{"id":4148,"date":"2014-08-13T10:20:02","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T14:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=4148"},"modified":"2025-06-11T13:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:14:16","slug":"we-can-have-food-security-and-a-healthy-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2014\/08\/13\/we-can-have-food-security-and-a-healthy-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"We can have food security and a healthy environment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2014\/07\/child-eating-corn.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4187\" alt=\"child eating corn\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2014\/07\/child-eating-corn-300x238.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2014\/07\/child-eating-corn-300x238.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2014\/07\/child-eating-corn.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The way we produce food is getting a lot of attention these days, and for good reason. If current projections hold, we\u2019ll have 9 billion mouths to feed by 2050 \u2013 2 billion more than we have today.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout history, when we\u2019ve needed to expand food production, we\u2019ve gone to nature\u2019s vast storehouse and made withdrawals. In doing so, we\u2019ve filled wetlands, dried up rivers, degraded habitat, and polluted our air and water.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve already drawn down nature\u2019s account to dangerously low levels, and we still need to produce more.<\/p>\n<p>If we\u2019re going to meet growing needs for food and water, we\u2019re going to have to do it in ways that not only stop harming the environment, but actually improve the ecosystems that serve us. Business as usual just isn\u2019t going to cut it.<\/p>\n<p><b>Farmers lead the way<\/b><\/p>\n<p>During the past decade, we\u2019ve been in quiet conversations with farmers and ranchers about how to facilitate this transformation. As we\u2019ve walked their land, we\u2019ve seen some encouraging things.<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ranchers in Texas demonstrated that it can be <i>profitable <\/i>to raise cattle alongside endangered species like the golden cheeked warbler.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Farmers throughout the Midwest are teaching us that it is possible, <i>and<\/i> <i>profitable<\/i>, to reduce fertilizer pollution while maintaining or increasing yields.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In California, we\u2019re learning from growers like Woolf Farming and Processing how to optimize irrigation efficiency to reduce water use <i>and<\/i> <i>increase profit margins<\/i>. If you spread ketchup on your burger, chances are you\u2019ve tasted Woolf&#8221;s tomatoes. The family processes 20,000 acres of them in the state\u2019s drought-stricken Central Valley, where maximizing irrigation efficiency isn\u2019t auxiliary \u2013 it\u2019s necessary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A common thread running through these efforts is that they build up nature&#8217;s bank account by eliminating unnecessary withdrawals and making strategic deposits.<\/p>\n<p><b>Rethinking business as usual<\/b><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4191 alignright\" alt=\"factory farm\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2014\/07\/factory-farm1.jpg\" width=\"384\" height=\"254\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2014\/07\/factory-farm1.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/52\/files\/2014\/07\/factory-farm1-300x198.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If we can scale these practices up and make <i>them <\/i>business as usual, it will go a long way toward increasing the resilience of the natural systems that sustain us.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, these practices alone won\u2019t solve the bigger challenge of closing the projected gap between food supply and demand in ways that build up nature\u2019s bank account. When it comes to meeting the great food challenge of this century, there is no silver bullet. In addition to using agricultural resources more efficiently, we\u2019ll need to think about food waste, genetics, distribution, diets and more. That looks to us like silver buckshot.<\/p>\n<p>My colleagues and I will be using this blog to discuss how we can feed the world without destroying the planet. Our hope is that by sharing our ideas and experiences \u2013 and those of our ag partners \u2013 we can develop solutions together that benefit people and the ecosystems on which we all depend. After all, food security and the security of our natural environment are one in the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The way we produce food is getting a lot of attention these days, and for good reason. If current projections hold, we\u2019ll have 9 billion mouths to feed by 2050 \u2013 2 billion more than we have today. Throughout history, when we\u2019ve needed to expand food production, we\u2019ve gone to nature\u2019s vast storehouse and made &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1951,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120554],"tags":[42756,36786,71358,67798,47304,35119,84809,71125],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-farmers","tag-food-security","tag-golden-cheeked-warbler","tag-irrigation","tag-ranchers","tag-water-2","tag-water-use","tag-woolf-family-farms"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1951"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15754,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4148\/revisions\/15754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4148"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}