Alternative Farming Techniques for Sustainable Food Production

The Moral Fibre: Hemp-Based Building Industry Supplied by Sustainable Permaculture Communities

“…We have been conditioned to demand private property and personal luxuries at the expense of a cooperative and mutual responsibility to each other, to our species as a whole and to its only true source of life: Nature. If Marx's statement is correct, that "in the type of life activity resides the whole character of a species, its species-character" 3 , then what is to be said of the human race at this particular moment in history? To question the notion of "progress" is to question the core of what we have become as a species.…”

“…Between 1960 and 2007, the number given by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has decreased by over half, from 0.5 to 0.23 hectares of farmland per person. Add to that the U.S. Census Bureau's prediction that Earth's total population will reach 9.5 billion by 2050, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast for the Earth's average temperature rising by 1.8 to 4.0 degrees Celsius by 2100 [3], and the origin of a worldwide crisis begins to emerge.…”

“…Food security for both developing and developed nations will thus be negatively impacted. The long-term effect of climate change and climate instability on crops is expected to result in yield declines, increased weed and pest damage, increased prices for staple food harvests, decreased revenues for agricultural communities and an estimated 20 percent increase in child malnutrition by 2050 [3]. This scenario merely describes the direct impact on human systems, while associated ecosystem decline is feared to compound the problem.…”

“…To put these numbers in perspective, one must consider the fact that almost 40 percent of the continental natural world has already been transformed into agricultural land. By 2100, commercial agriculture will have consumed approximately 60 percent of Earth's land area [3], leaving only 40 percent to divide between natural habitat and human settlement. And for that 60 percent lost to agriculture, there is a further loss of area biodiversity due to ecosystem simplification, resulting in a reduction in "ecosystem services".…”

“…Ecosystem services are, as the term implies, services provided by ecosystems that benefit larger ecologies, including human habitations and, ironically, agricultural practices. These include water cycles, water purification processes, pollination, topsoil preservation, nutrient cycles, nitrogen fixation and atmospheric carbon sequestration [3]. When these essential natural cycles are imperiled, not only are ecosystems put at risk of collapse, but so is human food production.…”