Ecology is the E in FED, the engine room of food production for both subsistence and intensive agriculture. Here we explain why good ecology is central to feeding everyone...
Ecology is the engine
Plants capture energy from the sun and convert it into biomass that animals use to survive, grow and reproduce. Only there is far more going on. A host of biodiversity below ground and in the water ensure ecological processes persist. Humans appropriate the subsequent biomass and manipulate the cycling of energy and matter into more and more food. Understanding how we can keep this applied ecology going is the only way to feed everyone.
Ecology is and supports all life and the posts below will help you find out why.
MarkEcology Topics
Resilience and resistance are not the same when growing food
I get knocked down, but I get up again. So goes the song, and so too our food production systems. At least, we hope they do.
Agriculture emits greenhouse gases
Agricultural practices are the source of over a quarter of GHG emissions. How we grow our food and fibre is a significant source of atmospheric pollution—a challenging but necessary admission.
Comment | A possum problem
None of the integration of food, ecology and diet advocated here on sustainably FED is easy. There are many challenges in a more ecological way of feeding everyone well.
Overshoot, the precursor to collapse
Overshoot is when the consumption of resources exceeds the amount available, which should trigger the ecological principle of density-dependence to pull consumption back below the resource limit. We had better hope this...
Soil at the heart of six global challenges
Almost all of the food grown to feed everyone well requires soil. This universal truth has been with humans every step out of Africa and across the planet.
Comment | A challenging ecological reality
The global soil carbon debt is real, potentially collapse-inducing and should scare the pants off everyone. As with any loan, eventually, repayments must be greater than withdrawals
Silent Spring
On 27 September 2022, it was 60 years since the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, an early warning of what human economic activity will do to nature.
More carbon in the soil than in the atmosphere
Is there more carbon in the soil than in the atmosphere? Simple enough question, but do you know the answer?
You really need to know this
Sometimes it is necessary to take stock, to sit under a shady tree and contemplate what brought you to this tree. Then imagine what happens next, given the journey taken and the opportunity to ponder.
Soil biodiversity matters
Most people have never heard of soil biodiversity, the poor man’s rainforest. But we all should know about it and especially how it maintains critical processes...
Trees, forests and carbon or why ecological knowledge matters
Ecology is so complex that even Sweden with 70% of its land area as forest might not be sustainable
Key challenges for rewilding 30% of the planet
Rewilding is a proposal to avoid a dystopian future and 30% rewilding is needed to keep us within planetary limits.
Why not ban an insecticide that kills bees?
Pesticides are excellent for the control of pests but what happens when they attack your friends?
Are we united to reverse biodiversity loss?
Loss of biodiversity will affect the survival of humanity. Grandiose perhaps, but will pledges be enough?
When setting a target is worse than missing it
Is zero extinction a realistic target? Not if you know anything about evolution or why people set targets in the first place.
