Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

As the kids would say... DUH!
But finally the idea has sprouted legs.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
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New agriculture research alliance on climate should focus on low-input, 
sustainable farming
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
For immediate release December 16, 2009
http://www.iatp.org/climate/files/document/ClimateAlliance_pr.pdf

Research can’t continue unsustainable, business-as-usual model for agriculture
Copenhagen – A new global research alliance, led by New Zealand and the U.S., 
on agriculture and climate change should include participation from farmers 
in countries facing food insecurity and emphasize practices that are low-cost 
and ready for immediate application, said the Institute for Agriculture and 
Trade Policy (IATP) today.

The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases was announced 
today in Copenhagen at the global climate talks. The proposal was initially 
made by New Zealand, but has now added the U.S. and over a dozen other 
countries including Denmark, India, Japan and Uruguay. The alliance agrees to 
boost funding within the participant countries to focus on “improving 
management practices and technologies” to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas 
emissions and support food security.

“We are concerned that this agenda will simply duplicate the pitfalls we’ve 
already seen within the U.S. agriculture research agenda, which for example 
spends billions of dollars on genetically engineered seeds that largely 
benefit transnational corporations and can take a decade to develop,” said 
Jim Harkness, President of IATP. “This new alliance recognizes food security 
within the framework of climate research, and that should be applauded. To 
truly support food security requires developing research in-country, based on 
local experience and indigenous knowledge.”

“The loss of traditional knowledge and seed varieties in the Global South is 
a much more urgent crisis, and much more crippling to the world’s capacity to 
address climate change, than what has been the traditional U.S. research 
model,” said Harkness. “Unfortunately, national research institutions have 
largely ignored the types of low-input, sustainable, small-scale systems that 
are needed for both food security and climate-friendly farming.”

About IATP

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy works locally and globally at the 
intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm 
and trade systems. IATP is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with an 
office in Geneva.

A recent global agricultural assessment, modeled on the Intergovernmental 
Panel on Climate Change process, emphasized the need to stop 
business-as-usual in agriculture, stressed the importance of 
multidisciplinary research, the participation of farmers, and greater support 
of traditional knowledge in food production. That global report, known as the 
International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology 
for Development (IAASTD), also identifies key research gaps.

“We think the IAASTD really provides a roadmap for addressing climate change 
and food security,” said Harkness. “Further research should build upon the 
IAASTD, whose recommendations can be implemented tomorrow—not a decade from 
now.”

IATP is in Copenhagen following agriculture aspects of the global climate 
talks. You can read more about IATP’s work on agriculture and climate at: 
www.iatp.org/climate.