Feeding the soil, feeding the people

Juha Helenius

University of Helsinki

FAO Food Day Seminar, Oct 29 2015

The Finnish National FAO Committee &

University of Helsinki Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry

”Feeding the world”: success and failure of

productionist paradigm

Lang & Heasman’s (2004) food paradigm analysis

Lang. T. & M. Heasman 2004. The food wars thesis. In: T. Lang & M. Heasman: Food Wars. The Global

Battle for Mouths, Minds and Markets. Chapter 1, pp. 11-46. Earthscan, London & New York.

The productionist paradigm (ca. 1945 - today)

The ecologically integrated

paradigm (emerging since 2000)

the 2 compared

• productionist paradigm – post WWII food shortage

– ”more food for the population”

– the green revolution: farming

• ecologically integrated paradigm – healthy food for all (food and nutritional security) & “healthy”

environment

– individual and the population; costs of wrong diets

– the food system

Source: EASAC 2015. Ecosystem services, agriculture and neonicotinoids. EASAC policy report 26, in which adapted from Power

2010, Aisbett & Kragt 2010).

Soil as an ecosystem service and provider of ecosystem services on which food production depends

FAO’s classification of agricultural land

Cropland, ca. 1.5 x 109 ha (15 milj. km2, 0.2 ha/capita)

1.1. arable land

1.2. horticultural land

1.3. orchards

Pastures, ca. 3 x 109 ha (30 milj. km2)

Agricultural extent: 38% of global land area

Source: Foley et al. 2011. Nature 478: 337-342, supplementary.

(pelto)

Loss of soil and soil fertility

Photo: Water erosion. Source:

www.newworldencyclopedia.

org/entry/Erosion

Photo: Dust bowl, May 1937, Springfield, Colorado (Source: Dorst 1970)

Photo: Rainforest cleared for soya production in Brazil, with the protected tree species Brazil nut left

standing by Daniel Beltra, eblog.greenpeace.org/makingwaves/amazon.jpg

Loss of topsoil: Globally, erosion rate is 24 x 109 t/a (4,8 t/ha/a; 0,48 kg/m2/a)

Loss of soil nutrients: nutrient mining, negative nutrient balances

Loss of soil organic matter: the ”humus” is lost when formation is slower than mineralization

Climate Change: warming and drying of climates

Salinization: in conditions of net-evapotranspiration, salt crust forms on top of the soil – loss of 1.5 x 106 ha/a of irrigated land

Compaction: loss of tillable structure, lowered penetration of roots of crop plants

Simultaneous harvesting of soybean and sowing of maize in Brazil (Source:

Celia Fortes Ferreira, ppt-presentation, 8.10.2009)

In farming, ecological integration boils down to soil!

“African farmers could double or even triple crop yields from their farms if they embrace integrated soil fertility management (ISFM), a new AGRA report shows.” http://www.afronline.org/?p=36368

”Living soil”: Feeding soil with organic fertilizers = creating soil organic matter (humus) = maintaining soil fertility. Bonus: carbon sequestration

Source: Lal (2004,

Science 304)

Source: Lal (2004,

Science 304, Fig. 4)

Rattan Lal (2004, Science 304, Fig. 4): “Cereal yields in Africa have been stagnant since early 1970s and stand at a meager 1 ton/ha. The vicious cycle of deletion in soil organic matter–decline in crop yield–food insecurity–soil and environmental degradation can be broken by improving soil fertility through enhancement of the soil organic matter pool, which requires use of sustainable agricultural technologies for water and nutrients management, including no-till farming, composts and mulching, leguminous cover crops, water harvesting, agroforestry, [controlled grazing] and integrated farming systems, along with judicious use of chemicals. This strategy can break the tyranny of hunger.” [Addition from his presentation 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTb63CDJ5sA ]

Food security has a geography!

http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Other-Information/Press_Release_WPP2010.pdf

http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Other-Information/Press_Release_WPP2010.pdf

Source: WFP, http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/wfp275057.pdf

Source: UN, http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Highlights/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf

How to feed the big cities?

http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/seal08/images/CityCrowd.jpg

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Photog

raphy/Images/POD/t/trichur-pooram-crowd-508657-sw.jpg

Ecologization: how to recycle from the big cities?

Over 50% of the population is urban, and increasing.

Edward Goldsmith (ed.) 2006. The Doomsday Funbook. Cartoons by Richard Wilson. Ecodoom.

Role of science: part of the problem, or part of the solution?

Food cycle

for:

what is needed to satisfy our need for food and good nutrition

what serves cultural needs

what gives a sense of community

what makes the link to the ecosystem tangible

local food cycle, circular food system

Community members producing

Community members cooking

Community members marketing

Community members

sharing the meal

Vision for food citizenship

Global network of local food cycles securing sustainable diet:

food quality, nutritional adequacy, and safety

food security (entitlement, access)

fairness

respect to food cultures

ethics

care of ecosystems, sense of biotic community

…or, what do you think?