Food production & Land use
In some regions, between 75 to 90% of water available is used in agriculture. In the industrial meat production a cow will consume approximately 1300kg of grains for 3 years to produce 200kg of meat. To grow the grains lots of water is needed, sometimes up to 15.000 l/kg meat produced. This is not sustainable.
Agriculture cannot be controlled any longer by the 4 big agro-multinationals (Cargill, Tyson Foods, BRF en Alltech). They control in one or another way approximately 42% of the world food market, 82% of the beef chain, 63% of the pork chain, 53% of the chicken food chain. These animals don’t roam free and graze and grow up on a meadow. They are kept in stables and are fed wheat, soya, corn produced in South-America where tropical forests are burned down to create farmland. (credit to IC for input)
Animals are not to be seen as a good for commercial gain and serve only to feed the local population. In a graded approach farmland previously used to create surpluses of foods are to be converted to forests with due compensation to present owners. Exit scenario within 10 years;
Only 10% of average people’s budget is spend on food. This is far to little. The profession of farmer needs to be revalued, respected. Farmers should be the gardeners of large areas of land.
All forms of intensive cattle, chicken, pig, …. production done without respect for the animals concerned is to be phased out by 2025.
Soils should be fertilized without the use of chemical fertilisers.
Soya, mais, palm oil production serving to feed animals should stop by 2025.
Palm oil is no more to be used in the food chain. land used for palm oil plantations are to be converted back to the forests they were before.
Prairies with a sustainable portion of clover increase biodiversity and is good for the animals eating it.
Farmers will be helped to buy themselves out the strangling lock-in from the “agro-industry” at large that reduces the farmer to a slave of food production;
(Small scale) bio farmers have a right to a decent living, need to be more respected and more financially supported. Therefore prices of healthy food need to be in accordance with production costs plus a margin (beans, nuts, cereals without added sugar or sweeteners, fresh fruit and vegetables…).
Current subsidies for industrial agriculture of which mainly large scale operations benefit will be reduced with 10% each year and farmers will be assisted in converting their farms to a bio approach;
The size of growing a “mono culture” of a given product shall be preferably the size of 1 hectare but never larger than 5 hectares (size of standard plot can vary as a function of the size of the farm). The type of crops planted is of course function of the soil, rain, etc. Maximum variety in crops between plots needs to be assured;
10% of all farmers’ farmlands will be converted to “bee” meadows in a format of maximum length that is, along the borders of the fields. Farmers are to be financially supported;
The excess of heavily subsidized produced food in the rich countries which is then transported far afield and sold at dumping prices even below local production costs in developing countries will halt immediately. This practice kills local farming communities in those countries and is a driver for the migration crisis;
Perishable food and especially meat is not to be transported along long distances and definitely not with airplanes. Current practices to be phased out over a period of 5 years;
Other sources for protein than meat need to be developed at a large scale;
Farms will be converted to areas where pigs, cows, chicken, cattle can roam free. “Industrial installations” for the breeding and fattening of animals (chickens on 1 square feet, farms with 1000 cows with each cow in a box to be fed artificial food – no grazing, pigs kept in small boxes ) are to be phased out by 2025;
Food is to be produced preferably in a range of 250 km (extended range for sparsely populated areas) of which it will be consumed;
The pumping of groundwater to water crops produced because they are subsidized will stop by 2022. Only crops that can sustain the local climate conditions should be grown;
The policy of subsidizing the agricultural sector is to be completely revised and down scaled to a strict minimum. Food is locally produced to feed people not to make economic gains by exporting it worldwide. Food is too cheap leading to over production which leads in turn to the creation of food turning into waste. (30% of food is lost as waste);
The destruction of forests of any kind or nature in order to generate farmlands, soya, palmoil or other plantations is to be phased out by 2025.
Healthy food should be subsidized so that bio-farmers & retail chain can make a living & people are persuaded to change habits.
Junk food should be much more expensive as healthy food;
All pesticides and herbicides are to be phased out by 2025. Especially those that effect bees populations. The reason these products are used is because we don’t want to “share” crops with nature (it is normal to have a 30% “loss”) and want to produce in “monoculture” format.