Andre Laperrière, executive director of Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) has highlighted the importance of sustainable farming practices to deal with global food security issues
This is in line with the upcoming UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, in which scientists deliver a stark condemnation of the damage being done to the land surface.
“The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report will provide the much needed authoritative call to action to further the awareness and understanding of how human activity is bringing detriment to the Earth’s natural resources,” said Laperrière.
“As the most authoritative report spotlighting the impact of climate change to be released to date, scientists hope it will give the issue of land use greater prominence in climate change negotiations.”
Towards sustainable far practices
Laperrière added, “The report will demonstrate how human activity has resulted in significant land degradation, deforestation, the endangering of animals by the destruction of natural habitats, as well as food and water insecurity. The report will pay significant attention to the impact of our current farming processes on the levels of carbon dioxide emissions being released into the air as a further effort to inspire action towards the increase in sustainable farming practices.”
“At the current levels of human activities, natural land which for centuries has been an asset to climate change has now become a major source of carbon. Uncultivated land is abundant with vegetation that helps absorb carbon dioxide, but now a quarter and a third of all greenhouse gas emissions come from land use.”
According to Laperrière, “Our industrialised farming practices are in fact the largest contribution to soil erosion and pollution and perhaps the biggest hurdle we face is to try and teach about half a billion farmers globally to re-work their agricultural model to be carbon sensitive.”
“Steps we can take would involve changing our collective diets to be environmentally ethical (avoiding mass-produced, resource-intensive and land pollutant foods such as avocados, palm oil and red meat), protect natural habitats and prevent large-scale natural destruction (like in the amazon rainforest), improve crop varieties and engage in agri-forestry (instead of cutting down forests to farm).”
