AFSA Urges African Climate Leaders: Prioritise Agroecology, Food Sovereignty and Biodiversity Conservation Now!

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As members of the Africa Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA), we represent the largest social movement made up of farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous communities and societal organizations civil society across the continent. As the 2023 Africa Climate Week (ACW) takes place from September 4-8, 2023 in Nairobi, and runs alongside the September 4-6 African Climate Summit, both hosted by the Government of Kenya, we take this moment to highlight the importance of sustainable, people-centered and African-led solutions to address the urgent climate crisis.

While these platforms provide vital opportunities to discuss climate solutions across various sectors, it is disheartening to recognize that the relentless impacts of the climate emergency continue to reverberate across Africa. Every day, rising temperatures, floods, storms, droughts and land degradation disproportionately affect small-scale food producers and communities, amplifying their vulnerabilities. Faced with the urgency of adapting and preserving their livelihoods and the subsistence of their families, the need for increased support becomes essential.

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Organic September: What Actually Makes a Food Organic?

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of organic certification in the UK.

In 1973, accreditation schemes were launched, allowing farmers to gain certification proving they don’t use harmful chemicals in their growing or production methods.

These were the salad days of climate activism – Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth were founded two years earlier – and the movement has gone from strength to strength ever since.

“It’s something that’s been going for half a century and couldn’t be more searingly relevant for what we need our food system to be for the next 50 years ahead,” says Alex Cullen, commercial and marketing director at the Soil Association, one of eight approved certification bodies.

“Both in the EU and now in the UK post-Brexit, it’s really strictly legislated – organic food essentially needs to be independently verified and inspected.”

To mark Organic September, we asked experts to describe what organic really means when it comes to food, and why it’s beneficial for us and the environment…

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Genetically Engineered Soil Microbes: Risks and Concerns

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Biotech companies are developing genetically engineered microbes for use in agriculture, including the largest agrichemical corporations — Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta, and BASF. The first of these products are already being used across millions of acres of U.S. farmland.   

The release of live genetically engineered microbes in agriculture represents an unprecedented open-air genetic experiment. The scale of release is far larger and the odds of containment far smaller than for genetically engineered crops. 

This report provides historical context for this novel technology, insight into future trends, a summary of potential risks, and policy recommendations that would ensure robust assessment and oversight as more genetically engineered microbes move from the lab to the field.  

What types of microbes are being genetically engineered for agriculture?  

Bacteria, viruses and fungi are being genetically engineered for agricultural uses with bacteria being the most common.   

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Review 552: Glyphosate And Other Pesticides, Sustainable Alternatives

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Welcome to Review 552, which covers a lot of news and new research on glyphosate-based herbicides such as Roundup, as well as other GMO-related pesticides, and the sustainable alternatives to poisoning ourselves and our environment. Topics include Roundup cancer lawsuits, the European Food Safety Authority’s perverse decision to greenlight glyphosate’s re-approval in the EU, the concerns of health scientists about exposure to glyphosate and other pesticides, new studies on glyphosate and its commercial formulations, damage to ecosystems from the use of GMO-related pesticides, actions of citizens resisting pesticide spraying in their localities, and innovations that provide effective non-toxic alternatives to weedkilling chemicals.

Bayer: Weedkiller maker to take $2.8bn hit as sales fall

Bayer says it expects to take a €2.5bn ($2.8bn; £2.2bn) hit from a slower demand for its glyphosate-based products, including the controversial weedkiller Roundup. The announcement came as the company lowered its outlook for the year as it braces for a persistent fall in demand and lower prices.

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Agroecological Practices Are Widely Used by African Farmers

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Agroecology is a body of knowledge, practices and political movements that aims to support transformation of food and agricultural systems to long-term social and environmental sustainability. African farmers face multiple challenges, and agroecology has been proposed as contributing to solutions and hence is being supported and promoted on the continent. However, the viability of agroecological practices for African farmers has been questioned.
The project that produced the results in this paper was set up to understand more about the viability of agroecological practices at farm and household level, identifying the lockins and drivers of use of agroecology and paying particular attention to labour and work. A case study approach was used, with 11 cases across eight countries from Tunisia to Madagascar contributing evidence. A common framework was used in all cases but with adaptation of details to local contexts. After two years collecting data, case-study and coordinating teams met in December 2022 to look at results and plan detailed analyses.

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‘This Way of Farming Is Really Sexy’: The Rise of Regenerative Agriculture

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Hollie Fallick looks over Brading on the Isle of Wight, at a patchwork of fields bordered by ancient oaks, which stretches to the Solent. “We still have to pinch ourselves every day,” says the 30-year-old, as she surveys the 50 hectares (125 acres) she farms with her best friend, Francesca Cooper, 34.

The friends – who have five young children between them, were both vegan for a period, and are lifelong environmental activists – are not typical livestock farmers. And they don’t practise typical farming: instead they are part of a growing global movement practising regenerative agriculture – or regen ag for short.

“Really simply, regenerative agriculture is nature-friendly farming,” says Fallick, who says she stopped being vegan when her health suffered. “It’s thinking about the health of soil, animals, humans and how they all link together.”

On Nunwell home farm, which sits alongside land the pair manage for the Wildlife Trust…

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Us Escalates Mexico Corn Trade Spat With Dispute Panel Request

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The United States on Thursday escalated its objections to Mexico’s curbs on genetically modified corn imports, requesting a dispute settlement panel under the North American trade pact, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said.

The request to send the dispute to arbitrators was announced after formal consultations failed to resolve deep divisions between the two close trading partners over use of genetically modified (GM) corn, widely produced by U.S. farmers.

Mexico’s Economy Ministry said it would defend its GM corn policies before the dispute panel, saying on the social media platform X that they “are consistent with trade obligations.”

Washington alleges that Mexico’s decree banning imports of GM corn used in dough and tortillas for human consumption is not based on science and violates its commitments under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade launched in 2020.

If the panel rules in favor of the U.S. and Mexico fails to comply with its directives, USTR could ultimately win the right to impose punitive tariffs on Mexican goods, which could spark a rare North American trade war.

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Soil Carbon Sequestration Accelerated by Restoration of Grassland Biodiversity

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Soils store climatically significant amounts of carbon (C) as soil organic matter, globally about 2.3 times greater than the C in atmospheric CO2 and 3.5 times greater than the C in all living terrestrial plants1. However, prolonged cultivation accelerates the decomposition of soil organic matter and can cause the loss of 20–67% of the soil C in an agricultural field2,3,4. Between 1850 and 1998, global agricultural cultivation led to the release of ~78 Gt of C from soil as CO2 to the atmosphere4, with ~133 Gt of soil C so released since the beginning of agriculture5. Since the current global annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and all other sources are ~10 Gt of C6, soil C sequestration has thus been proposed as a plausible partial climate mitigation strategy that might buy time while low-carbon technologies are being developed and adopted7. Indeed, a recent international initiative has set a target of increasing global soil organic matter by 0.4% per year to help negate some greenhouse gas emissions8.

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Mycelium: Exploring the Hidden Dimension of Fungi

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What is mycelium?

You might have seen mycelium before as a fuzzy, white, green or even black mass growing on mouldy food, blue cheese or salami.

But out in the wild, mycelium is more than just the sign of an out-of-date sandwich: it’s a whole network of thin fungal strands called hyphae.

The mycelium has a similar function in fungi to the roots of plants.

The hyphae explore the soil or any other substrate where fungi are growing and secrete digestive enzymes onto their food source, often dead organic materials and sometimes living organisms.

These enzymes break down the matter into smaller parts that feed not only the fungi, but also their plant partners and many other organisms. They can also ferment foods, increasing palatability.

In fact, this process of breaking down organic matter is critical in maintaining healthy soil, recycling leaf litter, and providing food for the vast array of bacteria and animals that call soil home.

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5 Things You Need to Know about Regenerative Agriculture

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The way humanity eats today is undermining our very ability to continue feeding ourselves tomorrow.

Our food systems are the leading driver of terrestrial biodiversity loss, a key driver of land degradation, and the origin of up to one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. And yet, demand for food could double between 2005 and 2050.

So, how can we continue to meet this most basic of human needs in the decades to come?

Enter regenerative agriculture – a term that’s increasingly popping up in policy debates and corporate commitments, but whose precise meaning remains blurry. So, what exactly does it entail? How can it benefit us, and what will it take to put it into practice on a significant scale?

Here are five things you need to know about regenerative agriculture, why it matters, and how it can revolutionize the future of food.

There is no single set of internationally agreed principles for regenerative agriculture.

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