Dominant food production systems might bring food to your table, but it’s not exactly coming to you without a price – and a hefty one, at that. In fact, global food security is considered one of the most challenging issues of our time.
Current methods of production are severely polluting to the environment. They also suffer from their own means of extraction, leading to extreme waste and inequity in how food is distributed.
Factors Affecting Food Supply:
Food supplies are dwindling because of climate change, and urbanization. But how we respond seems to be indicative of a single pattern that often excludes important variables like climate, and population needs. Usual responses point at increasing how much food is produced through petrochemical, large-scale, one-crop, intensive farming.
A report that was done over the course of three years, commissioned by the UN and the World Bank involving more than 400 scientists, showed that agroecology (farming that imitates natural ecosystems) is the most beneficial way to sustainable food systems across the world.
Agroecology:
This is the idea that farms should imitate the structure and ways of functioning of natural ecosystems. In ecosystems, there is no waste because nutrients are recycled indefinitely. Agroecology looks to close nutrient loops, meaning that all nutrients that come from the soil, eventually end up back in the soil.
When it comes to vegetable farming, this system may be achieved through composting vegetable scraps, farmyard and human manure. Agroecology integrates trees with livestock and crops, produces food from forests, and grows several crops together in one plot. It also uses locally adapted and genetically diverse crops and livestock.
Worldwide Agroecology Trends:
Small-scale farmers throughout the world are adapting methods of agroecology and uniting under its principles. This helps them produce healthy and nutritious crops, as well as enhance biodiversity and allows them to adapt to climate change. This in turn, allows them to improve their income and working conditions by developing short food chains and local markets.
Local economies are insisting upon food sovereignty, which is local control over the way food is produced, consumed, and traded. They also focus on transformative agroecology, which allows them to manage food production and distribution in a way that meets the needs of the people.
Challenges to Wide-Scale Adoption:
Industrial farming has taken its toll on economies, promoting the European Union to adopt a New European Consensus for Development in June 2017. This commits them to support agroecological practices to reduce food waste and protect the environment at large.
Nevertheless, funding priorities don’t allow for successful transition to argoecological farming. At the same time, overseas aid programmes are needed to support these crucial transitions in places like Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Since January 2010, there have been no allocated funds to projects aimed to support agroecological practices.
There needs to be a substantial increase in public funding for agroecological farming – both domestically and internationally.
Related:
Beer Supplies Threatened by Climate Change