Should we cease farming?

According to this link the cessation of farming in America caused the Little Ice Age. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47063973

If you do not want to read it all, the theory is that rewilding of agricultural land caused a drop in atmospheric CO2 sufficient to lower the temperature. So, all we have to do to stop the current increase in the levels is to stop farming. The planet and humanity will be saved!!

Apparently a population of 60million indigenous people were farming 56m hectares of land. Think about that in the context of 500 and more years ago in a country that did not have draft animals. The Spaniards were responsible for killing off 90% of the people, either directly or via disease, so the land returned to its natural state during the 16th Century, taking up CO2 and reducing the world’s temperature.

What are we all doing wrong if we cannot handle a hectare of land for each member of our household without using any machinery, fertilisers or sprays? When I was young father and I used to hand dig about an acre of potatoes each year, but no way in the world could we have worked 5 acres of arable totally by hand; and considering there were 6 of us in the house we should have been working 15 acres to match these 15th century and earlier South Americans.

I understand slash and burn, using only a tiny portion of what is burnt to grow crops for a couple of years, but this article is suggesting that they were actually cultivating it all. I find that impossible to believe, but no doubt there are those who will seize upon the report as support for their rewilding notions in the UK. Others will believe that they could hand work a hectare for each person in the family and survive. No doubt others will see it as a reason to cease using ag chemicals of all descriptions.

What hope is there for conventional farming in the face of reports such as this from places such as University College London?
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I don't think people appreciate the sheer scale of supply needed to feed the population.

Slaughterings per week (UK) at the moment

Pigs 180,000
Sheep 140,000
Steers 10,000
Heifers 7,000
Bulls 1000

The figures are staggering, and it all goes on quietly largely unseen at all hours.

There might be some scope for afforestation but there is huge steady demand for food. It won't just disappear because it offends some peoples ideological opinions.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Not read the link Old Mac but farming ruminants properly on permanent grassland and they can be carbon negative
all this talk of rewilding is rubbish as properly managed grassland can be a better carbon sink than trees
this especially needs to be done in dry countries that use to be grassland but are turning to desert since the wild herds of grass eaters were destroyed
far from being the problem ruminant farming is the solution or at least part of it
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
According to this link the cessation of farming in America caused the Little Ice Age. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47063973

If you do not want to read it all, the theory is that rewilding of agricultural land caused a drop in atmospheric CO2 sufficient to lower the temperature. So, all we have to do to stop the current increase in the levels is to stop farming. The planet and humanity will be saved!!

Apparently a population of 60million indigenous people were farming 56m hectares of land. Think about that in the context of 500 and more years ago in a country that did not have draft animals. The Spaniards were responsible for killing off 90% of the people, either directly or via disease, so the land returned to its natural state during the 16th Century, taking up CO2 and reducing the world’s temperature.

What are we all doing wrong if we cannot handle a hectare of land for each member of our household without using any machinery, fertilisers or sprays? When I was young father and I used to hand dig about an acre of potatoes each year, but no way in the world could we have worked 5 acres of arable totally by hand; and considering there were 6 of us in the house we should have been working 15 acres to match these 15th century and earlier South Americans.

I understand slash and burn, using only a tiny portion of what is burnt to grow crops for a couple of years, but this article is suggesting that they were actually cultivating it all. I find that impossible to believe, but no doubt there are those who will seize upon the report as support for their rewilding notions in the UK. Others will believe that they could hand work a hectare for each person in the family and survive. No doubt others will see it as a reason to cease using ag chemicals of all descriptions.

What hope is there for conventional farming in the face of reports such as this from places such as University College London?

You will also find that those that promote such a thing heavily are the least likely to actually do the job themselves. Given the difficulty in getting british people to pick fruit and veg, I think there'd be starvation before the buggers actually grasped a spade and strted digging.

Our climate has been changing for thousands of years, and thousands of years before the agriculture we know today. Sure, common sense suggests that we need clean water, and need to minimise pollution of any kind, but to think we can control the planet by stopping farming at todays production levels, with a growing population thats allergic to manual work, is utter nonsense, imo.
 
I don't see how low output, rewilded land can produce less CO2 than a highly productive pasture

My highly productive pasture, earns my living & produces food.

But the local woodland & waste land will take CO2 out of the atmosphere & my productive farmland will produce huge amounts of CO2.

Peat soils producing vegetables will also release vast amounts of CO2, unproductive spangum moss will fix CO2.

You can't really argue with the science BUT we do need food.
 

graham99

Member
I don't think people appreciate the sheer scale of supply needed to feed the population.

Slaughterings per week (UK) at the moment

Pigs 180,000
Sheep 140,000
Steers 10,000
Heifers 7,000
Bulls 1000

The figures are staggering, and it all goes on quietly largely unseen at all hours.

There might be some scope for afforestation but there is huge steady demand for food. It won't just disappear because it offends some peoples ideological opinions.
just like fishing a lot of the worlds people are still fed from wild fish ,
but not for much longer ,if you look at the tec they need today ,to catch a load of fish
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
I think some farm land will be abandoned in the next 15 years, but not for climate change reasons. It will be interesting to see what happens to the fells and Scottish mountains when sheep are removed - these are the farms most dependent on Basic Payment for their viability. Maybe removing farm subsidies will result in more carbon dioxide being sequestered?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top