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TechnoratiPlanting Ideas to Solve the Food Supply Crisis
Canada is not immune to the forces driving the world food crisis, nor can it afford to shirk its responsibilities at home and abroad.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned high prices and shortages of food could "touch off a cascade of related crises -- affecting trade, economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world."
While the world grapples with the urgent need to find short-term solutions to the immediate crisis, which not only threatens millions with starvation, but is forecast to push at least 100 million people into poverty, we must also give priority to developing policies that address the issues driving this crisis here at home.
Unsustainable farming practices are at the heart of the problem, but changing practices will require co-operation and leadership of the world's largest suppliers of food, which includes Canada as the fourth-largest agriculture and agri-food exporter, after the EU, U.S. and Brazil.
The government should be commended for committing $50 million to the UN's urgent plea for an extra $755 million for emergency food aid, as well as untying all Canadian food aid. Experience has shown repeatedly that food purchased locally arrives much quicker and has a greater effect on the local economy than food shipped all the way from Canada. But relief alone won't lead to a long-term sustainable solution.
Climate change and an associated increase in biofuels production are recognized as key drivers behind the food shortage, but they aren't the only concerns. If we are going to address the ongoing threat to our food supply, we need to keep sight of the other drivers of the food crisis.
One of the most important aspects is a rapidly increasing global appetite for meat, as a growing number of people in China and India are now eating more grain and meat, for example.
In a perverse turn of events, even the subprime mortgage crisis seems to be playing its part. Market speculation in grain futures appears to have been driven by a shift in focus from real estate to commodities. It is estimated that 60 per cent of the U.S.-based wheat market is now controlled by hedge funds. This is a major change for a market that was not traditionally characterized this way. It has lead to price points that have more to do with speculation than actual costs.
More investment will be required to develop policies that enable people in developing countries to support themselves, rather than rely on food aid. In a way, development assistance to agriculture is a victim of its own success. The Green Revolution, that swept Asia and Latin America in the latter part of the 20th century, greatly expanding yields, gave us the impression that the food crisis had gone away for good. It sent a signal that donor countries and governments of developing countries could now turn their attention to urban and industrial problems.
This crisis should serve as a wakeup call. For Canada, this means revaluating its priorities and level of commitment for official development assistance (ODA). There has been a significant fall in the level of ODA investment in rural development over the past 30 years.
Here at home, Canada's activities in response to climate change will also need to be reviewed in light of a policy that gives priority to the production of biofuels, which have been widely identified as a driver behind the food crisis.
Canada's EcoENERGY for biofuels program at $2.2 billion represents the largest environmental spending as part of its program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change is going to have a significant impact on farming practices in Alberta, Sask-atchewan and Manitoba, and will have some effect on yields and prices as there is expected to be an increase in climate variability. Planning for adaptation to the effects of climate change is required, if our own agricultural sector is to address the predictable outcomes of extreme changes in climatic conditions and other factors with the potential to significantly impact the production and availability of food.
In summary, Canada's policy priorities to the world food crisis should be essentially threefold: to increase the resilience of Canadian agriculture to climate change; secondly, to critically review Canadian biofuels policy, and thirdly, to increase the agricultural component of Canadian ODA with the intent of increasing the food self-sufficiency in the most food-insecure countries.
David Runnalls is president and CEO of the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development, which champions sustainable development around the world through innovation, partnerships, research and communications.
© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2008
12 Comments so far
Show AllFeeding the world:
"Sustainable agriculture is 'farming that makes the best use of nature's goods and service whilst not damaging the environment.'" From "Jules Pretty examines the myths and realities of sustainable farming's quiet revolution"
http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/~christos/articles/j_pretty_on_feeding_world.html
Lex: Are you familiar with the writings of Masanobu Fukuoka? I see that a couple of his works can be downloaded. He has been able to coax a remarkable amount of grain, etc. out of his plot with no pesticides, inorganic fertilizers and no plowing. Meanwhile his soil improves every year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka
rtdrury, are you currently sustaining four vegans year round from 1 acre of land? Theory is not the same as practice.
mjtimber, i fully understand the energy statistics involved in livestock raising. But there is a broader direction that this argument always goes in concerning the feed requirements of livestock. The vegetarian argument rests on a basic fallacy: that our industrial livestock operations are the way to raise livestock. One can actually graze livestock and make them part of the cycle. In fact, the old school proponents of organic agriculture always included livestock in the equation...and for a very good reason. If your cows and chickens and sheep are grazed on perennial grass lands, then you're not using calories that could be destined for human stomachs...and you're doing more for soil than planting direct food crops. Moreover, Wendell Barry would point out that you need the nutrients supplied by animal manure to build a sustainable, closed loop agriculture.
And by the way, i make my living growing plants. I grow them at work. I grow them in greenhouses. I grow them in my garden. I grow food under lights during my long cold winters. And when i can squeeze in the time, i help on a friend's integrated, permaculture farm.
I'm not arguing for keeping the staus quo, but this "progressive" meme of the vegan silver bullet doesn't hold much water if one knows what one is talking about and practices what one preaches. The article was about addressing food insecurity and climate change; the answer is local self-sufficiency...the best idea that we threw away decades ago. Like all food threads here, it got hijacked by the vegan warriors.
I only want to hear real stories of vegan agriculture across a broad range of climates. If vegetarianism is the answer, fine...but i want to know the detailed hows (and not just theoretically). Otherwise, it sounds like people with clean fingernails propounding on things that they've only read in books.
And i get little lectures from the likes of rtdrury who writes like he/she has never really experienced the vicissitudes of the life he/she describes...eg. never having experienced a season long battle with powdery mildew on an heirloom crop that threatens to wipe out the harvest or never had those cuddly little raccoons decimate a stand of corn, eating just one or two kernels from every ear and leaving the rest to rot. The First Nation people would have killed that raccoon and eaten it...if they could catch it.
I give Canada credit for it's industrial hemp crops and biofuels.
mjtimber___I just cannot wait to get a good mouth-watering cornburger, a corn steak, and a corn roast. That is what I call real progress especially if one wants all carbs and no protein. This country needs more obese people so out with the meat and in with the corn if there is any left after fueling up our gas guzzlers.
Lex, you need 1 acre to feed four vegans in the Canadian climate. Look into local heirloom varieties of beans/grains/nuts, fruits/vegetables that are adapted - i.e. fast growers. Depend on perennials as much as possible, preferably trees, lots of bushes. Harvest from the wilds as much as possible, then grow as many wild species as you can, then as many "First Nations" ancient traditionals as you can, then check with Russian & Nordic traditionals. Beans/grain mix needed for complete proteins, lots of colorful varieties, e.g. purple potatoes, corn, tomatoes. Avoid the Ango-American whitish varieties. Ignore all of the capitalists. Use permaculture methods, avoid irrigation and synthetic fertilizers by proper species variety selection. Interplant them to combat pathogen outbreaks. Put the taller species on the north side, shorter on the south. Ensure cold air easily drains downhill out of the garden. Also, put up a passive solar hothouse, facing south, to extend the season for some things. Sun dry the extra fruit/veggies to preserve them for winter. Get a screen/fan to separate your grains from the straw. Grow a little extra so when critters steal you will not starve. Compost all biowastes, return to the garden. Use thick containers with tight seals, store in cool dry dark place. Read up on all the details. Enjoy the most delicious, nutrition food and the exercise and fresh air and all the rest of the benefits.
Lex,
Here's the thing. A cow is about 12% efficient: that means, for every 1000 calories of food it consumes, it creates 120 calories of food for humans. Since most of our cattle are corn-feed, this corn could be fed directly to people. That is why a vegan diet is an improvement (by the way, I'm not vegan, but can see the merits).
You seem to have a pre-fab argument lined up, as neither of the vegan comments above mention eating local. At least TRY and tailor your rant to the forum at hand.
How many Canadian vegans eat local year round? How many vegans can live without the support of a massive agricultural infrastructure?
Show us how it's done, vegans. Feed yourself and others without specialty food shops and without importing out of season fruits and vegetables...then we'll talk.
Quit telling us all how it should be done and show us how it works. Links to pictures of your farm and yield/consumption statistics would be nice too.
(And just so you know, most of your imported, "organic" fruits and vegetables are sprayed with insecticides and fungicides when they enter the country...by law.)
If a movie star launched a campaign that created an analogy between them looking young/good/fit and OPTING to eat a vegetarian diet, lots of young people socialized to otherwise indulge in meaty fast foods might reconsider and alter their lifestyles. Same with movies. If a movie really made the DIET of an individual or family factor into some life changing plot--like overcoming cancer--it could open a window that let more light in on this important area of lifetstyles.
In N. Florida we have a lot of cattle ranches now. The animals detritus ends up in sink holes which eventually find their way back to the water table; but ours is no ordinary water table. In this geographical zone sits some of the last remaining pristine waters on planet earth as a river (or set of them) runs UNDER the state of Florida. It gushes up in springs that have amazing waters, but these zones are being compromised by the doo doo from lots of cows, not to mention whatever oils and toxins are washed off roads, agricultural lands and lawns back towards ground zero: the water table.
My friend, the naturalist says water will soon become more precious than gold.
since know one will see this anyway since I'm somehow no longer permitted freedom of speach to comment on this board.
Quit being a fascist dictator and allow freedom of speach!
Anyway..quite funding, subsidizing turning turning food into fuel...its stupid. Use the grid for hydrogen, methanol or whatever but this just tends to prove my cynicism that when the gov't acts its usually, almost always, wrong.
A vegan diet is the best solution, however, most of the the world's consumers want to eat more meat and few are going to VOLUNTARILY adopt a meatless diet.
How about we encourage a vegan diet?
It would stock the pollution, the wildlife slaughter, the cruelty, the water and grain loss, and the waste of money--as in the Canadian government giving $50 million to pig farmers to kill off their slaves so they can bring the price of pork up.