The report ‘Climate Change & Land‘ – released on 8.8.19 by IPCC(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), UN – leaves no doubt. Climate change results from poor land management. There is an urgent need to stop deforestation, respect peoples’ traditions in managing their lands, apply ecoagriculture. #Buycott!
‘Land and its watersheds provide the basis for human sustenance and well-being, providing food, fresh water and many other ecosystem services. Neither our individual or social identities nor the world economy would exist without the multiple resources, services, and livelihood systems provided by terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity‘. (1)
Deforestation, industrial agriculture and climate change
The IPCC report clarifies some causal relationships between deforestation, industrial agriculture and systemic ecological crisis. Deforestation and industrial agriculture, along with wildfires, contribute about a quarter of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. In particular:
– CO2 and CH4 (carbon dioxide and methane) emissions are due to deforestation, driven by the lust for palm oil and GMO soybeans,
– methane emissions are significantly aggravated by the raising of ruminant animals. Although, we remember, the possibility of culling them by feeding algae in cattle feed has already been successfully explored,
– N2O (nitrous oxide) emissions are largely due to fertilizer use. Made essential by thedrying up of soils caused by pesticides and herbicides, and GMO crops designed to resist them,
– anthropogenic warming has altered climate zones, with dry climates increasing (+23) and polar climates decreasing. It is estimated that the phenomenon will lead to 24 new warm climates in tropical regions and shift warm climate zones toward mid- to high latitudes (as well as upward in regions with higher altitudes),
– the increase in average temperature over land has exceeded the overall temperature (land and ocean), an appreciable increase over the previous century. +1.41 °C during 1999-2018, compared with +0.87 °C between 1881 and 1900. (2)
Climate change, food security and us. Buycott!
Declining and stagnant yields, changes in planting and harvesting dates, increasing pest infestations, diseases and reduced viability of some plant varieties are some of the symptoms of the ongoing ecological crisis. Studies conducted on agricultural systems of varying extents-in Australia, Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America-show a decline in crop productivity related to rising temperatures and changes in rainfall. (3)
Food security-that is, the security of the food supply and thus the availability of nutritious and safe food for the planet’s inhabitants-is increasingly at risk. Greed for virgin lands, raped without restraint to produce commodities such as soybeans and palm – as well as the compulsive abuse of agrotoxics, with no respect for the ecosystem – have put the planet in crisis.
‘Soil and biodiversity are suffering tremendous pressure from increased deforestation in the Amazon and the fires that are ravaging Siberia and Indonesia just these days. These phenomena directly impact the lives of millions of people and the climate as they threaten our food security by promoting desertification and land degradation. In light of the new IPCC report, governments will therefore need to update and improve their action plans to keep global temperatures rising below one and a half degree‘. (Martina Borghi, Greenpeace Italy, Forestry Campaign. See footnote 4)
#Égalité and Great Italian Food Trade – in adhering to the urges that Greenpeace and other organizations are addressing to policy – affirm the dutifulness of a Corsican reaction of consumAtors to the reported havoc.
#Buycott! palm oil, GMO soy, US beef. #NotInOurNames, #NotInOurNames! Against the globalization of exploitation, let us interrupt the demand for goods that result from the abuse of humans, animals and the environment. Affirming the universal right of peoples to the full and free availability of natural resources, food and land sovereignty.
Dario Dongo and Giulia Caddeo
Notes
(1) IPCC, UN. (2019). Climate Change and Land, an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. V. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2019/08/2b.-Chapter-1_FINAL.pdf
(2) See Note 1, Chapter 1.
(3) See Note 1, Chapter 5.
(4) Greenpeace Italy, press release 8.8.19 https://www.greenpeace.org/italy/comunicato-stampa/6000/ipcc-foreste-sistema-agro-alimentare-sfida/
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Graduated in law, master in Food, Law & Finance. You have explored the theme of green procurement and urban food policies in the International Cooperation and Peace sector of the City of Turin.
