Why Food and Farming are Central to Sustainable Living

This may be a no-brainer. We cannot live without food and farming, so how can they be less than central to Sustainable Living?

Yet, during the last century especially, humans have created food and chemical/ industrial farming systems that are destroying our land, water and air – the habitat which supports our lives.  And we have a plethora of factory made processed foods that actually cause illnesses and continue to cause many deaths – reducing the sustainability of individual lives too.

Let us count the ways in which Food and Farming are central to sustainable living:

1. Food and agriculture are responsible for 35 to 40% of carbon emissions. Any strategies to reduce carbon emissions will have to include methods of growing food that reduce carbon emissions – viz., organic and natural agriculture.
2. 50% of our rainforests have been destroyed for oil palm and other plantations, soya and corn cultivation and more. The corn and soya are used largely to feed cattle and other livestock; large numbers of cattle increase the methane (20 times more potent than CO2 for global warming) – and according to the FAO, 18% of carbon emissions are caused by meat eating, mostly in the western world.