An environmental report warns farming, fertilizer and diets are responsible for a large chunk of the pollution blamed for global warming. The Greenpeace report, Cool Farming, estimates direct and indirect agriculture industry activities are contributing 17% to 32% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Overuse of fertilizer is believed to be one of the leading culprits, releasing an estimated two billion tonnes of nitrous oxide — a greenhouse gas estimated to be 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide — into the atmosphere.
While Greenpeace Canada is urging the Harper government to implement a new tax on fertilizers, converting the new revenues into assistance for greener farming practices, the report’s author, Pete Smith, a professor of soils and global change at the University of Aberdeen, also suggests consumers have a role to play.
“This is not [about] having a go at farmers,” said Mr. Smith, a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 report.
“This is just trying to look forward to the future and see how we can move forward in a sustainable way that’s both climate-friendly and allows us to feed the people that we need to.”
The BMO warned in an article a few days ago:
CHINA, INDIA DEMAND
Food crisis looms, BMO analyst warns ‘It’s going to hit this year hard,’ Donald Coxe says
BY ALIA MCMULLENFinancial Post amcmullen@nationalpost.com
A new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen. The credit crunch and the reverberations of soaring oil prices around the world will pale in comparison to what is about to transpire, Donald Coxe, global portfolio strategist at BMO Financial Group, said at the Empire Club’s 14th annual investment outlook in Toronto yesterday.
“It’s not a matter of if, but when,” he warned investors. “It’s going to hit this year hard.”
With a potential food crisis looming these morons want to start screwing with food production and make it less productive.
I really do pity the 3rd world because when these leftist twits are done millions are going to die from starvation and poverty.
I wish conservatives would wrap their heads around the fact that Kyotto/AGW and a dozen other cons are most certainly the progeny of global soviet systems…the primary driving force is the UN agenda 21 and all the idioms this entails.
For globalists/transnationalists, UN agenda 21 is the holy scripture of planning global governance…and that utopian vision is NOT a democratic form of governing which empowers individuals…it empowers unelected “elite committees” and social engineering authoritarianism (Huxley-styled global technocracy). individuals under this form of governing exist to serve the state, not the other way around as we were used to in traditional constitutional democracies.
Agenda 21 entails the defacto elimination of privately owned/controlled land and resources and puts the power to regulate food/minerals/water/land/human resources in the hands if central committees…now what political doctrines also support this agenda? Technocracy? Feudalism ? corporatism? communism?…or a rationalized synthesis of all four: transnational globalism.
Does it begin to make sense why both monied elites, large corporate cartels, Banking and left wing elites can all get behind UN globalist agendas?
“…and allows us to feed the people that we need to.”
I wonder who those people are?
Telling choice of priorities. Take care of their arbitrary mandates to solve a fraudulent problem first, and then with whatever food is left over, feed the people ‘they’ need to.
Sounds like a declaration of war against the rest of us.
I can’t help but think that it won’t be the capitalists that kill us but the enviromentalists.
oh give me a home where the buffalo roam
and the deer and the antelope play.
exactly what you get when take away technology from the Canajun prairies.
we can go back to sub-stainable agriculture.
In other words, people should stop eating. Or, alternatively, we either should not allow so many people to eat or (better) not have as many people on the planet.
I’m not the least bit surprised that Greenpeace is named given the close association of environmentalism with population control theories. Do we even have to mention Paul Watson?
Fertilizer will make plants grow better, plants eat CO2 via photosynthesis so the fertilizer eats co2.
So do algae blooms on lake Winnipeg that people blame on fertilizer.
DUH,
So it might make the lake unusable but as long as co2 is reduced we saved the planet right?
The dinosaurs went extinct when Homo sapiens decided to eliminate them all and go on a diet of grass with roots for desert. Thus man could now develop to the
progressive state he’s now in!
Yours Greenpuke Founder
Asshat Moonbat.
Enviro tax on fertilizer?
Here’s an idea, let’s ban farming, kill all those nasty methane belching cows and then declare the world officially screwed.
Hey, isnt that what the wacko-enviro’s really want?
They seem to have this need/hope that some catastrophe is hanging over us about to wipe us off the map. The solution is then to have governemnt make our lives horrible to save us from the “doom” so that when the “doom” does not happen we get it anyways from the “sacrifices” we made to save ourselves.
These clowns won’t stop until we all look like Dachau concentration camp survivors — which to them is just a Kiera Knightley movie in grainy black and white.
We should never forget that Communist government converted Russia and the Ukraine from net grain exporters to net grain
importers, to use words which slide over an immense human tragedy. So our Greens want to go for agriculture; and so they will, if they ever get a chance.
Greens are evil.
I understood that the methane release by cows theory as a significant issue was debunked last year?
Cal2 said:
“exactly what you get when take away technology from the Canajun prairies.
we can go back to sub-stainable agriculture.”
“Sustainability” is the sanitized political buzz word for the implementation of agenda 21.
Interestingly this grew from the planning of radical environmentalists to remove agriculture/farms/rural populations from the western plains (moving these rural independent farmers to urban centers through economic mechanisms) and create a transnational nature preserve of the North American plains…dubbed “buffalo commons”..this idea later evolved into the UN biosphere planning and the actuation to secure the land was documented in agenda 21
Read it hear and weep at the insane elitism of these enviro-nazis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Commons
http://prfamerica.org/indices/BiosphereReservesIndex.html
I remember the 1970s photos of the orchards where the Cambodian left wing government tried to fertilize the fruit trees by placing corpses of executed prisoners at the roots of all the trees. The acid from the rotting corpses killed the trees. I hope the Liberals and NDP are aware of this, just in case they ever form a Canadian federal government.
One of the few things I kind of agree on with the greenies is the problem of overpopulation
BUT
it is not westerners who are overpopulating the planet.
Westerners provide the technology, money , food and solutions to problems but not the babies who are over populating the planet.
What is the greenie’s solution to third world people reproducing like rabbits?
Perhaps soylent green is the answer to all our problems. Folks like the green party would be natural first responders to volunteer to feed the masses I should think.
Here’s a really good way to save the environment: bury all the environmentalist alive to create “carbon sinks.”
These watermelon enviro-lunatics are something else. CO2 is carbon and oxygen. Carbon is the building block of all life and oxygen is it’s fuel. The idea that F’ing plant food is dangerous is an idea that only a campus academic could come up with.
I hope the leftards try to win an election with that asinine nonsense. I can see the headline now: “The libs want you to pay more for food!” Aside from the increase in agri products from the use of food to make biodiesel and ethanol, this would make it very difficult for poor people to live.
I guess that’s what the Stalinists of the left want: less poor people. I guess this is one way to do it. Capitalist’s preferred way would be to make people less poor – not kill them. But it’s the evil capitalists who are immoral according to the nutcases on the left.
Leftardism is a mental disorder.
A lot of this fertilizer that Mike De Souza and his Greenpeace nut-cases want to tax for “green” reasons is the same fertilizer that is used in growing so-called bio-fuels. Yup, bio-fuels. Ethanol, and the like, that in most cases are worth less energy than the fossil fuel used to produce the “green” fuel.
Where n’ he** do all these nut-cases get their funding from ?
Fertilizer feeds a hungry world. It enables our farmers to avoid the mining of their land. Soil nutrients (NPKSFeMg, ect) that are used in growing crops MUST be replaced or the land will become infertile. There is no free lunch.
Speaking of lunch, it is becoming clearer every day that Maurice Strong, Paul Watson, Suzuki, Gore are serious in their quest for population control (reduction even), One World Governance and a cancelling of the industrial revolution that provides us with comforts such as room temperature. Back to the Cave-Dave. Nice.
Greenpeace epitomizes pseudo-environmentalism and is actually nothing more than a green hysteria fundraising organization of the worst corporate spin-doctored variety, occasionally dabbling in terrorism and always pimping on ignorance.
Following their logic, an agriculture without fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides would see huge drops in productivity necessitating major expansion of cultivation into forested or wild areas, hardly what comes to mind when thinking “green”.
The cost of food has already gone up a lot in 2007. It’s a combination of higher demand, higher energy costs, and decreasing arabel land area, particularly in Asia. And it will just get worse, if those nutty ideas of fertilizer taxes and others take hold.
But you can fight back. Grow your own food.
It is hard to overstate, in pointing out, that our beloved Media is mainly responsible for the Nut-Cases gaining traction. And funding.
But but but…what about all those beautiful green biofuels that are supposed to be saving our poor planet?
Even the greenies don’t believe in ethanol. Only proper use for it is race gas.
Ethonol was the green nutcases most amusing screw-up.
Not only is it anything but green but has resulted in corporate welfare to polluting big agri-businesses run my large companies that the green leftards love to hate.
Bio-diesel is the green nutcases most damaging. Brazil and Indonesia are burning down rainforest to make way for palm oil to use in bio-diesel so foolish leftards can drive around pretending to be green. So much for Indonesia’s endangered orangotans…
I’m all for ridding agriculture in Canada of pesticides and fertilizers; they should never have been used in the first place. Pesticides and fertilizers have ruined the soil, and the only way to grow nutritious food is to grow it in healthy soil. It is time to get back to what nature had to offer all along.
Joanne,
Will you volunteer to starve to death or do you want the world’s poor to do that for you?
If you get rid of the chemicals which are responsible for drastically increased crop yields and drastically decreased crop failures, you kill a few hundred million people in the next 12 months.
If people like you enact this sort of lunacy, it should be you at the front of the line to starve.
There is nothing wrong with using the manure of sheep, cows, and horses….fish are good too, instead of chemicals that cause cancer and a lot of other diseases.
Warwick, maybe if people only ate their share of food that kept them at an ideal weight, instead of gorging themselves and contributing to the rampant obesity problem in children and adults in North America, then there would be food for the impoverished and those who procreate at an alarming rate…..and this doesn’t even take into account the food that is wasted.
I for one, do not want my food grown in chemicals, call me what you want…..health conscious or whatever, but putting chemicals into the soil is destructive behaviour in the long run, and we have well surpassed the long run. I’m not with GreenPeace on much, but I am certainly all for ridding our once healthy soil of life-threatening pesticides and fertilizers.
I’m sympathetic to the argument that *some* “modern” agricultural practices in *some* jurisdictions may be exhausting the soil prematurely or spoiling groundwater. I would, however, be much more willing to listen if the arguments came from an Agricultural , Soil, or Geological scientist.
I’m also suspicious that what’s lying underneath when you find a farmer or group of farmers acting irrationally is a government subsidy or incentive program that’s distorting their behaviour.
As a farmer, I can attest that nitrogen fertilizer is the largest single expense of growing a crop by a wide margin. It is therefore axiomatic that this expense is aggressively managed to minimize waste. We dont no stinking interferance from any government to change our practices us in this regard.
Question: How many people have died (proven) from organic food ?
Answer: Lots. (think spinach)
Question: How many have died from (proven) ag chemical use(approved) with the soil ?
Answer: None.
Question: How many have died because of Geneticaly Enhanced food ?
Answer: None — not even so much as a stomach ache.
Question: How many in the world would die without chemical fertilizer ?
Answer: Billions.
Question: How many have been duped by fanatics ?
Answer: Millions !
Question: Why is it that the ‘Fanatical’ type of environmentalist gets away with criticizing food production with a full belly ?
Answer: Media
Joanne,
Outbreaks of e-coli in strawberries and other non-meat products are a result of spreading animal crap over fields.
Farmers are clearly already making use of the available “material.” But that won’t do it by itself.
Again, are you willing to not eat if there isn’t enough food to feed the poor?
You don’t need to answer, we already know. You want other people to suffer for your priorities like all selfish leftards.
Beware the 500 millioner!
(wish I could somehow transpose the flashing red light from the Drudge Report into my post)
Joanne: “call me what you want”
OK, you are a looney whacko nutcase devoid of reasoning skill.
Our food supply is the healthiest it has ever been. Except for organic.
That some think our Farmers use fertilizer in a wasteful manner is ludicrous !!
Even moderate sized farms on the prairies may annually purchase as much as a hundred grand $$ of Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potash, Sulfur and other nutrients. Yes nutrients — as in ‘wholesome’.
Also, why do you think that our life expectancy is the longest it has ever been.
Headline: LIFE EXPECTANCY HITS A RECORD ! WE ARE WHAT WE EAT
Experts, ya right. In my life time I have known some ag experts. Sorry, but almost to a person, they were failures from some former “endevour”. Never a successful type who had walked the walk.
“… life-threatening pesticides and fertilizers.”
Then why, Joanne, is our life expectancy constantly increasing?
John M Reynolds
Your pic sums it up. Greenpolpot is opposed to farming now.
The ethanol boondoggle is responsible in part for the rise in food prices.
Organic gardening is really only viable for small scale production. It is a much more labor intensive and expensive method that is more suited to backyard gardeners and niche markets.
For large scale farming and mass production we are stuck with modern farming practices. Its lower costs allow for affordable and plentiful feeding of the world.
Coming from a farming area and talking to farm workers, I hear both sides. Some farmers are more environmentally friendly than others. Unsafe practices are not as rare as one would hope. I am not sure how government could realistically enforce environmental regulations on farmers without being expensive and overbearing.
Water pollution would be easier to regulate for larger industries, city sewage and landfills.
Oh yeah, these types of radical environmentalist are nuts. They are not pro-environment, they are anti-human.
I agree that this proposal is just one more socialist scheme, but I have to disagree with the suggestion that reducing the use of agricultural chemicals will result in food shortages. As I drive through rural Alberta, I see precious little food production to begin with. What I do see is hectare after hectare after hectare of canola. I am fairly confident in the capacity of my household to absorb a significant increase in our annual budget for canola oil.
RM,
Canola is a product which is used to make other products. You can buy a jug of Canola oil to cook with but that is a small fraction of its use.
If I had to guess, salad dressing would be the number one use but since it is a guess, I may be wrong.
Howling Moon I’m not sure if that’s sarcasm or an insult, hmmm.
I’m not extinct yet!
mmmm Soylent green (drool)
Nauseous again. Always seem to get that sick feeling when on the Elyptical Machine. Also the only time I watch TV 🙁
Just on CBC, Marchand(?) Had an “expert” on the US Primaries.
Nearly the whole segment was on how good Hillary And Obama were — ‘neck and next contest for the hearts and minds of Americans’, and all that.
In closing, oh, ya, ‘the other race’. What about McCain’ chances — well, ‘maybe the best of a poor lot’. Ok, gota run.
Sick. In both cases. And to think that before the Internet, I only ‘suspected’ that the CBC may not be above board — now I know, am adamant, that it is dangerous.
And to think I used to virtually hang on every word, and quote, from the likes of Patrick Watson, Mansbridge, Newmann, Off, Karen Weber, Adrien Clarkson, Suzuki, Stewart, MacDonald (he had to be the worst of the worst).
Fail To Read The Newspaper And You Will Be Uninformed.
Read The Newspaper And You Will be Misinformed.
I believe that was written a long time ago — true then, true now. Even more so, since the major medias have been crowded out to Tabloid territory.
MM; Canola IS food production! The oil is used in cooking,the meal is used in animal feed.I cant believe the number of people that think that their food comes from supermarkets.Wheat fields=bread,pasta and animal feed,grasslands=meat and milk,rye=bread,whiskey and animal feed,barley=beer,whiskey and animal feed,oats=breakfast food and animal feed,corn=oil,vodka,whiskey or ethynal and animal feed,peas=soup and animal feed,I could go on.ITS ALL FOOD!We also grow mustard for your hotdogs.
Surprise, surprise, GreenPUS, says farming contributes to EEEVIIIL manmade global warming.
Waddya expect? GreenPUS sees man as EEEVIIIL. And uninformed frightened, chemophobic, bozos like Joanne buy into their money-raising crap. GreenPUS pushes “organics” and is against EEEVIIIL chemicals. Note that even the name “organic” is fraudulent: all plant material (including food) is organic, regardless of how it is grown. Every thing we eat is organic and chemical. If it was not, it would be non-organic and inert.
However, “organic” marketing is very successful; it preys on the uninformed and easily frightened. A study in the UK showed that people who bought “organics” did so to FEEL good about themselves. They “felt” they were “taking control” of the food they ate and fed their families.
Joanne
A plant doesn’t care whether or not the required ammonium nitrate (and all other required chemicals) comes from manure or prills from natural gas or other “non-organic” source. They are both the same “chemical”. If all agriculture went organic and you agreed that we shouldn’t add a couple of billion humans to the death pile above then all forests and wild areas on the planet would need to convert to grazing land to feed those big manure producing (and methane-farting) animals which would grossly out-number humans. So-called organic food is nothing more than a tax on stupid rich people and the source of 25% of all E-coli cases despite being only 3% of all food produced. But, as long as I don’t have to buy it have at it.
I guess the saying that ‘Mother Nature knows best’ isn’t well known on this thread.
Gee, if we didn’t have pesticides and chemical fertilizers – full of fluoride by the way – we would all die of starvation, especially the poor. Such rhetoric.
I take it there aren’t any religious types on this thread either.
terrence – how I feel about pesticides and chemical fertilizers has nothing to do with GreenPeace. I’ve always been against such poisons used in growing our food. I don’t know if some of you people get out or read much on this subject, but cancer is traceable to such said products used in our soils. I know some people embrace cancer as the cause of death, but it isn’t suppose to be that way. I guess some of you don’t wash your fruit or vegetables either before you eat them, even though it is recommended.
RM – if you fly over Alberta you will see a great deal of ‘food production’; Alberta looks like a colorful quilt. I’ve done my fair share of driving throughout Alberta, and what I see is a whole lot of cattle…at least from the ground.
“Again, are you willing to not eat if there isn’t enough food to feed the poor?” by Warwick
First, I would be willing to not eat of any foods grown as a supply for the world’s population if organic farming was undertaken throughout Canada. By the way, organic farming is the norm in the world anyhow. And maybe you didn’t realize it, but the reason the poor do not eat as well as they could is because they lack money, not because of lack of food; otherwise, they wouldn’t be referred to as ‘poor.’
By the way, you are suppose to compost manure, not use fresh manure, especially not on plants before harvest. There are organic practices that have been used since man’s existence; I’m sure it would be a learning process for some.
“Sheep have the largest global warming potential, according to the report, with each kilogram of meat producing an estimated 17.4 kg of CO2 emissions, followed by cattle at 12.98 kg of CO2, swine at 6.35 kg and poultry at 4.57 kg”
The GWP (sic) of the average human (2004 values) is between 70 and 80 kg CO2 (depending on the body weight chosen).
May I make a modest proposal?
I more or less plowed through the Green(piece) GHG submission regarding agriculture. Although it had lots of pretty pictures and graphs, the message still reads: “Become a vegetarian, don’t eat meat.” What crap! It is a proven fact that the huge grain fields of today’s agriculture remove large quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere, as do ALL plants. Livestock are typically raised on land less suited to grain production. Also the waste they produce fertilize land used to grow crops. That’s why we get organic vegetables laced with E-coli. (Remember the veggies from that organic farm in California, about a year ago. You know, the one next to a cattle feed lot.)It also seems that with production techniques used in today’s agriculture we can grow enough food and still have lots left over to feed a bio-fuel industry.