Red right hand...

It is not as if we weren't warned... Lord knows, the history of ecological concerns goes back centuries, and even 'modern' restoration ecology dates back to the early 1900s, when Aldo Leopold stated that "Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left."

Sorry Aldo, some left hands were indeed severed, some right hands too... Often so that other hands could be used for filling pockets with hard cash. Though sometimes, too, because the noisy urgency of now drowned out the polite pleas for decorum and restraint.

So now, here we are, doing root cause and hoping our errors can be remedied...like a man finally agreeing that the car needs a service, only after ending up upside-down in a ditch, watching his life flash before him and already wondering what the repairs will cost...

This story from Sustain focuses on new research outlining the additional benefits of biodiversity to food security and food nutrition. The studies indicate that more complex agro-ecological systems are likely to contribute to better outcomes in both cases. The vulnerability of plants and animals to pests and diseases increases significantly with the loss of biodiversity, putting food production at risk and in some cases negatively altering the dietary nutritional profile of the regional population.

Industrialised farming became the simplest and quickest (and most remunerative) way to move mass food commodities efficiently to consumers across the globe. We now need to adapt our eternal gift for innovation to change the balance of the way in which our food is provided and, through our personal decisions, think locally, seasonally and sustainably.