Fred Kirschenmann

Fred Kirschenmann

Fred Kirschenmann, a long-time leader in the sustainable agriculture movement, Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and a third-generation farmer (an organic farmer himself), offers some thoughtful reflections upon the future of agriculture.
Kirschenmann points out that much of what made modern industrial agriculture possible, depended upon relatively mild and stable climate conditions, and cheap oil. Both of these prerequisites no longer exist. Most experts expect that oil will contain to rise over the next 10-20 years, some even predicting $300 a barrel within just a decade. This alone, without the important environmental impacts of conventional agriculture, argues for profound changes to occur. The direction of change, whether we move toward sustainable agriculture practices, is at this time, an open question.

Fred Kirschenmann steadfastly warns us, conventional agriculture, and its heavy dependence upon fossil fuels, and irrigated water, simply will not continue to offer a viable means for feeding the world. We have been drawing upon nature’s reserves of stored energy (hydrocarbons) and water resources at unsustainable rates, and those finite resources are diminishing rapidly; technology alone, will not provide substitute solutions. The argument that conventional agriculture (modern industrial farming) is necessary in order to meet the needs of a growing global population, simply ignores the realities of the elephants in the room. Sustainability, with an emphasis upon the concept of resiliency, and a renewed respect for maintaining the fertility (quality) of the soil, is to Kirschenmann now, the foundation of a new food system toward creating a food revolution.

From the fantastic  Cooking up a Story website

The Future of Agriculture – Part Two

The Future of Agriculture – Part One

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