We need sustainable agriculture

By William Lindholm (Finland)

I am concerned about the sustainability of our agriculture. This problem relates to sustainable development goal 1 and 2 - Zero Poverty and Zero Hunger. A profound change of the global food and agriculture system is needed if we are to nourish the more than 820 million people who are hungry and the additional 2 billion people the world will have by 2050. Increasing agricultural productivity and sustainable food production is crucial to help alleviate the perils of hunger.

Healthy soil leads to healthier plants and animals, resulting in much more nutritious food for people. Healthy soil holds in moisture much more efficiently than depleted soil does and leads to resilient healthy plants that are not as susceptible to attacks from diseases and pests. The healthier nutrition we receive the healthier we will be as human beings.

Sustainable farming learns from what nature has to teach us about how natural productivity truly works and applies those lessons to create systems that are both naturally productive and naturally efficient.

Nature generally works through cooperation and collaboration instead of by domination, everything is recycled in some way, and everything functions well within natural limits. Sustainable farming practices take future generations into account and are regenerative.

Sustainable agricultural practices strive to reduce energy use at all levels. Beyond embracing less energy-intensive forms of agricultural production, we can design farming systems that work smarter, not harder, and systems that will become more productive and efficient with each passing year

Farming operation is not truly sustainable unless it takes into account whether it benefits the people, the health of our planet and whether it is profitable as well. If there are enough people who demand a sustainable food system and support such efforts with their money, we may very well see such an equitable system come to pass before we know it.

As part of our Adobe APAC Summit Linda Perryman and I created this advocacy page. Perhaps participating schools might like to do the same.