| By :
Alison Withers
Copyright (c) 2011 Alison Withers It will be some while yet before the oil-producing countries across North Africa and the Middle East, currently undergoing the upheaval of movements for democracy, develop the stability to be able to focus on production and supply. Libya's conflict is still not resolved and now Sudan's split into two adds to the uncertainty about the reliability of future oil supplies. Perhaps this is why the financial press has recently been predicting that commodity prices, particularly oil, will pick up and trade at much higher prices in the second half of 2011, assuming that demand will rise as the global economic recovery gathers pace. Many who are concerned about the environmental impact of a food production system so heavily dependent on oil products right through its supply chain will welcome this as an opportunity to push harder for development of more sustainable farming, food processing and distribution. Oil and gas are used as raw materials and energy in the manufacture of conventional fertilisers and pesticides. Industrial scale farming is also a heavy user of petroleum products, whether it is for operating the farming machinery, such as tractors and harvesters, lorries for transport of the produce or animals to the food processors and at the processing plant itself, all long before food arrives in the shops for consumers to buy. Many governments are already delisting significant numbers of the older generation of fertilisers and pesticides from use because of concerns about the residues they leave in the land, in water courses and in the food itself and the adverse effects on the health of the environment and on consumers. Even if the world did not have a finite supply of fossil fuels perhaps the concern over reliable supply of what there is and consequent expected price increases will provide the kick start needed to speed up testing and regulation of more environmentally friendly alternatives. The research is already progressing via the biopesticides researchers that are developing more natural, low-chem agricultural products. A few biopesticides, yield enhancers and biofungicides have been licensed already. The process is expensive, however, as well as lengthy and by no means standardised with different Governments imposing different criteria for tests, trials and eventual licensing. It can take anywhere between five and seven years to complete the process. Meanwhile farmers, particularly the world's small farmers, are being asked to improve the yields of their land in response to global population growth. Nowadays also consumers are more concerned about the quality of the food they buy and whether it is healthy, natural and safe. More frequent, extreme weather events make the need to protect and preserve the available land even more important. This is possibly a particularly favourable time to focus on more sustainable farming and the reduction of the produce lost because of plant pests deterioration in the quality of the land.
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