In this recent article published in Pearls and Irritations, Julian Cribb sets out some uncomfortable facts about soils, water and more:
- A silent disaster is unfolding in the world’s food-producing soils: erosion, loss of organic carbon, nutrient depletion, salinisation, acidification, chemical pollution, loss of soil biodiversity, soil sealing and urban sprawl. To these have lately been added two more: the damage caused by wars and the destruction of large areas of productive soils by mining and energy extraction.
- Farming currently uses 72 per cent of the world’s available freshwater – but colossal competing demand from burgeoning megacities, IT and AI, the energy and mining sectors, along with the collapse of river systems, groundwater and glaciers means that there will be less and less water available to grow our food and supply our cities. At the same time climate change is creating fiercer droughts and floods that devastate farm crops and land.
His solution is what he calls renewable food: regenerative farming, urban food production and deep ocean aquaculture.