sustainable food systems Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Farming Bounded By Our Biological Boundaries – Part 3

October 18, 2021 Stuart Meikle

It’s tempting to blame burping cows for methane emissions. But while nature cannot distinguish between naturally occurring methane and methane derived from fossil fuels and anthropological activity, humans can – and should. Methane has a role to play in sustainable farming. We cannot let the debate around methane emissions cloud the broader benefits of farming with ruminants, argues Stuart Meikle in part three of this series. […]

Farming Bounded By Our Biological Boundaries – Part 2

September 27, 2021 Stuart Meikle

Despite the climate change mitigation emphasis on carbon sequestration, building soil carbon is first about food security, second about atmospheric carbon drawdown. By working with nature’s natural cycles to provide nutritious food with a low environmental footprint, Regenerative Agriculture will provide the transition from fossil-fuelled agro-chemistry to utilizing the farm’s natural resources, argues Stuart Meikle in the second part of this series. […]

Farming Bounded By Our Biological Boundaries – Part 1

September 13, 2021 Stuart Meikle

Few people realize how their food comfort zone is shrinking. Where we are now is the starting point for an ecologically and biologically-based agricultural revolution. And it starts with the soil. We must adopt an ecosystem approach to identify sustainable food systems that can exist within our planet’s boundaries, argues Stuart Meikle in the first of a four-part series. […]

Carbon Starvation – A Crisis Of Our Time?

September 8, 2021 Stuart Meikle

Are we beginning to see carbon – the fundamental building block of all life – as a pollutant? Instead of demonising carbon as a cause of climate breakdown, we need to restore balance in the natural carbon cycle that has been disrupted by the use of artificial fertilisers. In advance of his upcoming series on farming within planetary boundaries, Stuart Meikle offers a primer on the complex role of carbon in our soils. […]

“It’s More A Call To ‘Armies’ Than Arms” – Interview with Pat Mooney, Lead Author of ‘A Long Food Movement’

April 19, 2021 Ursula Billington

In this exclusive interview, Ursula Billington speaks to Pat Mooney, co-founder and executive director of the ETC Group, expert with IPES-Food, and lead author of the new report ‘A Long Food Movement: Transforming Food Systems by 2045’. Adamant that we can find opportunity in crisis, Pat shares his insights on Grey Swan events, grassroots versus global strategies, and building muscle to fight for change together. […]

A Long Food Movement: Transforming Food Systems by 2045

April 17, 2021 Ursula Billington

The battle for the future of food: a new report by IPES-Food and the ETC Group sets corporate power against the irresistible force of social energy. Laying out a vision of civil society-centred food systems founded on agroecology, diversity and human rights, this is a call to rapid action, reports Ursula Billington. […]

Food Framing: Think Like An Eastern European

June 24, 2020 ARC

Must we choose between formal market and non-market economies? This is the longstanding Western narrative. But Eastern European food practices tell a different story. Co-author of a new paper that points to tried-and-tested alternatives to the West’s broken food systems, Bálint Balázs makes the case for looking East. […]

Czech Republic | Keeping Farming & Food in the Family

May 4, 2020 Louise Kelleher

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, our creaking food systems have triggered a crisis within a crisis. Covid-19 has sounded the alarm on the planet’s unsustainable agricultural systems. Small-scale farms are vital links in the resilient local supply chains we need to build. But in the Czech Republic small farmers face challenges, and a six-week closure of farmers markets has hit hard. Louise Kelleher reports. […]

Counting Apples or Oranges? | Climate Change Stats vs Food Systems Thinking

January 8, 2019 ARC

What do we count, when we count greenhouse gas emissions? What’s anthropogenic and what’s not? And how does this all relate to the food system? Gunnar Rundgren explores. […]

EU Protein Plan | Positive Reactions but with Caveats

November 23, 2018 ARC

Protein plants and the animals and humans that eat them are in the news this week, as the European Commission and a range of farming and environmental NGOs publish reports and opinions on the matter. A number of organisations reacted positively, but with caveats. So what were the concerns? […]

Recharging Soils with Carbon Could Make Farms More Productive

September 30, 2018 ARC

‘Farm land could work as carbon sinks,’ said Dr Jan Mumme, an agricultural engineer at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. ‘This probably wouldn’t work with intensive livestock farming, but sustainable crop production and integrated farm systems (a balance between crops and livestock) could do it – and biochar is one way to help.’ […]

An Agro-Ecological Europe by 2050: a Credible Scenario?

September 23, 2018 ARC

The “Ten Years for Agroecology in Europe” (TYFA) scenario developed jointly by IDDRI and the consultancy firm AScA, in collaboration with a scientific council composed of leading researchers, shows that a fully agro-ecological Europe, free from synthetic inputs and based on the redeployment of natural grasslands and the extension of agro-ecological infrastructures (hedges, trees, ponds, stony habitats), could sustainably feed 530 million Europeans by 2050. […]

Biochar – the Ultimate Tool to Make Farming More Sustainable?

August 28, 2018 Oliver Moore

Imagine there was a soil amendment that could be produced from waste biomass and could do the following: draw down carbon, increase soil fertility in acidic soils, increase yield and productivity – especially for the poorest farmers with the worst soil, reduce nutrient run off, improve water retention in soil, while also protecting against soil borne diseases? Say hello to biochar…. […]

#SoilMatters Part 5 | Stuart Meikle on Soil, Ruminants & Sustainable Food

May 7, 2018 Stuart Meikle

“A sustainable food system is not about reducing animal-product consumption so to ‘free-up’ land for direct-for-human-food plants: rather, it is about using the land now used for feeds for shipping to animals confined elsewhere, for grazing livestock – be they ruminants, pigs or poultry.” Stuart Meikle outlines his position. […]

Birdlife Europe – 4 Policy Instruments for CAP overhaul

November 14, 2017 Oliver Moore

BirdLife Europe & Central Asia have made proposals to substantially overhaul the CAP. The NGO proposes four instruments in the areas of farming; food, biodiversity and what they call “Space for Nature”. Also proposed is the end of the two pillar system, parity for environmental legislators, a radical change in farmer payments and in risk management. […]