Europe can go organic Archived Message Posted by mack on February 23, 2019, 2:01 am https://theecologist.org/2019/feb/21/europe-can-go-organic 'Europe could be farmed entirely through agroecological approaches such as organic and still feed a growing population, a new scientific paper released yesterday shows. Published a week after research revealed a steep decline in global insect populations linked to pesticide use, the ‘Ten Years for Agroecology’ study from European think tank IDDRi shows that pesticides can be phased out and greenhouse gas emissions radically reduced in Europe through agroecological farming, which would still produce enough healthy food for a growing population.' The study: https://www.soilassociation.org/media/18074/iddri-study-tyfa.pdf An agroecological Europe in 2050: multifunctional agriculture for healthy eating. Findings from the Ten Years For Agroecology (TYFA) modelling exercise. Social expectations regarding healthy diets, the protection of natural resources and biodiversity are becoming increasingly apparent at the European level. Effectively managing these expectations implies generalising an agro-ecological model, in other words one that uses no pesticides and maximises ecological processes. In Europe, this kind of agriculture is less productive on average, and is therefore considered incompatible with tackling other crucial challenges: producing enough for Europe and the world while developing bioeconomy sectors to combat climate change. The TYFA project (Ten Years for Agroecology in Europe) addresses this apparent dilemma by examining how much feed/food/fuel and material the agricultural sector could and should produce to tackle, with equal priority, challenges associated with climate change, health, the protection of biodi-versity and natural resources, and the provision of a sustainable and healthy diet to Europeans—without affecting global food security. Top scientific experts helped to build a quantitative model simulating the agricultural functioning of the European food system in order to examine the current situation and to develop an agroecological scenario for Europe in 2050. This is the first component of a foresight exercise that will successively deal with the socio-economic challenges and the policy levers for an agroecological transition. The current European food system is not sustainable. The European food system is often perceived as being highly productive. To its credit, we can consider the volumes produced, the structure of an agri-food industry capable of not only feeding more than 500 million Europeans, but also of contributing positively to the balance of trade, providing 4.2 million jobs in Europe. In addition, for the last 20 years, the efficiency of European agriculture has been improving in terms of greenhouse gases (-20% since 1990), due in particular to the concentration of livestock farming and to higher nitrogen use efficiency. However, for several decades, these successes have produced more and more serious social and environmental impacts. In terms of health, diet-related diseases are growing at an alarming rate (diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease). Although we produce a lot in Europe, we also eat too much and our diets are unbalanced in relation to the nutritional recommendations of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Message Thread: Europe can go organic - mack February 23, 2019, 2:01 am And productivity really isn't a problem. Both forest-permaculture and urban ag. can OUTPERFORM - Rhisiart Gwilym February 23, 2019, 8:40 am Re: And productivity really isn't a problem. Both forest-permaculture and urban ag. can OUTPERFORM - John Monro February 23, 2019, 6:40 pm Where do you get the idea that it's less productive, John? Not what the veteran, highly-skilled - Rhisiart Gwilym February 23, 2019, 9:51 pm Re: And productivity really isn't a problem. Both forest-permaculture and urban ag. can OUTPERFORM - mack February 24, 2019, 4:27 am Really interesting link. Thanks for posting. nm - Bluefool February 25, 2019, 9:37 am   Searching