Olivier Honnay

Why our broken food system remains a climate disaster: ‘broiling the planet to stuff our faces’ Author Michael Grunwald reckons with the challenge of food-based climate emissions in his new book We Are Eating the Earth

“We’re clear-cutting and broiling the planet to stuff our faces.” @theguardian.com did a deep dive into WE ARE EATING THE EARTH!

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A bar chart showing agricultural value added per worker, which is calculated by dividing the amount of economic value generated from farming, forestry, and fishing by the number of people who work in those sectors. Data for 2022 is shown for 6 countries and the global average. Ag. value added per worker is relatively high in countries like Australia ($122,800) and the Netherlands ($85,200) — but relatively much lower in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Congo ($1429), Tanzania ($874), and Uganda ($850). The data is expressed in constant 2015 US dollars; it's adjusted for inflation but doesn't account for cost of living differences between countries. The data source is the World Bank, OECD national accounts, and ILOSTAT (2025). The chart is CC BY Our World in Data.

To grow food you need two things: some land and some of your time.

Land and labor are two of agriculture’s primary inputs. To build a food system that works for people and the planet, humanity needs to achieve high productivity in both of them.

Increasing agricultural productivity across Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most important problems this century Agricultural productivity across Sub-Saharan Africa needs to improve to reduce hunger, poverty, and the destruction of biodiversity.

@hannahritchie.bsky.social explains why increasing agricultural productivity across Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the world’s most pressing problems: ourworldindata.org/africa-yield...

The War Room newsletter: Seven of the best books on the Pacific war Richard Cockett, a news editor, recommends seven books about the defeat of Japan in the second world war

“Probing how and why the atomic bombs were deployed against Japan has become a cottage industry all of its own.” The War Room, our defence newsletter, recommends seven of the best books about the country’s defeat in the second world war

How Ethiopia avoided colonization in the late 19th century but then lagged behind in the 20th century Lessons in stateness, (failed) modernization, and economic (under)development

How Ethiopia avoided colonization in the late 19th century but then lagged behind in the 20th century: www.africanistperspective.com/p/how-ethiop...

Global Methane Budget 2000–2020 Abstract. Understanding and quantifying the global methane (CH4) budget is important for assessing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. CH4 is the second most important human-influenced gree...

'Cows just replaced the methane from wild bison'

Not even close.

At their peak, wild ruminants incl. bison emitted ~15 Tg CH₄/yr

Today’s 4+ billion farmed ruminants emit over 100 Tg CH₄/yr

That’s nearly 7x more methane.

essd.copernicus.org/articles/17/...

Hier komt deze zomer geen festival

😱

Op vakantie in het hol van de leeuw.

6. Then other people say, "we must rewild the world".
Yes. But it's not going to happen without major dietary change.
Eg we can't have grass-fed beef (the most land-hungry of all products) and rewilding. In fact, it drives a massive de-wilding.
At this point, half the enthusiasts shuffle away.

Totally agree. There seems to be the idea that regen ag will do the trick. See our response to a BES report

Yields do matter.
Nitrogen does matter.
And orthodox agroecology will very likely not deliver the required productivity gains.

link to the paper: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Can Africa feed itself without further expansion of its agricultural land at a high C and biodiversity cost?
=> Would require *tripling* current annual yield increase to achieve cereal self-sufficiency.
=> Big differences between E & W Africa due to differences in nitrogen fertilization regime.

Increased Biofuel Production in the US Midwest May Harm Farmers and the Climate The expansion of biofuel production as an alternative fuel source not only raises questions about sustainability, but about economic inequities among Midwestern small farmers.

New research from my colleagues out today looking at the environmental and social impacts of food crop-based biofuels in the US, where we now use >30% of the corn supply and >40% of the soybean oil supply (on tens of millions of acres of prime cropland) to produce only ~6% of US transport fuel. 🧪

Fascinating study. For every 1000 bears in an area, there is an associated 4% increased likelihood of a bigfoot sighting. 🧪
zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We weten intussen al 25 jaar dat de maatregelen om biodiversitiet te beschermen in landbouwgebied niet of nauwelijks werken. We hebben gewoon verder gedaan. En dat doen we nog steeds.
De consequenties worden vandaag op dramatische wijze zichtbaar.

Many "ultra-processed foods" are basically a trojan horse for getting more fat, sugar, and meat into diets in hyper-palatable form. But the political discourse around "ultra-processed food" and health is a trojan horse for mainstreaming disinfo and junk science and bad policy. Important distinction.

The average American diet requires about 2 acres of land per person per year (and that’s food grown and raised by people who are experts at growing and raising food)

🙄 when gardening gurus recommend applying a 4" layer of compost to vegetable garden beds. From my calculations, that's 260-320 tons/acre, way more than any farmer would apply. It's also over 2000 lb of nitrogen per acre. And then apply 1" annually after this, so another 500 lb of N...😬

Een kleine belasting op grasmaaien en gebruik van hogedrukreinigers zou een milieuvriendelijke manier zijn om een intergenerationele transfer van middelen te organiseren van te vroeg gepensioneerde boomers naar jongeren.

The impact of ecosystem nitrogen enrichment on pollen allergy: a cross-sectional paired comparison study Nitrogen enrichment substantially increased pollen abundance and allergenicity, indicating a heightened allergy burden in nitrogen-rich environments. These findings underscore the need for policies ad...

New paper in The Lancet Planetary Health where we show that Nitrogen enrichment not only substantially increases the pollen production of grasslands, but also the pollen allergenicity 🤧.

1. Yesterday I wrote a thread about the dire warnings from food professionals on the state of supply chains. Comfortable folk might find it impossible to imagine an end to the current abundance. But we'd better start imagining it fast.
THIS thread is about solutions - false ones and sound ones.

Inderdaad!

Beaver mikado & ‘Boulaies tourbeuses’ (Vaccinio uliginosi-Betuletum pubescentis), very rare here.
Forêt de St Hubert today.

Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency

Over de minimale consquenties hoeven we zelfs niet meer te speculeren.

Donald Trump has committed the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era. Almost everything he said—on history, economics and the technicalities of trade—was utterly deluded econ.st/3YbbFjq

The Flawed Ideology That Unites Grass-Fed Beef Fans and Anti-Vaxxers From RFK Jr. to Hollywood A-listers and Democratic senators, people across the political spectrum are jumping onto the slippery slope of nature-based solutionism.

Highly recommend this worthwhile essay coauthored by @garrettbroad.bsky.social for this moment in environmental communication on "nature-based solutionism" (like grass-fed beef), including ai newrepublic.com/article/1933...

Trump is a problem for Europe’s most important hard-right leaders His antics are causing headaches for Giorgia Meloni and Marine Le Pen

Trump is turning out to be a problem for Europe’s most important hard-right leaders. His antics are making life difficult for both Meloni and Le Pen
economist.com/europe/2025/...
from @Economist

I especially liked the part on cat and dog people.