this damage.
If the soil can be fixed by adding quality organic biomass, reinvigorating an entire ecosystem, then why can’t we do the same thing for our bodies, ecosystems in their own right?
“The discovery of this indigenous climate smart soil-management practice is extremely timely. This valuable strategy to improve soil fertility while also contributing to climate-change mitigation and adaptation in Africa could become an important component of the global climate-smart agricultural management strategy to achieve food security.”
While global agriculture faces a number of challenges, the most surprising challenge to food security may come from agriculture’s impact on our climate.
Rather than producing more food under unequal and ecologically destructive conditions, the solution to hunger hinges on creating a more sustainable, democratic and fair food system for all.