Bottom Line for Eaters...

Climate Crisis, Food Security and Energy Use

by Steve Gilman 
Northeast Organic Farming Association

This speech was delivered on the steps of the New York State Capitol, in Albany, as part of the Step It Up 2007 rally on April 14. 

As concerned citizens, we’re here to insist that our representatives Step It Up and finally take real action on climate change. We’re also here as concerned Eaters alarmed about the sustainability of our food system. The major issues of our day — climate change, energy use and food security — are all totally linked together.

Today’s agriculture is a major petrochemical industry. The conventional farming practices that are being justified in all our names are 100% dependent on fossil fuels. The agribusiness corporations use colossal amounts of energy to manufacture millions of tons a year of toxic chemical fertilizers, pesticides and transgenic crops that contaminate the ecosystem, pollute the environment, undermine our health and mine our soils for all their worth — so that the lush 2-footdeep topsoil we started with in the Midwest now averages a meager 4 inches. 

At the same time, today’s conventional agriculture is also a gigantic generator of the most virulent greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. That’s because crops can only absorb about half of the nitrogen that is applied in the form of chemical fertilizers. The other half becomes a pollutant of ground water, surface waters and the atmosphere where the release of nitrous oxide is 310 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

The bottom line for Eaters everywhere is that climate change has major impacts on food production. More than any core enterprise, agriculture is a sitting duck for the effects of global warming. Due to the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, high temperatures, hot and cold weather extremes, violent storms, and protracted drought and flooding are creating dislocations that are becoming commonplace, with huge impacts on growing crops. 

Scientists are also projecting a return of dustbowl conditions in the Southwest and other arid regions of the world, while coastal farming areas stand to be flooded out of existence. While our coddled crops suffer — the pests, weeds and diseases have a field day with altered climate conditions. Indeed a virulent crop-destroying wheat rust that was supposedly overcome by the Green Revolution is on the march again through Africa and the Middle East. Overall, world grain production has been down 40 million tons a year due to higher global temperatures.

Our solution to agricultural climate change impacts and food security shocks is organic farming. It’s essentially a solar agriculture, not a petrochemical one. A 22-year study at Cornell University shows that organic farming uses 30% less energy to begin with. The organic method builds soil, not squanders it. Through cover crops and green manures, it pulls CO2 out of the atmosphere and sequesters the carbon in the soil to build fertility for crop growth, instead of having to use polluting chemicals. Built-up organic soils are better buffered against drought and flooding. Starting with this year’s Farm Bill, we need to shift our national resources toward proven organic farming practices to reduce global warming, cut energy use and create a sustainable food system for our children and the future. 

Clearly we need major changes in national climate, energy and farm policies. We’re up against powerful special interests, whose primary corporate mission is to keep their fat subsidies from being gored. Right now, the government is greenwashing the energy problem with false remedies, like corn ethanol, that don’t add up climate-wise, energy-wise or farm-wise when you count in the costs and impacts of producing the corn.

Worse yet, ethanol is usurping valuable farm and food resources for fuel. It takes 450 pounds of corn to fill the tank of one SUV, one time — enough food calories to feed a person for a year! The current ethanol Gold Rush is sucking up grain supplies and raising the price of a large assortment of basic foods, worldwide. Meanwhile, thanks to agribusiness and the corn lobby, research for cellulosic ethanol made from grasses and woody waste materials is receiving scant resources, and this much more sustainable technology is still years away from realization. 

We need to rattle the cage of Congress. Follow the government money and you’ll see our taxpayer subsidies are laundered through the farmers directly into the pockets of agribusiness, when the growers have to pay out for all the petrochemical inputs they’ve been made dependent on to bring in a crop. The subsidies also support unproven genetic engineering experiments that have ended up in the food on our supermarket shelves. The unregulated biotech industry is now inserting transgenes that produce bioplastics, pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals in common foods like rice and bananas. Yet, there’s plenty we can do!

If you ate today, you’re involved in agriculture. We can vote every day with our food dollars for healthy local and organic food, and vote with our votes for those who promote the same. We can till up our energy-hogging lawns and plant a garden. Or join a community garden. Forget fertilizer — recycle food scraps and yard waste and make compost. Support your local co-op, farmers’ market and restaurants. Support your local farmers and organic farming organizations like NOFA. And finally, please always remember to support our beautiful planet — and never forget that we’re all in this together!

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