There is an environmental cost of food, always has been, and reducing it is a complexity challenge
Fertilisers are essential to maintain yields in intensive farming operations. So they are applied all the time.
Buying some land looks like a good investment again because the price of land is going up fast
We might have enough phosphate rock or we might not. It depends on who you ask.
There is a weirdness to human perception. When staring at a critical issue, we are both prescient and blind.
Ecology is so complex that even Sweden with 70% of its land area as forest might not be sustainable
Rewilding is a proposal to avoid a dystopian future and 30% rewilding is needed to keep us within planetary limits.
Everyone loves a good law, they make us feel safe. Here are 10 from the world of land management that should help deliver sustainability and food security.
It amazes me how much knowledge humanity has accumulated. Even more baffling is how we fail to use it.
It is hard to know what new information humanity needs to survive and prosper. What should the research questions be?
Contrary to popular wisdom, humans are fantastic cooperators, and there is a surge of it in agriculture.
Like a bolt from the blue, soil carbon is the sequestration option to help fix the climate problem. It is no surprise to us scientists and isn’t even the biggest bonus of extra soil carbon.
Pesticides are excellent for the control of pests but what happens when they attack your friends?
Loss of biodiversity will affect the survival of humanity. Grandiose perhaps, but will pledges be enough?
Despite plenty of food there is a global surge in hunger, malnutrition, and population trends that all come down to the soil.
Will people continue to prefer cities or will enough escape to the country?
People care about cute animals, the Pope and the Denver Broncos. And the earth, too, someway down the list of priorities.
Mark
