Regenesis by George Monbiot, published in May, “Feeding The World without destroying the Planet” [1]
Monbiot is a writer, journalist, campaigner and newspaper columnist who regularly reports on a range of issues including the environmental impact of food and agriculture. The book reflects this background – readable and informative. He has carefully researched the subject. His observations and conclusions are supported by copious references to the underlying science.
From asserting that ‘Farming is the world’s greatest cause of habitat destruction’, Monbiot goes on to show that it doesn’t have to be this way, describes several examples of alternative methods of food production, and concludes with a radical vision for the future
The book looks at farming, as it is now, and identifies the damage it is doing to soil and the environment. It also looks at the food system, and how it is failing to achieve the objective of feeding the world. It goes on to highlight methods, some of which are already being pursued, which can repair and avoid this damage.
The book has been challenged by those with a vested interest in the status quo or who claim to have developed methods of livestock farming that do not incur the environmental or animal welfare problems highlighted in the book. I haven’t seen a convincing rebuttal that can be scaled up to meet global requirements, and it is not even the case that all livestock farmers disagree with Monbiot. In chapter 3 he writes, “For example, The Knepp Wildland Project, run by my friends Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell, where small herds of cattle and pigs roam freely across a large estate is often cited as an example of how meat and wildlife can be reconciled. But while it provides an excellent example of rewilding, it offers a terrible example of food production”
A central conclusion of the book is that a significant move to meat-free diets is necessary to build a global, sustainable and equitable food system that also leaves room for wildlife to flourish.
Sections of the book that particularly struck me are listed below.
There is, of course, far more to the book than these highlights. The book must be read to appreciate the range of issues covered, the seriousness of the current environmental crisis, and the radical and effective solutions within reach.
Chapter 1. What Lies Beneath
Beginning with an eloquent, almost poetic, description of apple trees, Monbiot moves on to describe the components and complexity of healthy soil. The fascinating detail almost makes you want to go out and buy the 40X loupe (apparently a jewellers magnifier) that Monbiot is using to examine the myriad life in the soil.
Chapter 2. What Lies Ahead
A description of the environmental and climate catastrophe that is already upon us, and will only grow worse if food, financial and governmental systems do not change
Chapter 3 Agricultural Sprawl
The chapter traces the flow of nutrients such as phosphates and nitrates through the system, describing their overuse. For example The River Wye, currently being turned from a rich and complex ecosystem into a filthy gutter by the glut of unregulated chicken farms within its catchment [2]. “Farming is the world’s greatest cause of habitat destruction, the greatest cause of the global loss of wildlife, and the greatest cause of the global extinction crisis”. An exaggeration? Monbiot ladles out the evidence.
Chapter 4 Fruitful
Monbiot visits Iain Tolhurst on the Hardwick Estate, overlooking the River Thames, at the foot of the Chiltern escarpment. For thirty three years Iain has been farming seven hectares without pesticides, herbicides, mineral treatments, animal manure or any other kind of fertiliser. He has pioneered a way of growing vegetables and fruit that he calls ‘stockfree organic’. Yet ‘Tolly’, while adding no additional nutrients, has raised his yields until they hit the lower bound of what intensive growers achieve with artificial fertilisers on good land
Chapter 5 The Number of the Feast
How to finance food production? Food has to be cheap enough to feed people in poverty, yet profitable enough to support those who grow it. The rise of of food banks and the work of FareShare food redistribution are examples that show that the system is not working. Fran, running a foodbank near Didcot, ‘We’re sticking a thumb in the dyke but we can see the wall is crumbling’. A start might be subsidising food at the point of consumption. As Fran says, ‘I’ve never understood why the government doesn’t subsidise fruit and vegetables’.
On food miles, reducing food miles is good where possible, but most of the world’s people live in big cities or populous valleys whose hinterland cannot feed them. In those cases significant food miles cannot be avoided.
Chapter 6 Putting Down Roots
A discussion of arable farming, cereals, grains, ploughing and soil erosion.
Monbiot meets Tim Ashton, Shropshire, whose no-till farming has overcome the need to keep breaking the soil by ploughing. As a result the number of worms has increased six-fold, there is better infiltration of water, better aeration, better root growth, biodiversity, and pest resistance. Aston still has to rely on some herbicides (weedkillers) but less of them than before taking up no-till farming.
No-till only slightly reduces individual yields, but in other places greatly increases them because switching from one crop to the next is much quicker
As a digression, Ashton shows Monbiot around his Neolithic Monument (Diversification can help the finances)
Monbiot meets Ian Wilkinson – Agroecology – an inspiring profitable circular economy that provides good food, but at significantly lower yields than current farming
Chapter 7 Farmfree
This chapter is the revolution! Ultimately only a revolution in farming will resolve the problems that have been described. The good news is that it has already started. Monbiot travels to Finland to meet Pasi Vainikka of Solar Foods who use microorganisms and fermentation tanks, solar power, and air to produce an edible protein replacement for meat [3]. The protein will be processed to resemble existing products if required such as meat, eggs, omlettes, etc, and very likely entirely new food experiences.
The technology is the tool to end livestock farming and the associated environmental destruction. Trials indicate thirty to sixty times less land is required to grow the same quantity of protein as for soy protein. Most of the space would be taken up by solar panels.
Microorganisms producing food may sound strange, but is not new: humans have been eating fermented food for thousands of years.
Chapter 8 Pastures New
Myths feed our thinking of what is good; we are brought up from infancy to think that farms are idyllic settings of lambs, cows, milkmaids and rosy-cheeked farmers. The vast barns, slurry pits, and abattoirs are nowhere to be seen.
Monbiot outlines the agricultural subsidies that keep alive the unviable livestock farming which is trashing the environment
“The real business of the farm takes place on the computer, filling in the subsidy forms; livestock graziers in the UK are entirely dependent on the taxpayer”
“Every year the world’s governments spend $500 billion – $600 billion on farm subsidies. They seldom dare to confront livestock farmers even when they inflict great environmental harm. Instead they shower them with money, mopped up by the wealthiest farmers”
In the European Union you only receive your money if your land is in ‘Agricultural Condition’ with no ‘ineligible features’ such as wildlife habitats, regenerating woodlands, ungrazed marshes, ponds, reedbeds. Farmers are incentivised to rip these out, and then paid to put some of them back! The government’s underwriting of insurance also gives farmers an incentive to ignore environmental risks.
We need to know the numbers to know how bad it is, but we also need a new stories involving rewilding and farming that affect our emotions as well as our minds.
People are rightly concerned about the future of farm workers in a changing system. there are examples of how this can be managed well. In the Netherlands a rewilding project employs six times more people than the dairy farms it replaced.
The chapter concludes with a list of actions. Notably, crops should be grown for food, not for animal feed, fuel and bioplastic. These other uses compete with crops for food, and will not relieve the pressure on wildlife habitats and the planet’s resources.
Chapter 9 The Ice Saints
Optimism in the face of setbacks. The times are changing. A new story is being told. The numbers are beginning to be appreciated. “We can envisage the beginning of a new era”.
Only in the final page do I diverge from Monbiot, who writes, “No prayers are required to provoke this change of state, just the hard work of a small number of committed people and the willingness of others to support them”. Rather I feel this is a spiritual campaign to change hearts as well as a practical one, although it has to be said that religious believers do not always understand the issues [4]. But if we are to appreciate every dimension of the world that we have received, then we also need to connect to the one who gave it to us, and this should provide further motivation to care for and thrive in it. [5].
[2] https://veganpieces.org/animal-welfare/the-true-cost-of-cheap-chicken
[3] https://veganpieces.org/technology/protein-out-of-thin-air/
[4] https://veganpieces.org/animal-welfare/a-turkey-is-not-just-for-christmas/
[5] New Testament, John 1:1-5
