I hope to see a future with sustainable agriculture to counteract food shortages.
It seems to me that not only is modern farming working against ecosystems, but also the systems for farming that has put into place for many many years also work against the ecosystem. So much soil is becoming unusable and nothing much is being done to replenish the soil.
The current systems/policies were made based on past knowledge on the environment and it just isn't a good guideline to follow. Policies need to change based on the new knowledge people have acquired over the many years.
Farming using perennial plants could induce some positive changes in agricultureal sustainability and although we do not know if this could provide food for the entire world, we do know that it would probably lower the amount of undesirable products (carbon emissions).
To allow more farmers to be able to produce perennial crops, it would be ideal to make it easier to take out loans with lower interest rates for perennial farmer since it does take years for those types of plants to grow and produce products. Those farmers would not be able to produce much revenue for at least a few years, and if the interest rates are high, it would be difficult to pay off what they owe. This would ultimately drive farmers away from having farms mostly based on perennial plants. Something that could stir-up change in the right direction could be to raise awareness for a more effective types of farming. Online learning programs such as Khan Academy could provide lessons cater to farmers so that they can learn how to farm more sustainably and also learn more about farming in general from experts since farming is a very physically and mentally taxing profession.
Hi Sharon,
This was a thought-provoking post. I would like to share that even learning from our ancestors is one way we can create a sustainable agriculture. I believe that there is a reason why we are struggling right now with sustainability because we've adapted and evolved too much with our methods. We always think of how we can solve the problem without thinking of reversing what we have done to solve problems.