Healthy Food Systems

At Greenpeace, we recognise, support, and thrust forward seven principles of an ecological food system through ecological farming, which entails:

1. Food sovereignty

Ecological Farming supports a world where producers and consumers, not corporations, control the food chain. Food sovereignty is about the way food is produced, and by whom.

A handful of large corporations control large parts of our food system right now – informed by the demands of a disconnected commodity market. Food sovereignty takes this control, and places it in the hands of the people who produce, distribute, and consume food. It ensures that farmers, communities and people have the right to define their own food systems.

Food sovereignty acknowledges the role of women as the backbone of rural communities, and the historic role women have played in gathering and sowing seeds, as guardians of biodiversity and genetic resources. Addressing gender equity issues is part of the broad concept of Food Sovereignty about who controls the food we grow and eat.

2. Benefitting farmers and rural communities

Ecological Farming contributes to rural development and fighting poverty and hunger, by enabling livelihoods in rural communities that are safe, healthy, and economically viable.

It is one of the most perverse incongruities of our current food system that the people who produce our food – farmers, farm workers and fisherfolk – often suffer most from poverty and a lack of access to food.

Evidence from Ecological Farming initiatives across the world shows that Ecological Farming – when sufficiently supported by policy instruments – can be a successful tool in providing stable financial benefits to smallholder farmers, in turn benefitting rural communities and advancing their rights to a rewarding and secure livelihood.

3. Smarter food production and yields

To increase food availability globally, and to improve livelihoods in poorer regions, we must reduce the unsustainable use of what we grow at the moment and we must reduce food waste, decrease meat consumption, and minimise the use of land for bioenergy. We must also achieve higher yields where they are needed – through ecological means.

Feeding the world’s population – which keeps growing and, on average, getting wealthier– is not (just) about quantity. The important question is where and how we grow more food, and where we make other changes. Yields need to be increased in regions where they are very low right now, due to poverty, lack of resources, soil degradation, and the inadequate use of water. In other parts of the world, we need to reduce meat consumption, the use of croplands for bioenergy, and food waste.

Right now, corporations and food policy makers are stubbornly sticking to an increase in yields as the global goal. This obscures the real challenge – we need to rethink how we use the food we are producing right now, and in the future. In a better food system, ecological livestock systems would make use of the agricultural land and resources not required for human food needs, and at the same time drastically reduce the amount of animal products we produce and consume globally. Equitable distribution, however, would mean that some regions could still improve their diets with animal products.

Blindly increasing yields – at any price, anywhere in the world – is not a solution. Doing so in the US, for example, where a large proportion of the maize is grown for domestic fuel needs, does not help farmers in Africa or Asia. Ecological Farming would create a system where we increase yields where they are most
needed – through ecological means.

4. Biodiversity

Ecological Farming is about nature’s diversity – from the seed to the plate, and across the entire agricultural landscape. It is about celebrating the flavour, nutrition, and culture of the food we eat, improving diets and health.

Our current model of agriculture promotes monocultures. Vast areas of land are given over to genetically uniform plants, with little biodiversity and no refuge for wild plants or animals. This way of farming minimises the services a functioning ecosystem can provide, and it badly affects our health through poorer diets and a lack of nutritional diversity.

Ecological Farming systems do the opposite. They place nature’s diversity at their core. In doing so, they not only protect the natural habitats that are vital for biodiversity protection. They also take advantage of what nature offers in return: wild and crop seed diversity, nutrient cycling, soil regeneration, and natural enemies of pests, for instance.

Ecological Farming combines modern technology and farmers’ knowledge to develop advanced diverse seed varieties, which helps farmers to grow more food in a changing climate, without risking biodiversity with genetically engineered crops, or harming it with pesticides.

5. Sustainable soil health and cleaner water

It is possible to increase soil fertility without the use of chemicals. Ecological Farming also protects soils from erosion, pollution, and acidification. By increasing soil organic matter where necessary, we can enhance water retention, and prevent land degradation.

Ecological Farming pays central attention to nourishing the soil. It maintains or builds up soil organic matter (for example with compost and manures), and, in doing so, feeds the diversity of soil organisms. It also aims to protect wells, rivers, and lakes from pollution, and to make the most efficient use of water.

All this is vital in a world where agriculture is now the biggest user of fresh water, globally, and, in many regions, also the major contributor to water contamination, with nitrogen and phosphorus fertiliser pollution one of the major threats to the stability of life on the planet (Steffen et al., 2015).

Ecological pest management 

Ecological Farming enables farmers to control pests and weeds – without the use of expensive chemical pesticides that can harm our soil, water and ecosystems, and the health of farmers and consumers. 

Toxic chemical pesticides are a hazard for our health, and for the health of the planet. Unfortunately, the industrial farming model depends on large quantities of herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides for its very existence. Our current food system has locked farmers into a costly relationship with the corporations that sell these chemicals. 

Resilient food systems 

Ecological Farming creates resilience: it strengthens our agriculture, and effectively adapts our food system to changing climatic conditions and economic realities. 

Embracing diversity – growing different crops at the field and landscape levels – is a proven and highly reliable way to make our agriculture resilient to increasingly unpredictable changes in the climate. Well-tended soil, rich in organic matter, is much better at holding water during droughts, and much less prone to erode during floods. Farmers can benefit in another way – if your farming is diverse, so is your stream of income – providing security in uncertain times. 

A redesigned food system would provide large-scale carbon sinks and many other ways to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (climate mitigation). Nutrient cycling, biological nitrogen fixation, and soil regeneration would reduce carbon emissions. And while livestock plays a key role in agroecosystems, animal production and consumption would be changed radically. All this makes Ecological Farming one of the most powerful tools we have in the fight against climate change.