New Earth Rising’s editorial tone will strongly favor truthful ecological writings regarding global eco-crises, identifying necessary and sufficient solutions, and organizing action for their implementation. Submissions should be personal essays of 2-4 pages in length, and need not be scholarly and footnoted, but must be well-researched, informed and passionate.

The publication will be grounded in the ethics of biocentrism, deep ecology and political ecology. It will emphasize the need for ecological science and rationalism in formulating environmental public policy; examination of the seriousness of ecological and related social issues; propose necessary, sufficient and workable solutions involving global citizens, society and governments; and be skeptical regarding secular and religious ideologies.

This is a good opportunity for the organic community to highlight the role organic agriculture can play in addressing climate change. To find out more, please check out ClimateArk.org.

Rob Haward, operations director of Riverford Organic Vegetables, said “I am delighted to have been appointed. I hope my input will be of value to the Soil Association in enabling them to continue to lead the way on standards development. This process is essential in order to protect consumers, while balancing the technical constraints of growers.”

The Soil Association Standards Board is responsible for maintaining and developing all of the Association’s organic standards. Current issues under consideration include:

• airfreight and the possibility of linking this with ethical trade (to ensure airfreight really does benefit African, and other, farmers);
• the Soil Association’s response to the confusion likely to be caused by the new mandatory EU logo;
• the development of specific standards for glasshouse production;
• the creation of common international standards for health and beauty products.

Anna Bradley, chair of the Soil Association Standards Board, said “I welcome Rob to the standards board. With the new standards board complete, I hope all our stakeholders will be confident that their interests will be understood at the standards board table. We can now develop the Soil Association standards with the vigour, transparency and accountability expected of such an organisation and its public interest responsibilities.”

They want to find two families to be an organic test case. They will track their shopping for four weeks, keeping note of their expenditure, and will then subsidise their shopping at Destination Organic by $150 a week for four weeks, to make a comparison between the costs and benefits of both organic and non-organic products.

Well done Stu and Lyn - we’d love to hear how it goes!

Okay, so what do you do on a “staycation”? Well, The Environmental Blog reckons that…

If you live on the west coast or the east coast, try visiting the ocean. The beach is always fun whether it is off the hot southern California coastline or the rocky tide pools off of Oregon’s coast, there is always some great summer adventures.

I’ve got a couple of additional ideas about what you might do during a staycation. I’d like to toss them out there…

Start an herb garden – Whether you’ve got a spare bit of yard that’s not being used, a few old tubs that no longer see the light of day, or simply a windowsill covered in pigeon poo, you’re in business. Starting an herb garden is good fun, relaxing, and provides you with a wonderful source of fresh food in the weeks and months to come. If you’ve got young children, get them involved. Children that can enjoy the simple pleasures to be had in growing an herb garden are probably going to do pretty well in life. With all the distractions and nonsense that they’re going to have to contend with in their later years, any time spent now enjoying life’s simple pleasures will likely generate positive outcomes.

Volunteer – A bit of social connection is always good for the soul. If you look around your local neighbourhood there’s bound to be projects and groups looking out for people to lend a hand. Does your neighbourhood have a community garden project? Is there a low cost housing precinct nearby requiring volunteers? How about your local school – do they need someone to lend a hand mending some items? Is there a local history group that’s in need of assistance? Getting involved in the community makes a difference to both your life and the lives of those around you. Helping other folks out is a pretty special feeling and one that’s not easily replicated during a traditional vacation.

Give it a try – having a “staycation” might just be a lot of fun!

Abatement - Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, or enhancement of greenhouse gas removal from the atmosphere by sinks.

Afforestation – Planting of new forests on lands not recently forested.

Biosequestration – The removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide through biological processes, for example, photosynthesis in plants and trees.

Carbon capture and storage – Technology to capture and store greenhouse gas emissions from energy production or industrial processes. Captured greenhouse gases have the potential to be stored in a variety of geological sites.

Carbon – Carbon refers to the six major greenhouse gases.

Carbon dioxide – A naturally occurring gas; it is also a by-product of burning fossil fuels and biomass, other industrial processes and land-use changes. It is the principal anthropogenic greenhouse gas that affects the earth’s temperature.

Carbon dioxide equivalent – A standard measure that takes account of the different global warming potentials of greenhouse gases and expresses the cumulative effect in a common unit.

Carbon footprint – A measure of the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to an activity; it is commonly used at an individual, household or business level.

Carbon market – A generic term for a trading system in which countries, organizations and individuals buy or sell units of greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to meet limits on emissions.

Carbon offset – carbon offsets represent reductions in greenhouse gases relative to a business-as-usual baseline. Carbon offsets are tradeable and often used to negate (or offset) all or part of another entities emissions.

Carbon sequestration – The long-term storage of carbon dioxide in forests, soils, oceans or underground. Studies have found that organic farming has the capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store as soil carbon.

Carbon sinks – Natural or man-made systems that absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, including trees, plants and the oceans.

Climate change – As defined by the UNFCCC, a change in climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability over comparable time periods.

Cogeneration – The production of two useful forms of energy such as high temperature heat (for hot water or space heating) and electricity from the same process. Also known as combined heat and power.

Deforestation – The conversion of forested land to an alternative, non-forest use.

Emissions – The release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Greenhouse effect – The trapping of heat by naturally occurring heat-retaining atmospheric gases (water vapour, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and ozone) that keeps the earth about 60 degrees farenheit warmer than if these gases did not exist.

Greenhouse gases – Gases that cause global warming and climate change. The major greenhouse gases (GHGs) are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.

Hydrochlorofluorocarbons – Compounds containing hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine and carbon atoms. Although ozone depleting substances, they are less potent at destroying stratospheric ozone than CFCs.

Hydrofluorocarbons – Compounds containing only hydrogen, fluorine and carbon atoms. They were introduced as alternatives to ozone-depleting substances in serving many industrial, commercial and personal needs. HFCs are emitted as by-products of industrial processes and are also used in manufacturing.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – Established in 1988, the IPCC surveys worldwide scientific and technical literature and publishes assessment reports that are widely recognised as the most credible existing sources of information on climate change. The IPCC also works on methodologies and responds to specific requests from the UNFCCC’s decision-making bodies.

Kyoto Protocol – An international treaty negotiated under the auspices of the UNFCCC. It enetered into force in 2005. Among other things, the Protocol sets binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by individual developed countries to be met within the first commitment period of 2008-12.

Low-emissions technology – Technology which produces a product with minimal greenhouse gas emissions. The term is commonly used to refer to power generation technologies (such as renewable, nuclear and clean coal generation), but applies equally to other sectors including transport and agriculture.

Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) – A group of artificial chemicals comprising only carbon and fluorine. These chemicals were introduced as alternatives, along with hydrofluorocarbons, to the ozone-depleting substances. PFCs are also emitted as by-products of industrial processes and are also used in manufacturing.

Reforestation – Conversion of land used for purposes other than forestry to forested land.

Sequestration – The removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide, either through biological processes (for example, photosynthesis in plants and trees).

UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. An international treaty adopted after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and aimed at achieving the stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

Conventional agriculture contributes to global warming

Many scientists now believe that conventional agricultural practices are unsustainable. Unlike organic agriculture, which emphasises effective soil management and biodiversity, conventional agriculture (also referred to as intensive agriculture) relies on farming a single crop year after year. To overcome the imbalance imposed upon a conventional farm’s ecosystem, harmful agents, such as pesticides and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers are used.

In 2005, global nitrogen fertilizer consumption (produced by fossil energy) was 90.86 million tonnes (IFA, 2007; http://www.fertilizer.org/). It takes roughly 90 million tonnes of fossil fuel (diesel equivalents) to produce this nitrogen fertilizer. This alone represents about 1% of global fossil energy consumption.

The consequence of conventional farming’s ecological imbalance is a decline in soil organic matter, soil structure, fertility, microbial and faunal biodiversity. Combine these impacts with the nutrient overload that ultimately ends up in waterways, deforestation, and overgrazing that occurs due to changes in land use, and it’s not difficult to see why many are now stating that conventional agriculture represents an unsustainable long-term option.

But from a climate change perspective, it is the loss of carbon from intensively farmed soils that is of most concern. Carbon is lost to the soil through mineralization, erosion (water and wind driven) and overgrazing.

Soil testing conducted throughout the United States over the past sixty years indicates that soils, which in the 1950s were composed of up to 20 percent carbon, now contain only 1- and 2-percent carbon. This phenomenon is widespread and is routinely observed in soils that have been conventionally farmed. It is now understood that intensive agriculture breaks down soil carbon into carbon dioxide. When released into the atmosphere, this carbon dioxide contributes significantly to global warming.

Organic farming practices mitigate climate change

In contrast, organic agriculture exhibits the potential to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Apart from being self-sufficient in nitrogen, organic farming has been found to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by pulling it from the air and storing it within the soil as carbon. In a major study undertaken by the Rodale Institute, which analysed 30 years of soil carbon data, organic farming has been found capable of substantially mitigating the impacts of global warming.

While organic farmers have long understood the importance of establishing and maintaining healthy soils, it now appears that their understanding and emphasis on soil is set to become even more important than could reasonably have been envisaged.

Locking carbon in the soil

Researchers have found that agricultural carbon sequestration has the potential to substantially offset the impacts of global warming. The Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial - the longest-running side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional farming systems in the United States, has found that organic farming methods such as the use of cover crops, composting and crop rotation dramatically alter the carbon storage capacity of arable lands, building soil “humic” substances (also referred to as organic matter) that remain as stable carbon compounds for centuries.

The Rodale study found that organic systems showed an increase of almost 30 percent in soil carbon over 27 years, while conventional systems showed no significant increases in soil carbon over the same period.

Coping with the future

The OECD and Stern Review project that if no action is taken, concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could reach 2 degrees Celsius higher than their pre-industrial levels by as early as 2035. The consequences of a 2 degree Celsius temperature increase would be catastrophic for millions of people. Death, injury, dislocation due to flooding, fire, disease, impaired water quality, species extinction and reduced agricultural yields are considered likely under such conditions. Some of the poorest countries in the world, such as those located in tropical and sub-tropical climes, are likely to be the hardest hit.

There are a number of factors indicating that organic agriculture is far more future proof than conventional agriculture.

Organic farmers apply traditional skills and knowledge. Rather than placing blind reliance on petroleum intensive agricultural inputs, organic farmers apply practical knowledge, observation, personal experience and intuition. This enables them to get the best out of complex agro-ecosystems. They are adept at breeding locally adjusted seeds and livestock, producing on-farm fertilizers (compost, manure, and green manure) and at devising relatively inexpensive natural pesticides.

By preserving soil fertility, in addition to maintaining - and even increasing - the quantity of organic matter in soil, organic farms are more capable of maintaining productivity during climatic extremes culminating in drought, irregular rainfall, floods, and elevated temperatures. Extensive research (Mader et al., 2002) (Lotter et al. 2003) has concluded that soils under organic management retain significantly more rainwater due to the “sponge-like” properties of trapped organic matter.

Conclusion

Agricultural production in most parts of the world will face less predictable weather conditions to those which were experienced during the intensification of agriculture over the last century. Intensive agriculture was, and remains, a short-sighted option. Organic agriculture is fast emerging as the only sustainable long-term approach to food production. Its emphasis on recycling techniques, biodiversity, low external input and high level output strategies make it an ideal replacement for the petroleum intensive agricultural methods that are currently contributing to global warming.

Resources

“Organic farming, with its emphasis on closed nutrient cycles, biodiversity, and effective soil management, has the capacity to sequester carbon from the earth’s atmosphere and trap it in the soil as carbon”, says Gavin Robertson, Editor of Organic Guide. “While previously organic consumers focused on personal health benefits, today they’re focusing on broader global concerns”.

The survey looked at the reasons why consumers choose organic over conventional products. Concerns regarding genetically modified organisms, the processes of industrial farming, and having greater control over the products consumed remain important.

However, concerns about the environment, pollution and in particular global warming now play a significant role in consumer choice.

“Global warming is a factor in the cars we choose to drive, the energy we consume and increasingly, the food that we eat”, Says Robertson. “If Australian consumers at the Sydney Expo are anything to go by, then this would be a global trend”.

Previous studies have found that one of the main reasons consumers choose organic over conventional products was to avoid the pesticides used in conventional farming. Other studies have shown that consumers are also concerned about genetically modified organisms (GMO). More recent academic research indicates that environmental factors are of greater concern. In a 2006 paper by Geen and Firth the environment was found to be a major concern for committed organic consumers.

This fully reflects the findings at the Sydney Organic Expo. “Global warming has influenced, and will continue to influence, the choices consumers make”, says Robertson. “Consumers are starting to realise that turning to organics not only gives health benefits, but could also save the environment”.

The survey conducted by the online publication Organic Guide consisted of a sample group of 212 organic consumers at the Sydney Organic Expo held at the Darling Harbour Convention and Exhibition Centre 25 - 27 July 2008.  For more information visit www.organicguide.com.

About Organic Guide
Organic Guide is an online publication providing consumers with information about leading an organic lifestyle.

Contact Information
Gavin Robertson
www.organicguide.com

Sources
http://orgprints.org/7125/01/7125.pdf

LaSalle, T.; and Hepperley, P. 2008. Regenerative 21st Century Farming: A Solution to Global Warming. The Rodale Institute

Harald Schützeichel started the foundation for solar energy in Ethiopia in 2004 with the aim of supplying the rural population of Africa with energy. He is consistently trying “to help people help themselves” by creating jobs to promote economic development and education.

Anil Rana, started the Janhit foundation in India in 1988, with the aim of providing cleaner drinking water and fighting water pollution. He also started an ecological cultivation program in 2002 to make a contribution to bio diversity.

Lal Emmanuel, started the Nagenahiru foundation in Sri Lanka in 1991, to campaign for the protection and the reforestation of Mangrove woods. To this day, about 15 hectares have been forested. He has also set up a teaching and training center, to educate teenagers about ecological issues.

Master Sheng Lyun, started the Fo Fa Shan foundation in Taiwan in 1995. Using ecological methods tea, vegetables and other agricultural products are cultivated on about 45 hactares of land. The aims of the foundation are the promotion of ecological farming, ecology and conservation, as well as cultural education.

Victor Ananias, opened his first bio store in Turkey about ten years ago and founded the organization Bugday to support the development of ecological farming and environmental protection.

The winner of this exciting competition will receive the first, hand manufactured One World Award statue and prize money of 25,000 euros made available by Rapunzel Naturkost AG. The jury members are: Joseph Wilhelm, founder of Rapunzel Naturkost AG, two previous Nobel Prize winners Vandana Shiva from India and Tewolde Egzeabher from Ethiopia, as well as the IFOAM vice-president Alberto Pipo Lernoud from Argentina.

As the patron of the OWA, IFOAM will lead the selection of the One World Lifetime Achievement Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award acknowledges pioneers and personalities who have played very active roles in the ecology movement and the winner will as well be announced in Modena during the Organic World Congress.

The study published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry predicts that global warming will make fish more susceptible to dying from pesticide-contaminated water. According to the study affected fish displayed “erratic swimming…, uncoordinated movement with body quivering, rolling over on sides or back” and loss of the ability to swim upright.

Combine this with the strain already imposed on global fish stocks as a consequence of over-fishing by commercial operators and it’s not difficult to envisage a future without many popular fish varieties.

So, what exactly are endosulfan and chlorpyrifos?

According to the Pesticide Action Network of North America, endosulfan is an antiquated insecticide. Here are some facts about endosulfan:

• It is highly toxic and persistent
• It has been banned in the European Union
• It is used extensively throughout rural U.S., India, China, and many other countries.
• Studies indicate that it endangers the health and wellbeing of children, farmworkers, and those living proximate to affected areas
• Poisoning symptoms include headaches, nausea, vomiting, seizures, and in extreme cases unconsciousness and even death
• It is a suspected endocrine disruptor, with low dose exposure while in the womb being linked to autism, male reproductive harm, and birth defects.

Much like endosulfan, chlorpyrifos is a dangerous yet widely used pesticide. Here are some facts about chlorpyrifos:

• It is a neurotoxic organophosphate insecticide, acaricide and miticide used to control foliage and soil-borne insect pests on a variety of food and feed crops.
• About 20 million pounds of chlorpyrifos are applied in the U.S. every year according to the EPA, with about half for agricultural uses and half for residential uses
• Until recently it was used extensively in homes for pest control (mostly as a termiticide and in pet flea collars)
• It causes cholinesterase inhibition in humans which can result in nausea, dizziness, confusion, respiratory paralysis and even death.

 
What can be done?
Studies such as this are an important reminder of the need to remove dangerous pesticides from our food chain. Apart from the obvious potentially adverse health consequences associated with pesticide use, their persistent nature means that many of them will continue to wreak environmental havoc long after their initial application. Here are some steps to take if you’re keen to remove pesticides from our food chain:

• Support organic agriculture
• Join PANNA.
• Write to your local politician requesting that endosulfan and chlorpyrifos be banned from use.