Efforts to mitigate global warming will be secondary to the reality of adapting to a hotter planet within a decade or two, one destabilized by a growing number of natural disasters and climate-induced conflicts. Many countries have not achieved the necessary progress for accomplishing even their existing commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions or are well below potential—one of the greatest barriers to global compliance is that climate debates in the U.S. are political, rather than science-based. Sovereign nation-states will most likely continue their track record of failing to significantly combat greenhouse gas emissions. Based on this pessimistic albeit realistic forecast, humans will have little choice but to accept and adjust to harsher, hotter Earth conditions in the coming decades.
Industrial farming—with its overwhelming tendency towards monoculture rather than crop diversity—is extremely vulnerable to hot and volatile weather, as well as to increases in pests and diseases such weather will bring. Proponents of industrial agriculture maintain that the solution lies in the development of crop varieties that have been genetically engineered to withstand the impacts of climate change. This approach ignores the hazards of biotechnology as well as the fact that resilient plant varieties have existed long before the creation of genetically modified strains.
For thousands of years, farmers throughout the world have intelligently observed the traits and characteristics of plant varieties, maintained and bred a wealth of seed diversity, and cultivated ever more crop varieties in response to the challenges of farming. Saving, exchanging, and passing on seed became an integral part of cultural practices around the world to ensure that future generations retain the seed diversity and complex farming knowledge they need to continue to grow food and develop crops.
Traditional breeding practices differ greatly from genetic modification (GM). The latter is defined as "the altering of the genetic material in that organism in a way that does not occur naturally by mating or natural recombination or both". In contrast, traditional breeding techniques allow reproduction to take place only between closely related life forms, e.g., tomatoes can cross-pollinate with other tomatoes but not with soybeans, and certainly not with pigs. Genetic engineering violates natural boundaries within which reproduction occurs by crossing genes between unrelated species that would never crossbreed in nature, and it does so in an imprecise, potentially hazardous way.
Recent decades have witnessed a substantial decrease in global seed diversity, for the first time in history. Eighty percent of our calorie intake comes from 12 domesticated plant species. Historically, farmers cultivated at least 7,000 different plants to eat. But since the 1960s, they have focused on higher-yielding crops to produce more food using fertilizers, chemicals and new irrigation methods. Farmers are realizing that the seed varieties that they once cultivated, saved, but then abandoned decades ago are the very varieties that they now need to cope with harsher growing conditions.
As agriculture is increasingly afflicted by climate change, farmers require a wider range of seed and crop varieties to spread their risk and deal with variable amounts of rain, changing temperatures, saline conditions, and emerging pests and diseases. Farmers tend to be overly reliant on inputs supplied by agribusiness corporations. Farmers too often grow the same one or two varieties of purchased seed that has been engineered or tailored for a relatively narrow range of growing conditions—if the rains come too early or too late, too much or not at all, the entire crop may fail.
Corporate seed suppliers have obstructed farmers’ access to the varieties they need by manipulating legal systems to impose laws that restrict farmers' rights to save and exchange seed. Agribusiness firms invest large sums of money to develop genetically modified (GM) organisms. In order to recoup these enormous investments, they require and aggressively create vast monocultures and captive markets, wherein farmers are dependent on purchased seed. In recent decades, the rise of monocultures has resulted in dramatic decreases in global seed diversity. Approximately 75% of the world's crop diversity has been lost through the widespread adoption of commercial farming techniques.
In addition to being more sensitive to climate change, industrialized food production systems are significant contributors to rising earth temperatures. Agriculture accounts for close to 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural related greenhouse gas emissions stem from the production of crops and animal products, as well as the conversion of forests, savannas, and peatlands to crop and pasture lands. The currently dominant system of industrial agriculture emits enormous amounts of greenhouse gases, partly because it consumes huge quantities of oil to power farm equipment, manufacture fertilizer, and transport food through global networks.
Organic agriculture can play an important role in averting future crop failures both in the U.S. and in the rest of the world. The Rodale Institute compared conventional and organic systems for corn and soybeans in a study known as the Farm Systems Trial. Although yields were comparable during years of normal rainfall, the key result is that organic practices markedly improved the quality of the soil, thereby allowing soybean yields to remain relatively high even in the face of a drought. Unlike conventional farming, organic practices allow the soil to retain moisture more efficiently, while the higher content of organic matter also makes organic soil less compact so that root systems can penetrate more deeply to find moisture (Rodale Institute, 1999).
However, if the goal is to cope with climate changes that are already in progress while also preventing or even reversing future increases in earth temperatures, biodiversity and organic farming are necessary but not sufficient because they do not necessarily include the elimination of environmentally destructive meat-centered diets. Even poultry, the most resource-efficient source of meat, uses three times more land and generates three times more greenhouse gas emissions than beans. Compared to plant-based protein sources, beef production is a particularly inefficient way of producing edible calories and protein, requiring 20 times more land and creating 20 times more greenhouse gas emissions per unit of edible protein than beans, peas and lentils. As diets throughout the world become more westernized, consumer demand for beef is projected to rise in the coming decades, driving sharp increases in global cattle populations. With its large land requirements to produce feed, beef production would be a significant source of global warming. Agricultural reforms must occur in tandem with dietary improvements that involve the elimination of meat consumption.
Food and agricultural systems based on the ancient Vedas have always been vegetarian and organic, with particular focus on cow protection. A key principle of cow protection involves breeding bovine animals to obtain bulls that are engaged in working the land, as opposed to excessively expanding the herd to obtain byproducts such as milk. Cow manure is a superior alternative to chemical fertilizer, as well as a source of fuel. Despite its benefits for human health and the environment, we do not advocate Vedic agriculture as an end unto itself. Rather, we recognize that the solution to all problems of human existence requires embracing spiritual principles that were transmitted by Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada. Our real identity is pure soul, part and parcel of the Supreme Lord Krishna, not the material body. Rather than pleasing the material body, the goal of human life is to serve Krishna. When we prepare food, it is actually for Krishna, not for ourselves. In the scriptures, Lord Krishna does not request offerings of beef, pork, chicken, fish, etc. Devotees do not consume meat, not because they follow vegetarianism as a separate cause, but rather because their desire is to serve Krishna.