What’s the connection between food production and climate?

Energy costs of agriculture Traditional Exists within natural energy and nutrient cycles Crop rotations Green manures Draft animals Conventional 10 calories of fossil fuel needed to produce 1 calorie of food 1500 litres of oil to feed each American per year 10% More energy used each year due to soil depletion

GM technology to the rescue? Yields – about the same with GM crops but GM soy yields 5-10% less Pesticide use grown 15-fold since introduction of GM crops (herbicide resistance) Roundup prevents nutrient uptake and increases Fusarium (soil borne fungus that causes disease) Bt GM plants produce their own pesticide – damages aquatic organisms

Biotech promises No GM crops are more nutritious, salt and drought tolerant etc Genes work in complex networks and are more difficult to manipulate than expected Biotechs are patenting genes linked to useful traits as climate changes If their patents succeed access to these traits could be severely limited

Non-GM successes Victoria has bred drought tolerant canola. It had a limited release this year there are other non-GM successes ie salt resistant wheat and virus resistant cassava The SRI (System of Rice Intensification) developed for subsistence Asian farmers has doubled yields and halved costs

Effects on farmers Farmers sued when crops polluted by GM i.e. Percy Schmeiser case Monsanto now controls 20% of world seed market. Price increase of 35% for bag of corn N. American farmers forming groups to fight this Crop failure, bankruptcy and suicide reported in Indian farmers who grew GM cotton

Soil and carbon Agricultural soils used to be 20% organic matter. Now 1%. Pesticides and fertilisers kill soil life and cause carbon to be released If carbon content of soils was raised to 5%, 150 billion tonnes of CO2 would be sequestered In the world generated 18 billion tonnes of CO2

Ideas and inspirations Bio char – by product of slow pyrolysis. Stores carbon in soil for 100’s of years and increases fertility Soil food web – Dr Elaine Ingham Permaculture Organic and bio-dynamic systems

Why is there a world food crisis? Biofuels instead of food Refusal of countries to grow GM crops Drought Flood Changed diets in China and India Global free trade pushed by IMF and World Bank Food and farmer subsidies removed Farmers forced off land Self sufficiency replaced by investor speculation in crops and farmland Poverty

Big Food profits Monsanto’s profits increased 296% from Exxon Mobil’s increased 12% over same period Cargill – biggest grain trader – 86% profit increase in 1 st quarter 2008 Bunge – food trader – 77% profit increase in 2007 ADM – 2 nd largest grain trader – 67% profit increase in 2007

David Holmgren on energy use

Where to from here? IAASTD – suggests shift from Industrial to Sustainable agriculture Via Campesina Cuba – surviving after industrial agriculture collapsed Local heroes David Holmgren – looks at growing food in Melbourne Farmers markets CSA Home gardening and food swaps Permablitzes