One Planet Agriculture: UK Organic Industry Looks Beyond Pesticide-Free Food
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.26.07
We’ve covered One Planet Living plenty of times before. Now we’ve come across One Planet Agriculture, a campaign from the Soil Association, the UK’s governing body on organic food. The campaign is intended to address fossil fuel and energy use in agriculture and food systems, and to help prepare the industry, and consumers, for the challenges of climate change and peak oil:
“A new and irresistible driver will then, over the next few years, force change in the way we live, farm and buy our food. Whilst many of us have anticipated these changes, it has been the debate over environmental care, closer connection between citizens and the land, and animal welfare that has raised awareness of the need to change both our methods of production and the means by which we process and distribute our food. In the future, however, what has been 'nice to have' will become imperative.”
This is a very welcome development from the UK organic sector, showing that it is willing and capable to look beyond simply avoiding harmful pesticides or fertilizers, and to fundamentally reassess our food and farming systems. This should help those of us faced with the familiar ‘local or organic’ dilemma in the future. One of the first actions of this campaign is to compile One Planet Agriculture: Handbook for Practical Action, a reference tool set to combine “inspiration and the necessary practical information to enable each of us to move in the right direction.”
