Chasing Two Rabbits in Agriculture: Food Production and Carbon Reduction

By Hyunhwa Chung

As the global population is predicted to become 10 billion by 2057 according to UN, securing and managing food has become a matter of urgency. However, there should be some changes in agriculture so as to control the amount of carbon release. We need wisdom to chase the two rabbits of food production and carbon reduction.

The climate is much more capricious these days. Last winter was very harsh in North America, Russia, and Northeast Asia, not to mention Korea. As in the movie The Day After Tomorrow, the freezing air from the North Pole was the cause of the cold wave. Scientists explained that Artic warming slowed down the jet stream that is keeping the freezing air mass over the North Pole, and as a result, the freezing air slipped down to affect those countries. The temperature in Naju, located just near Gwangju, recorded -20℃. At the same time, it was between -13℃ and -17℃ in Gwangju. This March, cherry blossoms bloomed two weeks earlier than usual, but the temperature the following week was below zero around Seoul. There was a bad flood in Seoul last summer, but Gwangju is experiencing drought. The weather is much harder to predict, and we experience more bipolar weather nowadays. Food production is a concern naturally. While working in the agriculture sector now, I have come to think of solutions, which may include the following.

Breeding

Breeding new plant varieties is like upgrading plants. The goal of breeding nowadays is to find or discover plants which need less energy, less pesticide and less fertilizer, while still producing more. It is true that food production tripled in the past decades thanks to technological developments including pesticides and fertilizers, and this enabled us to feed the fast-growing world population. However, overuse of fertilizers and pesticides has left too much nitrogen and chemicals in the soil, and a lot of plants cannot be grown without them. The population is still growing rapidly. Plant breeding must play a role. While conventional plant breeding is still the mainstream, genetic scissors and PCR tests are being introduced to breeding to shorten the time needed to half. The market also looks forward to hardier, healthier, and more productive plants in times of inflation. I hope that this will show us a breakthrough.

Using Beneficial Microorganisms

It is harder for us to maintain good health when we are exposed to an environment that is not ideal, and it is the same for our plants. If the temperature goes up, the activities of hazardous microorganisms will increase to harm plants. Pesticides were a fast solution. However, just as antibiotics kill good germs in our bodies, chemical pesticides kill the friendly microorganisms in the soil.  More people know this, so more biological disease-control methods are being developed. It takes longer for the bio-methods to work, and they may not work fast in chemically contaminated soil, but in the long run, this is a way to keep the soil and plants healthy. I was happy to find out that agriculture technology centers in Korea provide some beneficial microorganisms for free. In Gwangju, there is one in Pyeong-dong, Gwangsan-gu.

Plants growing in the soil rich with microorganisms will have better resistance against diseases. Microorganisms also transform the organic matter in the soil to forms that are easier for the plants to absorb, and this cuts down on the use of fertilizers, too. Chemical pesticides and fertilizers are derived from fossil fuels, so they will create a vicious circle of warmer temperatures, more diseases, more pesticides, and more greenhouse gasses to increase the temperature. We need to cut these links to deal with climate challenges and produce healthy food.

Being Friends with Weeds

Most farmers think weeds are enemies, but there are successful lazy farmers who have weed friends. The idea is that weeds can keep the soil soft.  When a plowing machine passes, the surface seems soft and readier, but down deeper a hard layer forms, and plants cannot penetrate it easily, leading to poor root development and, as a result, poor nutrition absorption. Weed roots, in contrast, are much more vigorous and effective in penetrating this layer, and this helps keep the soil soft all the way down. With the cooperation of weeds, plants can use the water and nutrients from deep under. Also, the microorganisms that associate with weed roots are beneficial to the soil environment and the plants we grow. The loose, soft soil provides better drainage and better access to oxygen, too. Therefore, weeds should be kept there with the plants. (Maybe growers can cut them once in a while, so the plants will receive sunlight for photosynthesis, but the weed roots should not be removed.) Plowing is also known to release carbon back into the air, so instead of plowing, we should let the weeds do the job. Weeds are our friends.

Less Plastic Use

The agriculture sector uses a lot of plastic, too. Little baby plants are all sold in little plastic trays and plugs. Plastic films are used to keep in the moisture of the soil. They eventually become trash that remains for 500 years or become nanoplastics in the soil, rivers, and oceans. Now, more farmers who are aware of this are trying to replace them with non-plastics or biodegradable plastics. It costs more, but while plastic goods need to be removed when getting old, biodegradable goods do not, so labor cost is saved, not to mention that it releases less gas into the atmosphere. Local governments also collect plastic from farms for recycling.

What to Do

Global warming is speeding up, and a 1.5-degree increase was predicted to happen by 2050, but according to IPCC this March, 2040 is the new predicted date, which is 10 years earlier. We need to find ways to feed all people using more sustainable methods. While breeders, farmers, and scientists do their jobs, we food consumers should support the more ethical farmers and businesses in food production. To orchestrate all these, we need the right policies, systems, technologies, and our own awareness in making choices. We also need global cooperation to help each other in emergencies.

The Author

Chung Hyunhwa is from Gwangju and currently working for a horticultural company. She is the former leader of Gwangju Hikers, an international eco-hike group at the GIC. Previously, she taught English in different settings, including Yantai American School and Yantai Korean School in China, and has worked for the Jeju school administration at Branksome Hall Asia in recent years. She holds a master’s degree in TESOL from The College of New Jersey in the U.S. and a license to teach the Korean language. She loves plants, birds, and making useful items out of things that lose their purposes.