planted city

From Climate Central:

Dramatically reducing emissions of one of the key contributors to global warming – nitrous oxide – will require farmers to change their ways of growing food, and citizens in the developed world to slash their yearly meat consumption, according to a new study published Friday.

The study by Eric Davidson, the director of the Woods Hole Research Center on Cape Cod, Mass., lays out actions that would be required in order to adhere to emissions scenarios developed by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Specifically, meeting the strictest emissions reduction scenario would mean that, in the developed world, the average person would need to cut their meat consumption in half by the year 2050. This would help ensure there would be enough food to feed the planet’s rising population, with nearly 9 billion people expected to call Earth home by 2050, up from about 7 billion today. Red meat consumption is growing in the developing world and is still on the increase in developed countries, trends that pose formidable obstacles to those seeking to reign in nitrous oxide emissions.

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A decline in meat consumption would have two main benefits, Davidson said. It would reduce the demand for nitrogen-based fertilizers, and cut down on manure production and use.

As for whether a 50 percent reduction in average per capita meat consumption is at all feasible by 2050, Davidson pointed to the relatively rapid changes in cigarette smoking habits seen during the past 50 years.

“If you had asked me 30 years ago if smoking would be banned in bars I would have laughed and said that would be impossible in my lifetime, and yet it has come true,” Davidson said in a press release.

“I don’t have an expertise to say how likely it is that people will change habits,” he said in a phone interview, emphasizing that he is not advocating vegetarianism, but rather is pointing out that in order to reach certain emissions reduction goals, cutting meat consumption in the developed world has to be considered as a sensible option.

The study notes that if people were to take an intermediate step and switch some meat consumption from red meat to pork, poultry or shellfish, they would help reduce nitrous oxide emissions. 

Check out the rest of the article here. For some low carbon food ideas check out Anna Lappe’s article, ‘Seven Principles of a Climate-Friendly Diet’ and the Center for Food Safety’s ‘Cool Foods Campaign’.

(Photo credit: Climate Central)

Food with a Smile: ‘1 in 5 Teenagers Will Experiment With Farming’

(Source: Face Your Farmer via FarmFolkCityFolk)

Getting Animated: ‘Food Rules’ by writer Michael Pollan

From Vimeo:

Based on Michael Pollan’s talk “Food Rules” given at the RSA, this animation was created in the context of the RSA/Nominet Trust film competition. Using a mixture of stop-motion and compositing, our aim and challenge was to convey the topic in a visually interesting way using a variety of different food products. We made a little table top set up at home and worked on this a little over three weeks. 

(Photo credit: Michael Pollan)

Connections: Graphing Food Prices and Oil Prices, 2000-2010

This graph comes from energy expert Richard Heinberg’s recent article, ‘Soaring Oil and Food Prices Threaten Affordable Food Supply’. The piece explains that:

The current global food system is highly fuel- and transport-dependent. Fuels will almost certainly become less affordable in the near and medium term, making the current, highly fuel-dependent agricultural production system less secure and food less affordable.

To respond to this predicament Heinberg argues:

What is needed is a major redesigning of both food and energy systems. The goal of managers of the global food system should be to reduce its dependence on fossil energy inputs while also reducing GHG emissions from land-use activities. Achieving this goal will require increasing local food self-sufficiency and promoting less fuel- and petrochemical-intensive methods of production.

You can check out the rest of the article here. Also, if you’re looking for more on local, food oriented solutions you may want to check out ‘The Essential Gardening and Food Resilience Library’. 

(Graphic credit: Post Carbon Institute) 

~ New York Times journalist John Broder, in his analysis of the recent international climate change negotiations in Durban, South Africa. 

(Photo credit: Climate Literacy)

From The Epoch Times:

Vancouver is about to get North America’s first VertiCrop rooftop veggie garden as part of the city’s goal to become the world’s greenest city by 2020.

Developed by Vancouver-based Valcent Products Inc., VertiCrop is a high-tech vertical farming system that enables leafy green vegetables to be grown using a fraction of the land, energy, and water conventionally required to grow produce.

Valcent has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with EasyPark, a corporation that manages parkades and properties owned by the City of Vancouver, to install a VertiCrop system on the top level of a parkade on Richards Street in the heart of the city’s downtown.

Named in 2009 as one of TIME Magazine’s 50 Best Inventions, VertiCrop enables leafy greens and flowers to be grown year round in a controlled environment without the use of herbicides or pesticides.

“We’re very excited about the possibility of having North America’s first VertiCrop operation installed in the progressive city of Vancouver,” said Stephen Fane, CEO of Valcent.

“Urban farming systems like VertiCrop provide a secure and profitable growing solution by offering more efficient crop production, reduced food miles, and lower distribution costs than traditional field farming.”

Utilizing a series of suspended trays that rotate on motorized conveyors, the hydroponic system provides optimal exposure to either natural or artificial light with each plant receiving precisely measured nutrients.

The system produces around 20 times the yield of normal field crops while using only 8 percent of the water typically required for field agriculture, according to the company.

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Construction of the project is scheduled to begin in January, with the first crops expected as soon as April. Local food supplier PSWJ Holdings Ltd., which entered into the MOU with Valcent and EasyPark, will market and distribute the produce.

“The ability to grow high-volume produce in local environments where weather and natural disasters aren’t a threat has never been more attractive,” said Fane.

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Photo credit: Vancouver Sun)

From PhysOrg:

When a plant encounters drought, it does its best to cope with this stress by activating a set of protein molecules called receptors. These receptors, once activated, turn on processes that help the plant survive the stress.

A team of plant cell biologists has discovered how to rewire this cellular machinery to heighten the plants’ stress response – a finding that can be used to engineer crops to give them a better shot at surviving and displaying increased yield under drought conditions.

The discovery, made in the laboratory of Sean Cutler, an associate professor of plant cell biology at the University of California, Riverside, brings drought-tolerant crops a step closer to becoming a reality.

When plants encounter drought, they naturally produce abscisic acid, a stress hormone that helps them cope with the drought conditions. Specifically, the hormone turns on receptors in the plants, resulting in a suite of beneficial changes that help the plants survive. These changes typically include guard cells closing on leaves to reduce water loss, cessation of plant growth to reduce water consumption and myriad other stress-relieving responses.

Check out the rest of the article here. Also, if you’re interested in this story you may want to check out Fred Pearce’s latest for Yale e360, ‘Can ‘Climate-Smart’ Agriculture Help Both Africa and the Planet?’

(Photo credit: Treehugger)

From Science Daily:

By 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth’s land surface and will drive the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major ecological community type — such as forest, grassland or tundra — toward another, according to a new NASA and university computer modeling study.

Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., investigated how Earth’s plant life is likely to react over the next three centuries as Earth’s climate changes in response to rising levels of human-produced greenhouse gases. Study results are published in the journal Climatic Change.

The model projections paint a portrait of increasing ecological change and stress in Earth’s biosphere, with many plant and animal species facing increasing competition for survival, as well as significant species turnover, as some species invade areas occupied by other species. Most of Earth’s land that is not covered by ice or desert is projected to undergo at least a 30 percent change in plant cover — changes that will require humans and animals to adapt and often relocate.

In addition to altering plant communities, the study predicts climate change will disrupt the ecological balance between interdependent and often endangered plant and animal species, reduce biodiversity and adversely affect Earth’s water, energy, carbon and other element cycles.

“For more than 25 years, scientists have warned of the dangers of human-induced climate change,” said Jon Bergengren, a scientist who led the study while a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. “Our study introduces a new view of climate change, exploring the ecological implications of a few degrees of global warming. While warnings of melting glaciers, rising sea levels and other environmental changes are illustrative and important, ultimately, it’s the ecological consequences that matter most.”

When faced with climate change, plant species often must “migrate” over multiple generations, as they can only survive, compete and reproduce within the range of climates to which they are evolutionarily and physiologically adapted. While Earth’s plants and animals have evolved to migrate in response to seasonal environmental changes and to even larger transitions, such as the end of the last ice age, they often are not equipped to keep up with the rapidity of modern climate changes that are currently taking place. Human activities, such as agriculture and urbanization, are increasingly destroying Earth’s natural habitats, and frequently block plants and animals from successfully migrating.

Check out the rest of the article here.

From the CBC:

1. The number of megacities has doubled.

2. The world is eating 26 per cent more meat.

3. Global temperatures continue to rise, with the last 10 years the warmest on record.

4. World industry is 23 per cent more energy efficient.

5. Plastic consumption has skyrocketed — with annual production reaching a record 265 million tonnes worldwide in 2010.

6. The 1990 Montreal Protocol to limit ozone-destroying chemicals is the world’s most successful international agreement, producing a 93 per cent drop in the damaging emissions since 1992.

7. Cement production is the fastest-growing source of C02 emissions.

8. The Mesopotamian Marshlands, the largest in the Middle East, are recovering from deliberate draining by Iraq in the 1990s.

9. Saudi Arabia has transformed from an importer of food to an exporter due to irrigation.

10. Environmentally protected areas have increased worldwide by 42 per cent.

11. Fish stock depletion is now one of the most pressing environmental issues.

12. Renewable energy has skyrocketed, with solar energy leading the way — up 30,000 per cent since 1992.

13. Biofuel production — up 300,000 per cent — is converting more land from farming to production of fuel.

14. Organic farming is up 240 per cent since 1999.

15. The Amazon rainforest has been largely destroyed due to drought and farming.

16. Tourism and travel is the world’s largest business sector — and ecotourism is the fastest-growing type of tourism, up 20-34 per cent per year.

17. Passenger trips by airplanes have doubled in the past two decades.

18. Clean drinking water access increased to 87 per cent, but widespread sanitation is still slow.

19. 30 per cent more private companies are adopting environmental standards every year.

20. Women’s influence is rising with more 60 per cent more seats in national parliaments.

Check out the rest of the article here. You can check out more about the 1992 Earth Summit here and the 2012 edition here. Also worth a read is a joint statement written by a number of experts in global sustainability in advance of the conference. 

The Story of Agriculture and the Green Economy

From Farming First via YouTube:

The future of our world depends on addressing global challenges now. We need to create sustainable livelihoods, feed a growing population and safeguard the environment. We need to make the global economy green.