Last Ditch

In an already tumultuous time, seeing the situation in the Netherlands and Ireland unfold has me worried about how democracies under threat will cope with both climate change and civil unrest. I’m not a climate scientist, nor a farmer, so I am not coming at this as an expert. I assume there is a great deal of nuance to these conversations that I don’t fully appreciate and that is kind of my point. That urgent climate actions are now necessary but that conversations that should have happened in the preceding decades were drowned out (largely by stalling and climate denying conservative and liberal governments alike).

This is where we find ourselves. On a planet that is quickly becoming uninhabitable and with governments increasingly eying farmers and citizens, not CO2 (and much worse) spewing factories and industries. Agriculture of course has been in the cross hairs as well, and for good reason. Modern farming as we know is a massive driver of emissions and deforestation. But if we look at the Dutch example, it tells us a lot about how reactive governments who have dragged their heels for decades now face difficult decisions. And those decisions seem to always happen behind closed doors and without input from farmers.

I don’t know what all the climate solutions are. Investments in new agricultural tech will definitely be necessary but I don’t see as a silver bullet, nor even fixing the right problem when it comes to food security. We don’t just need more productive land, we need better access to local food. None of that happens though without food growers. What worries me most is that as we race to get a grasp on our new place amidst the climate chaos, is that we will be stalled out by so much civil unrest, that reducing emissions will fall by the wayside. Governments left, right, and centre have accomplished shockingly little on climate and if we use responses to Covid as anything to go by: the coming decades could be rife with civil unrest, no matter who is in power.

I don’t know what the right answer for the Netherlands is. But you can’t just suddenly upend centuries of farming practice and expect that people will be able to cope. If we bankrupt every last independent farmer and replace them with a large “sustainable” corporate tech farm where we can all go work for $4 an hour, have we really solved the right problem?

I’m trying to learn more. Enormous changes will be needed and clearly I’m an advocate for alternative and regenerative forms of agriculture. But I want solutions that don’t further impoverish farmers. I will continue to share articles, videos, and links that relate to these issues as I find them. I hope we can find some good answers along the way. 🚜 🌳