Patrick Doherty the US director of the Smart Strategy Initiative at the New America Foundation claims the US cannot become sustainable, nor can it induce global sustainability, without addressing the way it farms i.e. stop subsidies and switch to organic farming practices. In an article published on Aljazeera, Doherty states “Ill-conceived subsidies are at the heart of the obesity problem in the US and are undermining the family farm, depleting rural and maritime ecosystems, increasing our carbon emissions and suppressing agricultural exports from developing nations. The superiority of regenerative farming is now firmly established: organic agriculture outperforms and out-earns conventional industrial farming… Equally important, organic production produced slightly better yields than standard industrial techniques. Organic farming is also regenerative, rebuilding soils and retaining 15-20 per cent more water, in turn improving drought resistance… A shift from a policy of federally subsidised farmland depletion to regenerative agriculture would allow the farming families of the US to lead a prosperous life, caring for the land. Farmers would once again be stewards of the soil, rebuilding fertility, sequestering carbon, and protecting our waterways, all while feeding people wholesome food.”

 

Inspired by Patrick Doherty http://ow.ly/9eRid image source The Solutions Journal http://ow.ly/9eRcE