Regenerative farming (II): From Green Revolution to Sustainable Revolution

In our first article, we set the basis to understand what regenerative farming means and explore its sweet and sour aspects. In this article, we will cover the evolution of farming from conventional to regenerative and explore the evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, with a clear focus on Spanish regulations. Subsidies are often essential to farmers and their allocation is, therefore, key to agricultural decisions and strategies.

Green Revolution: Higher production, lower nutritional value

The emergence of chemicals in agriculture was originally well-intentioned, answering the need to increase productivity for a rapidly growing population. The period known as the “Green Revolution’’ refers to a conversion to a hyper-productive agriculture, increasing the amount of food produced per hectare, leading to more food available and lower prices for consumers. The agrochemical industry started to propose the use of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium-rich (NPK) fertilizers to grow plants faster and larger. Additionally, it standardized the use of pesticides, such as fungicides (to eradicate fungus), insecticides (to eradicate insects), and herbicides (to eradicate weeds) among others. Some of them have been proven toxic for human health, such as DDT or Parathion (both already forbidden). While the productivity outcome is indeed spectacular, those products ignore the natural ecosystem equilibrium, degenerate the soil reducing its fertility, facilitate soil erosion, eradicate insects that are predators to other pests and the microorganisms needed to process the nutrients for plants; biodiversity is therefore affected negatively. The Green Revolution increased production but reduced the nutritional quality of the outputs. The Earth, under such a strict regime, slowly loses the organic content, minerals, and microbiology necessary to develop a well-rounded fruit, vegetable, or cereal.

Regenerative farmers argue that in the long-term, chemicals, whether synthetic or organic, work against the earth and people and are instead, in favor of the agrochemical industry. The plant, which is forced to live on a degenerated soil, becomes dependent on chemical fertilizers to grow, and attracts more pests due to its nutritional disequilibrium, which, in turn, increases its dependency to pesticides. This chemical dependence directly affects the production costs that farmers should overcome, making it more difficult to reach farm profitability, and increasing dependencies on external subsidies.

A farming short-term strategy based on maximum production, using chemicals or ignoring the ecosystem also implies a loss of traditional grazing practices, in favor of using mechanization practices that erode the soil (by plowing the land); therefore discarding traditions and virtuous techniques for the soil.

Integrating livestock into the ecosystem and establishing circular processes between animals and plants also favors the reduction of CO2 emissions, when eating fodder directly grown at the farm, instead of products previously grown, produced, and transported using non-renewable energies. Extensive livestock which lets the animals feed freely or using rational practices also helps to oxygenate the soil, favoring the proliferation of bacteria that oxidize and destroy the methane about to be released.

Conventional farming’s dependency to fertilizers became a pressing issue at the start of 2022 with production costs increasing by 40% in comparison to March 2021, due to the 150% increase in fertilizers costs, 96% increase in energy costs, and 35% increase in animal feed on average. The pandemic, supply chain issues, and the Ukrainian war have led to this situation where many farmers face increasing pressure (Ruiz, 2022; The Economist, 2022).

An evolving Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to support farmers

Our world is in constant evolution and the consequences of climate change are already being felt. Farmers should be supported to get out of chemical dependencies and adapt to the new, more conscious consumption of organic, nutritional, and healthy food, possibly even without depending on subsidies to make a farm profitable.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was created in a post-WWII context where food shortages were common (Gobierno de España, 2022). The first objective of the policy — increasing agricultural productivity — was achieved over the following decades; however, it also led to a disequilibrium in production. The CAP was remodeled in 1992 in order to switch from a production-linked support to an income support for farmers with payments per hectare and head of livestock. Additionally, the new CAP established measures for the improvement of farm structures. The policy further evolved in 1999 to introduce direct income support, to reduce institutional prices, to increase the competitiveness of European agriculture and to establish rural development policies. The CAP continued to evolve over the years, in order to integrate topics such as climate change, biodiversity, energy, and water management as well as to further customize the support to farmers following the objectives of the World Trade Organization and with specific payments to support “greening” practices. The EU subsidies provided by the CAP — essential to most farms’ profitability — are also evolving from a hectare criterion (the larger the farm, the larger the subsidy) to include more measures favoring ecological farmers as of 2022. It will thereby ensure a redistributive payment to larger farms as well as to small and medium-sized ones.

In December 2021, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food submitted to the European Commission a new Strategic Plan for the CAP in Spain. This plan under revision results from the effort and contribution of professional agricultural organizations, agrifood cooperatives, civil environmental organizations, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, and services of the European commission, and will be applicable from 2023 onwards (Región de Murcia, 2022). It includes new measures for the agricultural and livestock sector such as:

• Promote a smart, resilient in front of crisis, and diversified agricultural sector to guarantee food security for current and next generations.
• Achieve EU climate and environmental objectives included in the “Farm to Fork” and “Biodiversity for the horizon 2030” strategies within the European Green Deal.
• Strengthen the rural socio-economy and instigate digitalization of the primary sector.

The European Green Deal responds to the EU aspiration to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, by means of a series of policies and funding mechanisms transversal to all sectors, one of them being the agricultural sector. The “Farm to Fork” and “Biodiversity for the horizon 2030” (EC, 2020) strategies include, among others, the following objectives:

• Ensure food security
• Reduce emissions and promote low-carbon agriculture (i.e. sequester carbon in the soil)
• Increase the field used for organic farming by 25% to 2030
• Improve animal welfare
• Reduce the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and antimicrobials in cattle breeding (i.e. 50% reduction of pesticides by 2030).
• Fight against desertification and erosion, improve soil structure and nutrients, and ensure high biodiversity in agricultural habitats (relevant topics in Spain)
• Reduce food loss and food waste
• Combat food fraud in the supply chain
• Increase nutritional information’s visibility of food through front-of-pack labeling

Forty-three percent of the total budget for Spanish CAP is dedicated to achieve the climate and environmental objectives described above.

The Spanish CAP also includes social goals linked with the reduction of the gender gap (i.e. the inclusion and promotion of women in agriculture), and the support for generational change, affecting two-thirds of active farmers as stated by the Spanish government. Fifteen percent of the aid will be focused on the incorporation of women and young farmers. Aids will also be given in favor of innovation, knowledge sharing, technology and digitalization of the primary sector (Región de Murcia, 2022).

The above-mentioned evolutions, led by global institutions, are testament to the awakening of society on the need to move agriculture towards more sustainable practices which would also benefit farmers themselves. The challenges for this industry are considerable and achieving win-win situations for all is certainly not a small task. Modifying the policies established several decades ago is part of the puzzle.

References:

EC (2020) “Natura 2000” Available at: URL link

Gobierno de España (2022) “Historia de la PAC” Available at: URL link

Región de Murcia, 2022 “El Plan Estratégico de la PAC de España (2023–2027): resumen de la propuesta remitida a la Comisión Europea” Available at: URL link

Ruiz, N. (2022) “Los agricultores piden que se impulsen los purines del ganado ante la subida de precio de los fertilizantes” Available at: URL link

The Economist (2022) “War in Ukraine will cripple global food markets” Available at: URL link

Font, F. (2021) “Arrelats a la terra”. Editorial: Tigre de Paper (Bages)

“Research and innovation for the European Green Deal” webpage. Available at: URL link

“De la granja a la mesa” EU webpage. Available at: URL link

“Estrategia de la UE sobre Biodiversidad para 2030” (Julio 2020), Natura 2000, Comisión Europea. Available at: URL link