Analysis: Can World Be Fed without Agrochemicals? Brazilian Startups Say Yes

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The development of sustainable planting technologies encourages organic food enthusiasts. With new techniques of land use and vegetation management, combined with the intense use of technologies, the maxim that it is impossible to feed mankind without the use of pesticides is being challenged by entrepreneurs and innovators.

In the tenth episode of the ‘ESG de A a Z’ podcast, Felipe Villela, Mariana Vasconcelos and Guilherme Raucci, founders of ReNature and Agrosmart startups, explain how regenerative agriculture can be a solution to the scale of production barrier without the use of chemicals. According to them, ending the use of pesticides is a matter of time.

The term “regenerative agriculture” was coined by American Robert Rodale, who used ecological hierarchy theories to study the processes of regeneration in agricultural systems over time. It is already used by companies such as Patagonia, Danone, Natura and General Mills. The technique seeks to emulate nature’s processes, unlike traditional agriculture, which depends on external supplies for its viability. This way, water consumption can be reduced by 60%, raw materials by up to 40%, productivity increased by up to 20% and between 36 and 45 tons of carbon per hectare can be produced.

According to Mariana Vasconcelos, Agrosmart’s CEO, the driving force behind this revolution is the ability to monitor and collect data in the field. “This is the basis of regenerative agriculture,” she says. By understanding the ecosystems’ natural cycles, one can leverage the natural protections of vegetation to ensure pest-free planting: several crops are organized in the same place, so that one type of vegetation protects the other.

ReNature and Agrosmart have recently signed a partnership to increase the range of this type of agriculture. The first joint projects will focus on coffee, cocoa, cotton, palm, natural rubber, wood, soybean and livestock production chains. The two companies complement each other. ReNature works in the “design” of regenerative crops, while Agrosmart is specialized in data collection and analysis in the field.

“The combination of technologies in scaling regenerative systems will enable more economically viable cases that will encourage farmers to transition to a resilient system that will adapt to the impacts of climate change,” says Villela, ReNature’s founder.

Agrochemicals were responsible for the awakening of environmentalism

Biologist Rachel Louise Carson was one of the first to link pesticides to environmental imbalances in the 1970s. Her book ‘Silent Spring’ shows how DDT, used on a large scale to fight mosquitoes in the post-war period, was responsible for reducing the thickness of egg shells, causing high mortality rates among birds. The work marked the beginning of ecological activism and is an influence to this day.

Over the past 50 years, the bad reputation of pesticides has only grown. In developed markets, the demand for organic, chemical-free products has skyrocketed. The problem is that the price of these products is still high and their availability is low, which leads the agribusiness industry to consider the villainization of pesticides unfair.

In the book ‘Agradeça aos agrotóxicos por estar vivo’ (Thank agrochemicals for being alive – Record, 2017), journalist Nicholas Vital argues that were it not for pesticides, mankind would not have been able to produce the required amount of food to withstand the population increase of the past 100 years. He is probably right. However, as in the capital market, past gains are no guarantee of future returns.

The organic revolution began with the production of premium products, aimed at upper-middle-class youths concerned with health. In turn, regenerative agriculture focuses on scale production based on understanding how nature works. Understanding the natural cycles, for that matter, is key to ensure the future of mankind, not only in terms of food.

Saving the planet? In truth, it’s mankind that needs to be saved

Nature is beautiful. And perfect. The world works in life-and-death cycles. What ends serves as fuel for what is reborn, and so it has been for four billion years. Mankind is part of this equation. Human beings emerged 50,000 years ago, a fraction of a second when compared to the age of the planet.

Despite its recent presence on Earth, mankind has great influence over nature. Scientists like Johan Rockström of Stockholm University consider that in the past 50 years humans have become their own geological age, capable of determining whether or not the planet will be habitable in the future.

Rockström was the leader of a group of researchers who published a revolutionary work called ‘Planetary Boundaries’. The 2009 study presents nine environmental criteria that make human life possible. These criteria, or boundaries, work in tandem. A deviation in any one of them influences the others.

The methodology developed by Rockström quantifies, in a universal language, mankind’s interference in the functioning of the planet. It is no surprise that the data are not good. Two boundaries now present above-limit indicators. Three others could not even be quantified. The conclusion everyone has reached is: we need to save the planet from mankind.

However, the problem for humans lies in nature’s perfection. “The planet does could not care less about what is happening,” said the scientist in an exclusive interview with EXAME. “Earth will continue to exist regardless of what mankind does. We won’t.”

The last five decades are part of a cycle. If something needs to end to serve as fuel for the new, so be it, even if that thing is mankind. But there is a solution. If humans adapt to nature’s cycles, they can prevent the fate of dinosaurs. Regenerative agriculture is part of that process.

Source: Exame

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