How farming is eating the world. George Monbiot is a well known columnist at The Guardian with a strong interest in environmental issues. In Regenesis, he looks at the impact of farming globally. The conclusions he comes to are pretty stark, to say the least. In fact, many will be shocked where Monbiot writes that farming is “the most destructive force to have ever been unleashed by humans.” That’s a pretty big call, and one would expect it to be backed up with compelling evidence. The first half of Regenesis paints an almost apocalyptic image of a world despoiled by farming. The biggest culprit is animal farming, which produces enormous amounts of excrement. And not just any excrement, but poo that is full of antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals that have been pumped into animals to make them grow faster and bigger. Living as most of us do in cities, we aren’t directly exposed to this environmental degradation. Another madness of the global food system is the volume of animal feed grown (soy beans, primarily) that humans could eat. Under ten percent of soy grown actually goes into soy drinks and protein like tofu. The rest is fed to cattle, shipped from countries such as Brazil, the United States and Argentina. This massive soy production causes environmental damage of its own, with millions of acres of forest and grasslands cleared. What is the solution? A plant based diet. Globally. The amount of carbon drawn down from the atmosphere by this change in diet “would be equivalent to all the world’s fossil fuel emissions from the previous sixteen years.” Obviously this has little to no chance of happenening. What to do? The second half of Regenesis sees Monbiot talking to specialist farmers and scientists about alternatives. One avenue is what is known as no-till farming, where the soil is not turned over (tilling soil causes much damage). But the biggest discovery is what is known as microbial farming, using “hydrogen-oxygenating bacterium”. It produces a flour high in protein and can be produced in tanks, reducing the need for large swathes of farmland. Monbiot describes the joys of eating a pancake made with this bacteria, which reminded him of the ones he used to eat made with egg: “I would have found it harder still to accept that the main ingredient was the dessiccated bodies of bacteria. It tasted rich and mellow and filling: just like the pancakes I used to eat.” Regenesis is well researched and thoughtfully written. Monbiot shows great intellectual honesty in contemplating the problems ahead for the global food production. He worries that there could be ticking environmental time bombs that have not been anticipated in our increasingly complex food system. Anyone with a serious interest in environment, sustainability, food security, climate and fairness for poorer nations must read this book. Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet, by George Mobiot. Published by Allen Lane. $32.99 Review by Chris Saliba Comments are closed.
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