Letter
Renewable food
The planet is “now dominated by two species, cows and humans”. That is Julian Cribb’s stark illustration of the consequences of planet-wide over-consumption. The Potsdam Institute’s latest report describes how this gross explosion in animal life “has come at the price of massive degradation of plant life”.
What is to be done? In his article “Why the world needs renewable food (14/7), Cribbs set out the three pillars of a renewable world food supply: regenerative farming, urban food (sustainably using water and other resources with in urban environments) and deep ocean aquaculture.
Some Australian farmers have adopted regenerative practices, increasing biodiversity, and conserving water – building resilience in the face of increasing temperatures and drought. These efforts seem a drop in the ocean, given the damage humans have already caused to large expanses of the planet: “the local (safe) boundary is currently transgressed on 60% of the global land area, with 38% already at high risk of degradation”…”Those areas can no longer support the life they once did – and life includes human life.”
We could avert the “sixth mass extinction”, if only we were more intelligent and genuinely realised we cannot eat money.
— Fiona Colin from Melbourne