11 December 2019

How to over-heat a planet

____

Earth

​

 

Take a landscape of small, sustainable farms, thriving village communities and diverse wildlife populations.

​

• Fell the trees and woodlands

• Rip out the hedges

• Sow the empty, prairie-like landscape with annual crops like cereals and oilseeds

• Plaster them with chemical fertilisers and pesticides

• Take grazing animals and poultry out of the fields and confine them to sheds

• Drive tens of thousands of skilled workers and farmers from the land

• Use taxpayers’ money to maintain a surplus of cheap commodity grains so you undermine the market for real, nutritious food

• Plant trees, shrubs and wild-flowers in a few field corners to give the impression of saving wildlife

• Watch soils eroding down rivers while their carbon compounds get oxidised to greenhouse gas

​

Congratulations. You’ve just read a summary of Britain’s post-World War Two farming policy. Now here’s how to cool the over-heated planet we’ve created

​

• Plant trees and hedges and create small fields

• Sow flower-filled, herby pastures and let the animals and poultry range over them

• Open up the countryside to environmentally-aware people to run the new-old system

• Watch the wildlife roaring back

• Watch soils grow deeper and wetter as they take carbon from the atmosphere and hold more moisture

• Enjoy real, nutrient-rich foods for the first time in ages

• Celebrate the new landscape of small, sustainable farms, thriving village communities and diverse wildlife populations

​

Note for rural policy-makers: You now know what to do.