Grab and Keel

Key aspects of sustainable food production

‘Putting sustainable food production into context’ by Jerry Coleby-Williams, Patron, National Toxics Network Inc. 

At the Meetings of the conferences of the parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, Geneva, Switzerland, 24th April to 6th May 2017.

“There is no economy without food.

I am here to tell you that industrial chemicals – pesticides and fertilisers – are unnecessary for food production.

The food growers I mix with are interested in reducing the cost of operating a farm. They are not interested in spending money unnecessarily on industrial chemicals or fossil fuels.

The growers I work with are the opposite of industrial monocultures, they create productive, resilient landscape mosaics.

Such growers are interested in increasing productivity and profitability of their business by reducing the operating costs of food production.

No farming system is more productive than a mixed, one hectare family run…