Food security specialist Carlos Gonçalo das Neves defends new types of agriculture to the world and says that it is important to try other tools, because, at this moment, the planet “is not on the right path.”
The chief scientist of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Carlos das Neves, in an interview with the Lusa agency, affirms that agriculture has always evolved, accompanied by innovation and technology, recalling that The agriculture that was done 50 years ago is not done todayspecifically through the introduction of machines.
Currently there are “new creative solutions“, regenerative agriculture, hydroponics, multitrophic cultivation, new genetic tools that allow “editing the genome a little and making changes.”
“These are all tools at our disposal. It is up to us at EFSA to ensure that these tools, that these products manufactured in this way, are safe. Then there is a political, social, cultural component, whether they should be approved or not, whether you should use more or less,” he explained.
But new solutions “it is important that we adopt them and test them, because I believe that the planet shows us that as it is at this moment it is not on the right path.”
Questioned by Lusa, Carlos das Neves points out problems that need to be resolved, one of them food wastethat we must “reduce to a minimum” to maintain the “dream of sustainability.”
For the scientist, food cannot be wasted in the face of the dramatic situations that the planet is experiencing.
It is necessary, he adds, to change the choices of each consumer, raise awareness about different options and educate them from childhood.
“Today we teach children to separate garbage, we should do the same with what is healthy and what should not be spoiled. And we must also raise awareness among those who produce food. The entire chain has to contribute, it is not just the consumer who can avoid damage,” he says, emphasizing that this issue must stop being just words and move to action.
Currently, scientists warn, we are experiencing a triple planetary crisis: climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution and waste, driven in part by the agri-food system. But Carlos das Neves emphasizes that the system is both villain and victim.
If it is true, he explains, that some food production practices contribute to the increase in greenhouse gases, that forests are destroyed to produce food, climate change, erosion, droughts and fires also affect production capacity .
Optimistic, Carlos das Neves affirms that the Problems should motivate even more to “something different”because people cannot live without food and we must all find solutions together.
And he gives an example of what he believes is a solution, the “One Health” movement.
“It is an awareness that this planet is one, that we share it with animals, plants, wild species… and we must maintain this balance. Many times what affects us also affects others, and sometimes what we do with the forests affects us,” says the defender of the movement that is based on an integrated approach to the health of people, animals, plants and the environment.
Understanding that everything is interconnected should show, says the professor and scientist, that the solution to problems has to be global, that it is necessary to look at all the elements, from man to the environment, and think of solutions.
Remembering the transmission of diseases and the last pandemic, he warns: “a solution focused only on us humans probably won’t work“.
Always positive and optimistic, Carlos das Neves affirms that “One Health” is taking root, also driven by the covid-19 pandemic, and believes that it will be part of the UN conferences on biodiversity (to be held in Colombia) and climate, next month in Azerbaijan.
Recalling that the reduction of habitats can cause problems of zoonoses, animal diseases transmitted to man, the professor affirms that it is necessary to want to “make some changes”, find a balance between intensive livestock farming and the destruction of forests, without always forgetting that There are almost nine billion people to feed.
This is where the role of the consumer comes into play. An informed consumer is essential so that they can make wise decisions about what to eat and how it affects “much more than their own health.”
Carlos das Neves participated in Portugal in the “Estoril Conferences”, which for two days brought together professors from all over the world at the Universidade Nova to debate the main challenges facing humanity.
Source: Observadora
