Warfare killed pollinators and threatened food security in World War II. It’s happening again in Ukraine.
A bumblebee flies to a row of poppies illuminated by the morning sun on June 6, 2022, in Hessen, Germany.During World War II, Hitler’s campaign of violence had disastrous consequences not only for the millions of civilians and soldiers who were killed, but also for the environment itself — driving the declines of bumblebees and other wildlife in the U.K. and continental Europe.
Because Britain was isolated during World War II, importing food from Europe became impossible and imports from further afield were threatened by U-boat attacks at sea. There were severe food shortages and strict rationing. Britain launched a “Dig for Victory” campaign to increase home-grown food production. Anyone with a garden was encouraged to dig it over and plant vegetables, and farmers were asked to increase productivity.
It quickly became clear that this farming system was doing great environmental damage. In 1962, Rachel Carson published, in which she highlighted the impacts that pesticides were having — poisoning farmers, livestock and wildlife. Nonetheless, the industrialization of farming continued more or less unchecked through the 20th century.
In about 1990, the direction of farming began, very slowly, to change. Growing realization of the environmental costs associated with industrial farming, combined with huge surpluses of many crops that were expensive to store, led the European Union to introduce payments for farmers to set land aside, to fund agri-environment schemes such as replanting hedgerows and to begin the slow process of trying to restore biodiversity. To date, these measures have not succeeded.
In recognition of the ongoing environmental crisis, the EU is now attempting a major shift toward sustainable farming in its new “Farm to Fork” strategy. This plan aims to halve pesticide use and change the emphasis in farming from maximizing yield to sustainable production, nurturing soils and wildlife and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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