Farming for the Future: Organic and Agroecological

23 Pages·2016·6.22 MB·English

FARMING FOR
THE FUTURE:
Organic and Agroecological
Solutions to Feed the World
BY CHRISTOPHER D. COOK, KARI HAMERSCHLAG, AND KENDRA KLEIN, PHD
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Buffer strips planted in permanent vegetation can help to manage soil and water quality and provide habitat for beneficial organisms;
planting along contour lines can reduce soil erosion.
Acknowledgements
This report was written by Christopher D. Cook, Kari Hamerschlag, Friends of the Earth U.S. and Kendra
Klein, PhD, Friends of the Earth U.S. with contributions from Friends of the Earth International and Friends of
the Earth Europe. We are grateful for the extensive research and editorial support provided by Maria Deloso.
The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect those of its supporters or reviewers. Any
errors or omissions are the responsibility of Friends of the Earth U.S.
About Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth U.S., founded by David Brower in 1969, is the U.S. voice of the world’s largest federation
of grassroots environmental groups, with a presence in 75 countries. Friends of the Earth works to defend
the environment and champion a more healthy and just world. Through our more than 45-year history, we
have provided crucial leadership in campaigns resulting in landmark environmental laws, precedent-setting
legal victories and groundbreaking reforms of domestic and international regulatory, corporate and financial
institution policies. Our current campaigns focus on promoting clean energy and solutions to climate
change, ensuring the food we eat and products we use are safe and sustainable, and protecting marine
ecosystems and the people who live and work near them. www.foe.org
©Copyright June 2016 by Friends of the Earth.
CONTENTS
Introduction ..............................................................................................................................................................................................4
I. Farming at the Crossroads: Ecological versus Industrial Agriculture .........................................................................6
• Agroecology: Building a Healthy, Just and Resilient Food Future ........................................................................6
• Expanded U.S. Organic Production Needed to Meet Growing Demand ............................................................7
• Industrial Agriculture: Undermining Our Future Food Security .............................................................................8
II. Countering Food Industry Myths with Facts .........................................................................................................................9
• Addressing the Root Causes of World Hunger.............................................................................................................9
• Producing Enough Food to Feed the World ...............................................................................................................10
• Beyond Yield: The Many Benefits of Organic Farming ............................................................................................10
• Protecting Human and Ecological Health for Long-Term Sustainability .............................................................11
• The Empty Promises of Genetically Engineered Crops ............................................................................................12
III. Creating a Sustainable and Just Food System to Feed the World — Now and in the Future ......................13
• Reducing Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions ............................................................................................13
• The Climate Solution under Our Feet ..............................................................................................................................13
• Climate Resilience and Water Conservation .................................................................................................................13
• Fostering Biodiversity ...........................................................................................................................................................14
• Reducing Use of Harmful Pesticides ................................................................................................................................14
• Finding the Natural Solution:
Crop Rotation and Mixed Livestock System Drives Success on an Iowa Farm ...............................................14
• Decreasing Meat Consumption, Improving Livestock Production .......................................................................15
• Bridging Sustainability and Food Sovereignty ............................................................................................................16
IV. Policy Solutions: Tackling Hunger’s Root Causes and Protecting Natural Resources .....................................17
• Funding Research for a Better Food Future.................................................................................................................17
• Major U.S. Policy Reform Must be on the Menu ..........................................................................................................17
V. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................................................................................18
References ...............................................................................................................................................................................................19
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Introduction Furthermore, research consistently demonstrates
that world hunger is not primarily a problem of
There is no debate that eliminating hunger
overall supply of food, but rather of poverty, lack
worldwide is one of humanity’s greatest challenges
of democracy and unequal access to land, water
in the 21st century. However, there are radically
and other resources, especially for women.1,2 As
divergent visions for how to achieve this goal. Many
a systems-based approach to food and farming,
people equate “feeding the world” with the need
agroecology addresses the social and economic
to produce more food. Yet this simplistic analysis
drivers of chronic hunger endured by nearly 800
ignores fundamental facts about world hunger. In
million people around the world.3
fact, the mandate to produce more food to feed
the world is often invoked to justify food and
farming policies and practices that exacerbate the Research consistently demonstrates
conditions of hunger and undermine our ability to
that world hunger is not a problem
feed future generations.
of supply, but rather of poverty, lack
Feeding the world sustainably requires that we
of democracy and unequal access to
protect the ecological resources that are essential
land, water and other resources.
for producing food now and in the future. As
this report documents, four decades of scientific
evidence show that agroecological farming,
Meanwhile, today’s dominant industrial food system
including diversified organic agriculture,† is the most
is rapidly depleting and degrading the world’s
effective agricultural response to the environmental
soil, water and biodiversity; intensifying climate
challenges that threaten our future food security,
disruption; consolidating wealth and power over
such as climate change, soil erosion, water scarcity
food-related resources; and accelerating poverty
and loss of biodiversity.
and hunger. Environmental harm caused by
industrial agriculture costs the world $3 trillion each
Feeding the world sustainably year according to the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization.4
requires that we protect the
Despite this evidence, a chorus of agribusiness
ecological resources that are
leaders, lobbyists and policymakers insists that
essential for producing food
we need more of the same to feed a growing
now and in the future.
population of up to nine billion people by 2050. As
† Diversified farming systems are a set of methods and tools developed to produce food sustainably by leveraging ecological diversity at plot,
field, and landscape scales. – UC Berkeley Center for Diversified Farming Systems
Farming for the Future 4
Friends of the Earth’s 2015 report Spinning Food The good news is that solutions are available — if
documents, agrichemical companies and their allies policymakers, citizens, and businesses are willing to
spend tens of millions of dollars a year to spread make vitally needed changes. Over the past decade,
misleading messages about the safety and necessity the ecological farming and food sovereignty
of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture. This movements have grown from a small trickle to a
narrative — along with a political process captured powerful stream, propelling millions of farmers,
by corporate interests — bolsters a system that eaters and policymakers toward a better future.
delivers billions of dollars a year in profits to By advancing agroecology and organic farming,
agribusinesses. This means yet more fossil-fuel- Friends of the Earth and our allies are helping to
intensive production and costly inputs – including lead a groundswell of citizen, consumer and farmer
pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics, growth action focused on building a sustainable, healthy
hormones and genetically engineered seeds. and equitable food system for all.
This report debunks three dominant myths about
food, farming and hunger that keep society on the
path of business as usual. We broadly characterize
this as the path of “industrial agriculture” and
introduce the principles of agroecology as a more
sustainable and just foundation for our food future.
We detail extensive research showing that
agroecological farming systems are a crucial
foundation to feed a growing world population,
protect farmer livelihoods and preserve ecological
resources to sustain future generations. Our analysis
spans both developed and developing countries.
Finally, we discuss policy priorities for advancing
agroecological farming, including diversified
organic systems. While we focus primarily on the
United States, it will take a diversity of approaches
and innovations at both local and global scales to
transform our food and farming systems.
In the face of climate change and rising demand
for resources, the need for ecologically sustainable
and resilient food production is more urgent than
ever. “Increasing the proportion of agriculture that
uses sustainable, organic methods of farming is
not a choice, it’s a necessity,” says Claire Kremen,
professor of Conservation Biology at University of
California at Berkeley, “We simply can’t continue to
produce food far into the future without taking care
of our soils, water and biodiversity.”5
“Increasing the proportion of
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agriculture that uses sustainable, R
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organic methods of farming is not LE
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a choice, it’s a necessity. We simply CI
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of our soils, water and biodiversity.” U
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— Professor Claire Kremen, UC Berkeley Diversified, organic crop production at Cedar Circle Farm,
Vermont.
Farming for the Future 5
I. Farming at the Crossroads: As this report describes in detail, the research is
clear that agroecological farming systems, including
Ecological versus Industrial
organic, can produce ample yields to feed a growing
Agriculture world population while boosting agricultural
resilience to climate change and regenerating
Agroecology: Building a Healthy, natural resources.
Just and Resilient Food Future
Agroecology — the science and practice of
sustainable agriculture — creates highly productive Agroecological farming can
farming systems by tapping farmers’ knowledge produce ample yields to feed
and integrating agricultural innovations developed
a growing world population
over millennia with emerging scientific research.6
while boosting agricultural
While industrial agriculture is chemically-intensive
and biologically-simplified, agroecology works resilience to climate change and
with nature as a powerful ally, adapting to and regenerating natural resources.
regenerating nature’s resources.7 Agroecological
farming methods include intercropping, cover
cropping, crop rotation, conservation tillage,
Ecological farming systems can generate
composting, managed livestock grazing and
many environmental benefits, including water
combined animal and plant production.
conservation, decreased soil erosion, reduced use
These methods are the foundation of organic
of synthetic chemicals and greater biodiversity
agriculture, a certified set of production standards
in the soil and on the farm. They can also help to
that are rooted in agroecological principles. The
mitigate and boost resilience to climate change.
U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic
They strengthen resilience to drought and floods by
Program describes organic agriculture as the
improving soil structure and water-holding capacity
application of a set of cultural, biological and
and can decrease agriculture’s unsustainable
mechanical practices that support the cycling of
energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.8,9,10
on-farm resources, promote ecological balance
By sequestering more carbon in the soil than
and conserve biodiversity. Organic farming can be
conventional practices, these methods can be
considered a subset of the agroecological farming
an important part of climate change mitigation
systems that exist around the world, many which are
strategies.11,12
not certified.
Agroecology is not only about farming practices, it
is a holistic approach that includes cultural diversity
and social justice as important aims of our food
and faming systems. Agroecology is a central pillar
of food sovereignty, a global grassroots movement
working to combat poverty, inequality and hunger
by promoting democratically-controlled food
production and challenging corporate power in our
food system.13 The research is clear: world hunger is
caused primarily by poverty, lack of democracy and
unequal access to land, water and other resources
and infrastructure, especially among women.14,15
Rather than simply producing more food under
unequal conditions, the solution to hunger hinges
on creating more democratic and fair political and
economic systems that expand access to resources.
Agroecology challenges unjust power and inequality
in society and promotes policies and practices that
make farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, indigenous
people, workers, consumers and citizens the primary
Biological control, like the use of ladybird beetles to consume
decision makers about food and farming.
aphids, relies on natural mechanisms of predation, parasitism
and herbivory to control pests.
Farming for the Future 6
Expanded U.S. Organic Production Needed to Meet Growing Demand
Agroecology can refer to a invest adequately in domestic organic agriculture
wide range of ecologically represents a missed opportunity to deliver many
restorative food and benefits to U.S. farmers, food businesses and
farming systems, including consumers. Research demonstrates that organic
diversified organic farming systems are more profitable for farmers,
production that meets or reduce consumer and farmworker exposure to
exceeds the standards of the pesticides and provide an impressive range of
U.S. National Organic Program. environmental benefits (see table below).22
With $39 billion in organic sales in 2014, the U.S.
Some have raised concerns that increasing
accounts for 43 percent of the global market
corporate ownership of organic brands and
for organic food,16,17 yet it accounts for just
farming operations has begun to mirror the
five percent of land under organic production
economic consolidation and mono-cropping
worldwide.18 Less than one percent of U.S.
associated with the industrial food system.23
cropland is devoted to organic production.19
Research shows that organic systems that
Despite a 300 percent increase in certified
employ diversification techniques like multi-
organic operations in the U.S. since 2002,20
cropping and crop rotations perform better than
farmers are not able to keep up with demand.
organic monoculture systems.24 State and federal
There is a significant need and opportunity to research and policies should foster diversified
increase domestic, diversified organic production organic production and support the entry of
in the United States.21 The government’s failure to small and mid-scale producers into the market.
Table 1: Environmental Benefits of Organic Agriculture
Organic farming practice Environmental benefits
Crop rotation Enhances soil quality, disrupts weed, insect and disease life cycles,
sequesters carbon and nitrogen, diversifies production
Manure, compost, green Enhances soil quality, sequesters carbon and nitrogen, contributes to
manure use productivity
Cover cropping Enhances soil quality, reduces erosion, sequesters carbon and nitrogen,
prevents dust (protects air quality), improves soil nutrients, and
contributes to productivity
Avoidance of synthetic Avoids contamination of surface and ground waters, enhances soil quality,
fertilizers sequesters carbon, mitigates salinization (in many cases)
Avoidance of synthetic Enhances biodiversity, improves air quality, enhances soil quality, assists
pesticides in effective pest management, prevents harm to pollinators, reduces
costs of chemical inputs, and reduces exposure of farmworkers and rural
communities to harmful pesticides
Planting habitat corridors, Enhances biodiversity, supports biological pest management, provides
borders, and/or insectaries wildlife habitat
Buffer areas Improves water quality, enhances biodiversity, prevents wind erosion
Source: Adapted from Organic Farming for Health and Prosperity. OFRF Executive Summary 2011
Farming for the Future 7
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Monocultures rely on high inputs of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides to manage fertility, pests and disease.
Industrial Agriculture: Undermining our • Generation of major greenhouse gas emissions
Future Food Security and significant vulnerability to climate change.34
Industrial agriculture relies on monocultures, large- • Widespread pesticide and fertilizer pollution of
scale energy-intensive operations and chemical water ways and oceanic “dead zones” linked to
inputs that are harmful to humans and the planet. fertilizer runoff.35
This toxic mix includes synthetic pesticides, • Large-scale habitat and biodiversity losses
fertilizers, growth hormones, antibiotics and crops threatening essential species, including
that are genetically engineered to be herbicide pollinators.36,37
tolerant. These factory-like industrial practices are
• Rapidly dwindling genetic diversity of seeds,
undermining the ecosystems we depend on to
crops and livestock breeds.38
grow food; depleting and degrading the world’s
soil, water and biodiversity; and intensifying climate • Severe animal suffering.39
disruption.25
• Impoverishment of farmers and agricultural
The dominant industrial food system also generates workers worldwide.40,41
enormous social and public health costs. The
• Reduced effectiveness of antibiotics to fight
political and economic structures underlying
human diseases.42,43
the global food system are consolidating
• Nearly 800 million people suffering from hunger,
wealth and power over food-related resources
1.9 billion overweight or obese, and billions spent
and accelerating world poverty and hunger.26
on diet-related diseases.44,45
Meanwhile, overconsumption of unhealthy foods
in some regions drives rising rates of chronic • Rapid loss and concentration of farmlands
diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.27 A and water access due to land grabs and
growing body of evidence links certain classes of development.46,47
agricultural pesticides to illnesses including cancers,
• Poverty wages for millions of agricultural and
neurodevelopmental disorders, reproductive
food industry workers who suffer high rates of
disorders, asthma, birth defects and acute
injury and chronic illness.48,49
poisonings.28,29 These diseases disproportionately
• Increased obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemics
impact low income communities and people of
in some countries and pesticide-related diseases
color in the U.S. and around the world. Together, the
suffered disproportionately by farm workers and
global economic cost of premature death, disability
rural communities worldwide.50
and disease connected to food production and
consumption is hundreds of billions of dollars a “Unveiling the hidden costs of mainstream
year.30,31 agriculture. . . [shows] that investing in conversion
to sustainable food and agriculture systems is a
Evidence of industrial agriculture’s destructive path
much cheaper option than current expenditures for
is everywhere:
environmental mitigation and public health,” says
• Rapid depletion and degradation of soil and
Nadia El-Hage Scialabba of the United Nation’s
water resources.32,33
Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO).
Farming for the Future 8
II. Countering Food Industry hunger. By concentrating food sector profits, market
control and access to seeds and land among a
Myths with Facts
handful of corporations, and by generating profits
In this section we tackle three pervasive based on poverty wages and low crop prices
misconceptions about the food system. These for farmers, this system impoverishes millions of
misleading claims, which are propagated by farmers and workers across the globe.59 From Africa
agribusiness, philanthropic and international and Asia to Latin America and the U.S., corporate
institutions and policymakers, are used to justify control over markets and supply chains is displacing
policies, research and markets that propel millions of small-scale farmers.60,61 Massive land
destructive agricultural practices and concentrate grabs around the world deprive small farmers —
wealth and power in the hands of the few. The facts especially women — of land and resources needed
illustrate why the current industrial food system is to feed their families and build thriving, food-secure
untenable — and why we must continue to build a communities.62 These dynamics have created
more sustainable and just food system rooted in some of the world’s highest rates of poverty and
agroecological principles. hunger among small-scale food producers and
rural communities worldwide.63 Farm laborers
Addressing the Root Causes of World
and food industry workers across the world suffer
Hunger
poverty wages and high rates of injury and chronic
Myth: We must significantly increase food illness.64,65 In the U.S., consistently low wages make
production to feed the world. food system workers twice as likely as others to
receive federal food assistance.66
Facts: Scientists estimate that farmers already
produce enough food to feed 10 billion people — Making matters worse, much of agricultural
far more than the current population of roughly 7.3 production worldwide is not devoted to feeding
billion.51 Still, nearly 800 million go hungry every people. In the U.S., 36 percent of all corn is used to
day and many more are undernourished.52 Research feed livestock, another 40 percent for biofuels.67
consistently demonstrates that world hunger is not This means vast amounts of farmland that could
a problem of supply, but rather of poverty, lack of produce a variety of nutritious foods are locked
democracy and unequal access to land, water and up in feed and fuel production. These trends are
other resources.53,54 replicated globally: roughly one-third of grain
produced worldwide becomes animal feed while
Solution: Solving world hunger requires policies and
17 percent goes to ethanol and other biofuels.68
programs that democratize access to food, arable
Devoting land and food crops to biofuel production
land, water, credit and fair markets, particularly for
is particularly harmful, as it raises food prices
women. To address hunger and poverty sustainably,
and diverts land and resources away from food
we must expand public investment in agroecological
production.69 Finally, approximately one-third of the
farming, especially among the small food producers
food that is produced globally (1.3 billion tons) never
who make up more than 90 percent of all farmers
makes it to the plate because it is lost to waste and
worldwide.55 We must also reduce global food waste
spoilage or left in the field.70
and shift consumption towards plant-based foods
(particularly in the U.S. and other wealthy countries The Economist summarized the shortcomings of
that consume large amounts of meat) and away the assumption that world hunger is an issue of
from growing feed for livestock and biofuels. supply in a February 2011 special report, stating,
“Indeed, the world produces more than just enough
Smallholders are the backbone of world food
to go round. Allowing for all the food that could be
supply; they represent over 90 percent of farmers
eaten but is turned into biofuels, and the staggering
worldwide and provide more than 80 percent of the
amounts wasted on the way, farmers are already
food consumed throughout much of the developing
producing much more than is required — more
world, particularly Southern Asia and sub-Saharan
than twice the minimum nutritional needs by some
Africa.56 Fostering small farmers’ ability to feed
measures. If there is a food problem, it does not look
themselves and their communities is fundamental to
like a technical or biological one.”71
food security and poverty reduction, especially for
more than 1 billion poor, rural people worldwide.57,58
The dominant industrial food system is rife with
systemic inequalities that exacerbate poverty and
Farming for the Future 9
Producing Enough Food to Feed the nutritious food that contains less (or no) pesticide
World residues and provide multiple ecosystem benefits
(see Figure 1, next page).80
Myth: Organic farming cannot produce enough food
to feed the world.
Facts: A growing body of research shows that Organic farming systems
agroecological farming systems, including organic consistently outperform
agriculture, can yield more than enough food
conventional systems on a broad
to feed a growing population while generating
set of health and sustainability
significant economic, health and environmental
benefits.72,73 By improving soil, conserving water and criteria - they are more profitable
protecting biodiversity, ecological farming methods for farmers, deliver equally or more
create greater resilience than industrial agriculture
nutritious food that contains less (or
to the impacts of climate change.
no) pesticide residues and provide
Solution: To ensure ample yields while protecting
multiple ecosystem benefits.
natural resources, we must invest more public
funds in agroecological farming research, technical
assistance, credit access and other incentives to
Protecting and regenerating natural resources
expand regional, organic and diversified farming
ensures our ability to produce ample food for
systems.
future generations. Well-managed organic systems
While organic systems, on average, produce lower
can reduce soil erosion, protect water resources,
yields than conventional farming systems, research
produce fewer greenhouse gases, store more carbon
has found that organic can match or exceed
in the soil, provide more pollinator habitat and
conventional yields depending on the crop, growing
increase the water-holding capacity of soils.81 By
conditions and management practices.74,75,76,77 A
building soils and developing locally-adapted seeds,
UC Berkeley meta-analysis of 115 studies found
organic and other agroecological methods can help
that yields for organic agriculture are higher than
to protect yields amid the weather extremes and
previously thought when farmers use diversification
seasonal disruptions of climate change.82,83
techniques such as multiple cropping and crop
Organic farming can also provide greater economic
rotation. In these cases, the yield gap shrinks to
benefits to farmers. A meta-analysis of 40 years
less than 10 percent. For some crops — including
of studies of 55 crops grown on five continents
legumes, oats, tomatoes and apples — the analysis
found that organic agriculture increased farmers’
found no significant yield difference.78 Research
profitability by 22-35 percent over non-organic
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
production.84 In the U.S., studies show that organic
shows that agroecological grain production using
farmers earn a higher net return than do their
fewer synthetic chemicals can match or exceed
conventional counterparts due to lower input costs
U.S. industrial grain yields while providing equal or
and higher price premiums.85,86
higher profits to farmers and dramatically reducing
freshwater toxicity.79 Organic and other ecological farming methods can
play a particularly important role in developing
Beyond Yield: The Many Benefits of Organic
nations because they improve yield while
Farming
maintaining or lowering the costs of production.
When assessing the productivity of farming By prioritizing farmer knowledge and innovation
systems, we must go beyond a narrow focus on over costly inputs like pesticides and genetically
yield. While conventional farming systems have engineered seeds, agroecological methods
achieved higher yields over the past half century, can be more accessible to low-income farmers.
they have too often done so at great expense to According to the United Nations Environment
human health, workers’ rights, animal welfare and Programme (UNEP), the majority of chronically
the environment. If we take the entire system into hungry people in developing countries are small
account, research shows that organic approaches farmers who are often too poor to purchase
consistently outperform conventional on a broad set inputs and are marginalized from markets.87 A UN
of health and sustainability criteria. According to a report on organic agriculture and food security
recent meta-analysis, organic farming systems are in Africa found that organic production systems
more profitable for farmers, deliver equally or more outperformed traditional systems and yielded on
Farming for the Future 10