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There are millions of plants, of which at least 30,000 edible.
We rely on no more than 30 to feed us. Rice, wheat and maize provide 65% of the world’s protein intake. 3 crops. |
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Diversity is what sustains life. Without it plants cannot evolve and adapt to changing conditions. Consider apples, some favour high altitudes, some don’t survive the cold. Some are good for baking or eating fresh, others for making cider.. |
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Current industrial food production requires uniformity. Fewer crops are being grown, with less varieties. The FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation) estimates that 75% of agricultural crop diversity was lost during the 20th century. |
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Today, 1.4 billion people rely on seed saving to continue farming, this has always been a matter of survival. The practice of selection by small scale farmers created a vast diversity of varieties. | |
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However seed resources are shifting from communities into the hands of transnational corporations, who are buying, patenting, and investing heavily into biotechnology. | |
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3 vast agro-chemical corporations, Monsanto, Dupont and Syngenta now control a quarter of the world’s entire seed supply. The seed is used as a tool for control and profit. | |
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Crop development in laboratories has been seperated from biodiversity preservation. | |
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Agriculture is being commercially pressured into industrial agribusiness. Millions of acres of land around the world are planted to a monoculture of genetically uniform hybrids, designed for mass mechanisation and chemical management. | |
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Such uniformity invites crop failure as pests and diseases spread easier, once the buffer of diversity is removed | |
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Breeders tend to work with predictable species rather than traditional or wild varieties. This is due to the pressure to find quick and cheap solutions to problems in the field, and a focus on gaining yield rather than any other factor. | |
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Genetic engineering reduces diversity even further. Specific genes have become more important than the plant itself, a complex, interactive life form. |
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The food production system corporate agribusiness generates, brings pressure and debt to farmers who have to find capital for all the inputs required such as seeds and chemicals. | |
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Many farmers can not financially cope with crop failure. The highest suicide rates are recorded amongst farming communities world-wide. | |
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The World Trade Organisation holds a large amount of power in determining the future of global agriculture. Their agenda is dictated by the needs of transnational corporations. Member states are being forced to accept all imports regardless of production processes and apply patents on genes and plant varieties. | |
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Food security rests in our hands, as transnational corporations have no interest in local agricultural systems based on diversity and community support.
Since industrial agriculture we have lost diversity, fertile soil, and access to land. We need to renew our connection to plants, land and community, organising alternatives, autonomous from power structures. |
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