Naomi Klein writes, “we lack many of the observational tools necessary to convince ourselves that climate change is real — let alone the confidence to believe that a different way of living is possible.”

 

California's drought experience this year is an example of in many ways a well-developed interlocking water system facing climate change.California along with the rest of the world, has relied on inadequate farming practices when it comes to water and soil use. For example, In terms of water, building up supplies in good years to deal with bad years has not happened. The State has an aging water system that cannot adjust to climate change. California is not alone but California's situation hits right in the stomach of all of us given that its central valley feeds the country.

Fixing aging structures isn't enough to maintain an adequate food production system . We have to change our farming practices and find a middle ground between technological advances and valuable indigenous knowledge.

Farmers have always faced uncertainty whether from the weather or the market. Today, if they are to survive in the face of even more uncertainty most farmers will have to find a middle ground in their practices in using their tradition of innovation or big data and high tech solutions.

Practices such as precision farming are useful in terms of analyzing local  soil quality, and rainfall over time in terms of providing information on the right crops to plant given certain conditions.

  FarmLogs and other farm management software provide publicly available data systems for farm analysis,  along with specific information derived from field machinery.

The use of big data can help ensure the optimal use of scarce resources and help with market predictions.

However many small farmers believe that big data is too easily co-opted by interests such as Monsanto.There also is the question of  whether or not big data will steamroll diversification efforts and the significant challenge of biodiversity that puts farmers on the frontlines.

The bottom line is who will own this data and how much will it cost over time. Since the 1980s, Monsanto has been the world leader in genetic modification of seeds. It has more than 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company according to USDA data. Interests such as Montsanto will protect their intellectual property rights at all costs.Monsanto will do anything to defend and gain more patents at the expense of small farmers,

Farmers innovate to survive. Part of that innovation means thinking independently of government projects and corporate economic mandates that do not historically work to address equitable food systems.What seems to work for a growing number of farmers around the world is using simple technologies to claim water for food and household use.

A Cornell study reported  that soil is “being swept and washed away 10 to 40 times faster than it is being replenished( Lang 2015).David Brewer, a farmer in Dallas Oregon  lives with the reality of a dry climate and droughts. He started keeping his head down and developed a relationship between seeding and the soil he had to work with. His idea was that if he feeds the soil the soil will feed him  using practices such as direct seeding. It turns out he is right. His successes are coming forward including "bigger and better crops.

The middle ground between technologies and indigenous knowledge can be defined as appropriate technologies that might support scaling up while maintaining indigenous knowledge often born of large outlays with too little capital and trial and error.

Farmers have typically faced a number of challenges to innovation. Historically there was the Green Revolution, with the worthy goal of feeding the world and an end result of the high cost of inputs for farmers, mega dams, and  expensive large-scale  government run irrigation and privatized projects that siphoned off water to the detriment of localized need, dominant markets, and growing transportation costs.

Alternatively, collective and cooperative organizations are increasingly important, particularly in the face of climate change. Mondragon represents an organization where democratic values have survived over the years in concert with highly developed technologies. However,as it moves into other global markets, the worker-owned concept as a non-capitalistic cooperative is more difficult to establish in particular regions.

France has shown before that development includes nature as a project to protect biodiversity given losses that have occurred through inter-regional cooperation..

Parque de la Papa or Potato Park is a 22,000-acre, farmer-led potato preserve located in Cusco Valley in the Peruvian Andes where six Quechua communities have banded together to grow more than 600 native breeds, which come in all shapes, sizes and colors, from purple to yellow and red, in the region where potato cultivation began.

Singapore was a signatory to the international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) resulting from the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. That year, the Singapore Green Plan was launched to provide a framework on biodiversity conservation. Nineteen nature areas (terrestrial and marine) were recommended. In 2003, the Singapore Green Plan 2012 was launched to better address conservation issues. In 2006, the National Biodiversity Reference Centre, under NParks, was established as a focal point for biodiversity conservation.

Changes in farming practices involves a sea change starting with conservation of farmers' indigenous knowledge and the right technologies to address ecosystems, and new consumption habits because what is happening with climate change is a long-term reality.

Climate change and indigenous practices....