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Smart Agriculture to Save Humanity and the Planet: Miranda Mertes - Sustainable Farming Advocate



Humans have become good enough at agriculture to feed the world’s 8 billion people, which is amazing - but we're destroying our planet doing it. Farming uses an enormous amount of land, crowding out nature and driving extinctions. It contributes to climate change, soil degradation and pollution of waterways. And farming uses a lot of fossil fuels and other resources. But we all need to eat. How can we feed ourselves without destroying the planet we live on?


With us to discuss all this is Miranda Mertes. She recently earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst - a dual degree in Sustainable Food & Farming and in Animal Science. This has given her an overview of current cutting edge thinking on a wide range of farming and environmental topics.


This conversation is a good overview for those who want to learn about the intersection of food and environment. It also contains creative ideas. I especially like our discussion of farms that combine animals and crops, to boost yields and reduce environmental harms.


I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.


RESOURCES:


Mother Jones, 1/12/15

California’s Almonds Suck as Much Water Annually as Los Angeles Uses in Three Years

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/01/almonds-nuts-crazy-stats-charts/


Our World In Data - Land Use

https://ourworldindata.org/land-use

(This shows us the huge amount of land used for agriculture, especially meat production)


Our World In Data - Environmental Impacts of Food Production

https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food


OUTLINE:

5:57 Integration of plant and animal production

7:44 Eutrophication, runoff of fertilizers and pesticides into waterways

8:41 Repairing soil degradation with livestock

9:20 Soil loss, erosion, degradation

11:49 Chemical fertilizers

12:17 Fossil fuels used for fertilizer

13:19 Farming and climate change

13:58 Feeding the 8 billion human population

15:38 Should we all eat organic food? It’s complicated.

18:56 Enormous amounts of land used to grow food worldwide, especially meat

21:45 Meat is an inefficient way to get our nutrition

23:26 Meat production’s impact on the environment

25:53 Sustainability is impossible with the high volume of meat being consumed. Diets will have to change.

26:38 Eating vegan

27:39 Water used for farming. Water scarcity

30:18 Eating locally produced food

33:07 Are there ways to produce meat with less harm

34:03 Grass fed meat

35:21 Regenerative grazing of cattle to sequester carbon and mitigate climate change.

40:11 Grazing to use and improve marginal land

41:53 Integrated farming systems

44:43 Silvopasture, combining livestock grazing with tree crops/forestry

46:29 Farms as diverse ecosystems that mimic nature. Agroecology.

49:57 Sustainable farming requires more human labor, and public policies to support that labor.

52:22 Government programs to help farmers innovate and take risks

55:57 Scientists as government decision makers, to balance complex priorities


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