Buying organic shows solidarity, helps environment, says CRS official <http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0901809.htm>http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0901809.htm
By Barbara J. Fraser <http://www.catholicnews.com>Catholic News Service LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- Paying attention to where your morning coffee comes from not only makes good consumer sense, but may also help stave off climate changes that increasingly affect poor farmers. Organic farming that prevents erosion and conserves water gives farmers extra income and helps preserve forests that absorb harmful greenhouse gases, said Jefferson Shriver, an official in the Nicaraguan office of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency. For Earth Day, April 22, the U.S. bishops are urging Catholics to take action to help slow climate change. By choosing organic and fair-trade items, consumers can "practice solidarity with the products they buy" and help protect the environment, Shriver told <http://www.catholicnews.com>Catholic News Service. "Most people buy (organic products) for health reasons, but the benefits are even greater" in the countries where the products are grown, because organic farming methods promote better land and water use, he said. Worldwide, "more forests have been destroyed in the past 50 years than the previous 500," Shriver told CNS by phone April 21. Much of the deforestation is due to the clearing of land for agriculture. The Central American rain forest is home to 7 percent of the world's biological diversity and serves as a "carbon sink," absorbing carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to climate change. Every year, however, Central America loses about 1,000 square miles of forest, an area the size of Rhode Island, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. "Protection of forests and reforestation will help play a role in stabilizing climate," Shriver said. "We need to take a strong look at keeping those sinks protected and increasing them, but the opposite is happening." Farmers in Central America increasingly battle drought or unpredictable weather that causes water shortages and puts their livelihood at risk. Many scientists say that climate change will make those problems worse. "We're looking at a crisis of living systems," Shriver said. "The poor are going to be first- and worst-affected by drought and water shortages, yet they emit the fewest greenhouse gases." Farmers are adapting to the changes by switching to drought-resistant crop varieties and installing water-conserving irrigation systems. CRS also helps communities plant trees to reduce erosion and runoff and build catchment ponds and lagoons for water storage. It is also important to encourage farmers to protect trees on their lands, said Shriver, the author of "Reaping Profits While Restoring the Environment: Lessons from Central America," a new book that explores links between poverty reduction and environmental protection. Coffee is a key crop in Central America, which produces about 650,000 tons a year. Most coffee farms are only between five and 10 acres, but coffee production employs more than 1 million people, according to the World Bank. Coffee was traditionally grown in open fields, but shade-tolerant varieties allow farmers to keep trees on their land, reducing deforestation. They can also fight climate change by using compost and natural pest-control methods instead of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, many of which are made from petroleum. Those methods are often more expensive and labor intensive for the farmer, but certified organic and fair-trade products fetch a higher price on world markets. By choosing shade-grown coffee, Shriver said, consumers help poor farmers and make a double contribution to combating climate change. Worldwide, the market for organic products rose from $27 billion in 2004 to $40 billion in 2008. In the United States alone, it increased from $1 billion in 1990 to $12 billion in 2007, Shriver said. Although organic products are still a "niche market," he said, "this shows it has tremendous potential to grow." The amount of land dedicated to organic crops has more than quadrupled since 1990. All the organic farms in Latin America together would cover an area larger than California. While organic products tend to be more expensive than those grown using conventional methods, "if they do become more mainstream, the price will come down," Shriver said. Some countries are taking a more direct approach to encouraging forest conservation. In Costa Rica, farmers are paid not to clear their land. "Costa Rica once had activities that had a great impact on its natural resources. Over time, it learned to safeguard them and use them to generate wealth for the country," said Carlos Rodriguez, former Costa Rican environment minister and regional vice president of Conservation International's operations in Mexico and Central America. "Peasant or indigenous communities that own forests should be paid for the water they produce or the carbon (they absorb) or for the use of the biodiversity," he said. Compensation for avoided deforestation is likely to be a key issue at international climate talks this year. But even countries that do not pay landowners directly for the environmental services provided by their forests can take advantage of indirect incentives like organic farming, Shriver said. Forest conservation has other economic benefits, like boosting local tourism by attracting bird-watchers and other eco-tourists, he said. That has paid off in Costa Rica. "The investment in conservation was made because of the need to conserve ecosystems," Rodriguez said. 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