23rd August 2023
If we need to slow down agricultural expansion, do we know what caused its expansion? There is I’m sure no one answer but a multiplicity of interconnecting reasons.
- Population growth. Globally we now need to feed over 8 billion people, up from 6 billion in 1999, and 3 billion in 1960. Yet researchers tell us that we could feed 10 billion people without exceeding the planet’s environmental boundaries (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0465-1)
- Income growth – as people become richer they choose to eat more expensive foods which are often more resource expensive too – eg imported tropical fruits, sugar based foods, and especially meat
- Developments in agriculture that allow more intensive production such as pig breeds that can reach a slaughter weight in 4 months; high protein feed made from soy beans that rapidly fatten chickens; high yielding grains that combine with fertilisers and pesticides to increase harvests.
- Financial rewards that encourage rain forests to be cleared to make way for sugar plantations, soy crops and cattle ranching.
- Irrigation and airfreight that allow crops such as asparagus, avocados and blueberries to be grown in the southern hemisphere and imported as out of season alternatives for the northern hemisphere.
- Social changes that have made chicken a staple rather than a special treat, that have reduced the popularity of foods – in the UK – such as cabbage and runner beans, replacing them with courgettes and peppers.
- Social changes that mean less food is home produced, that less food is preserved at home (eg jam/ chutney/ sauerkraut), that less food is home grown.
- Increasing quantities of food going to waste – caused by social changes and increasingly long supply chains.
The Green Tau 