Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Industrial vs. Small-scale Ag

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Industrial vs. Small-scale Ag
  • Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:44:07 -0700


Thanks. IPS is also the oldest wire service and not under the thumb of US
corporate media. I looked up the source for that GRAIN study it refers to.
http://www.grain.org/seedling/?type=78&l=1

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 12/13/2009 at 12:28 AM Tommy Tolson wrote:

>Published on Saturday, December 12, 2009 by Inter Press Service
>Small Farmers Can Cool the World
>by Stephen Leahy
>
>COPENHAGEN - Industrial agriculture may emit nearly half of climate-
>heating greenhouse gases, but that reality has gone unrecognized by
>negotiators at the climate treaty talks here, say farmers with La Via
>Campesina, an international movement of hundreds of millions of small-
>scale peasant farmers.
>
>
>"Small-scale farmers use 80 percent less energy than large
>monocultures," said Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, a Haitian farmer with
>Mouvement de Paysan, through a translator.
>
>"Peasant farmers from La Via Campesina and others can help cool the
>planet," Jean-Baptiste told a press conference at the Klimaforum09,
>the alternative climate action talks being held here in Copenhagen
>Dec. 7-18.
>
>Unlike the official talks, set in a remote location surrounded by
>police and razor wire, Klimaforum09 is being held in the city's
>community centre and is free and open to the public.
>
>"System Change for Climate Change" - that's the phrase most often
>heard at the Klimaforum09 and in parts of Copenhagen.
>
>La Via Campesina's claim that industrial agriculture is by far the
>biggest source of carbon emissions is based on a recent study that
>looked at all emissions from the global food system.
>
>This includes oil-dependent industrial farming, together with the
>expansion of the meat industry, the destruction of world's savannahs
>and forests to grow agricultural commodities, the use of fossil fuel
>energy to transport and process food, and the extensive use of
>chemical fertilizers.
>
>The study was conducted by GRAIN, an international non-governmental
>organization that promotes the sustainable management and use of
>agricultural biodiversity to support local communities.
>
>"These results are horrifying. So much carbon is lost from the soil
>using monoculture practices," said Camila Montecinos, the lead GRAIN
>researcher from Santiago, Chile.
>
>The study looked at all the available scientific literature and worked
>with soil scientists to arrive at this "rough" but thorough estimate,
>Montecinos told TerraViva.
>
>The study does not include methane emissions from animals and their
>manure because studies conflict and incorporating manure into the soil
>increases fertility and soil carbon, she explained.
>
>Surprisingly, one-third of the emissions come from food processing and
>transport, although the former is responsible for most. The bulk of
>emissions come from land use changes - conversions of forest and
>grasslands - and from direct agricultural production like fuel use,
>fertilized and tillage.
>
>Calculations in the report show that policies oriented towards
>agriculture in the hands of small farmers and focused on restoring
>soil fertility could, over the next 50 years, capture about 450
>billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is more than two-thirds of the
>current excess in the atmosphere.
>
>"The evidence is irrefutable. If we can change the way we farm and the
>way we produce and distribute food, then we have a powerful solution
>for combating the climate crisis. There are no technical hurdles to
>achieving these results, it is only a matter of political will," said
>Henk Hobbelink, coordinator of GRAIN, in a release.
>
>Governmental policies and trade agreements the world over support
>industrial agriculture production and the study shows this must change
>in order to stabilize the climate, Montecinos said. "No governments
>are talking about this," she noted.
>
>Worse still, many of those policies are pushing small farmers off the
>land, the ones who are by far the most efficient in terms of carbon
>emissions and energy use, she said.
>
>Ending such policies and giving the lands back to small farmers could
>result in major emission reductions on the order of 50 to 66 percent,
>said La Via Campesina in a news release.
>
>"Such a transformation of world agriculture would not only greatly
>contribute to solving the climate crisis - it would also provide
>healthy food for all - as well as provide livelihoods to millions of
>women and men," the group said.
>
>When asked what he would like to tell the negotiators at the official
>climate talks, Jean-Baptiste said: "We have to change the model of
>production and consumption, especially in the northern half of the
>world."
>
>"Corporate control and concentration has not provided any solutions.
>Instead people suffering more than ever," Alicia Muñoz from Via
>Campesina in Chile told TerraViva. "The men standing up there [at the
>official negotiations] will never solve the problems of poverty and
>climate change."
>
>"Women need to be involved and part of the solution," she stressed.
>
>© 2009 IPS North America
>_______________________________________________
>Livingontheland mailing list
>Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page