Читать книгу Food - Jennifer Clapp - Страница 19

Ecological fragility is a third key feature of the current world food economy. The spread of the industrial agricultural model over the past fifty to one hundred years – hybrid seeds, monoculture planting, irrigation, mechanization, and chemical inputs – has resulted in extensive negative ecological effects. The adoption of this model around the world was a key ingredient in the globalization of the world food economy. But the effects have been stark: biodiversity has been drastically reduced with a focus on relatively few species of plants grown in a monocropped fashion; soils have been depleted by mechanization and over-use; land has been poisoned by chemical fertilizers and pesticides; water has become scarcer; industrial farming methods release greenhouse gases that are associated with climate change; and the list goes on.

There is now widespread recognition of the environmental problems that stem from the “traditional” model of industrial agriculture that has characterized large-scale agricultural production in rich countries over the past century, and in poor countries as part of the Green Revolution in the past fifty to sixty years. The situation at present has been described by many as a crisis, one that is slow-developing and deeply problematic for the future of world food security. The acceleration of climate change makes this challenge all the more pressing. But while there is agreement that this basic model of industrial agriculture results in undesirable ecological damage, the future path is fraught with debate and uncertainty.

On one side of the debate are advocates of a refinement of the industrial model in a way that encourages the continuation of large-scale agriculture with the adoption of genetically modified seeds that allow crops to grow in hostile environments. Such crops could be engineered, say advocates, to withstand polluted soils and drought conditions and could also be engineered to resist pests. The embrace of genetically engineered crops, for them, is the only path forward because harsh environmental conditions will undoubtedly become more prevalent with climate change, particularly in developing countries, and specifically in Africa. The world, in other words, must be prepared for the worst or face starvation from declining harvests in a more unpredictable climate.¹⁶

On the other side of the debate are advocates of low external input agriculture, such as agroecology, who call for more intercropping and the use of multiple traditional varieties of seeds, nourishment of the soil with organic fertilizers, and integrated pest management to reduce or eliminate pesticide use. These thinkers stress the risks associated with the wholesale embrace of genetically modified crops, which in their view only replicate the environmental problems we are already facing with industrialized agriculture. Without this diversified approach that fosters increased biodiversity by protecting traditional varieties, this view argues that agriculture will lose its resilience and become even more vulnerable to the risks of climate change.¹⁷