Welcome to the third edition of our Lent Challenge!
In this issue, we reflect on the use of land in agriculture. How is the land – that is the bread and butter of our food systems – managed? How much of it still belongs to nature?
In the following article, we explore the connection between land and our diets, along with insightful resources to help you discover how land is used in your own neighbourhood.
What do you see when you look around outside urban areas? Mostly, agriculture. Did you ever try to imagine how that land looked before? In Europe, the most significant changes in land-cover happened thousands of years ago. We Europeans altered the landscape gradually to increase food production for our growing population for centuries. Today this process has largely ended, the total area of agriculture does not increase anymore, partially because we have almost run out of natural habitats: the European Environmental Agency assesses that only 5% of our habitats (in the EEA region) are “undisturbed.”
If you open a map and look at your country with a bird’s-eye view, you may be amazed how much land is devoted to food production and other human activities. We have become a powerful force in shaping our planet, comparable to other geological forces. For this reason, we need to think consciously about how we manage the remaining undisturbed natural habitats and how much of the land serving human purposes will be welcoming to biodiversity.
One of the most important reasons for loss of biodiversity is simply not having enough habitats: plants and animals are simply running out of space where they can live, hide, feed, nest, and breed. Often, they co-exist with human activities, but agriculture and infrastructure are dangerous and disturbing for them.
Do we need to use so much land? Nobody would want to destroy all the wonderful beings – but humans need food, or so the argument goes. Yes, humans need food security, but over the centuries, it is not only our population that grew, but our appetite for meat, especially for red meat.
Apart from the harmful impact of ruminating animals on the climate, animal farming requires large areas of land to produce feed for animals. This process is not an efficient use of land. To produce 100 grams of beef or sheep protein, we need on average 160-180 square meters of land area. 100 grams of protein from peas or grains requires about 3-4 square meters. Most of the farmland therefore does not produce food for humans, but feed for animals. And if we consumed less meat, we would require much less farmland to raise animals. This would be healthier, and it would improve our food security considerably, as European land would provide enough much more easily for all of us.
Biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate. There is no other way to stop this process than restoring more areas for natural habitats. Nature can do much of the work, but we need to give up land, let it “rewild” with as little human interference as possible.
What can you do to help this process? By consuming less meat, and spreading the culture of nature-friendly gastronomy, you can personally save hundreds of hectares in a year. If enough people endorse this change of lifestyle, the necessary policies will follow suit. This is the single most impactful change you can make in your personal life to protect the environment.
Béla Kuslits,
Jesuit European Social Centre
Google Earth timelapse
Thanks to satellite imagery, we now have not only a better scientific understanding of the changing ecological conditions around the globe, but we can also explore these changes ourselves.
Google Earth Timelapse offers a fascinating opportunity to observe the transformation of our planet over time – from shifting river paths and expanding urban areas to growing mines, shrinking forests, and retreating glaciers. These visual records make the environmental changes tangible and help us understand the urgency of protecting our remaining natural habitats.
Check out the satellite images of your area on the link below!
Tip: Click the play button to see the changes over time
