We have little chance of tackling climate change and reducing biodiversity loss without a redesign of the world’s largest industry: agriculture and food.

While shifting to more plant-based diets and reducing food waste will be critical steps, what occurs at the farm level will matter more. There, it will be the choices made around technology and intensity that will matter.

Agricultural intensity

With crops grown in farm fields, more intensive management means a reduction in the diversity of crops grown, combined with increased application of nutrients and use of mechanical soil tillage on the farm.

In eastern Canada, cropping has intensified by becoming less diverse.

Common cash crops, such as soybean, leave very little residue (which is mostly carbon) to add to the soil to help reverse CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere. This intensification has led to a continuing decline in the amount of carbon in soil.

Read more: How soil carbon can help tackle climate change

Canadian farmers, with support of federal […]