070 – Future of Farming, a conversation with Padraic Flood

Today's topic is future of farming. Farming is a bedrock of our
society and culture, and at the same time one of the largest
contributors to environmental degradation. So, how we can feed
the population of the world in the future sustainably is a
subject I wanted to cover already for some time. But it was
important to find an expert who can bring together theoretical
knowledge and real business application and experience.


I am very happy that Pádraic Flood agreed to join me for this
conversation. He is currently team lead for crop genetics at
Infarm, a vertical farming company.


Before he joined Infarm, Pádraic served as a research scientist
at Wageningen University, one of the world’s top agricultural
research institutions, where he also completed his Ph.D. Before
that, Pádraic held an appointment at the Max Planck Institute for
Plant Breeding Research. 


Over the past decade, Pádraic has worked in universities using
genetics to understand key scientific questions ranging from
photosynthesis to how plants adapt to extreme environments.


Pádraic is not only an excellent scientist, but deeply passionate
about tackling the challenge of feeding the world without
destroying the environment. In addition to breeding and improving
crops currently cultivated by infarm, he is pursuing ways to make
staple crops viable in indoor farming which, if successful, could
free up vast areas of land for nature and biodiversity
restoration and go a long way towards achieving food security.


As farming as bedrock of our society we start with a look into
our past. What is domestication and breeding? What are we
eating today? Old species, e.g. maize are unrecognisable in the
original form compared with our modern ones. Breeding was an
intergenerational project of humanity. So, what is natural?
Unnatural? Is unatural, what is created by humans — which seems
to be a rather strange idea?


Also, farming was independently discovered seven times around the
world — what does that tell us? What is convergent
evolution? 


Then we discuss the impacts of farming on nature and environment.
How can we reduce the impact of farming while at the same time
producing enough food for humanity.


What are GMOs and how is genetic modification different from
older breeding technologies?


Then we talk about the 20th century. Were the Malthusian warning
voices correct?  How did Paul Ehrlichs “population bomb”
play out and what did the green revolution with Norman Borlaugh
achieve?


“rising food production reduced the malnutrition rate from 2 in 3
people in 1950 to 1 in 11 by 2019. This impressive achievement is
even more noteworthy if expressed in a way that accounts for the
intervening large-scale increase of the global population, from
about 2.5 billion people in 1950 to 7.7 billion in 2019. […] we
could not harvest such abundance, and in such a highly
predictable manner, without the still-rising inputs of fossil
fuels and electricity.”, Vaclav Smil


Modern technology and energy production managed to reduce the
labor needed to produce a kilogram of grain by more than 98
percent between 1800 and 2020.


“Growing the grain, milling it, and baking a 1-kilogram sourdough
loaf thus requires an energy input equivalent of at least 250
milliliters of diesel fuel.”  (150-500ml Diesel per kg
tomatoes in Spain (unheated / heated) — ~ same amount like
chicken), ibid


Which role do agricultural chemicals role such as herbicides
and fertilisers play?


Agriculture is not only about carbon emissions. Purely looking at
it through a “carbon lense” is misleading, more relevant seems
the planetary boundaries framework. For instance the role of
biodiversity, land use and other impacts are of huge importance.
Land use is one of the major concerns, considering thet 50% of
habitable land mass is used by agriculture.


Carbon tunnel vision is a real issue today and leads to
significant mistakes in politics and activism, as I have
discussed in other podcast episodes already.


Planetary Boundaries, J. Lokrantz/Azote based on Steffen et al.
2015


What about organic farming? It turns out, it is by far not such a
good idea as often promoted. Pádraic explains what the problems
are. One serious issue are externalities, where other nations pay
the price for our “organic” greenwashing.


One of the major challenges is to manage energy and matter flows
better on a global level. As energy plays a significant role in
agriculture we discuss the important role of nuclear energy in a
green economy, escpecially considering land use in comparison
with wind and solar energy. 


Risk perception is often not aligned with actual risks.


As one recent example, we discuss the Sri Lanka organic farming
disaster, food security and national security:


“In the end, for most crops, organic farming is not net
beneficial. It is actually worse for the environment than
conventional food production. And people spend even extra money,
thinking they do something good., when in many respects they
probably are causing more harm.”


Organic food has a large international lobby with a vested
interest to promote a green narration, preserve the well
functioning but misleading marketing claims, despite of the
realities on the planet. On top of that, some organic farming
practices leave the realm of rationality and incorporate a number
of esoteric ideas that contribute nothing to the environment or
to human health, such as biodynamic practices.


“What is allowed in organic is not necessarily allowed because it
is safer but just because we done it like that for a long
time.” 


One example is copper sulfate or organic insectisides, as Pádraic
explains in this episode.


What we need going forward, is evidence based agriculture, not
dogmatic organic / naturalistic ideas, that are stuck in the past
and do more harm than good to nature and humanity.


“Dogma is not adaptive” and


“Silver bullets are only good for killing magical creatures”


What about meat and what role has carneval to play here? Where is
science and technology standing in terms of lab grown meat?
Evidently, in some countries  lab grown chicken nuggets are
already a thing?!


One of the major recent innovations seems to be precision
fermentation, which could become one of the most exiting new
tools in our future farming toolbelt.


“Currently, we are eating our planet”


Now, looking into the future: how could we achieve decoupling
food prodcution from ecosystem destruction. How can we feed 9-11
billion people well without eating the planet and create food
resilience along the way? Some practices we talk about are


indoor farming

precision fermentation

lab meat

biotechnology, GMO, Crispr/CAS



Also “doing nothing has risks”


Especially the new bio technologies, synthetic biology seems to
offer a lot of opportunities for the future of farming, but also
opens up significant new risks. We see a democratisation of
bio-technology and synthetic biology — can this be a good thing?


And finally I ask Pádraic: if young people would want to work in
these important fields, what could they do instead of glueing
themselves to paintings and bridges?


References


Previous Episodes


Episode 62: Wirtschaft und Umwelt, ein Gespräch mit Prof.
Hans-Werner Sinn

Episode 59 und 60: Wissenschaft und Umwelt 1 & 2

Episode 48: Evolution, ein Gespräch mit Prof. Erich Eder

Episode 45: Mit Reboot oder Rebellion aus der Krise?

Episode 46: Activism, a conversation with Zion Lights

Episode 37: Probleme und Lösungen

Episode 36: Energiewende und Kernkraft, ein Gespräch mit Anna
Veronika Wendland

Episode 33: Naturschutz im Anthropozän – Gespräch mit Prof.
Frank Zachos

Episode 22: Biodiversität und komplexe Wechselwirkungen –
Gespräch mit Prof. Franz Essl



Padraic Flood


Twitter: @PdraicFlood

Padraic Flood on LinkedIn



Literature and Links


Norman Borlaugh — Nobel Speech (1970)

Global Population 2100: UN / Lancet (2020)

Stockholm Resilience Centre, Planetary Boundaries

Vaclav Smil, How the world really works, Penguin (2022)

Lab Grown Chicken Wings, The Smithonian