Daniel Zimmer, Director Sustainable Land Use, EIT Climate-KIC, says we must start harvesting the huge near-term opportunities for health, wealth + climate stability from regenerative agriculture + the transformation of our global agrifood systems.
Farming and food represent the production and consumption cycles of the same global system. This system is under growing pressure as the global population grows and climate change threatens productivity and current supply and demand. Farming is a land-based activity with a huge carbon footprint. But if it is part of the problem, it is also a major part of the solution.
Farming and forestry are the major industry sectors that capture and sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. True-cost accounting is beginning to put a price on agriculture’s contributions to climate change, pollution, land degradation and public health but further transformation is urgently needed across all parts of our agrifood systems, particularly on soil, water resources and food waste. Regenerative agriculture has never been more important, as we strive to reverse the historic tendencies of past centuries to sustainably feed a world of nine billion by the middle of this one.
As agriculture currently stands, a redistribution of economic value is needed to catalyse innovation without seeing food prices rise, more value in the agrifood value chain needs to go to farmers enabled by shorter value chains.
Click here to read the full article from Daniel’s speech to the annual Trento Festival of Economics in a session titled ‘Smart and green; agriculture of the future’: https://www.climate-kic.org/opinion/harvesting-opportunities-for-health-wealth-and-climate-stability-in-regenerative-agriculture/
