The front page of Le Monde on Wednesday showed a picture of President Obama shaking hands with Bill Gates during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change. As the owner of 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock and as one who has teamed up with Cargill, one of the largest agribusiness companies on the planet, he shouldn’t even be there. It has been shown that the genetic engineering Monsanto purports and the large scale industrial beef processing conducted by Cargill are major causes of global warming. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of all man made greenhouse gases as well as 37% of methane emissions and 65% of nitrous oxide emissions. The monocrop structure of agriculture espoused by Monsanto also leads to climate change by deforestation, draining of wetlands and the nitrous oxide emissions released by the vast amount of pesticides required to grow GMOs. Given the control these multinational corporations have over our governments, it seems doubtful that the Conference will consider the damage done to our climate by these agricultural methods.
It is a fact that greenhouse gases are warming the Earth. And as found by the FAO, animal agriculture generates greenhouse gas emissions. CO2 is considered to be the most powerful of the greenhouse gases and one having the most significant warming impact on global temperatures. CO2 is released by the burning of fossil fuels, but is also produced by animal agriculture. The feed given to animals kept in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) is primarily genetically altered corn which depends on large amounts of pesticides. “The FAO estimates that the production of fertilizer for feed crops may emit 41 million tonnes of CO2 per year globally.” CAFOs also require large amounts of fossil fuel based energy to operate; the FAO estimates that this generates “at least 90 million tonnes of CO2 annually worldwide.” The factory farms producing the corn to feed the animals are major contributors to global deforestation, and removing forests that capture CO2 is also responsible for an increase in global temperatures. The “negative effect on the climate of methane is 23 times higher than the effect of CO2,” and CAFOs are producing three times as much manure as humans, much more than can be recycled as fertilizer. Nitrous Oxide (N2O) is a key component of synthetic fertilizers and according to the EPA “agricultural soil management is the largest source of N2O emissions in the United States, accounting for about 74% of total N2O emissions. Nitrous Oxide is also emitted during the breakdown of nitrogen in livestock manure.”
It is obvious that coal plants, fracking and other industrial, fossil fuel based operations are a major cause of global warming and these issues will most certainly be discussed at the Conference. But given the impact that industrial farming practices have on global warming there should be discussions about how to encourage small scale operations for food production. And again, for those who still insist that sustainable farming operations cannot feed the world, one must remember that feeding vast numbers of animals uses more food and energy. It’s a well established fact that for every 100 calories of feed given to animals just 30 calories are produced for human consumption.
Michael Pollan, a well known food writer, recently issued a documentary to coincide with the Paris climate talks. The focus of “Time to Choose” is on how industrial agriculture effects global warming. As he notes, “while energy is indeed the top source of greenhouse gas emissions, the food system is #2.” He explains that “approximately one-third of the carbon now in the atmosphere had formerly been sequestered in soils in the form of organic matter but since we began plowing and deforesting we’ve been releasing huge quantities of this carbon into the atmosphere. The food system as a whole…contributes…between 20 – 30 percent of the greenhouse gases produced by civilization – more than any other sector except energy.” In other words, if we want to get serious about controlling the negative effects of industrialization as it relates to climate change then we must change how we manage agriculture. And as individuals we can pay closer attention to what we eat and where it comes from.
Recipe of the Week
There are hundreds of variations for potato soup, and this one was easy, relatively cheap and quite good.
Potato, Sausage Soup
3 russet potatoes, unpeeled, washed and chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
1/2 lb sausage of your choice (I used ground sage infused breakfast pork sausage)
2 quarts homemade chicken stock
2 cups grated sharp cheddar
3 Tbls. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Pour the oil into a large soup pot. Turn the heat to medium high. Saute the celery, carrots and onion until the onion is translucent. Add the potatoes and stock and cook at a simmer until the raw potato taste is gone, about 45 minutes to an hour. While the soup cooks, saute the sausage in a frying pan until done. Remove any excess fat. When the soup is done, puree it and add the sausage and cheddar. Taste for salt and pepper.