Feeding Ourselves While Protecting The Planet: Miranda Mertes, Agroecology Researcher & Advocate

The current ways we grow food for 8 billion humans are damaging the planet - and it’s harder to grow food on a damaged planet.  Industrial farming methods produce plentiful food, but also contribute to climate change, deforestation, pollution, soil degradation and water depletion.  Ironically, the systems that have brought affordable food to so many people around the world could lead to high food costs and starvation, as farmers try to grow food amid the unraveling of planetary systems.

Some facts:

• Humans have replaced half of all Nature with agriculture.  80% of that agricultural land is used to grow meat.
• The expansion of land for agriculture is the leading driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss.
• Food systems account for one-third of greenhouse gas emissions and at least 15% of fossil fuel use.
  Our food systems leave 900 million people with food insecurity and over 3 billion people unable to afford a healthy diet.

We need some big solutions.  And luckily, there are ways to grow food in harmony with nature and climate.  Many smart people are figuring this out.  One of them is today’s guest.

Miranda Mertes is a final semester master’s student studying Agroecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.  She earned her bachelor’s degrees in Animal Science and Sustainable Food and Farming from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and focuses her current work on sustainable livestock systems.  She is passionate about regenerative agriculture and food systems justice, among other agroecological topics.

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The Human Survival Podcast is hosted by Shelby Mertes.

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RESOURCES:

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
https://www.slu.se/en/

Agroecology Fund - What Is Agroecology?
https://agroecologyfund.org/what-is-agroecology/ 

Global Alliance For The Future Of Food - May 2024
Cultivating Change: A Collaborative Philanthropic Initiative to Accelerate and Scale Agroecology and Regenerative Approaches.
This report outlines public policy and funding necessary to transition globally to regenerative and agroecological food and farming systems.
https://story.futureoffood.org/cultivating-change/index.html

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Agroecology Knowledge Hub
https://www.fao.org/agroecology/home/en/

Agroecology Coalition
https://agroecology-coalition.org/

United Nations
Food waste awareness
https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-food-waste-day

Our World In Data
If the world adopted a plant-based diet, we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares.
https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets 

 

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Intro

1:15 Welcome Miranda.

4:30 How Miranda got into sustainable agriculture.

6:30 The large scale of agriculture-related environmental concerns.

8:00 Regenerative agriculture.  Soil health.  

9:20 Climate emissions - fertilizer, machinery, methane

10:15 Runoff, nutrient leaching, dead zones in waterways

11:20 Erosion, loss of topsoil, soil degradation

14:05 Let’s talk about solutions!!

15:50 What is agroecology?

19:55 Farmers’ interaction with industry, economy, governments, etc.

20:55 Attitudes about “conventional” farmers.  Farmers’ struggles.

24:00 Corporatization of agriculture

27:15 Science-driven policymaking vs lobbyist-driven policymaking

31:20 How is agricultural policy handled globally?

33:45 Agriculture practice and policy in developing countries

39:50 Support for farmers

44:10 Agroforestry

46:30 More farming without killing forests

48:50 Challenges of transitioning to new farming methods

51:30 Most people disconnected from where their food comes from

54:15 Individual responsibility vs public policy solutions