The Roots of Environmental Justice: Agroecology and Food Security

“The Roots of Environmental Justice: Agroecology and Food Security”

By Lauren Balotin

In the 1960s, the Green Revolution showed promise of food sovereignty through new technology such as chemical fertilizers and irrigation techniques. Yet, more than 50 years later, billions of people around the globe are still food insecure, and many communities do not have the infrastructure to support these technologies. A stronger focus on agroecology, the study of applying ecological practices to agricultural lands, can provide the information the world needs to ensure that individuals receive the caloric and nutritional intake necessary for a healthy lifestyle.

Food security requires equal physical, social and economic access to food that is both nutritious and meets one’s dietary needs (FAO, 2014). However, many countries still lack this equal access. Two billion individuals globally are deficient in one or more micronutrients, and 790 million individuals do not receive adequate energy from their dietary intakes (Myers et al., 2017). There are nearly three million child deaths each year due to undernutrition, particularly in developing countries where food access is more scarce (Myers et al., 2017). Even in the United States, 12.3 percent of U.S. households were considered food insecure in 2016, most of which were predominantly households with children, single parents, minorities, and low-income families (USDA, 2017). Through a focus on agroecology, the study of applying ecological practices to agricultural lands, communities can ensure that soils are fertile and productive, which will combat food insecurity.

Soil degradation plays an especially large role in how food secure or insecure a community is. Soil becomes degraded when its yield is decreased through changes to any of a variety of factors, including nutrient content, acidity, salinity, biomass and moisture (Scherr, 1999). Land husbandry has a critical role in the economic success of a community because proper soil husbandry or lack thereof in only the short-term can affect the productivity of soil in the long-term as well (Scherr, 1999). For instance, tillage practices, such as planting cover crops for plants to increase water-holding capacities of soil and creating terraces that control erosion and runoff, can provide soil with higher resilience and lower sensitivity. Proper land husbandry can ensure that soil has high soil resilience to resist degradation and low soil sensitivity when subjected to degradation.

Soil also plays an integral role in supplementing crops with macronutrients necessary for development and good health, but many communities are not wealthy enough to buy appropriate fertilizers for their farmlands. As a result, soil may not be able to produce crops in enough abundance to feed a community, and the crops that it does produce may lack essential minerals, such as iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium (Olivera & Gregory, 2015). Alternatively, soil with high quantities of these minerals may become too acidic for plants to grow. With unequal access to proper nutrition, individuals in developing countries are more susceptible to stunted growth, increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease and impaired functioning of the immune system (Olivera & Gregory, 2015).

Roughly one billion people are undernourished due to the lack of nutrients in soils, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where many developing countries are located (Olivera & Gregory, 2015). 30% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is undernourished, much of which is likely due to the fact that 75% of this area’s agricultural soils are deficient in certain nutrients, such as phosphorus (Cordell, Drangert, & White, 2008).

Urbanization is a major driver of gentrification, which also threatens food justice. The lack of land availability and greenspace in urban areas is causing many communities to rely on rooftop gardens as well as hydroponic systems, which grow plants in nutrient-rich water solvents rather than soil. Supporters of urban agroecology advocate for similar practices in order to promote food justice (Tornaghi, 2016). Urban agriculture will likely play a critical role in food sovereignty, given that it accounts for 15 to 20 percent of the world’s food production and the projection that 70 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas by the year 2050 (Koscica, 2014). It can do so by providing a source of income for poor households, as well as direct increased access to nutritionally rich vegetables and fruits, combating food insecurity (Zezza & Tasciotti, 2010).

Fertile soil requires appropriate nutrients, structure, moisture and microbial organisms for plants to grow efficiently (Olivera & Gregory, 2015). Many do not have equal access to fertile soil, and they lack the organic manures that are able to improve soil fertility. Through agroecology, scientists study the role of biodiversity and equilibrium conditions in the productivity of agricultural systems (Bernard & Lux, 2016). For instance, the biodiversity of crop rotation maintains soil fertility because the cycling of different crops, which each extract certain nutrients from soil, allows time for soil to replenish the nutrients that were extracted. Other agroecological methods, such as mixing manure into soil and efficiently terracing farmlands to reduce runoff and erosion, stabilize soil conditions (Bernard & Lux, 2016).

Agrobiodiversity practices support high livestock, bacterial and plant variability, as well as variability of genes and landscapes (Thrupp, 2000). Agrobiodiversity practices can be integrated into other agroecological methods as well. For instance, nutrient cycling plans can use organic compounds from a variety of plant sources or integrate earthworms into a soil system. Similarly, natural weeds and biocontrol agents, such as parasites that consume insects, can be used for pest management in place of pesticides (Thrupp, 2000).

Other agroecological practices, such as organizing a diverse range of plants into an area through intercropping, can also provide a balanced diet and support soil resilience (Nyantakyi-Frimpong, 2017). These effects are especially important given that climate change threatens the productivity of agriculture. Changes in precipitation patterns will alter access to water, causing droughts in already arid regions. Furthermore, flooding and runoff will become more common in other areas, resulting in lower crop yields. Additionally, increasing temperatures allow insects and pests to survive for longer periods of time. During this time, the insects can disrupt agriculture by feeding on crops. The shifts in temperature also cause plants to flower earlier, which disrupts the timing of interactions between plants and pollinators. Crops grown with higher levels of carbon dioxide have lower concentrations of minerals (Myers et al., 2017). These changes in climate will likely place pressure on agricultural systems, and a decline in crop production will raise prices of food, exacerbating the distribution of food even further since poor communities will be unable to pay for inflating prices (Myers et al., 2017).

Existing farmlands which already utilize agroecological techniques support the idea that agroecology can help to adapt to the effects of extreme climatic events. For instance, many South American countries, such as Ecuador and Peru, use raised bed cultivation systems. These systems allow croplands to cope with severe flooding events that characterize the highland basins of the region, and similar systems allow farmers to grow crops in the wetlands of some of Mexico’s valleys (FAO, 2014). Learning from these existing systems and taking strides towards learning more about agroecology and positively enhance our soils, which can be beneficial to human health, economic incomes, and social equality.

References

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