Organic Matter & Meal: Global Game Changers Vs Climate Change – Ted Mendoza

Manila: Thursday, 20 June 2019, Kisig G Lopez shared this link, more than 3 years old, and yet it is timely as you will see; ANN says, "Bolivia To Be Completely Food Independent In 2020 By Investing In Small Farmers" (Author Not Named, 11 May 2016, CSGlobe, csglobe.com). 

Also that day, UP Los Baños Professor (Retired) Teodoro Mendoza spoke of "Game Changers In Addressing The Scarcity Of The Two Main Drivers Of Agriculture And Food Systems," at the "SEARCA Agriculture & Development Seminar" at SEARCA headquarters. SEARCA is the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Studies in Agriculture based at the UP Los Baños campus. Mr Mendoza says the 2 main drivers are water and energy.

Elsewhere, the World Food Programme, WFP, writes on the "Climate Impacts On Food Security" (wfp.org). Ha. The WFP is looking at only one side of the coin; the other side is that the pursuit of food security impacts on climate.

Mr Mendoza essentially says the more energy you use, the more climate change you produce. The scientists of WFP and Bolivia are still thinking within the old paradigm:

You must multiply food because population multiplies.
The best way to do that is multiply chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

And Mr Mendoza is telling them right now:
You will indeed produce more food – but
you will also indeed produce more greenhouse gases!

I love what Mr Mendoza is prescribing in his SEARCA seminar to combat climate change:

(1) Go organic!

(2) Go vegetarian!

With those, I'm putting words into his mouth, but I assure you it is all healthy – to go organicis the best way to healthy food you can find; to go vegetarian is the best way to go organic.

Combined Problem:OM – The Oil and the Meat are the combined problem. Use of oil gives off GHGs; you need oil to give you chemical inputs to grow the food for animals that give you meat.

Combined Solution: What I call the "Mendoza OMs" - Organic Matter plus Organic Meal. Meal, not meat. Mr Mendoza is prescribing that in agriculture, we think organic from beginning (plant food) to end (human food).

That I know, the best symbol of organic agriculture is the earthworm; whom everyone is acquainted with; that I've seen, the best image is above, owned by SS Vermicompost Industry (ssvermi.com). The earthworm, technically a vermin, produces vermicast, or vermicompost, which is actually its waste matter.

Food is energy. Producing food uses a lot of energy.
Water is necessary for life. Meat is notnecessary for life.

Since the growing of animals for meat and milk products consumes the most energy, by shifting to plant-based fertilizers as food for crops and to plant-based diets for humans, Mr Mendoza says we are saving much energy and lessening GHGs.

Go organic!

Now I say:

Anti-climate change, pro-food production: We have to think better than Bolivia & the World Food Programme. We have to think Philippines: Think Mendoza OMs! The common Bolivian-WFP solution is actually increasing and not decreasing climate change!517