diverse animal kingdom is also an insurance against pests. Pests have natural adversaries, i.e. insects that predate or parasitize them. However, the decline in species affects both the beneficial insects and the pests; 35% of global food plants depend upon insects for pollination.55 More than 100,000 species have a role in increasing harvests. It is currently unclear whether they will be able to perform that function in future. Their populations are being weakened by habitat loss and reductions in crop diversity, as well as by pesticides-neonics in particular—both as topical sprays and as seed coating, mostly on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Pesticides in the environment
Recent studies have shown that 11–24% of pollen and 17–65% of nectar from fields sprayed with the insecticide neonicotinoid are contaminated with the poison.56 This group of insecticides represents a huge threat to the survival of pollinators.
A British study has produced similar findings. It compared data on the distribution of 62 species of wild bees with data on oilseed rape fields sprayed with neonicotinoids. Oilseed rape was chosen because it is attractive to bees. It was found that the pesticide caused significant damage to wild bee populations.57
Drift, run-off and leaching cause pesticides to migrate to other habitats and damage their biotic communities. An analysis of 838 studies from 73 countries showed that more than 50% of insecticide concentrations found in surface water exceeded the damage threshold for aquatic organisms.58
Between 2005 and 2012, the Swiss canton-based laboratories responsible for water pollution investigated more than 500 watercourses for traces of 203 active agents used as insecticides in agriculture. In 80% of cases, they found active agents and in 50% of cases there was at least one instance when levels exceeded 0.1 μg/l,the legal limit for water pollutants in Switzerland.59 It should also be remembered that the cumulative effect of pollutants below this level is not necessarily harmless.
Pesticides also pose a risk to agricultural workers. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that between two and five million people are poisoned each year; 40,000 of these cases are fatal.60 The causes are often the use of highly poisonous substances long since banned in most industrial countries as well as the lack of the necessary protective clothing for farmers in developing countries.
Pesticides also affect consumers. Various studies have linked pesticide residues in food and the environment to chronic disease. In particular, pesticides are suspected of playing a role in the development of cancer, Alzheimer’s, birth defects, Parkinson’s and some development disorders.61
The Environmental Institute in Munich recently examined 14 types of beer available in Germany for the presence of glyphosates. Residues were found in every single case at levels of between 0.46 and 29.7 μg/litre;62 the limit for drinking water is 0.1 μg/litre.63 Glyphosate is suspected of being carcinogenic and those demanding a Europe-wide ban are becoming increasingly vocal. In October 2016, the Monsanto Tribunal in The Hague looked at the decade-long use of agrochemicals produced by the company and known to be harmful.64 It clearly demonstrated that their use has caused immense damage to human health and ecosystems. In addition, the manufacturing processes for agrochemicals (e.g. pesticides and fertilisers) and the monocultures required by their use are playing a significant role in climate change. The business models adopted by Monsanto and other corporations currently dictate global agricultural practices. The best way to promote and introduce agro-ecological methods on a global scale would be to deprive these corporations of the basis of those models. If food were produced in accordance with sustainable principles, we would eventually have no need to use contaminants. We know that they are highly suspect, but they are still produced in large quantities. This would not only avoid damage to the environment but would also benefit the world in other ways, e.g. in terms of health and climate change.
Greenhouse gases from agriculture
Intensive farming is also a driving force behind climate change. It is directly responsible for 13% of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalents, i.e. methane from the stomachs and intestines of ruminants, nitrous oxide from too many fertilisers and CO2 from fossil fuels used for energy. A further 18% is produced when forests are cleared to create new farmland.65 In the last 20 years, greenhouse gases from agriculture have increased annually by 1%, and by far the biggest contributor has been intensive livestock farming.66
In addition, the production of mineral fertilisers and agrochemicals as well as the use of agricultural machinery demand vast amounts of energy; this makes farming heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Producing a single food calorie can require up to 10 calories of external energy.67
In the final analysis, the ecological problems created by agriculture are the result of a reductionist approach to food production, where the sole aim is to produce as much as possible for as little as possible. However, food is only cheap for the consumer because the system outsources ecological costs, e.g. water pollution from pesticides, soil degradation, loss of biodiversity and the effect on climate change. It is we and our descendants who will end up paying those costs in some form or other.
In the meantime, the maximum yield policy is coming up against biological limits. In recent years, the increase in the yield per hectare from intensive farming has flattened out and between 1950 and 2001, the global rise in yields per year declined from 3% to 1%.68 In 24–39% of the areas that grow maize, rice, wheat and soya, yields per hectare have recently stagnated or even dropped.69 Plants cannot indefinitely increase their ability to absorb nutrients and convert them into vegetable material. We should also attach greater importance to quality and nutritional value and less on a process that simply increases the number of “empty” calories so familiar to us since the Green Revolution. It is also part of a new paradigm which was clearly advocated in the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development Report (IAASTD), published in 2008.
This report, compiled by 400 scientists from around the world over a period of four years, came to the clear conclusion that we could only nourish the world sustainably if we refocused our efforts and worked with nature rather than against it. The report, which was initiated by the World Bank and the United Nations, was signed by 58 nations. Unfortunately, however, its proposals have not been implemented.
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