Farming can work so much better for the planet

Ecofriendly alternative: The air chamber structure of a cattail plant makes it ideal as insulation material. — TNS

FEEDING eight billion people is a big task, and we’re not excelling at it. Our global food systems have become incredibly dysfunctional, failing on multiple fronts including human health, carbon emissions and pollution. A new research paper hints at something better but only if we pull every lever available to us.

Imagine a vast American cornfield. You might imagine it all ends up as cobs piled high at farmers markets or stacks of tin cans at the supermarket, but the truth is far less quaint. Just under 10% of the crop is eaten by humans – and half of that is as high-fructose corn syrup, which isn’t exactly nutritious.