We are in the midst of a climate crisis that affects us all, but it is hitting rural populations especially hard. Unpredictable rain, floods, drought, heat waves, extreme cold, wind storms, hail, water shortages, the list goes on. This is what we call ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’. And its effects are increasing, making it more difficult to live and farm in rural areas. If this trend continues, the climate will change to such an extent that life will become exceedingly difficult.

 

This climate change comes from the air being contaminated with a number of gases called ‘greenhouse gases’ that are produced when we use oil or gasoline, when forests burn, when arable land is destroyed, when waste accumulates, and when animals are raised in large factory farms, etc. Countries across the globe have pledged to reduce pollution, but have done little or nothing to achieve this goal. In December 2009, their commitments were supposed to be renewed at the U.N. Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen, but no commitments were made. Because of this, President Evo Morales called for the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (http://pwccc.wordpress.com/). Thousands of attendees, mainly from grass roots organizations, discussed the real causes of climate change and proposed real solutions. In December 2010, governments will meet again in Cancun, Mexico. Various social movements, including the CLOC [Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (coordinator of Latin-American rural organizations)] and Vía Campesina (a group of organizations that advocate sustainable agriculture), are preparing for demonstrations to demand that governments attack the root causes of climate problems and implement real solutions.

 

What are the real causes of the climate crisis? The People's Conference concluded that the cause is capitalism, due to the types of production and consumption that it promotes, and its emphasis on profit over the well-being of people and the environment. Vía Campesina has been saying the same thing since 2007: the factory farming and agricultural exportation models used across the globe are a serious source of pollution that causes climate change. They also clearly stated that small-scale local farmers around the world are cooling the planet.

 

A study was conducted by GRAIN in 2009 to determine how much pollution is produced by factory farming and to what degree small-scale local farmers everywhere can lower global temperatures. The results of the study clearly confirm Vía Campesina's statements.

 

The use of farm machinery, fertilizers and pesticides, along with soil depletion are the cause of more than one tenth of the global total of greenhouse gas emissions. One of the main causes of soil depletion is that organic material is not reintegrated into the soil.

 

Large-scale, concentrated livestock production is another major source of pollution, and many writers have said that this type of production accounts for one fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions. This is because these large enclosed animal compounds produce thousands of tons of manure and urine, too great a quantity to be returned to the soil. Accumulating them in great quantities also produces tons of methane, one of the biggest polluters.

 

Another source of methane is cows that overeat or are undernourished. In factory farms, cows eat until they are full. Since the average land available to rural families is decreasing, their cows eat less and less. The simultaneous processes of concentration of livestock production and the loss of land on the part of farmers, shepherds and indigenous peoples therefore contribute to global warming.

 

Deforestation is another major source of pollution. The destruction of the forests and of the soil they protected also contributes to one fifth of the gases that pollute and in turn cause climate change. The main cause of deforestation is currently the expansion of large plantations dedicated to the production of cellulose, sugar cane and palm oil for biofuel production and the expansion of soy monoculture to supply feed to livestock raised on factory farms.

 

Contamination continues to increase along with the processing, marketing, and importation and exportation of food. Around a third of all land transportation is used to carry food from one end of the globe to another. Industrial processing, packaging, refrigerated transport, supermarkets and homes together produce more than a sixth of all the emissions that affect climate change. And none of these things increase the quality of our food. On the contrary – industrial processing gives us food full of preservatives, flavorings and colorings that have a serious impact on our health, and especially that of our children. Due to this system, we eat fruit and meat that can be more than a year old.

 

Lastly, large garbage dumps that get larger as we buy more packaged food produce about 5% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

 

If we add up all of these sources of pollution, we see that at least half of the greenhouse gas emissions come from industrial agriculture and food production.

 

How can local farming cool the planet? If local farming were to become the predominant agricultural model across the globe once more, the first thing that would bring down temperatures is putting organic material back into the soil. That alone would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least a third. It would also improve soil quality and eliminate the need for fertilizers, since the organic material lost today is more nutrient-rich than any fertilizers in current use.

 

A second way to cool the planet would be to use a combination of local agricultural techniques for farming that is free of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

 

A third way of reducing pollution is to distribute livestock production. Were we to return to integrated production techniques and small-scale agriculture and livestock farming, the manure produced by animals would not be excessive, but sufficient to fertilize the soil. It would also eliminate the need to transport food for the animals from one end of the earth to the other.

 

Supporting local and smaller markets would be another significant way to cool the planet. We would then eat fresher food, need less refrigeration and not waste absurd amounts of fossil fuels to bring the food from the other side of the globe. Another important change is that local markets would provide for us without so much packaging, plastic and unnecessary processing. Finally, eliminating plantations, protecting and replenishing forests would be another extremely important contribution to the cooling of the planet.

 

If we add all of this together, we see that with local and indigenous farming we could reduce greenhouse gases by 75%. This would make way for requiring other sectors to eliminate the pollution that they produce, and in so doing the atmosphere will become cleaner. The planet really can be cooled.

 

But for local and indigenous agriculture to be able to make its great contribution, a different system is needed. More than anything, the land needs to be in the hands of the rural and indigenous peoples. For that, land reform and restoring lands to indigenous peoples is now more urgent than ever as it is fundamental insurance for the future of mankind and Mother Earth.

 

We need research as well as technical and credit support, free of conditions that oblige local farmers to use pesticides or be tied to large-scale food distributors or exporters. We need to end free trade agreements so that agriculture can fulfill its basic role of providing us with healthy food. We need to bring an end to policies that hurt small farmers and that prevent young people from making a living from farming. In other words, we need food sovereignty and small farmers and indigenous communities that can live a dignified life and work to feed mankind.

 

- GRAIN is a non-governmental organization that promotes sustainable use and management of agricultural biodiversity, based in Barcelona, Spain.

 

(Article published in América Latina en Movimiento (ALAI), No. 459, "Nuevas tendencias en el agro". http://alainet.org/publica/459.phtml, October 2010.

Translated from the Spanish by James Devoge III)