Food Sovereignty and Climate Change: Smallholder Farming Can Cool Down the Earth *

1. Food Sovereignty and Climate Change:Smallholder Farming Can Cool Down the Earth* M. Jahi Chappell School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Washington State University Vancouver

2. *Effects of Industrial Agriculture on Global Warming and the Potential of Small-Scale Agroecological Techniques to mitigate those Effects B. B. Lin,M. J. Chappell, J. Vandermeer,G. Smith, I. Perfecto, E. Quintero, R. Bezner-Kerr, D. Griffith, S. Ketcham, S. Latta, P. McMichael, K. McGuire, R. Nigh, D. Rocheleau and J. Soluri (in review)

3. Agriculture and Global Climate Change • Agriculture generates ~31% of anthropogenic Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) • 10-14% from direct emissions • 12-17% from agriculture-driven land conversion IPCC 2007; Scialabba and Müller-Lindenlauf 2010

4. Agriculture and Global Climate Change • “Little doubt” industrial agriculture is disproportionately responsible for agriculture-generated GHGs • Small-scale agroecological farms can help via reducing emissions & sequestering carbon (mitigation) Scialabba and Müller-Lindenlauf 2010; Niggli et al. 2009; Lin et al., in review

5. Agroecological and Industrial Agricultural Approaches • Industrial (Green Revolution) methods: pursues high productivity through intensive use of time and space, larger scales, synthetic inputs, mechanization, and homogenization • Agroecology: seeks to integrate and replicate existing ecosystem processes, in turn minimizing or eliminating external and synthetic inputs

6. Smallholder Farming Can Cool Down the Earth

7. Agroecological Smallholder Farming Can Cool Down the Earth Our Sustainable Agriculture Works Japan Family Farmers Movement(NOUMINREN)

8. Agriculture and Global Climate Change • Land Conversion and Productivity • Speaking Practically About Practices • Other Issues • Food Sovereignty, Human Rights, and Hunger

9. Land Conversion and Productivity:Historically “Spared” Land (and Carbon)? • Recent and earlier studies indicate “land-sparing” effect is not generally seen • Small number of cases of “land-sparing” tied to increased grain imports; another study found per capita agricultural exports to be one of the most predictive factors for deforestation Angelsen and Kaimowitz 2001; Ewers et al. 2009; Rudel et al. 2009; Perfecto and Vandermeer 2010; DeFries et al. 2010

10. Smallholders and deforestation • Significant amounts of deforestation due to large farmers; FAO data from 1990 to 2000 found: • Large landowners responsible for majority of deforestation in Latin America, Asia, Pacific • Smallholders responsible for majority in tropical Africa • Harder to measure but vital to consider (and study!): • Industrial/large-scale agriculture helps create the conditions that push small farmers into further deforestation • Direct expropriation of lands, competition, subsidy structures, labor: “lock” on productive resources • Food sovereignty and land reform FAO 2009; Vandermeer et al. 2009Sloan 2007; Weis 2007

11. Smallholders and deforestation • DeFries et al. 2010: Small-scale producers are no longer the dominant driver of deforestation in many places (from data set for 2000-2005) • Exports and Urban Population Growth Rate

12. Agricultural Practices + means positive effect on mitigation - means negative effect (more emissions) Lin et al., in review; based on Smith et al. 2008

13. Agricultural Practices + means positive effect on mitigation - means negative effect (more emissions) Lin et al., in review; based on Smith et al. 2008

14. Agricultural Practices Niggli et al. 2009, with data from Lal, 2004

15. Other Issues • Disruption of Global N and C cycles • “From an energy producer to an energy consumer” • Organic/agroecological systems are 20-40% more energy efficient than conventional/industrial systems (e.g. Pimentel 2006) • Small farm productivity • Inverse Relationship (Microclimates? More research needed…) • Largest productivity gains likely in least productive areas (Badgley et al. 2007; Hine et al. 2008) • The Trouble with Televory and Daly’s Danish Cookies

16. Food Sovereignty and Human Rights • Hunger doesn’t come from a lack of food, but a lack of food sovereignty • More than enough food in the world • Structural adjustment, food reserves, international markets, imports/exports • Past decreases in hunger have come principally from the provision of human rights Chappell and Lavalle 2009, Weis 2007, Davis 2002; Smith and Haddad 2000

17. Fighting hunger 1970-1995 Smith and Haddad 2000

18. Food Sovereignty and Human Rights • “Pay back your Climate Debt!”: Investment in Agroecology, Food Sovereignty and Smallholders as Climate Reparations Our Sustainable Agriculture Works Japan Family Farmers Movement(NOUMINREN)