The root problem is accounting. You cannot compensate for what the ledger does not record.

We are building that ledger: ecological events — soil carbon, pollination, water quality, biodiversity — in the same data structure as farm economics. Open standards. Auditable. Portable.

Not because better software fixes the politics. But because once the data exists, the question gets harder to avoid.

@growgood.org.au #RegenerativeAgriculture #EcosystemServices #AgriculturalPolicy #AgTech

@MrLee

When talking about land-use, it is, however, important to understand that land is not something that is used and then thrown away (ok, there are some heavily destructive uses, e.g. mining).

Land provides multiple services (biodiversity, carbon storage, water cycling, recreation, agricultural production, space for building stuff...). Some land-uses reduce the capacity of land to provide these services.
The next issue is the order in which the services are priorized. Some services have a more or less evident price tag (agricultural production, or space for buildings), while other (ecosystem) services, like water purification, carbon storage or biodiversity, are usually not taken into account by the market, except by really motivated people(TM) or administrations treating these services as public goods that deserve protection.

So, to make a fair comparison, it is important to assess the capacity of the different land-uses to provide the land-related services. And here it gets somewhat messy because management comes into play. E.g. 'agriculture' can be an conventional, pesticide-based soil degrading extractive system with all the consequences for soil, water and biodiversity; however, you can also have an agroforestry system that provides its functions in the interest of society and nature.

And here comes into play that e.g. pastures, despite taking up a lot of land, can be quite well-managed and score high on ecosystem services (of course, capitalism promotes the opposite: land degradation an unnecessary suffering*).
Just wanted to provide this context to the great map.

* of ccourse, reducing meat intake is a goal the whole society should work towards.

#LandUse #EcosystemServices #Biodiversity #Pastures #Agroforestry #LandManagement