Danielle NierenbergWorldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet Project

dnierenberg@worldwatch.org

Twitter: @NourishPlanetFacebook.com/WorldwatchAg

Agriculture, the Solution

Agriculture Is the Solution

4 Innovations Making Agriculture More Sustainable:

• Reducing Food Waste

• Involving Youth in Agriculture

• Urban Agriculture

• Sequestering Carbon in Soils

(Photo Credit: Julie Carney / Gardens for Health International)

Innovation 1: Cutting Food Waste

• On average, 25 to 50 percent of a harvest is wasted

• The global population reached 7 billion in October 2011, making it more important than ever to find ways to make better use of what we already produce (Photo Credit: Randy Olson / National Geographic)

Cutting Food Waste: Waste in the Food Chain

• Millions of tons of food iswasted because of negligence, especially in industrialized countries

•In the developing world, 40 percent of food losses occurafter harvest – while food isbeing stored or transported, and duringprocessing and packaging

(Graphic Credit: Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2011, p. 107)

Cutting Food Waste: Solar-Powered Dryers

• Solar-powered dryers are working to preserve mango and papaya harvests around the world

• In Bolivia, collapsible A-frame dryers are allowing farmers to dry and store crops year-round

(Photo Credit: geopathfinder.com)

Cutting Food Waste: Hermetic Sealing

• Hermetically sealed bags protect crops from moisture, insects, and fungus

• Researchers at Purdue University have developed inexpensive hermetic bags that are being used to protect cowpea harvests in Western Africa

(Photo Credit: Purdue University)

Cutting Food Waste: Consumer Education

• Love Food, Hate Waste is based in the United Kingdom

• The organization has helped divert 670,000 tons of food from landfills

• This has saved consumers over $970 million over the last decade

(Graphic Credit: Love Food, Hate Waste)

Innovation 2: Reaching the Young

• The International Labor Organization reports that youth unemployment around the world rose by 4.5 million between 2008 and 2009

• Young people need to know that agriculture can be intellectually stimulating and profitable

(Photo Credit: Bernard Pollack)

Reaching the Young: Developing Innovations in School Cultivation• Developing Innovations in School Cultivation is reigniting an interest – and a taste for –indigenous vegetables in Uganda

• The project introduces students to organic farming techniques and shows them how to make agriculture into career

(Photo Credit: Project DISC)

(Graphic Credit: Slow Food International)

Innovation 3: Urban Agriculture

• An estimated 14 million Africans move to cities each year

• By 2020, 35-40 million Africans living in cities will depend on urban agriculture to meet their food requirements

•By 2050, 65 percent of the world’s population will live in cities.

(Photo Credit: Bernard Pollack)

Urban Agriculture and the Poor

• The poorest urban households practice urban agriculture at high rates

(Graphic Credit: Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2011, p. 112)

Urban Agriculture in Columbia•Bogota is the capital of Columbia, and home to over 7 million people, 20 percent of whom live in poverty.

•The Cities Farming for the Future (CFF) Bogota program, run by the Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF), is spreading an innovative garden design that works on hard ground, such as rooftops and patios.

•It is also helping to combine food security and scientific research by partnering with the Botanical Garden of Bogota.

Photo credits: Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security

Urban Agriculture: Kibera (Nairobi, Kenya)

(Photo Credits: Bernard Pollack)

Innovation 4: Carbon Storing

(Photo Credit: Bernard Pollack)

• 50 billion tons of carbon can be sequestered over the next 50 years

Farm or Forest?

(Photo Credit: World Agroforestry Centre)

(It’s Both!)

Moving Forward

• It’s time for agriculture to become a solution for global problems

• Done right, farming can strengthen communities, nourish families, and protect the earth

(Photo Credit: Raïsa Mirza)

Danielle NierenbergWorldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet Project

dnierenberg@worldwatch.org

Twitter: @NourishPlanetFacebook.com/WorldwatchAg