My spirits have been lifted by Greta Thunberg, the school climate strikers, Extinction Rebellion, and – perhaps most strikingly – the announcement that the UK has become the first country in the world to declare an ‘environment and climate change emergency’.
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We are polluting our ecosystems with nutrients like nitrate and phosphate, and with plastic waste. Antibiotic resistance, partly due to overuse in animals, threatens to lead to 10 million deaths a year globally by 2050, more than from cancer today.
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Meanwhile, farming is at the top of the league tables for mental health problems, at-work accidents and suicide rates. Many farmers earn far less than the minimum wage and work in conditions that most of the population would reject.
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But the future doesn’t have to be apocalyptic. I see huge energy and optimism in the pioneering food and farming entrepreneurs, many but not all organic, who prove what is possible.
They show how we can sequester carbon in soils and trees, that we can survive without the chemicals that destroy wildlife and our health, how we can give our animals a good life without using endless antibiotics, and – crucially – that we can feed people well.
Read full, original article: Innovative farming or climate breakdown
