Orphan Crops and Food Sustainability

Do you know what an “orphan” crop is?  With regard to food sustainability, the role of orphan crops is profound.  Orphan crops, such as cassava, chickpeas, lentils and yams, are food crops  which are not widely traded in international markets, which may not receive large amounts of public or private investment, and tend not to be studied as widely as crops such as wheat and rice.  Yet their adaptive superiority to the conditions of a geographical area, such as soil composition or low annual rainfall, makes them critically important in the agriculture of developing economies.   

Agriculture must take center stage for both discussions of food sustainability and climate change. In developing countries, agriculture accounts for 29% of GDP and provides 65% of available jobs.  Agriculture is not merely affected by climate change, but also contributes to it.   Fully one-third  of plant crops are grown as animal feed.  High-inputs of fertilizer, irrigation water, human labor and cultivation via machinery increases the carbon emissions required to grow crops.  

Re-emerging practices  such as conservation agriculture address issues of sustainable agriculture use approaches that seek to preserve the state of soil, such as zero-tillage, and recognize that orphan crops play important geographic roles in sustainable food supplies because food is cultivated globally across a wide range of ecosystems.  Conservation agriculture differs from biotechnology and GMO-dependent approaches by encompassing a set of principles and practices rather than certain technologies, and has been shown to decrease water needs by 30% and energy use by 70% while helping to sequester carbon.

What to do then, besides reading a blog full of illustrative facts?  synthesizing our own desire for food sustainability with ways to employ moderation and helpful practices in our own consumption is an ongoing challenge.  Many people have read books such as The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan,  and consistently try to reduce their agricultural footprint  by reducing consumption of large animal protein, or buying foodstuffs produced locally in their own climate.  Yet most of us struggle with our role in the circular model of supply and demand –  do we receive genetically modified foods in our local supply chain or supermarket because we “need” them, or because we demand them through a combination of eating habits and shopping with lower food prices in mind?  Are crops produced through large agricultural operations really the most nutrient-dense and best available to feed the planet, or do they merely increase profits for those at the top of a food chain that is increasingly complex to navigate, especially for the world’s poorest farmers?  Have we counted on science, for too long, to continually keep up with climate change’s strain on world agriculture by producing ever better-adapted seeds which can theoretically grow in the most awful conditions no matter what?

The answer will not be in one crop, approach, article or blog, but rather in the networked expertise of everyone seeking to understand and address this issue just a little bit better than they did yesterday.

Source Articles:

Farming’s Climate-Smart Future:  http://ccafs.cgiar.org/sites/default/files/assets/docs/farmings_climate-smart_future.pdf

Ten Hearty Orphan Crops:  http://www.miller-mccune.com/environment/ten-hearty-orphan-crops-19183/

The Ominvore’s Dilemma- New York Times Book Review:  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23kamp.html?pagewanted=all

The Paradigm of Conservation Agriculture:  http://www.unapcaem.org/publication/ConservationAgri/ParaOfCA.pdf

Food Economics and Policy

The topic of food economics and policy is a broad one with far-reaching implications,  but especially important to consider during the growing season.  A long list of helpful books and other resources is growing longer and beginning to develop a thoughtful following among those who believe that sustainable agricultural practices will require changing the way the world grows and consumes food.

The inspiration for this particular blog entry is Democracy Now’s interview with Paul Farmer,  in which he expresses relief over former President Clinton’s policy of convincing Haiti to eliminate its rice tariffs and the resulting devastation to Haiti’s capacity to produce its own food.   The interview is approximately 5 minutes and can be watched on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx1PsYBo-kE

Hopefully this will spark discussion about other crop subsidy programs and their impact on world food supplies, for example, the implication of flooding Mexico with non-indigenous corn species,  or using corn or other food crops for ethanol rather than using woody cellulose or aggressively exploring wind and solar energy power as an alternative to using food for vehicle fuels.   Currently a great deal of ethanol is produced from Brazilian sugar cane….does any of it come at the expense of preserving rainforests?

Two books which have become more or less mainstream in addressing the sustainability of food cultivation systems are Michael Pollan’s  The Omnivore’s Dilemma  and In Defense Of Food:  An Eater’s Manifesto.    But additional titles are becoming available every day.   An amazon search for one book will usually provide a number of other suggestions, and today I stumbled across Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit,  and Stuffed And Starved:  The Hidden Battle For The World Food System.

While some may never read these books, feeling that they raise at least as many questions as they answer, there are some common threads which run throughout every study of sustainable food systems  Firstly,  is becoming more and more apparent that a diet of primarily plants, with animal products added in as a smaller proportion of consumption, will need to become the norm.  Secondly,  encouraging developing economies to either sabotage or altogether skip the process of developing their own sustainable agricultural base, is a disaster waiting to happen. 

My most recent trip to the Colorado Farm and Art Market in Colorado Springs reminded me of the importance, on every level,  of creating diverse and secure food systems.  For only $7 altogether, I was able to purchase giant bunches of locally produced spinach and basil,  and a huge head each of lettuce and broccoli, from Venetucci Farms of Colorado Springs and Country Farms of Pueblo.   While solving ALL of the world’s food supply challenges may seem out of reach for most of us,  the point I wish to make is that by informing ourselves and taking such seemingly small, concrete actions at the local level, and then duplicating that wisdom in other environments where the world’s people are challenged with setbacks to growing their own food locally, we can bring about the changes that world leaders won’t have to apologize for later.

 

 

Sustainable Agriculture

Tonight’s garden salad with thyme, basil, and mint reminded me of my first agricultural job – indeed my first job ever, picking raspberries as an 11 year-old in Washington State.  Work began promptly at 7am, and it was a bicycle ride of more than a mile, up and down hills of course, to get there.

The raspberry varieties were of the choicest kind destined for restaurants,  such as the giant “Royal Reds.”  We picked from 7-3:30 with a lunch break, for a kind woman who later unexpectedly showed up at my home with a Christmas bonus,  5 months after the harvest.

Raspberries are thorny,  and our hands bore tiny myriad scratches until they hardened from the daily work.    Somehow, the raspberries were so much more exotic than our own hazelnuts, easier to reach than our orchard apples,  and definitely smelled better than our chicken coop.   With the money,  I could see Star Wars (again) or save up for my own AM/FM radio headphones.

Today the argument swirls around whether sustainably-cultivated food is indeed a viable business model.  As one acquaintance who works in Public Relations recounted,  countless farmers told her, “You, can’t make money that way,  you have to grow tobacco.”  Happily,  this is being proven false. 

Organic farms and seed suppliers, farmers’ markets across the country, and food co-operatives are proving that large-scale monoculture is neither the only, nor the best way, to feed a large population.    We are fortunate to begin to re-experience some of the foods that we distantly remember from childhood.

Sources:  http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/sustainable-farming/

http://www.beginningfarmers.org/sustainable-agriculture-policy-news-may-16-20-2011/

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/06/21/promoting-sustainable-agriculture

Organic "Sweet 100" Cherry Tomatoes