We all need to eat. Experts imagine how the next agricultural revolution can feed us while fighting climate change and habitat destruction, instead of accelerating it.
Federica Ravera, Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de Catalunya
In the Catalan Pyrenees, women shepherds and cattle ranchers try to valorise the ancestral agropastoral culture to save the mountains from climate change.
Urban farming can make it easier for city residents to obtain healthy, affordable food. But to raise big yields from small pieces of land, farmers need training and support.
A recent summit in Ottawa on what’s known as agroecology has shown that more equitable and sustainable methods of producing food are not only possible, they’re beginning to spread around the world.
Multiple reports have convincingly demonstrated that agroecology is the most promising pathway to sustainable food systems on all continents. But governments aren’t doing enough to support it.
The world’s ‘drylands’ – already home to 38% of the world’s people – are set to dry out even more. And that could harm the soil microbes that keep soils healthy and help crops to grow.
The Paris climate summit yielded a pact to reduce air pollutants that contribute to global warming but missed a chance to address the interlinked effects of agriculture and climate.
Agroecological techniques that mimic nature – the antithesis of GMOs and high-cost fertilizers – have made farmers in developing countries more resilient to extreme weather.