Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

A Conversation with Anna Lappé on Climate Change, Industrial Agriculture, and 
Conversion to a Climate Friendly Food System (video)
http://cookingupastory.com/a-conversation-with-anna-lappe-on-climate-change-industrial-agriculture-and-conversion-to-a-climate-friendly-food-system-video

The first thing one notices about Anna Lappé, author of the new book, Diet 
for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can 
Do about It, she knows how to focus abstract, interrelated concepts, such as 
industrial agriculture, and food system, into concrete terms as they relate 
to climate change concerns.

Not only will agriculture be effected by rapid changes in weather conditions 
brought on by climate change, the food system itself (the entire process by 
which food reaches the end of our fork) is the largest single emitter of 
atmospheric greenhouse gases that drive climate change effects. Culling 
through the scientific literature, Lappé reports that about 31% of all carbon 
dioxide emissions are directly or indirectly related to the agriculture 
sector. Two very potent atmospheric gases, nitrous oxide and methane, are 
released in agriculture production, and are almost 300 times, and 25 times 
more active in the atmosphere, respectively (ton for ton), than carbon 
dioxide.

In the opening introduction to her book, Bill McKibben writes:

    “Climate change is the biggest thing human beings have ever done; nothing 
else even comes close. We’ve already managed to substantially melt the 
Arctic, to force epic drought, to thaw the high-altitude glaciers that water 
Asia and South America, all with a single degree of temperature rise”.

While carefully connecting the dots between industrial agriculture, and 
climate change, Lappé underlines the inherent weaknesses of conventional 
agriculture, and the terrible costs to the planet if we do not reform that 
system.

As a whole, climate friendly farming not only benefits the environment; it 
reduces our dependence on fossil fuels, on the use of chemical poisons, 
improves the taste and nutritional quality of the food we eat, is humane in 
the treatment of livestock, strengthens local communities, increases 
biodiversity, and is good for eaters and farmers alike.