Derek Broadmore says unconstrained extraction of resources and industrial scale agriculture has led the planet to the brink of environmental catastrophe. File photo / Supplied
COMMENT
We have to change the way we farm.
In New Zealand agriculture is responsible for almost half our greenhouse gas emissions. That in itself is reason enough to demand change but the fact is that greenhouse gases and consequent climate change are only a symptom of a much larger problem that has been brewing for at least the past 150 years. An economic system based on the unconstrained extraction of the planet's resources and industrial scale agriculture, has led us to the brink of environmental catastrophe.
Like the frog in the pot that slowly acclimatises to its inevitable demise as the water reaches boiling point, we've ignored the incremental signs of environmental collapse. Signs like water scarcity and pollution, destruction of forest and wetlands, the changes to our climate and species loss. I remember driving at night when I was young and arriving home with a windscreen splattered with the bodies of moths and other night
insects. Nowadays, I arrive home with a pristine windscreen. Where have all the insects gone?
As a country we need to accept that there will be a cost to change. Farmers who have been driven by financial imperatives to farm for volume will need assistance to transition to a regenerative, sustainable techniques.
European research has shown that urbanisation, the pesticides used in industrial farming and the destruction of habitat for cropland and animal grazing have decimated the insect world. An analysis published in the journal "Biological Conservation," and reported in the Guardian (February 10, 2019), found "more than 40 per cent of insect species are in decline and a third are endangered. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles". New Zealand will be no different if my windscreen is
any indicator.
There is a flow on effect to bird populations that rely on insects for food. Research by the
French National Centre for Scientific Research found that bird populations across the French countryside have fallen by a third in the last 15 years and by two thirds in some cases.
The world is belatedly starting to focus on decarbonisation of the atmosphere in an attempt to wind back the greenhouse effect and climate change. Switching from a fossil fuels to renewable energy is obviously hugely important. Even more important is that we restore the shattered network of interdependent ecosystem relationships that kept our planet functioning as the beautiful, life supporting home for all species, that it once was. As humans we urgently need to reclaim our place as part of nature not the masters of it.
In New Zealand, the climate crisis is acknowledged as "the defining issue of our age". That's a start, but what have we actually achieved? The Government has set up Interim Climate Change Committees, Green Investment funds, received reports from Productivity Commissions, promised to plant a billion trees and (belatedly) put the thinnest of agricultural wedges into the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Yet, on a net basis we have failed to extract even one kilogram of carbon from the atmosphere. In fact our emissions are increasing.
Changing the way we farm can begin to tackle not only our greenhouse gas emissions but also begin the restoration of the ecosystems that connect everything on the planet.
Industrial agriculture has changed the face of the countryside. The woodlands, shelter belts, wetlands and fallow paddocks that provided habitat for insects and birds, and a filter for run- off, have been replaced by barren fields of monoculture pastures and crops traversed by polluted and depleted waterways. Fields are without trees or shelter belts to allow maximum stocking or cropping and the rotation of, often massive, centre pivot irrigators that drain underground or diverted water for irrigation. This is water that should be shared to support all the ecosystems that depend on it.
The goal is greater and greater production in a system where financial necessity is the driver, not the health of the planet.
Modern agriculture has demanded greater and greater applications of chemical fertiliser just to maintain a basic level of fertility. The soil is constantly being asked to produce much more than it is naturally able to.
The consequences include; loss of top soil, loss of soil carbon, destruction of soil microbial activity loss of water holding capacity and an overall loss of natural soil fertility. In 2014, Maria-Helena Semedo of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told a forum marking World Soil Day that globally loss of top soil and soil fertility has been so great as a result of industrial scale agriculture, that we have less than 60 harvests left.
Herbicides not only kill the weeds, they get into the soil and play havoc with the soil biology. They disrupt the untold millions of microbes that interact, with each other, with plants and through the plants the atmosphere to fix nitrogen and sequester carbon. Pesticides will not only destroy the particular pest of the moment, or the one anticipated, but many, beneficial insects such as bees and parasitic wasps, as well.
We can do much better. We have to do much better and we need to do it now. We cannot wait for the "so-called" technological fixes that may never arrive or be acceptable to a humanity that is demanding higher ethical standards in the treatment of animals and the production of food.
We do have an alternative model of agriculture available, one that can achieve the outcomes we need and that is gaining traction worldwide.
Regenerative organic agriculture is based on some simple principles that involve minimal disturbance of the soil, rotation of crops and animals, cover crops and the return of carbon to the soil.
No synthetic fertilisers, herbicides or pesticides are involved and external inputs to the farm are minimised. Trees, shelter belts and wetlands are encouraged as habitat for beneficial insects and birds and there is less run off to rivers and streams. As more carbon is sequestered in the soil and soil health returns, water holding capacity is increased and less irrigation is required.
In a regenerative system, pastures have multiple plant species that allow browsing animals to select what best suits them to eat at the time. They are not forced to eat a set menu of high sugar ryegrass (perhaps with a little clover) or maize silage. There is anecdotal evidence that such a multi species diet leads to the production of less methane in the rumen which, together with, lower stocking rates, has obvious consequences for methane emissions.
The Rodale Institute in the USA has done extensive side-by-side trials, comparing organic with conventional crop farming over a period of more than 30 years. Several important conclusions have been reached.
Yields from each system are more or less comparable when taken over a 10 year period. Conventional cropping will yield more in an average year but organic will deliver greater yields in drought years. The water holding capacity of the soil is greater in organic systems and regenerative farming techniques sequester significant amounts of carbon in the soil.
In fact, the research suggests that if all agriculture across the planet was based
on the regenerative model we could sequester more carbon from the atmosphere than is currently released each year. A scenario that turns atmospheric carbon into a resource not a threat.
For New Zealand, the business case for regenerative organic agriculture is also strong. The bulk of our food is exported, much of it, currently, in commodity form. The international market for organically certified food and beverages has been growing at anywhere between 10 per cent and 15 per cent per annum for the last 15 years at least. It is, by far the most rapidly growing sector of the global food and beverage market.
In 2017, according to the Soil Association UK, the global market was valued at 80 billion Euros ($NZ 137b). One estimate puts the value of the market by 2020 at $US211 billion ($NZ308b). The brand "Certified Organic" is amongst the most trusted brands worldwide by consumers. Because demand outstrips supply for many products there is often
a significant premium available.
New Zealand has the opportunity to sustainably produce high value, high quality food and beverages that are in demand from a burgeoning global middle class. Transitioning to regenerative organic agriculture is not simple however. It requires a change in mind set for producers as they learn to work with rather than against nature. They also face a three year transition period to become certified and a drop in production volumes, at least initially.
The premiums available for certified organic produce are not available until certification is
achieved. So, there is a financial challenge that for many of our highly leveraged farmers is a significant barrier.
We need leadership to make the change. The vested interests that profit from current conventional farming will clearly not provide that leadership. It will have to come from Government and we have a precedent for making large scale change in primary industry.
In the 1980's, we recognised that our fishing industry was unsustainable. Species were overfished and there was inadequate regulation of the industry. We accepted, as a country, that we needed to change how the fishing industry operated and that there would be a cost to that change as some fishers lost their livelihood and others were restricted.
The Quota Management Scheme introduced in 1986 created a fund to compensate the industry for the resulting change by putting a value on fishing quota, turning it into a property right that could be traded. While there were, and still are, problems with the Quota Management Scheme it has, in broad terms, been successful in stopping the decline in fish stocks and, has resulted in a very significant export industry.
To make the changes to land based primary production that are essential to achieving sustainability and ecological recovery, we need a similarly bold approach to farming.
As a country we need to accept that there will be a cost to change. Farmers who have been driven by financial imperatives to farm for volume will need assistance to transition to a regenerative, sustainable techniques.
Ultimately, I believe that the increased value of sustainably produced food will more than match the value of current production but farmers will need to be supported, financially, during the change process.
I don't believe we have to have compulsory Government dictated change. Rather Government leadership backed by support and compensation where appropriate can lead to the change we need.
We made the change with fishing, it is not perfect but we have a stronger, more resilient, more sustainable and more profitable system in place. Agriculture is a much larger challenge but the health of all our living systems is an existential issue and we owe it to future generations to make the changes now.
• Organic sector consultant Derek Broadmore was a lawyer for more than 35 years and has been a certified organic farmer and a former chairman of the Biological Producers and Consumers Society ( BIoGro) and Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ).
Japanese food group Meiji is listed on the Nikkei 225.