You go to a supermarket and you find what you want regardless of whether it is its growing season or not: plums, mangoes and melons in January. How is this possible? This is possible because our agri-food system backbone is based on overproducing food.
The European LIFE Polyfarming project, coordinated by CREAF, is included as an inspiring model in the recently published manual of good practices 'Sustainable management of mountain pastures' promoted by Euromontana.
The alternative agriculture and livestock model defended by the LIFE Polyfarming project has starred in a recent video made by the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD).
More than 90% of Earth's agricultural land will be degraded by 2050, according to the recent article ‘Let’s #StopSoilErosion to ensure a food secure future' published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). A degraded soil is infertile and can seriously reduce its agricultural performance. Recovering the fertility of degraded land is therefore essential for a region to move towards greater food sovereignty.
The Life-Polyfarming regenerative agriculture project, coordinated by Planeses and CREAF, has recently published six videos in which they explain, in an informative tone, the agricultural and livestock techniques carried out in the pilot farm in La Garrotxa, Catalonia. These techniques aim to recover fertile and profitable soil in a way that respects the environment.
This finding is described in an article including CREAF researchers and coauthors Aitor Ameztegui and Lluís Brotons. The study addresses how the superior limit of forest cover in the Pyrenees has changed over 50 years. According to the study, the tree line has advanced upward an average of 40 meters, one of the main causes of this being decreasing pressures from livestock. Contrary to common thinking to date, climate change may play a much lesser role than previously thought.
CREAF has participated in an international study which has estimated the total biomass production of all planetary ecosystems. These data can be used to improve accounting of the global supply of natural resources and plan strategies for boosting the sequestration of atmospheric carbon.
