As world leaders gather in Paris for the COP21 climate conference, the organic movement is calling for a worldwide switch from high-emitting industrial farming methods to agro-ecological farming practices such as organic agriculture.
IFOAM – Organics International says that industrialized farming costs $3.33 trillion per year in environmental damage. The group wants to see a commitment in Paris to land-based mitigation measures that contribute to food security and tackle the root causes of climate change.
Producing the food we eat from farm to fork accounts for about half of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. Yet to date, says IFOAM, climate negotiators and policy-makers have paid little attention to this fact.
The global organic organization is calling for a climate agreement recognizing the importance of the land sector. “Industrial farming is one of the major drivers of climate change, and business as usual is not an option,” says André Leu, president of IFOAM – Organics International. “Only a transition to agroecology and organic farming can lead to deep cuts in emissions from food production”.
IFOAM argues that we are already producing enough to feed the world, yet one third of all food never makes it to the table. Half of the smallholder farmers who grow the majority of global agricultural produce are amongst the world’s hungry, it says. Leu observes: “Unless farmers are given the agro-ecological technologies they need to meet the challenges posed by climate change, impacts on food production will be devastating, pushing millions into poverty.”
Agriculture and forest-related mitigation actions should therefore contribute to food security and tackle activities with the highest emissions such as fertilizer use particularly in ‘high-emitting’ countries, says IFOAM.
But the organic group warns that land-based mitigation measures should not be considered a quick fix for climate change, using carbon offsetting instead of phasing out fossil fuels. Advocacy manager, ábor Figeczky, says:“If, in the name of fighting climate change, land used by local farmers to produce food is acquired for use in carbon offsetting projects, then we could put a further 600 million people at risk of hunger by 2080.”
IFOAM says that, unlike chemical farming exacerbating climate change, organic farming practices use inputs that lead to less GHG emissions and are beneficial to soils. This, it says, is where land-based mitigation measures should be focused – “cutting emissions and capturing carbon in soil without jeopardizing food security”.
