Why organic
SymBio Polska S. A.

Prior to the first Green Revolution, which

began modernising agriculture six decades

ago, food production was close to carbon

neutral because it was based on recycling of

agricultural waste and the use of solar energy for

nitrogen sequestering. Today, food production in

many developed countries consumes more fossil fuels

than all other sectors except for transportation. In

fact, the food production industry as a whole is the

leading single contributor to greenhouse gases. The

development of approaches to reduce our carbon

footprint should thus include strategies to alter the

ways we produce food to accommodate the growing

global population.

 

Thanks to the Green Revolution and the growth of the

industrial and service sectors, families in wealthier

countries spend a smaller proportion of their household

income on food than they did before 1945. The caloric

output of the world agricultural sector is way up. Modern

agricultural productivity is feeding a rapidly growing global

population. On its face, this looks like quite an

accomplishment.

 

Modern agriculture does produce a lot of food calories.

Indeed, in many sectors, it overproduces. Whether this

overproduction is a net good, however, depends on what is

being measured.

 

For example, at the same time that it feeds more people

more cheaply, overproduction contributes to poor health and

rising health care costs. It also harms smaller farmers

throughout the world, who are unable to complete with

highly subsidised, high output agricultural products,

particularly wheat, corn, and soybeans. In less developed

countries, these highly subsidised products enter the market

as foreign aid, notwithstanding their negative impact.

Finally, nutrient levels as measured per weight unit today

have been falling ever since we adopted, and subsidised, a

high output agricultural policy. The latest, peer reviewed

studies conclude that, except for carbohydrates, our food

(primarily fruits and vegetables) contains significantly less

nutrients than it did prior to modern agriculture, 25 per

cent less on average.1

CALORIES ARE UP AND NUTRIENTS ARE DOWN

As we grapple with the sustainability of agriculture to feed

10 billion people by 2050, and given all what we have