Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future

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We are losing 30 soccer fields of soil every minute, mostly due to intensive farming," Volkert Engelsman, an activist with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements told the forum at the FAO's headquarters in Rome. The FAO calculated that 24bn tonnes of fertile or 12m hectares of topsoil are lost every year – at a rate of 30 football pitches of soil every minute. Does that mean there aren’t real threats to some agricultural soils around the world? Absolutely not. Indeed, all the scientists I spoke to went to great lengths to point these out, where they exist. A spokesperson for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) said the vast majority of beef and dairy cattle in the UK were “grazing outdoors throughout the year for as long as the weather conditions permit”.

That science is forensically analysed by Jayne Buxton in The Great Plant-Based Con (★★★★★). She is the ideal inquisitor: a mother concerned about her children’s generation’s nutrition; a lay-person able to be objective and speak out without losing a university seat or a research grant, but with knowledge of the food industry from a career in consultancy. She has sifted through all the scientific arguments fairly and produced a very readable book that explains it all to the general reader in a way that can easily be digested. Philip Lymbery is ideally-placed to write this important and timely investigation into the present and future of food and farming. As Chief Executive of Compassion in World Farming he has a wealth of knowledge and experience; he's travelled widely in his investigations, spoken at international conferences and written two previous books on different aspects of this subject: Farmageddon and Where the Wild Things Were (both of which are on my shelves).On this World Environment Day, 5th June, Philip Lymbery’s book, Sixty Harvests Left – How To Reach a Nature Friendly Future has never been more urgent. All visualizations, data, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited. This third book from Philip Lymbery is a powerful, fast-paced journey presenting the unpalatable truth – that if we allow our global farming system to continue, we will only have 60 harvests left. We travel from Philip’s beloved and threatened Sussex countryside to farmed areas, including the USA’s barren mega cattle feedlots, which are turning the earth to dust. His incisive research and storytelling make it clear that Big Ag’s domination has destroyed our 10,000 year life giving contract with the soil.

Through conservation agriculture, farmers can reduce costs, use fewer chemicals and rebuild biological life in the soil, making it healthier, more resilient to extreme weather and able to support more wildlife. It’s win-win for farmers, the people they feed and the environment.” From the United Kingdom to Italy, from Brazil to the Gambia to the USA, Philip Lymbery, the internationally acclaimed author of Farmageddon , goes behind the scenes of industrial farming and confronts 'Big Agriculture', where mega-farms, chemicals and animal cages are sweeping the countryside and jeopardising the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and the nature that we treasure. New research reveals US-style mega-farm numbers have risen to nearly 1,100, including 745 poultry mega-farms in England and 59 in Wales, bringing into question the country’s claim to be a nation of animal lovers.Gove’s speech on Monday afternoon came as UK farmers anxiously wait to see if Brexit will take them out of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, and if so, what will take its place. Defra is currently working on a new agricultural bill and is simultaneously drawing up a 25-year environmental plan. Gove promised both would reflect the concerns of the SSA. In summary, in this the third in a trilogy following on from Dead Zone (2017) and Farmageddon (2014), Philip Lymbery examines the reasons behind the increasing loss of soil, detailing its historical antecedents (Libya and the American mid-west dustbowl of the 1930s) and current trajectories. In the east of England fens we are losing one inch of soil per year, and, globally, such trends may result in only 5 per cent of farmland being left by the 2050s. Evans, D. L., Quinton, J. N., Davies, J. A. C., Zhao, J., & Govers, G. (2020). Soil lifespans and how they can be extended by land use and management change. Environmental Research Letters, 15(9), 0940b2. But this also creates negative impacts: it can damage the soil structure, leading to soils becoming more susceptible to erosion. Increasing soil erosion can lead to a loss of nutrients and organic matter; it may increase chemical run-off from the land; and may reduce water infiltration.

Nonetheless, the movement is taking off in the UK. Three years ago, Cherry organised the Groundswell festival on his land to spread the word about the environmental and economic benefits of looking after the soil. He was amazed when 700 people turned up. Philip Lymbery is one of the few who really understand the connections between farming and nature [...] He is the most important thinker writing about these crucial issues – and the way forward"

Comments

Sir Michael Morpurgo Beautifully crafted. A compelling, excoriating account of industrial farming – how it is driving the climate and biodiversity emergencies, while also undermining our health. Full of insights and encounters with pioneers of new ways of farming, Sixty Harvests Left is a call to action – to change our world from the ground up. A vitally necessary book. The chilling title is the red flag; the contents, however, lay out all the remedies to save the planet and its species, including ours, and make for absorbing and sometimes terrifying reading. Minutely researched, and written for laymen as well as experts, Sixty Harvests Left reads like a thriller. It deserves to be read worldwide and acted upon immediately. I cannot recommend it highly enough."