http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/organic-farming-could-feed-africa-968641.html

Sustainable Agriculture-not starting from ground zero

Agriculture remains a major employer in the world, providing jobs to about 40% of the total world labour force.

The Global Green New Deal should include a major international program. This should be led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, to provide long-term support for investing in land restoration, soil and water conservation, integrated pest management, organic production, infrastructure development, extension services, and market support in the developing world.

Organic agriculture triggers very polarized views, seen by some as the saviour and others as a niche, even luxury product unable to meet the needs of billions of people.

Studies indicate that organic agriculture in both the North and the South employees more people. But what of the wider benefits?

A new survey by the UN Conference on Trade and the Environment and UNEP in East Africa found that over 90 per cent of studies show that organic or near organic agriculture had benefits for soil fertility; water control; improved water tables, carbon sequestration and biodiversity.

This allows farmers to extend the growing season in marginal areas. The research in East Africa was among 1.6 million organic or near organic farmers from seven countries working on 1.4 million hectares.

Other findings include an increase in crop yields of 128 per cent since switching.

Higher incomes too as a result of not having to buy fertilizers and pesticides; more food availability; higher prices paid through certification schemes for both export and domestic markets-addresses poverty in environmentally friendly way.

Close to 90 per cent of cases showed increase in farm and household incomes and because organic agriculture is more knowledge intensive it has lead to improvements in education; community bonds and cooperation on market access.

The report concludes:” Organic and near-organic agricultural methods and technologies are ideally suited for many poor, marginalized smallholder farmers in Africa, as they require minimal or no external inputs, use locally and naturally available materials to produce high-quality products, and encourage a whole systemic approach to farming that is more diverse and resistant to stress”.

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=548&ArticleID=5957&l=en

“The land can be… an opportunity to solve most of the ongoing global crises,” Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), told a news conference in New York.

The 2005 Convention aims to promote effective action through innovative local programmes and supportive international partnerships to combat desertification, which is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas.

Caused mainly by human activities and climatic variations, desertification puts at risk the health and well-being of 1.2 billion people in more than 100 countries.

Mr. Gnacadja stressed that “the nexus between land degradation and climate change is clear.” Global warming is likely to lead to more extreme weather events, such as droughts and heavy rains, which could lead to soil erosion and loss of land cover.

At the same time, land degradation releases carbon into the atmosphere, worsening global warming and climate change.

“If we want to tackle climate change challenges, we must look to the untapped potential of the soil to sequester carbon,” said Mr. Gnacadja, calling it a “win-win” situation. “By doing that, we are improving biodiversity of the soil ecosystem and improving the productivity of the soil, therefore impacting the livelihoods of affected populations.”

Improving land productivity will also boost the capacity to produce more food and therefore tackle the issue of food security. “We are also making the world much more able to produce more agro-fuels,” he added.

“An ecosystem is like a bank account,” Mr. Gnacadja noted. “If we keep on withdrawing, and we don’t invest by feeding the soil and enabling it to regenerate, we are moving towards bankruptcy.”

The Second Global Assessment of Land Degradation and Improvement, issued this year, found that an additional 24 per cent of global land had been degraded in the period from 1981-2003. However, what was really worrisome is that these lands are mainly in humid areas where rainfall is not an issue.

The Assessment also found that 16 per cent of land had been improved, including some of the drylands in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and Australia.

“We know that drought and land degradation are predictable, and land degradation is reversible when the tipping point is not reached,” Mr. Gnacadja said, adding that the social and economic impacts on livelihoods are, therefore, to a large extent the result of “public and even global policy failure.”

This includes the failure to scale up good practices, to spread available information and knowledge, and to mobilize the required resources.

UN Press Release, 29 October 2008

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28756&Cr=desertification&Cr1=

According to this, the average NZ footprint is 57.5 global hectares. If my maths is correct (which is not a given…), we’d need 3.66 Earths to sustain the global population if everyone lived like the average kiwi.

To be honest, I was surprised that my food footprint is only marginally smaller than the average Kiwi since I don’t eat meat. Away with the smugness of vegetarianism then!

Low carbon diet promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whkURVgR16E

David Gershon from Seventh Generation discusses current consumption in the U.S. and moving towards a low carbon diet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xMMkJZpzs0

Food for thought is great, but action is better!

So what does stuff like peak oil have to do with social justice? With poverty? With well-being? Rising oil prices will have an unavoidable impact on our society. They already are. Heaps of us are struggling to pay the prices at the pump, and are having to do without in other areas of our lives. Rising oil prices will directly affect the price of food, of transport, and in fact of practically everything that we consume. Our consumer society is completely dependent on cheap oil. Rising oil prices are also likely to spark severe increases in unemployment as rising oil prices cause global economic downturn. The parallel problem of climate change will make us more prone to devastating extreme weather events, cyclones, floods, droughts, desertification. And all of these will have enormous impacts on human wellbeing. And, as usual, all these things will hit the poor and vulnerable the hardest.

Furthermore, the end of cheap oil and other resources that we’ve been digging out of the ground like there’s no tomorrow will spark armed conflict. In fact, it already has, with Iraq as a case in point. Water scarcity too is a huge issue and competition over access to scarce fresh water resources is expected to be an increasing factor armed conflict in many regions of the world, like Africa, Asia and Central Asia in the coming decades. The conflict in Darfur is another current example of how environmental factors drive or contribute to conflict, with British Home Secretary John Reid pointing to global warming as a key factor behind the conflict in Darfur. “The blunt truth is that the lack of water and agricultural land is a significant contributory factor to the tragic conflict we see unfolding in Darfur,” he said. “We should see this as a warning sign.”

That’s why many environmental concerns are inextricable from issues of social justice. We need to get past the thinking of some that environment and social justice are two distinct concerns. We need to look at the bigger picture and see the linkages. Environmental justice is a key part of social justice, although one among many other concerns like poverty, income distribution, criminal justice, violence, discrimination etc. But the integrity of our natural world, of the biosphere, of our environment are absolutely essential to our ability to produce the food, water and basic resources we need to stay alive. We live in a really integrated system, and we can’t destroy the planet without ultimately destroying ourselves, and especially the most vulnerable of us who are already struggling.

Check out this inspiring article about the worldwide movement seeking to reclaim wasted land and brighten up dull corners of our urban spaces. Not only is it a chance to beautify our often depressingly grey spaces, but you can grow food in random places too. Not a bad idea considering food prices at the moment, which are unlikely to fall considering peak oil and increasing demand are kind of long-term factors.

Imagine if urban centres and suburban areas were edible landscapes, pumpkins growing on vacant lots, fruit trees lining roads, beans growing up fences!

I live right next to an urban motorway and on a pretty pavement-pounded pedestrian route and was thinking the other day how awesome it would be to put in fruit trees so that once they were established, not only would our huge household have ample seasonal fruit supplies, but passers-by could just pluck off some on their way past. Apples, pears, feijoas…

The only thing I’m not sure about is whether the fumes from the motorway would contaminate the fruit? Can anyone give me any clues on this?

We do still have one or two copies to give away, so give us your best, most inspiring thoughts and visions!

“Below is a synopsis of my visions for the future. It is an unfolding dream that could cover many pages. Here I hope to give a snapshot of the essence of what I see is possible…

My visions of the future involves empowered communities living in edible landscapes.
The transformation of the city into a vibrant, beautiful, sustainable, healthy, playful place to live. This will come about through urban permaculture design education, which empowers individuals and groups to redesign their lifestyles, neighbourhoods, businesses, and cities through fun, practical means.

I see church groups, primary schools, apartment residents associations, government departments… working together as design teams. Observing and interacting with their environments and asking how it could work better with nature. Rather than leaving the design and decision making of our communities up to specialists, people are empowered to take responsibility and make creative choices about how it could be, and then supported to put these plans into action. I see this transformative environmental education being offered through Urban Permaculture Design Academies. As a member of Transition Towns Aro Valley Wellington, and owner of Living in the Landscape – Permaculture Design and Training Business, I am actively involved in making this vision a reality.

It involves people learning about how they can creatively respond to the challenges of peak oil and climate change and renew and redesign their environment to care for people, care for the earth. It’s all about relationships. Understanding how natural ecological systems of people, plants, animals, soils, water, air, and sun interact. What their needs are, and how the elements can work together to increase the mauri, or life force of a place.

I see communities in the future that reflect, celebrate and embody the diverse dreams and cultures of their people - that really tap their potential as visionaries and agents of change (no matter how big or small). A key to this is listening and “appreciative inquiry”. By focusing on what’s working and what’s possible rather than what is not, we can acknowledge and appreciate the precious people, stories and resources that make up our communities.

I see regular “community conversations” in which residents talk about what they really like about where they live and how this value could be increased. A group I’m involved in called Four Million Dreams is all about this, having Transformative Conversations about possibility. I see this way of sharing being popularized. Nationwide there would be video submissions about of peoples visions and people in conversations everywhere which tap everyone’s rich stories and connections to culture, place and future hope.

I see university students and the unemployed engaged in going into community to capture these stories and identify ways that they can serve the community to enable and actualize peoples visions and address their concerns. These could even be sponsored by local business that the submitters actually value to pay for the documentation. Solutions would be portrayed visually in addition to just in words. This is a key to other people getting it instantly, especially those from different cultures and backgrounds.

“The rising tide raises all boats” – I see cross sector collaboration in the form of leadership incubator courses, in which motivated people from different sectors –arts, environment, poverty… you name it. People from community, business and government coming together to work on projects that have multiple benefits. They take suggestions from the community about problems and possibilities then work together to create comprehensive solutions which draw on their diverse skills, resources, networks…

The possibilities are enormous if we work together. If we really make ourselves available to listen to and encourage each other we may learn that others have similar values and motivations and that people we may have never suspected have solutions and resources to offer to us meeting our goals. The possibilities are enormous! If we ask “what’s your vision?” and “how can I help?”

Warm regards,
Andrew

This year, Wellington is host city of WED, and there are events happening this week all around New Zealand to educate, empower, inspire and do practical stuff to make for a better future. For info on the various happenings around New Zealand, see the sites below for details and get along to an event. Hey, it’s no fun if you don’t get involved!

To search for events happening in your area, click here or for general info on World Environment Day click here

For the lucky people living in Wellington, there’s a Sustainable Communities Film Festival kicking off tomorrow, check out the schedule here

If anyone knows of events happening around Polynesia, please add them in the comments below, or, better yet, create your own post to let everyone know what’s happening!

With food prices rising and increasingly critical attention paid to the role of biofuels, meat consumption, market speculation and the role of giant food distribution corporations, some groups are turning their attention to grassroots approaches that could play an important part in the democratisation of food.

Perhaps we need to turn our attention to more local solutions to make us less reliant on the global forces of food distribution over which we have no control. One approach is outlined in this article from the BBC Lesotho gardens relieve food crisis, where gardens consisting of well-shaped stonework structures filled with highly fertile soil are used to grow food by families. These “keyhole gardens” sit among fields stripped of their fertility by erosion and unsustainable intensive farming practices, and their rich soil is protected from erosion by the stonework structure. At around 2 metres in diameter and around waist height to make them easy for old and sick people to work them, three of these gardens supply Mahaha’s family of 10 with all the vegetables they need, with surplus to sell to make some money.

I find it a weird thought that in a society such as ours, many of us no longer have the basic skills and knowledge to provide for ourselves the absolute basics of life, like food. It seems to me that this seriously undermines our relationship with, and understanding of nature and how reliant we are on the natural systems that provide for us. Perhaps we need to start reimagining gardening and local food growing for the urban context, not only by digging up our gardens (although we should!) but also by using approaches like keyhole gardening, grow-bags and balcony vege gardens that fit with more dense urban living.