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It may sound dramatic, but if we become a snake farming country, we should be prepared for the possibility of rogue pythons on the loose, eating whatever other animals (farm or pet) they come into contact with. To meet wide demand, python farming in the U.S.
By one estimate, the industry benefits from $7 trillion in subsidies annually, making inputs like synthetic fertilizer and pesticides artificially cheap and therefore possible to use on a vast scale. Fossil fuels have enabled us to soar past our ecological limits. Meanwhile, we collectively pay the true cost.
There, she’s using her vast ecological expertise to develop curriculum for the Indigenous Food Lab training center and lead community engagement programming. “As Why is traditional ecological knowledge so important as it relates to both food sovereignty and climate change? Let’s back up a bit.
Because like the Dust Bowl of so many decades ago, this tragedy stemmed from a collision of multiple systemic problems—in this case, unchecked climate change layered atop the excesses of industrialagriculture.
A recent report from McKinsey finds that agriculture has the single largest impact on the environment of any economic sector. The report lays out 47 concrete actions that agriculture businesses can take to restore Earth’s ecological balance— while maintaining a positive return-on-investment.
Industrialagricultural practices such as tillage (plowing) and leaving fields bare between growing seasons degrade soil structure, reduce water infiltration, lower water storage capacity, and increase runoff (the flow of water across the soil’s surface).
Ecological farmers may not agree on everything, but one thing we all agree on these days are these 5 essential elements: 1. The devastation among Florida’s orange groves and the diseases attacking coffee trees are symptomatic of one thing: violating all of the above ecological pillars. Let’s go to the heart of the matter.
According to the statute, “It is the policy of this state to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of its waters to protect public health, safeguard fish and aquatic life and scenic and ecological values, and to enhance the domestic, municipal, recreational, industrial, agricultural, and other uses of water.”
My answer regarding agricultural and ecological droughts is a bit more complicated, as farmers and environmentalists alike continue to advocate for more water to be allocated to their causes, making it evident that our current and projected water supply is still insufficient.
Through conversations with farmers and food systems experts, Foroohar highlights the urgent need for localized economies, regulatory safeguards, and the creation of stronger, more sustainable industries. Rich Appetites examines how billionaire philanthropic promote chemical-intensive agriculture model globally. Watch it on Disney+.
Industrialagriculture is killing authentic farming and land stewardship as much as food processors and bureaucrats. Old ecological farmer geezers like me see these newcomers as the most exciting thing to happen in a long time. This new generation of homesteaders is a shot in the arm for rural communities.
Joyce’s book, Remembering Peasants , sets out to document this fast-vanishing population, which has been devastated by social change, war and the relentless expansion of industrialagriculture.
“ “My philosophy has always been that the health of soil, plants, animals, people, and the environment is one.” ” — Rattan Lal, professor of soil science + 2020 World Food Prize Laureate Conventional, or industrial, agriculture uses chemicals to defend crops from weeds, certain insect species, and diseases.
So, it’s ecological or cybernetic or complexly interrelated, but it is not magic. A web is a serviceable metaphor for complex relationships, ecological and human, but I want to employ another connective metaphor. The fun stuff that can look so much like magic is that it’s not always clear what and where the connections are.
Currently our programming is focused in four areas: Farm to Market, Policy & Advocacy, Farmer Services, and Ecological Farming. We commit to advancing racial, gender, and environmental justice in our larger systems, as well as in our own workplace. However, more important is a passion for food systems work and CAFF’s mission and values.
Starting in the 1970s, through her groundbreaking nutritional ecology class at Teachers College within Columbia University, and through books like The Feeding Web: Issues in Nutritional Ecology , she transformed our view of food from something enjoyed at the end of a fork to the entire system that created the mouthful.
Prioritizing ecological integrity and community health over yield, these farmers stay profitable by diversifying their crops, producing value-added products like jams and sauces, and building community support and social capital.
They also have ecological benefits because they offer a market outlet for small-scale producers not involved in large-scale industrialagriculture. Clapp explains that, in addition to food security, territorial markets provide diverse livelihoods to millions of people—including producers, traders, and food processors.
But just like industrialagriculture on land, such operations can harm the environment – and given the role kelp forests play in sequestering carbon, the climate. Governments could, for example, pay farmers for the carbon their crops capture; a new type of blue subsidy.
Nina Elkadi Medicine Wheel for the Planet: A Journey Toward Personal and Ecological Healing By Jennifer Grenz “To use only fragmented pieces of [Indigenous] knowledge is to admire a tree without its roots,” Nlaka’pamux ecologist turned land healer Jennifer Grenz writes in Medicine Wheel for the Planet.
And even though I cant live off kale frittatas alone either, by producing some of my own protein I cultivate a feeling of ecological resilience, knowing that Im more insulated from the brittlenessand the injustices and the pollutionof industrializedagriculture.
USDA funding should be directed toward building an understanding of the ecological aspects of our food and farm systems and integrating the diverse knowledge and practices of agroecological farmers and farm workers rather than continuing to explore and promote the narrow constraints of industrialagriculture (Sec.
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