Media briefing: Farming can be a climate change solution, so why is it missing in action at COP26?

Sustainable farming systems that work in harmony with nature have an essential role to play and farmers want to be part of the movement for change.

Fincastle: Sustainable hill farming is the future

Using Forest Research figures, we reckon that planting around 15% of our farm with wood pasture (around a third more than at present) could offset all of our emissions – something which we can definitely achieve without any real loss of agricultural production.

Growing bigger prickly hedges can reduce the chance of extreme weather – and a lot more

In highlighting how Britain lost half its hedgerow network in only 75 years following the post-WWII move to modernise farming, a recent report from the Council for the Protection of Rural England points out how hedgerows can reduce climate warming by naturally helping to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere.

The Myth of Climate Smart Agriculture – Why Less Bad Isn’t Good

It would serve us well to consequently apply and further develop known, climate friendly farming techniques before we continue with “precision techniques” on a whim. Unfortunately, in both research and practice this approach is rarely taken.

Nitrogen fertilizer is not a climate solution

Nitrogen fertilizers are not just a technicality, they are a major building block in the industrial, global and capitalist agriculture system. As such they both drive and enable the increasing metabolic rift between human society and the ecosystem that sustains it.