Model Farm Principle 2 - it must be able to produce food for its community within the Planetary Boundaries.

The second principle of the model farm is that it must be able to produce food for its community within the Planetary Boundaries.

The primary environmental challenges facing us today are illustrated by the nine Planetary Boundaries developed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, displayed in the figure below (Steffen et al., 2015).

The nine Planetary Boundaries (Steffen et al., 2015)

The diagram colour-codes the nine boundaries to indicate the status of each boundary relative to safe thresholds, beyond which unpredictable tipping points could result in irreversible negative change.

Of particular relevance to agriculture is a paper by 10 scientists from across the world, including Oxford University, who have assessed the contribution of agriculture to the transgression of Planetary Boundaries.  They conclude that agriculture is the human activity most responsible for the transgression of biochemical flows of nitrogen and phosphorus and the loss of biodiversity (Campbell et al., 2017).

Another Planetary Boundary, strongly affected by agriculture, is receiving attention and is referred to as "novel entities", which are increasing concentrations of chemicals and bio-engineered entities present in the environment (Campbell et al., 2017).  This could place additional pressure on policymakers to control agrochemicals and Genetically Modified (GM) plants. 

The three most important chemicals for cereal production have or are facing bans or restrictions in the UK, chlorothalonil (Impey, 2019), glyphosate (Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman, 2019; Harris, 2019, and neonicotinoids (The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, 2018).  There is hope however that enough time will be provided for alternatives to be developed (Impey, 2019).  There is also the risk that alternatives will be shown to be harmful (Siviter, Brown, & Leadbeater, 2018).

References

Steffen, Will, Katherine Richardson, Johan Rockström, Sarah E. Cornell, Ingo Fetzer, Elena M. Bennett, Reinette Biggs, et al. ‘Planetary Boundaries: Guiding Human Development on a Changing Planet’. Science 347, no. 6223 (13 February 2015). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259855.

Campbell, Bruce, Douglas Beare, Elena Bennett, Jason Hall-Spencer, John Ingram, Fernando Jaramillo, Rodomiro Ortiz, Navin Ramankutty, Jeffrey Sayer, and Drew Shindell. ‘Agriculture Production as a Major Driver of the Earth System Exceeding Planetary Boundaries’. Ecology and Society 22, no. 4 (12 October 2017). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09595-220408.

GOV.UK. ‘Farming Rules for Water from April 2018’. Accessed 17 April 2021. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/farming-rules-for-water-in-england.

Impey, Lousie. ‘Analysis: What a Ban on Fungicide Chlorothalonil Would Mean - Farmers Weekly’. Accessed 17 April 2021. https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/crop-management/disease-management/analysis-what-a-ban-on-fungicide-chlorothalonil-would-mean.

Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman. ‘Where Is Glyphosate Banned?’ Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman. Accessed 17 April 2021. https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/toxic-tort-law/monsanto-roundup-lawsuit/where-is-glyphosate-banned-/.

Harris, Lauren. ‘France Bans Monsanto Weedkiller Roundup over Safety Fears’. Farmers Weekly, 16 January 2019. https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/crop-management/weed-management/france-bans-monsanto-weedkiller-roundup-over-safety-fears.

The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP. ‘25 Year Environment Plan’. GOV.UK, 2018. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/25-year-environment-plan.

Siviter, Harry, Mark J. F. Brown, and Ellouise Leadbeater. ‘Sulfoxaflor Exposure Reduces Bumblebee Reproductive Success’. Nature 561, no. 7721 (1 September 2018): 109–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0430-6.

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