tagged w/ food production
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Several times in recent weeks the question has come up in conversation: How are "baby carrots" produced?Several times in recent weeks the question has come up in conversation: How are... more
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YPNation contributor Kate Tighe writes our food production system is in dire need of an overhaul: http://www.ypnation.net/one-reason-go-veg-0
Here's an excerpt: "But this narrative does not address a number of critical factors in our food production system. I spoke with Sushil Pandey, an economist at the International Rice Research Institute here in the Philippines (the group responsible for the first Green Revolution). He laid out for me a few of the many reasons why the cost of rice, specifically, and food more generally, will continue to be high and volatile. Namely, the earth has to produce food for more people than ever before, on less arable land than ever before; that meat-based diets require more grains and feed less people than plant-based diets; and that as China, India, Brazil and other developing nations get richer, more of them will opt for meat-based diets. Dr. Robert Zeigler, director general at IRRI lays these arguments out well in this BBC piece. In addition, I've spoken with Philippine farmers who claim that a changing climate is upending their traditional farming knowledge, and challenging harvests."YPNation contributor Kate Tighe writes our food production system is in dire need of... more
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Britain is to commit itself to a massive increase in domestic food production to feed the population in the next 40 years, The Independent on Sunday has learnt. The UK will announce tomorrow that it intends to "play a full part" in meeting a United Nations target of raising food production by 70 per cent by 2050.
The surge in homegrown crops and meat – which has echoes of the Dig for Victory campaign of the Second World War – is needed to cope with rising global population levels and crop failures and water scarcity caused by climate change.
British officials are increasingly concerned that food supplies will come under strain as a result of rocketing demand from newly prosperous and powerful nations such as China and India. Self-sufficiency has fallen in recent years, and only about 60 per cent of the food British people eat comes from the UK.
Tomorrow, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hilary Benn, will set out the scale of the problem and challenge farmers to raise output rapidly while cutting greenhouse gases. In the search for a new green revolution, he will say new research is needed to develop new crop breeds and techniques. Manufacturers, retailers and households will be urged to cut current massive levels of waste. Households can help by growing more food in back gardens and allotments.
Civil servants described the new food strategy as a "wake-up call" for farmers, retailers and the public.
Farmers who have long criticised the Government for taking a relaxed attitude towards food security will welcome the focus on domestic production. Wildlife groups, however, fear that further agricultural intensification will hit wildlife. Ripping out hedgerows, growing crops on meadows and dousing fields in pesticides and fertilisers have badly affected farmland birds and animals in the past 50 years.
Numbers of farmland birds such as skylarks, yellowhammers and corn buntings have almost halved and many wildflowers have been left on the brink of extinction. Most of England's hedgerows have been lost since 1947.
The Government's new approach is set out in a new document, the UK Food Security Assessment. It says that Britain's position is currently favourable because agricultural production has risen in recent years, with Britain a major exporter of wheat and barley. But it warns that rising population pressures and a likely worsening environmental picture will pose serious challenges in coming decades.
In a list of challenges to UK food security are the changing climate, floods, drought, soil erosion, water scarcities and the breakdown of ecosystems. Global temperatures may rise two to three degrees in the next 50 years, threatening large-scale crop failure in Africa.
"The Government is monitoring the climate risks to harvests and the potential for more volatility in supplies and prices. We will also examine any implications for animal disease and food safety," the document said. "Other areas of climate-change impacts on our food will include further pressure on fish products from increasing ocean acidification; supply strains on water-reliant crops such as fruit from the Mediterranean; and the impacts of increasing episodes of coastal flooding and erosion."Britain is to commit itself to a massive increase in domestic food production to feed... more
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