Review: How to stop industrial farming from ruining Earth

Aug 2, 2022, 10:15 AM | Updated: 10:34 am

“Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet,” by George Monbiot (Penguin Random House)

Cruising past farmlands in America — and elsewhere in the world — it’s hard to imagine that so much green could be so damaging to the Earth. But author George Monbiot makes a compelling case that it often is.

Consider these statistics cited in the book:

— Raising a pound of beef releases 113 times more greenhouse gases than raising a pound of peas.

— One million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction.

Monbiot’s book starts as a hymn to the soil. He finds a handful of healthy earth so fascinating in the variety of life it harbors that the reader starts thinking the book is a love story – a scientist/farmer and his beloved earth. “The soil might be the most complex of all living systems,” Monbiot writes. “Yet we treat it like dirt.”

In Chapter 2, however, the book turns into a powerful case against industrial farming with cows, pigs and chickens as chief villains but indictments also handed down to practitioners of commercial agriculture, with their fertilized fields swiftly degrading the soil.

— A UN report says that by 2050, world meat consumption is trending to become 120% greater than it was in 2000.

— The biggest water user in the world? Agriculture.

— In Central America, tropical Africa and South East Asia, 70% of arable land is suffering from severe erosion.

— The leading cause of river pollution in the United Kingdom is farming, particularly of livestock.

Our crop-growing systems are becoming less resilient, the author says, and are increasingly vulnerable to external shocks. He quotes a United Nations report that says the world’s crops have lost 75% of their genetic diversity since 1900.

So what do about this, given how accustomed we all have become to eating regularly?

That’s where the controversy begins.

One easy solution: Become a vegetarian. Doing so will cut your personal greenhouse responsibility by 60%. Good luck trying to persuade Americans who can’t agree on anything to eat more veggies.

Monbiot also advocates planting more diverse assortments of crops because that will support more diverse insect and soil life.

Some experts say farmers are making more progress in adopting climate-friendly practices than they get credit for.

A.G. Kawamura is a former California Secretary of Food and Agriculture; he’s also is founder of Solutions from the Land, which strives to find innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to global problems such as climate change and enriching the soil.

Farmers are making “enormous changes” in how they grow food, Kawamura said, particularly in generating more microbial activity in the soil, the action that Monbiot rhapsodizes about in Chapter 1.

“The future of the world depends on how we treat our soil.”

And on this solution, both Kawamura and Monbiot agree: Much more knowledge is needed about the soil if we are to feed the expected 8 billion people on the planet by the end of this year.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP

(Facebook Photo/City of San Luis, Arizona)...
Associated Press

San Luis authorities receive complaints about 911 calls going across border

Authorities in San Luis say they are receiving more complaints about 911 calls mistakenly going across the border.
2 days ago
(Pexels Photo)...
Associated Press

Daylight saving time begins in most of US this weekend

No time change is observed in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
10 days ago
Mexican army soldiers prepare a search mission for four U.S. citizens kidnapped by gunmen in Matamo...
Associated Press

How the 4 abducted Americans in Mexico were located

The anonymous tip that led Mexican authorities to a remote shack where four abducted Americans were held described armed men and blindfolds.
10 days ago
Tom Brundy points to a newly built irrigation canal on one of the fields at his farm Tuesday, Feb. ...
Associated Press

Southwest farmers reluctant to idle farmland to save water

There is a growing sense that fallowing will have to be part of the solution to the increasingly desperate drought in the West.
17 days ago
A young bison calf stands in a pond with its herd at Bull Hollow, Okla., on Sept. 27, 2022. The cal...
Associated Press

US aims to restore bison herds to Native American lands after near extinction

U.S. officials will work to restore more large bison herds to Native American lands under a Friday order from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
17 days ago
Children play in a dried riverbed in Flassans-sur-Issole, southern France, Wednesday, March 1, 2023...
Associated Press

Italy, France confront 2nd year of western Europe drought

ROME (AP) — Bracing for Italy’s second consecutive year of drought for the first time in decades, Premier Giorgia Meloni huddled with ministers Wednesday to start mapping out an action plan Wednesday, joining France and other nations in western Europe grappling with scant winter rain and snow. Meloni and her ministers decided to appoint an […]
19 days ago

Sponsored Articles

(Photo by Michael Matthey/picture alliance via Getty Images)...
Cox Communications

Valley Boys & Girls Club uses esports to help kids make healthy choices

KTAR’s Community Spotlight focuses on the Boys & Girls Club of the Valley and the work to incorporate esports into children's lives.
...
Day & Night Air Conditioning, Heating and Plumbing

Company looking for oldest air conditioner and wants to reward homeowner with new one

Does your air conditioner make weird noises or a burning smell when it starts? If so, you may be due for an AC unit replacement.
(Desert Institute for Spine Care photo)...
DESERT INSTITUTE FOR SPINE CARE

Why DISC is world renowned for back and neck pain treatments

Fifty percent of Americans and 90% of people at least 50 years old have some level of degenerative disc disease.
Review: How to stop industrial farming from ruining Earth