For Farmers Everywhere, Small is (Still) Beautiful

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



For Farmers Everywhere, Small is (Still) Beautiful
Whether you’re worried about hunger, social crises, or climate change, the answer is the same: small-scale farmers are our only hope.

by Robin Broad, John Cavanagh
posted Jan 17, 2012


There is battle raging across the world over who can better feed its people: small-scale farmers practicing sustainable agriculture, or giant agribusinesses using chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

It was small-scale organic farmers growing rice for themselves and local markets in the Philippines who first convinced us that they could feed both their communities and their country. Part of what convinced us was simple economics: These farmers demonstrated substantial immediate savings from eliminating chemical inputs while, within a few harvests—if not immediately—their yields were close to or above their previous harvests. From these farmers, we also learned of the health and environmental benefits from this shift.

Moving up from what we learned in the Philippines to examine other countries, we have concluded that small-scale farmers practicing different kinds of what is now called agroecology can feed the world. Agroecology extends the organic label to a broader category of ecosystem-friendly, locally adapted agricultural systems, including agro-forestry and techniques like crop rotation, topsoil management, and watershed restoration. (For more details on our research and conclusions, check out our “Can Danilo Atilano Feed the World?" in the current Earth Island Journal, the magazine of the California-based Earth Island Institute.)

Eager to learn more and network with others from across the globe, Robin accepted an invitation from the Transnational Institute and the International Institute of Social Studies to speak about our Philippine research at a global conference in the Netherlands on alternative approaches to food and hunger. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/john-cavanagh-and-robin-broad/for-farmers-everywhere-small-is-still-beautiful

[terip64]

1. K&R

[chervilant]

2. Interesting...

I'm sure Monsanto and it's fellow pollution producers are having a conniption about agroecology. I hope to see the end of Monsanto before I leave this planet.

[AllyCat]

3. Heck, just my backyard garden gives the family what we need plus excess

for the local food co-op. If we can do this with little knowledge of growing in our backyard, imagine what someone who does this for a living and is skilled can do. The food giants do NOT help us. They hurt us from beginning to end (that end being diseases like cancer for many of us).

[JDPriestly]

4. What a coincidence.

I was just mixing my compost and taking out compost juice this morning. I'll be getting more compost materials in the next few days and starting another batch.

[AlecBGreen]

5. here is the key

"At a minimum, we need to “vote with our forks,” to use the phrase of the “slow food” movement. This means buying local, organic, and whole-grain products and limiting our consumption of meat, as Tony Weis stressed at the conference."

I disagree with eating less meat if it is locally raised in a sustainable fashion. But the point remains: we can hem and haw all we want about Evil Monsanto (and they ARE evil) but unless we put our money where our mouth is, whats the point? You have to BE THE CHANGE you want to see in the world. As a small farmer, I encourage all my DU'ers to buy fresh and buy local as much as possible. Gracias