Farming and Climate Change

as

patron of the sustainable food trust i’m

delighted

to be able to contribute to this

countdown to

cop 26 virtual tedx event

and to add my support alongside a

growing number of

food businesses ngos banks

investors and others to their work

in developing what has the potential to

become

an internationally harmonized framework

for measuring farm sustainability

mindful that this cop is being hosted

by the united kingdom in glasgow i can

only say how strongly

i hope it might come to be seen as a

landmark event

similar to the impact of cop 21

in paris back in 2016.

a turning point where world leaders came

together

and recognized the transformative

potential

of our agriculture forestry and food

systems

i say this because although the world’s

farms are currently a major contributor

to greenhouse gas emissions

and biodiversity loss since agriculture

has occupied an

ever greater proportion of all habitable

land area

if those same farms converted to

regenerative

and sustainable production methods they

could have the potential

to become a key part of the solution

by doing so they could help ensure the

planet remains habitable

for future generations

the belief that this could be possible

was

one of the major drivers which led me to

launch

my sustainable markets initiative at

davos

in 2020 and more recently

the terra carter project at the

beginning of 2021

both were based on my conviction

that only by harnessing the power of the

market to help

move towards net zero and reinstate the

lost biodiversity

will we be able to avert a catastrophic

ecological breakdown

of our planetary support systems in the

field of agriculture

and food of course the challenge is to

do this

whilst at the same time producing enough

nutrient-dense

food to feed the entire global

population

i i’m convinced from my own practical

experience with

organic and regenerative farming which

now spans

over 35 years that this could be

achievable

especially if at the same time we tackle

seriously the perverse situation

whereby in both the developed and

developing worlds

some 40 percent of food is wasted

annually

however the key to all this lies in

measurement

it should go without saying that you

cannot manage what you do not measure

but until now we have not established a

harmonized global framework

for measuring agricultural

sustainability from the farm up

this is why right from the beginning i

am so delighted to have been a supporter

of this important initiative

led by the sustainable food trust as a

participant

in farm trials on my farm at highgrove

in gloucestershire

on the sandringham estate in norfolk and

at my

foundation’s headquarters at dumfries

house in scotland

the development of a common global

language for measuring farm

sustainability

as we already have for accounting

protocols

will be absolutely crucial if we are to

mark our progress beyond cop26

in the countdown towards net zero or as

close to this

as we can get in relation to our food

production systems

this is why my sustainable markets

initiative has set up

expert and practitioner-led roundtable

discussion

and specifically a task force on land

use

agriculture and food which will be

adopting this framework

as a means of benchmarking agricultural

sustainability

and crucially exploring the whole issue

of accounting properly

for the real and often hidden

environmental costs of industrialized

agriculture

through the polluter pays principle

now i have long believed that in so many

ways the

private sector holds the key to help

deliver the change

and the solutions we need to achieve

this

with agriculture we also need a food

labeling system

which empowers citizens in their role as

consumers

to have the information they need to

make

informed decisions about purchasing food

products

whose supply chain genuinely reduces

emissions

and other forms of pollution protects

biodiversity

and improves public health all this

could be possible once we have a

harmonized means of measuring

farm sustainability at international

level

perhaps at long last we are beginning to

wake up to the reality that what we do

to nature

we in fact do to ourselves of course

we cannot escape the effect of our

impacts on the planet

because we are part of that system a

part of nature not apart from her

so measurement of the impacts of land

use

including forestry and agriculture and

connecting them to government policy

incentives

the investment community and

certification

from sustainability audits through to

food labeling systems

could be transformative

with this framework of measurement in

place

we might finally have the potential to

enable a global renaissance

of truly sustainable agriculture and

food production

i could only say i very much hope this

happens

not just because it would be a wonderful

legacy for the cop 26 event

but also because we have an absolute

responsibility

to the next generation to enable a shift

towards methods of food production which

are working in harmony with nature