The document discusses two paradigms for feeding the world: the productionist paradigm since 1945 focused on increasing food production, and the emerging ecologically integrated paradigm focused on healthy food and environment. It emphasizes that feeding the soil through organic fertilizers and building soil organic matter is key to ecological integration and maintaining soil fertility. The document argues for local food cycles and global networks of sustainable diets respecting food cultures and ecosystems to achieve food security for a growing global population.

1. Feeding the soil, feeding
the people
Juha Helenius
University of Helsinki
FAO Food Day Seminar, Oct 29 2015
The Finnish National FAO Committee &
University of Helsinki Faculty of Agriculture and
Forestry

2. ”Feeding the world”:
success and failure of
productionist paradigm

3. Lang & Heasman’s (2004) food paradigm
analysis
Lang. T. & M. Heasman 2004. The food wars thesis. In: T. Lang & M. Heasman: Food Wars. The Global
Battle for Mouths, Minds and Markets. Chapter 1, pp. 11-46. Earthscan, London & New York.

4. The productionist
paradigm
(ca. 1945 - today)

5. The ecologically integrated
paradigm (emerging since 2000)

6. the 2 compared
• productionist paradigm
– post WWII food shortage
– ”more food for the population”
– the green revolution: farming
• ecologically integrated paradigm
– healthy food for all (food and nutritional security) & “healthy”
environment
– individual and the population; costs of wrong diets
– the food system

7. Source: EASAC 2015. Ecosystem services, agriculture and neonicotinoids. EASAC policy report 26, in which adapted from Power
2010, Aisbett & Kragt 2010).
Soil as an ecosystem service and provider of ecosystem services on which
food production depends

8. FAO’s classification of agricultural land
Cropland, ca. 1.5 x 109 ha (15 milj. km2, 0.2 ha/capita)
1.1. arable land
1.2. horticultural land
1.3. orchards
Pastures, ca. 3 x 109 ha (30 milj. km2)
Agricultural extent: 38% of global land area

9. Source: Foley et al. 2011. Nature 478: 337-342, supplementary.
(pelto)

10. Loss of soil and soil fertility
Photo: Water erosion. Source:
www.newworldencyclopedia.
org/entry/Erosion
Photo: Dust bowl, May 1937, Springfield, Colorado (Source: Dorst 1970)

11. Photo: Rainforest cleared for soya production in Brazil, with the protected tree species Brazil nut left
standing by Daniel Beltra, eblog.greenpeace.org/makingwaves/amazon.jpg

12.  Loss of topsoil: Globally, erosion rate is 24 x 109 t/a (4,8 t/ha/a;
0,48 kg/m2/a)
 Loss of soil nutrients: nutrient mining, negative nutrient
balances
 Loss of soil organic matter: the ”humus” is lost when
formation is slower than mineralization
 Climate Change: warming and drying of climates
 Salinization: in conditions of net-evapotranspiration, salt crust
forms on top of the soil – loss of 1.5 x 106 ha/a of irrigated land
 Compaction: loss of tillable structure, lowered penetration of
roots of crop plants

13. Simultaneous harvesting of soybean and sowing of maize in Brazil (Source:
Celia Fortes Ferreira, ppt-presentation, 8.10.2009)

14. In farming, ecological
integration boils down to soil!
“African farmers could double or even triple crop yields from their farms if they embrace integrated
soil fertility management (ISFM), a new AGRA report shows.” http://www.afronline.org/?p=36368

15. ”Living soil”:
Feeding soil with
organic fertilizers =
creating soil organic
matter (humus) =
maintaining soil
fertility.
Bonus: carbon
sequestration
Source: Lal (2004,
Science 304)

16. Source: Lal (2004,
Science 304, Fig. 4)

17. Rattan Lal (2004, Science 304, Fig. 4):
“Cereal yields in Africa have been stagnant since early 1970s and
stand at a meager 1 ton/ha. The vicious cycle of deletion in soil
organic matter–decline in crop yield–food insecurity–soil and
environmental degradation can be broken by improving soil
fertility through enhancement of the soil organic matter pool,
which requires use of sustainable agricultural technologies for
water and nutrients management, including no-till farming,
composts and mulching, leguminous cover crops, water
harvesting, agroforestry, [controlled grazing] and integrated
farming systems, along with judicious use of chemicals. This
strategy can break the tyranny of hunger.”
[Addition from his presentation 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTb63CDJ5sA ]

18. Food security has a geography!
http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Other-Information/Press_Release_WPP2010.pdf

19. http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Other-Information/Press_Release_WPP2010.pdf

20. Source: WFP,
http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/wfp275057.pdf

21. Source: UN, http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Highlights/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf
How to feed the big cities?

22. http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/seal08/images/CityCrowd.jpg
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Photog
raphy/Images/POD/t/trichur-pooram-crowd-508657-sw.jpg
Ecologization:
how to recycle from the
big cities?
Over 50% of the
population is urban, and
increasing.

23. Edward Goldsmith (ed.)
2006. The Doomsday
Funbook.
Cartoons by Richard
Wilson. Ecodoom.
Role of science:
part of the problem, or
part of the solution?

24. Food cycle
for:
what is needed to satisfy our need for food
and good nutrition
what serves cultural needs
what gives a sense of community
what makes the link to the ecosystem tangible

25. local food cycle, circular food system
Community members
producing
Community
members cooking
Community
members
marketing
Community members
sharing the meal

26. Vision for food citizenship
Global network of local food cycles securing
sustainable diet:
food quality, nutritional adequacy, and safety
food security (entitlement, access)
fairness
respect to food cultures
ethics
care of ecosystems, sense of biotic community

27. …or, what do you think?