"Researchers have developed a few strategies for how the
transformation to more sustainable agriculture can succeed. Some are already
being tried out in the cities.
Two revolutions have had a particularly irreversible impact
on mankind: the Neolithic revolution 12,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens
settled down and began farming and raising livestock, and the industrial
revolution almost three hundred years ago with its technical inventions and
industrial production methods.
If it is up to actors like the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change or the World Biodiversity Council, we are facing a
third revolution on a very large scale today.
Because four out of nine planetary limits have already been
exceeded. Rising food prices on the world market as a result of the sanctions on Russia show how vulnerable the economic system is, especially in the food
sector. That's why changes are needed, experts agree. "It's not enough to
patch the food system up a bit here and there," explains Christoph
Rupprecht, professor of sustainability and global environmental studies at
Ehime University in Japan. For several years now, scientists from various disciplines
have been looking for new answers to the question of how food could be
produced.
The yields can no longer grow
Most of the time, people talk about “sustainable”
agriculture. The word looks good in commercials and party programmes. Perhaps
also because the term is somewhat flexible. There is often only agreement about
its origin in forestry. There, you act sustainably if you don't cut down more
wood than can grow back.
While some associate sustainability closely with
environmental protection these days, for others it is about doing business
sparingly or conserving resources. The latter is actually also a trend in
agriculture today.
It was not always like this. More fertilizers and
pesticides, new breeds increased yields on the field and in the last seventy
years brought us a not inconsiderable part of the prosperity that we enjoy
today. But the increases are now reaching their limits.
According to
researchers at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig,
yields for staple foods such as wheat can hardly grow anymore. At the same
time, fertile farmland is already scarce in many places, and climate change and
its side effects will exacerbate the problem in many parts of the world in the
future.
The experts therefore call for a change in agriculture
towards structurally sustainable solutions instead of changes in small steps. A
group of more than thirty scientists from different countries and disciplines,
led by Steven McGreevy, Assistant Professor of Urban Sustainability Studies at
the University of Twente in the Netherlands, is taking a global approach. In a
Perspectives article that was published last week in "Nature
Sustainability", the team describes, based on around 100 studies, where
agricultural systems need to develop in order to become truly sustainable.
"A food system designed for endless growth without limits cannot produce
the food we need without exceeding the Earth's carrying limits," says
McGreevy.
For this, the authors around McGreevy name five principles
for a post-growth exchange of substances, i.e. for a new way in which
substances and living beings in the food sector and agriculture could interact.
The keywords for this, says Rupprecht, are
sufficiency,
regeneration,
distribution,
welfare and
common goods.
These would mark the departure from a
growth-oriented logic in favor of one of efficiency in the sense of lower
resource consumption.
It is about quality rather than quantity with the aim of reconciling
social and economic needs, while at the same time creating a balance between
extraction and regeneration in existing ecosystems, distributing resources
fairly and caring for each other instead of working against each other.
It is
also important to clarify food issues in community decision-making structures,
as suggested by Elinor Ostrom, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, around
ten years ago.
Strawberries from the traffic island
That sounds a bit flowery and woodcut-like, but it is
already used all over the world - in science and in practice. However, there is
not just one set screw for changes in the agricultural system. Rather, it is
small and large approaches that take effect in very different places.
Diverse
cultivation systems, circular economy, innovative business models, direct
marketers and political integration are just a few examples of sustainable
agrifood systems.
“The easiest step is to find people around you and work with
them towards common goals for more sustainable food and farming,” says Steven
McGreevy.
City gardens are a viable and at the same time underestimated answer
to the question of how agriculture can be organized in a sustainable manner.
Internationally, one also speaks of "urban gardening" and means all
kinds of horticultural activities in the middle of small and large
metropolises. For example, tomatoes are grown on the balcony or strawberries on
a traffic island. Whether in Berlin, Frankfurt or Leipzig – clubs and
initiatives to promote urban gardening are also springing up in Germany's major
cities. The advantages are manifold: The food is grown where it is also
consumed, which saves transport capacities and thus the greenhouse gas
emissions that are associated with this for the time being. In addition, urban
vegetable gardens have positive effects on biodiversity in metropolitan areas,
on nutrient cycles there and even on the well-being of city dwellers, as
confirmed by a US study in the journal "Agriculture and Human
Values". Gardening brings people together - and the appreciation for food
back into the household.
In addition to recommendations for action for society, the
scientists also have some ready for politicians. Politicians must enact and
implement laws that reflect the urgency of the situation and enable
transformation, says Christoph Rupprecht, who along with Steven McGreevy is one
of the four main authors in a team of almost three dozen.
In order to overcome
institutional hurdles, the scientists recommend political integration, for
example in the form of committees that bring together the different interests
of farmers, science and society. They should create connections and ensure
sustainable, unbureaucratic food production. This could work by making some
foods more available than others or by promoting food-handling skills and
competencies.
This is already being tested in this country. The Future
Commission for Agriculture, or ZKL for short, is a body that has discussed
sustainable German agriculture in a dialogue format between different interest
groups. A year ago, the commission presented its final report to the then
Chancellor A. Merkel. Just recently, Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir announced a new
edition of this interdisciplinary body. Then, however, it must be shown whether
the five principles of the scientists can be implemented in this way and
whether a sustainable revolution can be triggered."
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