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<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>In our second reading group session we had a discussion about
fertilizers. See a summary of what we talked about below. You can
also have a look at this <a
href="https://pad.riseup.net/p/ihCiZ-p7DA0GvBMNOtFi">pad</a> for
more details.<br>
</p>
<p>The next meeting will probably be organized by Taste Before You
Waste. You will get the relevant info on time.</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
Jula
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i>During the second meeting of the Fossil Free Agriculture
Reading Group, we had a discussion about synthetic fertilizers
based on the report "The Exxons of Agriculture" by GRAIN; a
short introduction to the differences between synthetic and
organic fertilizers; and a text from the Yara web page.</i> <i>The
main questions we focused on were:</i></p>
<p><i>Can a plant feel the difference between synthetic and organic
fertilizers? Are nutrients really nutrients?<br>
</i></p>
<p><i>How do synthetic fertilizers create addiction?</i></p>
<p><i>No definitive conclusion was reached for the former, but regarding
fertilizer addiction we discussed the urgency of soil depletion.
According to some estimations we may only have decades left
until soils are entirely depleted. This is a business
opportunity for fertilizer companies such as Yara as they can
promote their advanced technologies - but these are false
solutions. We need a response to the argument of the fertilizer
industry that food security cannot be ensured without synthetic
fertilizer in the winter due to decreased microbe activity!<br>
</i></p>
<p><i>Some topics that arose as areas to be researched/ potential
action points were:</i></p>
<p><i>- Looking into the narratives of lobby groups of the fertilizer
industry</i></p>
<p><i>- How can urea-based fertilizer be switched to nitrate-based
fertilizer? (One of the "environmentally friendly" practices that
Yara promotes itself with)</i></p>
<p>- <i>Creating a concise and informative document with the main
environmental crimes of the fertilizer industry, demonstrating
why Yara needs to be stopped - spreading an accessible message
(considering that the GRAIN report is already 4 years old and
hasn't gotten the appropriate attention!)</i><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 19.02.2019 um 18:07 schrieb Jula:<br>
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cite="mid:1fc42469-f4fb-d190-1d84-b2ccae786551@aseed.net">
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<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>As the next reading group meeting is already approaching, here
is a summary of what we talked about last time.<br>
</p>
<p>Katie took detailed notes during our discussion in the first
meeting, and we wanted to share a bit of these.</p>
<p><i>During the first meeting of the Fossil Free Agriculture
Reading Group, we had a discussion about yields in organic and
industrial agriculture. Something that accompanied us
throughout the discussion was a critical inquiry of
terminology/language: We talked about the strictness of
definitions of "organic" and "agroecology" and the need to
distinguish such terms from small-scale agriculture. From a
discussion about food waste and its relation to yields, we
then moved on to issues of responsibility, talking about the
role of civil servants and our communication with policy
makers. This brought us back to the issue of language and how
public discourse often presents behaviors (such as eating
meat) as inevitable, which makes it seem like system change is
impossible. Yields are an example of a terminology that
appears to have no alternative, and we came up with possible
other measurements, such as how many people are fed.</i></p>
<p><i>Some of the questions that came up are:</i></p>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"><i>What is the
value of having a (legally) regulated definition with a very
clear meaning (e.g. certified organic) vs. a less clearly
defined but more expansive definition (like agroecology)?</i></p>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"><i>Where does the
discourse we have today, for instance regarding yields as a
quantification of agricultural productivity, come from?</i></p>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"><i>What else
could we quantify instead of yields?</i></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"><i><br>
</i></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%">Looking forward
to seeing you soon,</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%">Jula<br>
</p>
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