How to Beat Climate Change & Post Fossil Fuel Economy

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How to Beat Climate Change & Post Fossil Fuel Economy

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Mon, 30 Jan 2006 20:19:23 +0000

 

 

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This article can be found on the I-SIS website at

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/DFHTBCC.php

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ISIS Press Release 30/01/06

 

Dream Farm II

 

How to Beat Climate Change & Post Fossil Fuel Economy

********************************************

 

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho tables a proposal around a zero-emission,

zero-waste farm after a highly successful workshop with

living legend George Chan, who created dozens such farms to

eradicate poverty in third world countries

 

" Dream Farm is exactly what we need to feed the world,

mitigate climate change and let everyone thrive in good

health and wealth in a post-fossil fuel economy "

 

A fully referenced illustrated version of this paper is

posted on SIS members' website

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/full/DFHTBCCFull.php.

Membship details here

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/membership.php

 

Why Dream Farm? We featured Professor George Chan's " zero

emission " or " integrated food and waste management system "

in an article entitled " Dream Farm " in a recent issue of our

magazine (SiS 27)

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews/sis27.php.

This farm could potentially solve the energy and food crisis

that the world is facing (see Box 1), and contribute

significantly to mitigating climate change. That is why we

are proposing to set up Dream Farm II here in Britain.

 

________

 

Box 1

 

Why We Need Dream Farm

 

No more cheap fossil fuels

 

United States food sector uses 17 percent and Canada 11.2

percent energy, not including export-import, food-processing

machinery and buildings, waste collection and treatment, and

roads for transport

 

Water running out

 

It takes 1 000 tonnes of water to produce one tonne of

grain; aquifers are severely depleted in major breadbaskets

of the world Productivity falling

 

Grain yields fell for four successive years; world reserves

are at lowest levels in 30 years

 

Loss of croplands from unsustainable practices

 

The world loses 20 m ha, or 1.3 percent croplands annually

from soil erosion and salination; replacing lost croplands

accounts for 60 percent deforestation annually, which

greatly accelerates global warming

 

Urgent need to reduce emissions

 

Food sector in a European country (France) is responsible

for more than 30 percent carbon emissions, not including

import/export, household use and storage, processing, and

imported fertilizers

 

Global warming threatens food production

 

Yields fall 10 percent for every deg. C rise in night

temperature; the latest prediction is an increase in the

earth's average temperature of 1.9 to 11.5 deg. C within

this century

 

______

 

We have an energy crisis, and cheap fuel is a thing of the

past, but our current food system is very energy intensive.

The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that the

food sector consumes about 10-15 percent of total energy in

industrialised countries, though only 2-5 percent are on the

farm, due to fertilisers, pesticides and machinery.

Estimates for the US and Canadian food sector put the figure

at 17 percent & 11.2 percent respectively, which include

total energy consumed on the farm, processing, transport,

packaging, and storing farm products, as well as energy used

by households to purchase, store and prepare food. The

figures do not include energy costs in food-processing

machinery and buildings, waste collection and waste

treatment, or roads for transport; nor do they include

energy consumed in importing/exporting food. The globalised

food trade is destroying the livelihood of family farmers

all over the world as corporations consolidate control of

the commodity market and the food supply chain [6], and

subsidized food surpluses are dumped from the rich countries

in the North on poor countries in the South. The globalised

food trade also wastes huge amounts of fossil fuels and

spews extra tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

 

The depletion of water is perhaps the most serious, as

industrial agriculture is extremely thirsty. It takes 1 000

tonnes of water to produce one tonne of grain; aquifers are

pumped dry in the world's major breadbaskets in the United

States, China and India.

 

Not only water is depleted but also soil and soil nutrients

and fertility, so productivity has been falling. Grain

yields fell for four successive years from 2000 to 2003, and

the world reserves are still at the lowest levels in 30 odd

years.

 

Unsustainable practices over the past decades have resulted

in massive losses of croplands from salination and soil

erosion, totalling 20 million ha a year, or 1.3 percent of

the world's croplands. Replacing lost croplands accounts for

60 percent of deforestation, greatly accelerating climate

change. That is why catastrophes such as hurricane Katrina,

flood, drought and extreme weather are increasingly

frequent, impacting further on food production.

 

There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

to mitigate climate change, and a lot can be done through

our food system. An estimate of the French food sector put

its carbon emissions at more than 30 percent national total;

not including import/export, household use and storage, food

processing, and imported fertilizers.

 

Global warming itself threatens food production through the

increase in temperature alone. Yields fall by 10 percent for

every deg C rise in night temperature; and the latest

predicted rise in average global temperature is 1.9 to 11.5

deg. C within this century when carbon dioxide in the

atmosphere reaches 560 ppm, double the pre-industrial level.

 

Veteran world watcher Lester Brown summarises the fallout of

the " environmental bubble economy " built on decades of

unsustainable exploitation of the earth's resources:

" ..collapsing fisheries, shrinking forests, expanding

deserts, rising CO2 levels, eroding soils, rising

temperatures, falling water tables, melting glaciers,

deteriorating grasslands, rising seas, rivers that are

running dry, and disappearing species. " He warns that the

environmental bubble economy is due for collapse, the most

vulnerable sector being food; the biggest challenge,

therefore, is how to feed the world.

 

He also says we need to restructure the economy at " wartime

speed " to one that tells the ecological truth.

 

What Lester Brown hasn't quite said is that the old economic

model is responsible for much human suffering and poverty.

The old model not only lays waste to the earth, it lays

waste to people and society, and for the same reasons. It is

the mistaken fundamentalist belief in the survival of the

fittest; and that competition and exploitation are the laws

of the market as much as the laws of nature.

 

Dream Farm a new model

 

What we need above all is a new model, a new paradigm; and

that's what Dream Farm is about. It is a unit of self-

sufficiency in energy and food based on reciprocity and

synergistic relationships rather than competition, it is a

nucleation centre of the sustainable food production and

consumption system that we need for a post fossil fuel

economy, and a microcosm of the new paradigm working in a

very concrete way.

 

That is why ISIS is proposing to set up a Dream Farm II for

demonstration, education and research purposes; combining

the best and most appropriate technologies to showcase the

new paradigm and at the same time, to act as an incubator

and resource centre for knowledge and technologies that

really serve people and planet.

 

If you wish to support this or get involved in any way,

please contact us.

 

Mobilising human ingenuity

 

Figure 1 is a very schematic diagram of George Chan's

system, which I shall call Dream Farm I. As is clear from

George's excellent presentation, the farms are very diverse,

depending on local resources, ingenuity and imagination.

 

Figure 1. Dream Farm I according to George Chan

 

The anaerobic digester takes in livestock manure plus

wastewater and generates biogas, which provides all the

energy needs for heating, cooking and electricity. The

partially cleansed wastewater goes into the algal basin

where the algae produce by photosynthesis all the oxygen

needed to detoxify the water, making it safe for the fish.

The algae are harvested to feed chickens, ducks, geese and

other livestock. The fishpond supports a compatible mixture

of 5-6 fish species. Water from the fishpond is used to

`fertigate' crops growing in the fields or on the raised

dykes. Aquaculture of rice, fruits and vegetables can be

done in floats on the surface of the fishpond. Water from

the fishpond can also be pumped into greenhouses to support

aquaculture of fruits and vegetables. The anaerobic digester

yields a residue rich in nutrients that is an excellent

fertiliser for crops. It could also be mixed with algae and

crop residues for culturing mushrooms after steam

sterilisation. The residue from mushroom culture can be fed

to livestock or composted. Crop residues are fed back to

livestock. Crop and food residues are used to grow

earthworms to feed fish and fowl. Compost and worm castings

go to condition the soil. Livestock manure goes back into

the anaerobic digester, thus closing the grand cycle. The

result is a highly productive farm that's more than self-

sufficient in food and energy.

 

What I love most about George's farms is how happy the

animals look. They are organically fed and toilet-trained

(!) to deposit their manure directly into a shunt that goes

to the digester, so the animals and their living quarter are

spotlessly clean, which makes for healthy and contented

animals.

 

I have described Dream Farm as an " abundantly productive

farm with zero input and zero emission powered by waste-

gobbling bugs and human ingenuity. "

 

There's a lot of human ingenuity among scientists and

engineers and other professionals who would like nothing

better than to use their ingenuity for the good of people

and planet and to create a sustainable world for all its

inhabitants. But they have so little opportunity under the

dominant regime.

 

Dream Farm II

 

I was truly inspired by George's work, and the idea of

setting up Dream Farm II soon occurred to me. Fortunately,

the first person I spoke to about Dream Farm II, after

making contact with George Chan, was Kenneth Spelman; that

was in August 2005. I needed a good engineer, George said,

and there were two possibilities. I rang Kenneth first and

tried the idea on him, and he got very excited right away.

 

And so over the next months, we assembled a team of

potential partners for a proposal to the UK Carbon Trust,

which seemed like the ideal funding agency for the project.

The Carbon Trust required 50 percent of the funding to come

from industry. The companies we approached mostly liked the

idea; it was a heady time. We managed to submit the proposal

just before the November deadline.

 

Unfortunately, the proposal failed to get through even the

first round. We have since learned that the Blair

government's idea of reducing carbon emissions is to build

more nuclear power plants, which are widely known to be

ecologically disastrous simply in terms of the radioactive

wastes generated, also highly uneconomical; and provides

little, if any savings on greenhouse gas emissions compared

to a gas-fired electricity generating plant (SiS 27). The

Blair government's " energy from waste " programme is limited

to burning wastes in incinerators that spew toxic fumes for

miles around.

 

But we are not giving up, and I hope you will see why. I

take this opportunity to thank George Chan for his

encouragement and answering numerous questions over the e-

mail, Kenneth Spelman, likewise, and undertaking to donate

practically all the building works involved for the Carbon

Trust proposal. Thanks are also due to our intended

partners, Biogas Technology Limited, CHP Services Ltd., and

ElmFarm Research Centre; and to David McGrath of SiGen,

James Bakos of SHEC, Peter Saunders, Peter Rae, and others

who gave valuable comments and suggestions. The Carbon Trust

proposal was put together with great enthusiasm from

everyone concerned and at " wartime speed " .

 

Integrated Reduced Emissions Food and Energy Farm

 

For the Carbon Trust proposal, we had to call Dream Farm

something boring: Integrated Reduced Emissions Food and

Energy Farm, IREFE, for short. Kenneth's advice was never

mention waste, or else the waste bureaucracy will descend on

us like a tonne of bricks.

 

The aims of IREFE are: to maximize productivity and balanced

growth; to minimise environmental impact, hence " zero

emission " , " zero waste " , and even " zero input " are the

ideals; and most important of all, to achieve self-

sufficiency in food and energy.

 

These aims are also the basis of the new economic model (see

" Sustainable food systems for sustainable development SiS 27

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews/sis27.php), described in

the complete version of the present proposal.

 

What really excites me about George's dream farm is that it

demonstrates concretely a theory of the organism I first

presented in the second edition of my book The Rainbow and

the Worm, the Physics of Organisms

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/rnbwwrm.php, published in 1998.

 

At around the same time, I proposed that we could look at

sustainable systems as organisms. This idea has been

developed more completely in a paper published with

theoretical ecologist Robert Ulanowicz at the University or

Maryland.

 

The important features of zero-emission systems are the same

as those of the zero-waste or `zero-entropy' model of

organisms and sustainable systems. Entropy is made of

dissipated energy, or waste energy that is useless for doing

work, and simply clogs up the system, like ordinary waste.

 

The zero-entropy model predicts balanced development and

growth as opposed to the dominant economic model of

infinite, unsustainable growth. This disposes of the myth

that the alternative to the dominant model is to have no

development or growth at all.

 

Back to the practicalities: how are the aims of Dream Farm

achieved?

 

First, we harvest greenhouse gas (biogas methane) not just

from livestock manure and used water, but also crop residues

and certain food wastes, which constitute feedstock for the

anaerobic digester to produce fuel for on-farm energy needs

and mobile uses for transport and farm machinery,

substituting for fossil fuels. Notice how this reduces

carbon emissions twice over, first by preventing methane and

nitrous oxide from the farm wastes going into the

atmosphere, and second from the fossil fuels saved by

burning methane instead. But that's not the only benefit of

our approach, as distinct from the UK government's approach

of burning the wastes.

 

As a result of confining the farm `wastes' in the anaerobic

digester, nutrients, especially nitrogen, are conserved,

instead of being lost as ammonia and nitrous oxide, a

powerful greenhouse gas; or else leached into ground and

surface waters as pollutants. These nutrients can now

support the growth of algae, fish, livestock etc. for

maximum farm productivity.

 

Harvesting sunlight is what crops do naturally, as do the

algae in the aerobic digestion basin that produce all the

oxygen needed to purify the partially cleansed water coming

out of the anaerobic digester, and the phytoplankton in the

fishpond that feed one or more of the several species of

fish co-existing happily in poly-culture. Solar panels are

incorporated, especially as the new generations of solar

panels are much more affordable, durable and easy to

install.

 

Conserving and regenerating potable water free of pollutants

is a very important aspect of this farm, as water shortage

and deprivation are affecting many parts of the world. After

being cleansed by the algae, the water goes into the

fishpond. From there it can be further polished by various

species of aquatic plants before it is returned to the

aquifers. Water from the fishpond also returns to the

aquifers by being used to `fertigate' the crops, and

filtered through the layers of soil and subsoil.

 

Dream Farm is run strictly on organic principles, because

pesticides and other chemicals will kill the bacteria in the

biogas digester. There is now substantial evidence that

organic foods are healthier; not only free from harmful

pesticide residues, but also enriched in antioxidants,

vitamins and minerals.

 

Energy is used at the point of generation. This micro-

generation is gaining favour all over the world. It doesn't

depend on a grid and is therefore most suitable for

developing countries. In developed countries, local micro-

generation protects against power failures and black outs,

not to mention terrorist attacks on the grid. A study in the

UK estimated that up to 69 percent of the energy is lost

through generating electricity at power stations and piping

it over the grid.

 

What better way to reduce food miles and all the associated

environmental impacts of food import/export than consuming

locally produced food fresh and full of goodness, instead of

goodness knows what?

 

A recently released report on Food Miles commissioned by

UK's DEFRA (Department of the Environment Food and Rural

Affairs) put the direct social, environmental and economic

costs of food transport at more than £9 billion each year;

with congestion accounting for £5 billion, accidents for £2

billion, and the remaining £2 billion due to greenhouse gas

emissions, air pollution, noise and infrastructure damage.

The gross value of the agricultural section was £6.4 billion

and the food and drink manufacturing sector £19.8 billion.

In other words, the £26.2 billion worth of agriculture and

the food and drink industry involves externalising £9

billion, or 34 percent of the costs to the taxpayer.

 

Appropriate technologies a matter of design

 

The anaerobic biogas digester is the key technology in Dream

Farm.

 

Digesters can be any size, ranging from small ones made of

plastic material, disused petrol drum, moulded fibre-glass

to big ones made of reinforced concrete as George has shown

us. I have seen small ones buried in the ground serving a

single family, which are simple and easy to maintain and

mammoth constructions serving the manufacturing or waste-

treatment industry.

 

I found one that treated wastes from a school toilet in

Addis Ababa, also buried underground with two covered

potholes. Animal manure could be added through one of the

holes, and stirred with a wooden stick. The second pothole

revealed a pipe and valve, presumably for controlling the

flow of biogas.

 

Another I spotted recently in Kasisi Agricultural Training

Centre near Lusaka, Zambia, was no longer in use; it was

built next to a pig house, now empty.

 

Two big ones – 2 500 m3 each – were installed on a 1 000

acre farm in Wisconsin with more than 1 000 dairy cows. They

are fully automated, heated, monitored, with alarm fitted,

valves, whistles, what have you. The farmer is reported to

be happy with his investment.

 

But as George has warned, the more automated, the more parts

there are to go wrong. So the challenge is to design

something affordable, easy to use and maintain, on a more

human scale.

 

Pierre Labyrie, who works for Eden (énergié, dévelopment,

environment) Toulouse, France, an organisation helping

farmers install biogas digesters, tells me that the typical

digester installed is 2 000 m3, even for small farmers with

only 100 cows. The reason seems absurd. Farmers in Europe

are by law required to store four-months worth of manure in

slurry lagoons, which have to be that big. Rather than

getting the law changed now that fresh manure is being

treated and there is no need to store the slurry, they find

it simpler to construct big digesters. But that means extra

capital and maintenance expenses for the farmer. I have

posed this question to the UK Department of Trade and

Industry, and am awaiting a reply.

 

These digesters are not very good to look at. We need

landscape architects and engineers to work together to

design a beautiful and perfectly functional farm. What can

be done besides the main crops and livestock, with trellised

fishponds, algae shallows, grazing fields, woodlands,

orchards, vegetable, herb and flower gardens, some floating

on water….

 

The company that made the big digesters also provided a

combined heat and power generation unit based on an internal

combustion engine, which burns the biogas and generates

electricity and heat. These heat and power generation units

can now produce electricity at about 30 percent efficiency,

with 50 percent recovery of power as heat, giving an overall

power conversion efficiency as high as 85 percent.

 

Savings on carbon emissions

 

At an initial stocking rate of 0.8 cow/acre on a 1 000 acre

Minnesota farm, 2 063 kWh/cow was produced per year from

biogas. I did a little calculation on the energy yield and

carbon emissions saved per cow per year. The amount of

methane required to generate that amount of electricity is

620 m3 or 0.4464 tonnes, assuming 30 percent efficiency in

converting to electricity. This is equivalent to 9.828

tonnes CO2 equivalent, using global warming potential of 22

for methane. The amount of oil saved per cow by using the

methane as fuel is 0.553 tonne, which represents an

additional 1.715 t CO2 equivalent saved (1 tonne oil = 3.1

tonne CO2). Hence the total savings by processing manure

produced from a single cow per year, counting only methane

is 11.543 t CO2 equivalent.

 

A 100-acre farm with 80 cows - a nice size for a

demonstration farm, with plenty of room for woodlands, an

on-site gourmet restaurant to take advantage of all that

lovely fresh organic food plus an analytical research

laboratory - would yield more than 160 000 kWh per year in

energy and save 923.4 t CO2 equivalent in emissions.

 

If all the farm manure produced in the UK – estimated at 200

m tonnes - were to be treated in biogas digesters and the

biogas harvested for fuel use, the carbon emissions saved

would be more than 14 percent of the national emissions.

 

But we can do much better than that. When other farm and

food residues are included, the yield of biogas can be far

higher (see later). A 1 000 t CO2 equivalent saving a year

is quite realistic. The market price (16 Jan 2006) was

€23.35 per tonne CO2 equivalent. So 1 000 tonnes is worth

more than 23 000 euros in carbon credits.

 

(I was informed by UK's Department of Trade and Industry

that one would be unable to gain carbon credits in Britain

through the Kyoto route, i.e., Clean Development Mechanism

(CDM) or Joint Implementation (JL). CDM projects are in

developing countries only, and while JL projects are

eligible in developed countries, the UK has not yet signed

up to it. One option may be voluntary emission reduction

(VERs) credits, which are sold to the retail market for

offsetting companies and individual emissions on a voluntary

basis. Watch this space)

 

Livestock manure is in fact rather low down in the league of

biogas yield. Fats and grease are way up there with 961 m3

per tonne. Bakery waste not far behind at 714 m3 (see Fig.

2). Waste paper, not included in this chart, is also a good

substrate for generating biogas.

 

Figure 2. Yield of biogas with different feedstock

 

As you can see, it is possible to produce an excess of

biogas, if that is needed.

 

The incentive for producing more biogas is that methane can

be used directly as fuel for cars and farm machinery after

being cleaned up and compressed.

 

Biogas digestion is certainly a far better way of getting

energy from wastes than just burning wastes. It also makes

nonsense of the `biofuels' that the UK and other governments

are supporting, which involves burning biomass or making

ethanol out of maize and soybean, especially the glut of GM

maize and GM soybean that Monsanto can't sell. Even ethanol

from agricultural wastes is not sustainable, because you

lose irreplaceable soil nutrients and generates pollutants.

Similarly, burning crops will involve mining irreplaceable

nutrients from the soil.

 

Highly productive self-sufficient farm, research centre &

incubator for new technologies, new ideas

 

A schematic diagram of Dream Farm II (Integrated Reduced

Emissions Food and Energy Farm, IREFE) is presented in Fig.

3. This is an improved version of the one submitted to the

Carbon Trust, mainly in the addition of solar power.

 

Figure 3. Dream Farm II

 

As mentioned, new generations of solar panels are cheaper

and easier to install and maintain, and there is no reason

not to include them as a core technology for generating

energy alongside the biogas digester. (We shall definitely

need extra energy for the on-site gourmet restaurant and the

analytical lab.)

 

Our approach is to get the farm up and running on core

technologies while newer technologies are integrated or

substituted at the periphery as time goes on. As said, we

want the farm to serve research/education purposes and as an

incubator and resource centre for new technologies, new

designs, new ideas.

 

For example, combined heat and power generation is currently

done using an internal combustion engine, which is noisy,

and produces some noxious fumes. The ideal is to have heat

and power generation with a fuel cell.

 

Fuel cells are theoretically highly efficient and emission-

free. A fuel cell generates electricity, operating on pure

hydrogen, and produces nothing but water as by-product.

 

In a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) most

suitable for on-farm use, a proton-conducting polymer

membrane separates the two electrodes, typically made of

carbon paper coated with platinum catalyst.

 

On the anode (negative electrode) side, hydrogen splits into

protons and electrons. The protons are conducted through the

membrane to the cathode (positive electrode), but the

electrons travel to an external circuit to supply electrical

power before returning to the fuel cell via the cathode.

 

At the cathode catalyst, oxygen reacts with the electrons

and combines with the protons to form water. A fuel cell

typically converts the chemical energy of its fuel into

electricity with an efficiency of about 50 percent. (The

rest of the energy is converted into heat.)

 

New generations of fuel cells are under development that can

take methane and reform it into hydrogen inside. The farm in

Wisconsin tried out a prototype, but it did not perform as

well as the internal combustion engine. A major problem was

that the biogas had to be substantially cleaned up before it

could be fed to the fuel cell, leading to great losses of

methane [40].

 

Methane can be purified to less stringency and compressed as

fuel for mobile use: to run cars and farm machinery. Cars

run on biogas methane are available in some countries and

gaining in popularity, especially in Sweden, which already

has biogas methane refuelling stations dotted around the

country.

 

Another route to go is to convert the methane to hydrogen at

high efficiency using a new solar-assisted thermocatalytic

process, and then use the hydrogen to run vehicles. Yet

another route is to have a two-staged anaerobic digestion,

the first stage at slightly acidic conditions, which

optimises the production of hydrogen, with a second stage

under neutral pH for methane production.

 

Hydrogen storage is still a problem, though it is a very

active area of research at the moment. Tanked hydrogen is

now used to run buses on an experimental basis all over the

world including the UK; but for smaller vehicles in

particular, the ideal is to store hydrogen in a lightweight

solid absorbent and use that with a fuel cell. There are

promising developments in those areas also.

 

Benefits of Dream Farm II

 

It is clear that as far as energy is concerned, IREFE is not

only self-sufficient, but can also export electricity to the

grid. Some of the energy can be used to heat the biogas

digester, to make it work more efficiently. Surplus

electricity can also be used to recharge hybrid gas-electric

cars.

 

As far as food is concerned, there is a complete menu,

limited only by the imagination and industry, rich enough to

supply an on-site organic gourmet restaurant, all for free.

I am thinking of the fishpond possibilities: fresh water

oysters and other bivalves, crayfish, prawns, silver carp,

grass carp, what else? Specialty mushrooms, rocket, mange

tous peas, salad greens, orange beetroot, blue potatoes…

plenty of room for research and innovation there.

 

There's certainly enough food to spill over to local

villages, schools, old people's homes, nearby cities,

delivered fresh everyday.

 

In short,

 

Dream Farm is exactly what we need to feed the world,

mitigate climate change to let everyone thrive in good

health and wealth in all senses of the word in a post-fossil

fuel economy.

 

Unfortunately, our government prefers other solutions to the

energy crisis. It doesn't realise there is a food crisis

yet, and is emphatically against UK being self-sufficient in

food.

 

When asked about UK's food policy, a DEFRA spokesperson

wrote on behalf of the Minister for the Environment Elliot

Morley:

 

" Supporting greater UK self-sufficiency in food is

incompatible with the concept of the European single market,

in which different countries specialise according to

comparative advantage. In an increasingly globalised world

the pursuit of self-sufficiency for its own sake is no

longer necessary nor desirable. "

 

We need something like Dream Farm not only to feed the

world, or to mitigate climate change, or to avert the energy

crisis. Yes, it is all of those and more. Most important of

all, we need to mobilise human ingenuity and creativity, to

make us go on dreaming and working for a better world.

 

 

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