What did you learn about dietary choices from using the footprint calculator? Now imagine that you could translate what you learned into an effective societal policy on food- what would it be? And how would this policy effect the need to alleviate world hunger?
925 million people on earth do not have enough to eat according to the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization]. That's almost 1 in 7 inhabitants of our planet!
Food & Hunger >
Sustainable agriculture for the future?
A recent study in the journal Nature by Stanford biology Professor Peter Vitousek and colleagues at China Agricultural University shows how new farming practices can both increase yields and reduce greenhouse and other pollution.
This is a very interesting article - however, I would have liked to see more details about how exactly the new farming practice works. Does it employ crop rotation? Seasonal crops? Natural fertilizer?
The idea of tailoring specific farming methods to different environments is key in this article, it seems.
I am aware that in many places, it is much more difficult to fund fertilizer-free agriculture. In one article from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FOA), it is shown that sustainable practices using legumes and organic fertilizer often take up more funds and space than is available in the community.
HOWEVER:
Is it possible that promoting simplicity is key? For years before the colonization of Africa and Latin America, people practiced till-free agriculture. Could reviving this practice both improve production and stop fertilizer pollution?
SOURCE:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/Y1730E/y1730e05.htm