Simply walking through a wheat field gives you an idea of how the human race avoided mass famine – but how it also instigated health, climate, and biodiversity crises
great article hugh! Not just the chemicals though, it's also the prevalence of the monoculture as a standard, the codification of this all this through networks of (western) post-war legal systems and the depletion of genetic diversity it created (especially impacting the global south even though the legislation and science came largely from the global north)
Really interesting piece. I think the point about food waste is particularly important. We still talk about food security as though the answer must always be producing more, when we already lose or waste an extraordinary amount of what we produce.
I’m also such a huge fan of what Fred and his family are doing at Gothelney Farm. They’ve done wonderful work showing that there are other ways of thinking about productivity, where yield matters, of course, but so do soil health, resilience, nutrition and flavour.
Perhaps the question isn’t simply how much food we can produce per hectare, but what kind of food system we’re trying to build.
I think food waste has been baked in to the system to some degree, cos we’re so terrified of not having enough. How do we find the balance? That’s another story…
I remember in the 70's we found we needed to buy twice the acreage to get the usual quantity of straw to bale. Now straw is a major expense for us livestock farmers. So less to turn into manure to put back in the soil. Crazy.
That's fairly tough on those farmers who are already trying to improve the situation! Another reason for wheat with a shorter stem becoming more popular is that straw has become less part of the harvest and more of an inconvenience as livestock numbers have decreased. Fodder and bedding are in less demand, so in the 60's and 70's the cheapest and easiest way to get rid of it was to burn it off. Government soon put a stop to that!
It would also be interesting to see how the average yields compare after this drought, as regen. farming is aiming to make the soil more moisture retentive and may prove to be more resilient.
great article hugh! Not just the chemicals though, it's also the prevalence of the monoculture as a standard, the codification of this all this through networks of (western) post-war legal systems and the depletion of genetic diversity it created (especially impacting the global south even though the legislation and science came largely from the global north)
the list just keeps growing!
Really interesting piece. I think the point about food waste is particularly important. We still talk about food security as though the answer must always be producing more, when we already lose or waste an extraordinary amount of what we produce.
I’m also such a huge fan of what Fred and his family are doing at Gothelney Farm. They’ve done wonderful work showing that there are other ways of thinking about productivity, where yield matters, of course, but so do soil health, resilience, nutrition and flavour.
Perhaps the question isn’t simply how much food we can produce per hectare, but what kind of food system we’re trying to build.
I think food waste has been baked in to the system to some degree, cos we’re so terrified of not having enough. How do we find the balance? That’s another story…
I remember in the 70's we found we needed to buy twice the acreage to get the usual quantity of straw to bale. Now straw is a major expense for us livestock farmers. So less to turn into manure to put back in the soil. Crazy.
That's mad. I wonder if agronomists predicted that but happily went on their way anyway
That's fairly tough on those farmers who are already trying to improve the situation! Another reason for wheat with a shorter stem becoming more popular is that straw has become less part of the harvest and more of an inconvenience as livestock numbers have decreased. Fodder and bedding are in less demand, so in the 60's and 70's the cheapest and easiest way to get rid of it was to burn it off. Government soon put a stop to that!
It would also be interesting to see how the average yields compare after this drought, as regen. farming is aiming to make the soil more moisture retentive and may prove to be more resilient.
Predicting so, what with deeper-rooting varieties able to reach more water.