Greenpeace demands scale up of ecological farming

We have to become conscious about the way we want to treat our environment and how we want to consume further in our society which can either become very sick or has to make sure it does something to avoid a negative climate change.

Farmer plowing in Fahrenwalde, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As told in a previous article we have made a terrible mess of our environment and are  living with a broken food system. It needs to be replaced urgently for the benefit of all people, and the planet.

It is high-time more people seriously take at heart to come to more ecological farming which can combine modern science and innovation with respect for nature and biodiversity. We have to make sure that we can ensure healthy farming and healthy food, to protect our own health but also that of mother nature. Enough chemicals man had already put in to the soil and they now should see that e sincerely need to protect the soil, the water, the climate and also the consumer.

Example of Country of Origin Food Labelling (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We should make work to give enough signals to the shopkeepers so that they start looking where they go for their products and for which sorts of products. As consumers we should go for ecological products which do not contaminate the environment with chemical inputs and should avoid genetically engineered crops. When buying products we should control that they are properly produced and that those people behind it are fairly paid. Ecological Farming places people and farmers – consumers and producers, rather than the corporations who control our food now – at its very heart.

organic farm, ucsc (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Greenpeace‘s Food and Farming Vision describes what Ecological Farming means, and how it can be summarised in seven overarching, interdependent principles – based on a growing body of scientific evidence. The world has to look for better ways to treat the earth respectfully whilst providing for enough food for everybody in a nice healthy region. All have to work at a way to get a productive ecological farming method finding a path towards an agricultural model that protects the environment and secures farmers’ livelihood, has been mapped out in a Greenpeace report released on the 15th of May. It is a system based on the latest scientific innovations and produces healthy food while working with nature.

Governments in Europe and around the world must support and scale up innovative farming solutions by allocating appropriate funding to a modern and innovative ecological farming model.

Reyes Tirado, scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter, says:

“The future of Europe’s agriculture lies in the hands of ecological farmers and their families who are doing a crucial job for our society and need to get the urgently needed support to carry on. Politicians must act and shift subsidies towards ecological farming practices to meet people and farmers’ demand for healthy food and healthy farming.”

The report Ecological Farming: The seven principles of a food system that has people at its heart demonstrates that ecological farming:

1. empowers people, not the corporations, to be in control of the food they grow and eat;

2. benefits farmers in allowing rural communities to thrive;

3. produces enough food for all;

4. encourages (bio)diversity from seed to plate;

5. increases soil fertility;

6. enables farmers to control pest and weeds without chemical products; and

7. creates a food system resilient to changing climate conditions and unstable economies.

Farming equipment. Some sort of agricultural apparatus (a cattle feeder most likely) in Garment Wood. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To upscale ecological farming and to demonstrate the practical implementation of these principles, Greenpeace works together with farmers and rural communities across Europe.
In France, Greenpeace will call on people to help farmers and gardeners to produce, multiply and exchange their own seeds to end their reliance on seed-producing agribusiness. Greenpeace Greece supports farmers who cultivate local protein plants for feed instead of imported GMO soy. All farmers included in this project confirmed that ecological farming practices, without using chemical inputs, fertilizers or artificial irrigation, since local plants are well adapted to Greek climate, have increased their income and their production.

“The village of Hernádszentandrás in Hungary, holding an organic community farm project, is another successful example of how ecological farming can revitalize an economically weak region and empower not only the farmers, but the whole village and its’ citizens”,

adds Balázs Tömöri, ecological farming campaigner at Greenpeace Hungary, who works closely with farmers to exchange knowledge and best practices.

Greenpeace launched an online platform to highlight the failures of industrial agriculture and invites people to counter the broken food system. Join the food movement through personal challenges on www.Iknowwhogrewit.org

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Preceding posts:

Common Goods, people and the MarketPostponing once moreEU Climate and Energy Framework and Roadmap for global climate agreement

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Additional reading:

1. The natural beauties of life
2. How to make sustainable, green habits second nature
3. Pope Francis Raises Hopes for an Ecological Church
4. Facing disaster fatigue

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