Plant-based Doughnut Economics

 Presentation about Plant-Based Doughnut Economics:

 Plant-based Doughnut Economics Presentation 

The idea of doughnut economics is to optimizing social development within planetary boundaries. We can live within the 9 planetary boundaries, with a population of up to 10 billion people, if we convert to fossil-free energy and vegan diets. The focus of Pant-based is on the food system. Land use in cities is only about 1%. Crop land is about 7%, while livestock husbandry uses about 27%. Farm animals consume about 37% of protein production and 83% of farmland. They also produce methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas. Plant-based food production would reduce the need for agricultural land by about 75%, leaving the rest available for restoring forests. Farm animals are the bulk of land animals (more than humans). Switching to fish as a source of protein is not a solution, because industrial fishing has already depleted fish stocks.

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Animals need to consume about 10 lbs of plant protein to gain 1 lb of protein in their bodies as meat. It is much more efficient in terms of land, water and energy use, to grow protein-rich crops to feed people than it is to grow them to feed animals to feed people.

Unlike organic agriculture, conventional agriculture uses artificial nitrogen-containing fertilizers produced by the same industries and involving the same process as in the making of explosives. It pollutes aquifers because it runs off more readily than nitrogen from soil microorganisms, and it makes plants dependent and weak. Conventional agriculture also uses fungicides, which kill soil fungi that feed the microorganisms and plants with minerals from the soil. In addition, pesticides kill bees and other pollinators as well as the intended pests. Only about 1% of current agricultural land in the US is organic.

Regenerative agriculture techniques make soil a net atmospheric carbon sink instead of a carbon source. They also add moisture to the soil instead of drying it out. Techniques include cover crops in winter, minimal tilling (to leave fungal networks unbroken), growing multiple crops on the same plots, and interspersing trees with crops to stabilize the soil and provide the right amount of shade.

 Article by Kristin Ohlson about regenerative agriculture: https://www.yesmagazine.org/orphan/2019/08/10/soil-farming-greenhouse-ipcc-2019

Article from the UN about food and climate: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/food

Article that shows that US organic acreage was still less than 1 percent of U.S. farmland: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2023/november/rising-consumer-demand-reshapes-landscape-for-u-s-organic-farmers

Article about how herbicides and pesticides became weapons of the military: https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=115604

Video that talks about Planet based Doughnut Economics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlpNRoaLumk