Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost Paul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Editor's Note: The Independent Science Panel is a group of scientists from
many disciplines committed to accountable, accessible and widely
participatory science to inform public policy. The ISP is launching a
project on sustainable agriculture. They are currently working to produce a
report with recommendations for governments on how to make agricultural
systems more sustainable.


The Independent Science Panel
Promotion of Science for the Public Good http://www.indsp.org

Independent Science Panel     Institute of Science in Society
Sustainable World - A Global Initiative

Current food production system due for collapse

World grain yield fell for four successive years from 2000 to 2003,
bringing reserves to the lowest in thirty years. The situation has not
improved despite a 'bumper' harvest in 2004, which was just enough to
satisfy world consumption.

In too many food production regions of the world, conventional farming
practices have severely depleted the underground water to the point
where rivers and lakes have dried out, topsoil has been eroded away, and
wild life decimated. At the same time, world oil production may have
passed its peak; oil price hit a record high of US$58 a barrel on 4
April 2005, and is expected to top US$100 within two years. This spells
looming disaster for conventional industrial agriculture, which is
heavily dependent on both oil and water. The true costs of our current
food production system are becoming all too clear (see Box 1).

Box 1

True costs of industrial food production system

* 1 000 tonnes of water are consumed to produce one tonne of grain

* 10 energy units are spent for every energy unit of food on our
dinner table

* 1 000 energy units are used for every energy unit of processed
food

* 17% of the total energy use in the United States goes into food
production & distribution, accounting for more than 20% of all transport
within the country; this excludes energy used in import & export

* 12.5 energy units are wasted for every energy unit of food
transported per thousand air-miles

* 20% of all greenhouse gases in the world come from current agriculture
* US$318 billion of taxpayer's money was spent to subsidize
agriculture in OECD countries in 2002, while more than 2 billion
subsistence farmers in developing countries tried to survive on $2 a day

* 90% of the agricultural subsidies benefit corporations and big
farmers growing food for export; while 500 family farms close down every
week in the United States

* Subsidized surplus food dumped on developing countries creates
poverty, hunger and homelessness on a massive scale

Getting our food production sustainable is the most urgent task for
humanity; it is also the key to delivering health, ameliorating the
worst effects of climate change and saving the planet from destructive
exploitation. The benefits of sustainable food production systems are
also becoming evident (see Box 2).


Box 2
Some benefits of sustainable food production systems

* 2- to 10-fold energy saving on switching to low-input/organic
agriculture

* 5 to 15% global fossil fuel emissions offset by sequestration of
carbon in organically managed soil

* 50 to 92% reduction in carbon dioxide emission from the soil on
switching from conventional tillage to no-till agriculture

* 5 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission disappear with every tonne
of nitrogen fertilizer phased out

* 2-3- fold increase in crop yield using compost in Ethiopia,
outperforming chemical fertilizers

* Organic farming performs as well or slightly better than
conventional industrial farming in the US

* Small farms are 2 to 10 times more productive than larger farms

* Organic farms support significantly more birds, bats,
invertebrates and wild plants than conventional farm in Europe

* Organic foods contain more vitamins, minerals and other
micronutrients than conventionally produced foods
* 1 000 or more community-supported farms across US and Canada
bring $36m income per year directly to the farms

* £50-78m go directly into the pocket of farmers trading in some
200 established local farmers' markets in the UK

* Buying food in local farmers' market generates twice as much for
the local economy than buying food in supermarkets chains

* Money spent with a local supplier is worth four times as much as
money spent with non-local supplier

The Independent Science Panel (ISP) and the Institute of Science in
Society (ISIS) are launching this Sustainable World initiative to engage
with all sectors of civil society to make our food production system
truly sustainable.

We are convening a special ISP group on Sustainable Agriculture (ISP-SA)
- currently 18 strong - and a task force of sponsoring organizations and
individuals who will make direct input into a comprehensive report on
sustainable agriculture at the end of a year. The report will include a
series of recommendations for government and inter-governmental agencies
on the social, economic and political policy and structural changes
needed to implement a sustainable food production system.

ISIS and ISP are in a unique position to draw these previously disparate
strands together into a powerful scientific and social consensus. We
have scientists in many disciplines working together and some of the
scientists are competent across several disciplines. A majority of the
scientists are already working with grass- roots organisations and local
communities in both the developed and developing countries, or are
supporting their activities in other ways.

There will be a series of consultations (by post or e-mail) with our
sponsors, and two to three working conferences throughout the year when
the report is being drafted, depending on finances available.

A major international conference to launch the final report will take
place in 2006. Copies of the report will be sent to all relevant
governments and inter-government agencies as the start of a campaign to
get the recommendations implemented.