Going Net-zero - Nature Friendly Farming Network

[Chris F]

Interesting piece from NFFN here with advice on how farmers go net-zero:

Arable - Positive Steps:

• Introduce spring cropping or use of fallows
• Reduce tillage (where appropriate)
• Use nitrogen fixing crops in the rotation
• Use cover crops
• Use improved crop varieties, nitrogen-efficient cultivars
• Introduce agroforestry
• Make most efficient use of mineral fertilisers

Arable Try to avoid:

• Bioenergy and anaerobic digestion

Livestock - Positive Steps:

• Reduce stocking density, particularly on intensively managed grassland
• Pasture feed livestock or use home grown feedstocks
• Consider keeping native breed livestock
• Go organic
• Introduce agroforestry
• Best practice manure and/or slurry management

Livestock - Try to avoid:

• Use of artificial fertilisers
• Reliance on concentrates

Questions?

There are some interesting differences between these lists. They don't talk about organic for Arable. Is it not possible to be net zero and organic as a (profitable) arable farm? Is some artificial essential to generate enough profit and still be net-zero? Whats the difference between mineral and artificial fertilisers?

 

[teslacoils]

So "net zero" is the quantity of food I'm going to make. And profit.

 

[John Slejpner]

So "net zero" is the quantity of food I'm going to make. And profit.

Colour me similarly sceptical.

First give me legislation that protects from "unfair" imports, then we talk.

 

[teslacoils]

Likewise any survey that says "do you want X" without "how do you want to pay for it" can just sod off. This sounds like a load of bored, semi retired urban doogooders sticking their oar in. Net zero? So bloody what? I'm off on as many international flights as I can once Corona is over as I'll be buggered if I'm spending the next 40 years eating lentils to look like Gillian McKeith when I can see the world before it turns to crap.

 

[Chris F]

So "net zero" is the quantity of food I'm going to make. And profit.

Net zero will come, but at a price. Is it a price the consumer wants to pay. Is low carbon food the future?

 

[teslacoils]

No. The future is 4bn Indian and Chinese giving exactly no fuuckks about carbon.

 

[ollie989898]

Turns out bioenergy and AD is bad for the environment then? Who would have thought burning methane was a bad idea? No one stopped to think of that 20 years ago when they couldn't hand out subsidy money fast enough for electricity?

 

[Chris F]

Turns out bioenergy and AD is bad for the environment then? Who would have thought burning methane was a bad idea? No one stopped to think of that 20 years ago when they couldn't hand out subsidy money fast enough for electricity?

That stood out to me too - Bioenergy - bad.

 

[ollie989898]

That stood out to me too - Bioenergy - bad.

This is a problem with the nature of British politics today. All policy is too short term and knee jerk, and every 4 years or so the current crop of political messers are exchanged for a fresh and equally clueless set. If the UK had gripped the nettle in Blair's day we would be well on the way toward net zero emissions by now but no one had the political will to do it.

 

[thameslade]

Will we not just export our food production and carbon emissions abroad then?

 

[Martin Lines]

That stood out to me too - Bioenergy - bad.

NFFN Position on Bioenergy
• Although bioenergy enterprises are driven by good intentions, they can often deliver
perverse outcomes. For example, deforestation in North America to fuel Drax plants in the
UK, the facilitation of intensive livestock (e.g. pig and poultry through associated anaerobic digestion units to process waste) which causes air pollution and can contribute to the
antibiotic crisis and the dedicated growing of maize for Anaerobic digestion which can be
detrimental to soils .
The NFFN are also concerned about the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) warning about displacing food production outside the UK, which could potentially increase the UK’s ecological footprint .
• Restrictions should be placed on crops grown for bioenergy to ensure they are managed in a nature friendly way.
• Improved compliance with regulatory standards could help control some of the issues with bio-energy crops (e.g. soil erosion issues with maize cultivation).
• NFFN has concerns over the feed stocks and licensing terms for Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plants. In England at least, many seem to use 20-year agreements, meaning farmers are locked in.
• A robust planning response is required when new applications for AD plants are proposed, enabling a holistic assessment of the environmental implications of the plant beyond its physical footprint to be made.
• NFFN are keen for an independent audit to be undertaken looking at the energy balance or shape of the market, to ensure that future development of biofuel and AD is carbon and nature friendly.

 

[Wombat]

Not heard of the NFFN before.

 

[bankrupt]

Not heard of the NFFN before.

NFFN has exactly same street-wise interpretation as NFU (with U set net zero).

 

[Y Fan Wen]

I was listening to the BBC World Service this morning 'Rethinking the Future'. I've downloaded the book and started reading it and if their forecasts come to pass, all that is quoted above will be obsolete, as will all l/s farming. They are forecasting a 15 year time frame.

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Rethinking the future

The 2020s will be transformational, according to the tech prophets of RethinkX

www.bbc.co.uk

Rethinking Humanity — RethinkX

We are on the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most consequential transformation of human civilization in history.

www.rethinkx.com

If, because of precision fermentation, all that is required from farming is a supply of carbohydrate in the form of cellulose, is it more cost effective to grow and harvest permanent grass or grow an annual crop like grains? Which produces the most annually?
I'm a mountain farmer so have no idea about comparative outputs. I'll either be being paid to keep sheep to graze the uplands for recreation or supervising the new forest that will have been planted.

 

[Martin Lines]

Not heard of the NFFN before.

Home | Nature Friendly Farming Network, NFFN

www.nffn.org.uk

 

[CORK]

No. The future is 4bn Indian and Chinese giving exactly no fuuckks about carbon.

Precisely.

 

[Chris F]

Not heard of the NFFN before.

They should really advertise on here - I'll get to work on that! I know of them through Direct Driller Magazine, although they haven't written for us yet.

@Martin Lines are you part of NFFN? Can you answer the bit about Arable and organic? It kind of follows on from Beyond Organic in the states, but I don't want to answer for NFFN.

 

[Swarfmonkey]

I was listening to the BBC World Service this morning 'Rethinking the Future'. I've downloaded the book and started reading it and if their forecasts come to pass, all that is quoted above will be obsolete, as will all l/s farming. They are forecasting a 15 year time frame.

I'm still waiting for the flying car and the jet pack that Tomorrow's World of 30 years ago promised me would be here by now....

When it comes to to organisations such as RethinkX just follow the money. There's some quite extraordinarily self-serving relationships between think tanks, big business, and environmental charities. A lot of the big food multinationals would like nothing more than forcing patented slop from reaction vessels down your throat. They'd make even more money than they already do.

 

[Martin Lines]

They should really advertise on here - I'll get to work on that! I know of them through Direct Driller Magazine, although they haven't written for us yet.

@Martin Lines are you part of NFFN? Can you answer the bit about Arable and organic? It kind of follows on from Beyond Organic in the states, but I don't want to answer for NFFN.

Yes I am the U.K. Chair of NFFN. What bit about Arable and organic?

 

[ollie989898]

No. The future is 4bn Indian and Chinese giving exactly no fuuckks about carbon.

And to be fair, why should they? Their argument is, their societies have not emitted the same amount of carbon in total as Western nations. Can't really argue with that logic.