Recent UN Climate Report Calls for Changes in Farming & Land Use to Protect Environment

Anya Aggarwal

Posted on Thursday 8th August 2019
United Nations Climate Change Report

According to the United Nations’s recent report on climate change, the inefficient use of land in agricultural practices and the heavy reliance on animal products for food is severely depleting the environment and is exacerbating climate change. Humans’ need for food makes this source of waste and carbon emissions extremely dangerous and a priority in reforming worldwide practices to mitigate the effects of climate change. Although many people focus on the usual suspects of carbon emissions such as factories, cars, and water and electricity inefficiency, the UN’s report indicates that agricultural exploitation is one of the biggest threats to the planet and its inhabitants’ existences. 

A report from the New York Times released on August 8, 2019 states, ‘Human-caused climate change is dramatically degrading the Earth's land and the way people use the land is making global warming worse, a new United Nations scientific report says. That creates a vicious cycle which is already making food more expensive, scarcer and less nutritious.

"The cycle is accelerating," said NASA climate scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig, a co-author of the report. "The threat of climate change affecting people's food on their dinner table is increasing."

But if people change the way they eat, grow food and manage forests, it could help save the planet from a far warmer future, scientists said.

Earth's land masses, which are only 30% of the globe, are warming twice as fast as the planet as a whole. While heat-trapping gases are causing problems in the atmosphere, the land has been less talked about as part of climate change. A special report, written by more than 100 scientists and unanimously approved by diplomats from nations around the world Thursday at a meeting in Geneva, proposed possible fixes and made more dire warnings. "The way we use land is both part of the problem and also part of the solution," said Valerie Masson-Delmotte, a French climate scientist who co-chairs one of the panel's working groups. "Sustainable land management can help secure a future that is comfortable."’ (New York Times, The Associated Press). 

This call for “sustainable land management” in agriculture can be answered with the concept of indoor farming with LED Grow Light technology. Indoor farming and LED Grow Lights have shown proven results of high vegetable crop yields year-round, and can be set up in almost any location, regardless of land fertility or climate since all conditions are manually controlled through greenhouse optimization technology. This solution not only answers the urgent call for increased efficiency in land use to reduce carbon emissions, but also contributes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal efforts of increasing worldwide food security (availability of and accessibility to food). There is an urgency to reduce land inefficiency and make a widespread switch to a plant-based diet, all which can be addressed by indoor farming with LED Grow Lights. The problem pinpointed in the UN’s report cannot be ignored if we are to sustain the planet’s health for many more years to come.

For more:

The Threat of Biodiversity Loss - Why We Must Switch to a Plant-Based Diet

The Future of Food - Indoor Agriculture

Indoor Agriculture’s Benefits Around the World - Ethiopia

Full New York Times Article

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