*CA-CoP* *CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE*
*for sustainable production intensification*
Dear Subscribers,
Please see herebelow a publication "Can We Prevent A Food Breakdown?" from
Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute, has just been issued. Courtesy of
Gerard Rass from APAD in France.
*Amir Kassam *
*Moderator*
Plant Production and Protection Division
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00153 Rome
Italy
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: www.fao.org/ag/ca
-----Original Message-----
From: gerard.rass <[log in to unmask]>
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Gérard Rass <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wed, Mar 12, 2014 3:14 pm
Subject: Tr: Earth Policy Release - Can We Prevent A Food Breakdown?
Dear Amir,
A publication from Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute, has just been
issued.
With a specific chapter about soil conservation :
"Another valuable tool in the soil conservation tool kit is no-till
farming. Instead of the traditional practice of plowing land and discing or
harrowing it to prepare the seedbed, and then using a mechanical cultivator
to control weeds in row crops, farmers simply drill seeds directly through
crop residues into undisturbed soil, controlling weeds with herbicides when
necessary. In addition to reducing erosion, this practice retains water,
raises soil organic matter content, and greatly reduces energy use for
tillage."
Kind regards. Gerard
Gerard Rass
APAD
7 rue Surcouf
35170 Bruz
France
Email : [log in to unmask]
Phone : 33 6 07 40 42 59
---- Envoyé avec BlackBerry(R) d'Orange ----
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*From: * "Earth Policy Release" <[log in to unmask]>
*Date: *Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:19:43 -0400
*To: *<[log in to unmask]>
*ReplyTo: * [log in to unmask]
*Subject: *Earth Policy Release - Can We Prevent A Food Breakdown?
[image: Bookmark and
Share]<http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300&pubid=ra-4d6d74824d18a36a&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.earthpolicy.org%2Fbooks%2Ffpep%2Ffpepch11&title=>
* Can We Prevent A Food Breakdown? *
Lester R. Brown
www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch11<http://www.earthpolicy.org/books/fpep/fpepch11>
Earth Policy Release
Full Planet, Empty Plates
March 12, 2014
[image: Full Planet, Empty Plates book
image]<http://store.earth-policy.org/Full-Planet-Empty-Plates-p/fpep.htm>
As food supplies have tightened, a new geopolitics of food has emerged--a
world in which the global competition for
land<http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch10>and water is
intensifying and each country is fending for itself. We cannot
claim that we are unaware of the trends that are undermining our food
supply and thus our civilization. We know what we need to do.
There was a time when if we got into trouble on the food front, ministries
of agriculture would offer farmers more financial incentives, like higher
price supports, and things would soon return to normal. But responding to
the tightening of food supplies today is a far more complex undertaking. It
involves the ministries of energy, water resources, transportation, and
health and family planning, among others. Because of the looming specter of
climate change that is threatening to disrupt agriculture, we may find that
energy policies will have an even greater effect on future food security
than agricultural policies do. In short, avoiding a breakdown in the food
system requires the mobilization of our entire society.
On the demand side of the food equation, there are four pressing
needs--to stabilize
world population <http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch2>,
eradicate poverty, reduce excessive meat
consumption<http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2012/update102>,
and reverse biofuels policies that encourage the use of food, land, or
water that could otherwise be used to feed people. We need to press forward
on all four fronts at the same time.
The world needs to focus on filling the gap in reproductive health care and
family planning while working to eradicate poverty. Progress on one will
reinforce progress on the other. Two cornerstones of eradicating poverty
are making sure that all children--both boys and girls--get at least an
elementary school education and rudimentary health care. And the poorest
countries need a school lunch program, one that will encourage families to
send children to school and that will enable them to learn once they get
there.
At the other end of the food spectrum, a large segment of the world's
people are consuming animal
products<http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch3>at a level
that is unhealthy and contributing to obesity and cardiovascular
disease. The good news is that when the affluent consume less meat, milk,
and eggs, it improves their health. When meat consumption falls in the
United States, as it recently has, this frees up grain for direct
consumption. Moving down the food chain also lessens pressure on the
earth's land and water resources. In short, it is a win-win-win situation.
Another initiative, one that can quickly lower food prices, is the
cancellation of biofuel mandates. There is no social justification for the
massive conversion of food into
fuel<http://www.earthpolicy.org/books/fpep/fpepch4>for cars. With
plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars coming to market that
can run on local wind-generated electricity at a gasoline-equivalent cost
of 80¢ per gallon, why keep burning costly fuel at four times the price?
On the supply side of the food equation, we face several challenges,
including stabilizing climate, raising water productivity, and conserving
soil. Stabilizing climate is not easy, but it can be done if we act
quickly. It will take a huge cut in carbon
emissions<http://www.earth-policy.org/press_room/C68/80by2020>,
some 80 percent within a decade, to give us a chance of avoiding the worst
consequences of climate change. This means a wholesale restructuring of the
world energy economy.
The easiest way to do this is to restructure the tax system. The market has
many strengths, but it also has some dangerous weaknesses. It readily
captures the direct costs of mining coal and delivering it to power plants.
But the market does not incorporate the indirect costs of fossil fuels in
prices, such as the costs to society of global warming. Sir Nicholas Stern,
former chief economist at the World Bank, noted when releasing his landmark
study on the costs of climate change that climate change was the product of
a massive market failure.
The goal of restructuring taxes is to lower income taxes and raise carbon
taxes so that the cost of climate change and other indirect costs of fossil
fuel use are incorporated in market prices. If we can get the market to
tell the truth, the transition from coal and oil to wind, solar, and
geothermal energy will move very fast. If we remove the massive
subsidies<http://www.earth-policy.org/data_highlights/2013/highlights36>to
the fossil fuel industry, we will move even faster.
Along with stabilizing climate, another key component to avoiding a
breakdown in the food system is to raise water
productivity<http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch6>.
This could be patterned after the worldwide effort launched over a
half-century ago to raise cropland productivity. This extraordinarily
successful earlier endeavor tripled the world grain yield per acre between
1950 and 2011.
Raising water productivity begins with agriculture, simply because 70
percent of all water use goes to irrigation. Some irrigation technologies
are much more efficient than others. The least efficient are flood and
furrow irrigation. Sprinkler irrigation, using the center-pivot systems
that are widely seen in the crop circles in the western U.S. Great Plains,
and drip irrigation are far more efficient. The advantage of drip
irrigation is that it applies water very slowly at a rate that the plants
can use, losing little to evaporation. It simultaneously raises yields and
reduces water use. Because it is labor-intensive, it is used primarily to
produce high-value vegetable crops or in orchards.
Another option is to encourage the use of more water-efficient crops, such
as wheat, instead of rice. Egypt, for example, limits the production of
rice. China banned rice production in the Beijing region. Moving down the
food chain also saves water.
Another valuable tool in the soil
conservation<http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch5>tool kit
is no-till farming. Instead of the traditional practice of plowing
land and discing or harrowing it to prepare the seedbed, and then using a
mechanical cultivator to control weeds in row crops, farmers simply drill
seeds directly through crop residues into undisturbed soil, controlling
weeds with herbicides when necessary. In addition to reducing erosion, this
practice retains water, raises soil organic matter content, and greatly
reduces energy use for tillage.
These initiatives do not constitute a menu from which to pick and choose.
We need to take all these actions simultaneously. They reinforce each
other. We will not likely be able to stabilize population unless we
eradicate poverty. We will not likely be able to restore the earth's
natural systems without stabilizing population and stabilizing climate. Nor
can we eradicate poverty without reversing the decline of the earth's
natural systems.
Achieving all these goals to reduce demand and increase supply requires
that we redefine security. We have inherited a definition of security from
the last century, a century dominated by two world wars and a cold war,
that is almost exclusively military in focus. When the term national
security comes up in Washington, people automatically think of expanded
military budgets and more-advanced weapon systems. But armed aggression is
no longer the principal threat to our future. The overriding threats in
this century are climate change, population growth, spreading water
shortages, rising food prices<http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch8>,
and politically failing states.
We all need to select an issue and go to work on it. Find some friends who
share your concern and get to work. The overriding priority is redefining
security and reallocating fiscal resources accordingly. If your major
concern is population growth, join one of the internationally oriented
groups and lobby to fill the family planning gap. If your overriding
concern is climate change, join the effort to close coal-fired power
plants. We can prevent a breakdown of the food system, but it will require
a huge political effort undertaken on many fronts and with a fierce sense
of urgency.
For the full report click
here<http://www.earthpolicy.org/books/fpep/fpepch11>.
# # #
------------------------------
*From Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity
<http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep> by Lester R. Brown (New York: W.W.
Norton & Co.) Supporting data, video, and slideshows are available for free
download at www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep
<http://www.earthpolicy.org/books/fpep>.*
*Feel free to pass this information along to friends, family members, and
colleagues!*
*Media Contact:* Reah Janise Kauffman (202) 496-9290 ext. 12 |
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*Research Contact:* Janet Larsen (202) 496-9290 ext. 14 |
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