Sustainable Agriculture: A Personal Overview

Sustainable Agriculture: A Personal Overview

So through from my first blog in October, to my most recent blog posted a couple of days ago, I feel that a number of topics have been covered with sources of various publication dates providing alternative information regarding sustainable agriculture.

For me, I quite instinctively have a cynical view when it comes to changing from industries that we know work well - as our current alternatives sometimes don’t reach the same level of yield as the industries that damage the environment do. Another reason as to why I’m fairly pessimistic with alternatives is that I believe they require an extremely large participation, on a global scale - if we were to reduce our current carbon emissions that is so that the temperature by the end of the century will not have risen greater than 2 degrees. But I feel that to achieve such a demanding target would require a global agreement - something that was tried recently with COP21! But whether or not countries will stick to their targets is obviously a concern and issue, as politics can be an influencing power when it comes to sustainable alternatives for industries.

Despite this, I feel that through the research I have encountered in this blog, humans have came up with and utilised ideas in a sustainable manner - even though it has taken many years to produce - and so it is now time to see whether we can really put these alternatives to good use to meet our targets. I’ll end my final blog with this short but intriguing video about an American company who promotes sustainable agriculture in a futuristic manner:

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog & I hope you've enjoyed but also have thought about the issues I have talked about!

Joe Sanders

How is a Costa Rican Banana Industry Coping?

How is a Costa Rican Banana Industry Coping?

EARTH University - Guácimo, Costa Rica - is a university largely funded by a U.S Agency for International Development and has led to the establishment of more environmentally friendly, lower pesticide banana industry in Costa Rica since it’s foundation in 1989. Food from Earth went to the banana industry in Guácimo, to look at what has been happening in the banana industry and whether it’s been for the good or not.

At first, the land purchased by the university had an awful reputation with regards to human health and the environment as a result of intensive use of pesticides [Frundt et al 2009]. One of these detrimental environmental side effects of this industry included the discarding of trash that included plastic bags for the bananas, which ultimately were washed into rivers and the sea during periods of heavy rainfall - causing problems for the surrounding biodiversity. Such conventional farms used plastic bags that have been sprayed with insecticides and eventually led to chlorpyrifos exposure, which eventually saw health impacts upon children [Lovasi, GS et al 2011].

So what could EARTH University do to combat such detrimental issues that affected both human health and the environment? Since the 1989, the university has been looking at methods that include reducing chemical pesticides, recycling of plastic bags to ultimately making banana production carbon neutral. So what happened?

Before the university came to assistance, workers would have to endure heavy labour that included pulley systems that they would drag up to 25 bunches at a time for more than a mile, under extreme heat and humidity, so EARTH installed more than 30 miles of track with a banana-tram. This has benefit the workers’ health immensely.

With regards to biodiversity, Medina of the programme claims that they do not “plant within 50 feet of the river” and so there is a buffer that protects the stream from the chemical runoff. Recycling of plastic bags began in 1991, as well as cords. Another issue faced was the copious waste of banana stalk left after harvest, so EARTH would take this and recycle it as banana paper. In an attempt to reduce chemical uses on the banana industry’s plantations, EARTH began spraying a mix of bacteria and yeast species, which saw the chemical use get cut by a quarter.

In 2005 EARTH began replacing treated plastic bags with chili pepper and garlic to repel insects, and the following year then saw the end of herbicide usage, and workers now manually remove weeds. I believe that EARTH’s input in this industry in Guácimo has undoubtedly changed lives and reduced the environmental effects of agriculture - the establishment nets around $1 million a year and pays its employees a living wage - something which I have found quite rare in a lot of agricultural industries in developing nations! Furthermore, the impact of EARTH has influenced other surrounding communities and therefore leads by example, and rightly so, as now other agricultural industries are beginning to create sustainable products in carbon neutral ways [Carbon Clear 2013].

What is the EU and the FAO doing to boost food and nutrition security with regards to sustainable agriculture?

What is the EU and the FAO doing to boost food and nutrition security with regards to sustainable agriculture?

The EU, an important politico-economic union of 28 member states, as well as the FAO, an agency aiming to defeat global food hunger, are aiming to boost food and nutrition security through sustainable agriculture, based on a partnership agreement that hopes to see such impacts in at least 35 countries. But what does this entail? An FAO report published in July 2015 focuses on the agreement.

First of all, budget-wise the EU is going to contribute approximately €50 million, with the FAO contributing €23.5 million to the programme. According to the FAO commissioner Mimica, this initiative “will be crucial to support partner countries and regional organizations in pulling together political, technical and financial means towards the common goal of reducing food and nutrition insecurity”. It consists of two five-year programmes:

• The Food and Nutrition Security Impact, Resilience, Sustainability and Transformation (FIRST) - this aims to enhance capacities of governments and regional administrations to improve food security, nutrition and sustainable agricultural policies.
• The second programme is the Information for Nutrition Food Security and Resilience for Decision Making (INFORMED), which should contribute to strengthening resilience to withstand food crises as a result of human-induced and natural disasters.

But on a more scientific, and regional level - what is the potential of extensification of European agriculture for a more sustainable food system, by focusing on nitrogen? This is a food security strategy employed by many countries worldwide, using increased nitrogen amounts as well as manure. 

What are the benefits of extensification? Extensification leads to higher biodiversity as well as reduced environmental pollution. However, extensification could lead to lower yields and a reduction in GDP, and could even lead to an increase of global demand for land. Van Grinsven [2015] predicts that a 2030 scenarios for the EU27 reducing consumption and production of animal products by 50% would reduce nitrogen pollution by 10%, which also benefits human health. He also acknowledges that this form of diet would allow the EU27 to become a food exporter, but at the same time reducing land demand outside Europe in 2030 by more than 100 million hectares (2%), which ultimately more than compensates increased land demand. Van Grinsven ultimately concludes that extensification of agriculture within Europe is sustainable when combined with adjusted diets and externalization of environmental costs to food prices.

This is just one of many strategies that agreements and programmes made by the EU and FAO have to consider, as the latest UN food security report suggests that even after several decades, about 800 million people currently still suffer from hunger. Another report by the FAO suggests that to eradicate world hunger by 2030 would require an additional $267 billion a year in investments. Therefore, eradicating such issues is a shared global priority between global nations, and this latest agreement only strengthens and expands global efforts. The two programmes, FIRST and INFORMED will ultimately need the coordinated action by all stakeholders involved to combat the issues and succeed in their aims.