Christian Kroll:

I remember cycling past corn fields on my way to school. What ten-year-old me didn’t realise, of course, is that the huge machines and the beautiful, tidy monotony of the fields were part of the world’s biggest problem; that 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions are related to the agricultural sector; that agriculture, and animal agriculture in particular, is the number one driver of deforestation worldwide.

Some years ago, I had another realisation: it doesn’t have to be like this. There are agricultural models that produce more and better food while actually removing CO2 from the atmosphere. The global transition from “destructive agriculture” towards “regenerative agriculture” is possible, and it is necessary.
What went wrong?

Before the “green revolution” in the 1950s, our food used to come from small, diverse farms. Then, with surprising speed, tractors replaced manual labour. Chemical fertilisers and pesticides became commonplace on fields (and in our food). We molded nature to our satisfaction. And, for a short time, it worked: fewer workers were needed, crop losses became rarer, and yields increased.

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