Directly or indirectly, we all depend on agriculture. It is thanks to agriculture that we have most of the world’s food and fabrics. Over centuries, developments in agriculture contributed to the rise of civilizations, and it remains crucial to economic growth today. According to the FAO, the share of agriculture in gross domestic product (GDP) has remained stable at 4% since 2000.
At the same time, it is also one of the world’s largest polluters, or as Mateusz will explain – emitters – of greenhouse gases. “Agriculture, forestry, and land use change are responsible for about 25% of GHG emissions.” Mitigation in this sector is a major part of the solution to tackle climate change.
ESCP Master in Energy Management alumnus Mateusz is an active third-generation regenerative farmer involved in his 700 hectare family farm business operating in Northern Poland on a mission to place farmers at the centre of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in a profitable way, and through this unleash farmers’ critical role in achieving net-zero by 2050 while regenerating the economy.
Together with his brother Paweł, Mateusz set up the European Carbon Farmers, a business promoting carbon farming through supporting farmers in understanding agricultural carbon payment mechanisms and working towards the transformation of agricultural policy, in particular the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU, from action to result-based.
Mateusz has been actively involved in the work of the UNFCCC’s COP26 – Climate Champions and its Race to Zero campaign, where he served as the Regenerative Agriculture Fellow. To spread the word on regenerative agriculture, Mateusz agreed to answer a few of our questions.
As a third-generation farmer do you find that your experience is different from previous generations?
My answer to this question is both, yes and no. No, because just like every single farmer in my family, and others that I know at present and their predecessors, we have always been stewards of the ecosystems that we are dependent on. At the same time, both in case of the previous generations that maintained their lands in the way of survival, and more recent generations like myself, my dad and to some, but smaller, extent my grandfather, we also have had in mind to make a decent living while simultaneously caring for that ecosystem and the local community and wider society. In each farmer’s framework of thinking, we see ourselves as business people, who have to make money. It is a necessity as much as an empowering blessing.
As for many other industries, the same goes for agriculture: there is no sustainability if you do not make money. This is what has not changed.
What has changed is our knowledge, which impacts numerous other areas. Today, we understand much better how the ecosystems work and what is our impact on them. Also, how this impact increased dramatically in the last decades, again driven often by financial economics. I have to produce more to maintain the financial profitability of my farm and therefore my ecosystem externalities are increasing, which in return alter the regulations placed on the agricultural industry to manage those consequences. These regulations then become actions I must take to adjust to the new requirements.
I believe some of that knowledge has been there intuitively through the previous generations but may have been lost for a few decades. The recent generations of farmers are trying to reconnect with nature, whilst benefiting from all the progress that has been made to date.
On ESCP’s media, The Choice, we dedicated several articles to the topic of the UN Sustainable Development Goals last year. When it comes to UN SDG 2 “Zero Hunger”, how are we doing as a society? What are the priorities that you believe should have been addressed during the COP26?
I see the net-zero goal to be achieved by 2050 as the North Star and the UN’s SDGs as expansions of it. It is very much about the pathways to get there, the various transitions that should happen and figuring out the just ways of doing so. Not only in a sustainable but in a regenerative manner.
Unfortunately, as a society, we are not doing well on SDG 2. Hunger worldwide has increased. Of course, the pandemic contributed to this increase. At the same time, we have made tremendous gains over the years to improve the situation. China being lifted out of poverty is one example. Yet we still have hungry people around the world and in recent years this number has been growing, which is unacceptable. As long as even just one person walks hungry there is a problem. What is more, most of those hungry people are actually farmers – the very people that are producing food walk hungry. There are systemic issues that cause such injustice.
The challenge ahead is to find solutions to eliminate hunger whilst appreciating and learning from the great progress made to date. This might mean fundamentally changing the ways we live or operate for those of us who are not hungry right now.
In terms of priorities for the COP26, the challenge is how to tackle the SDGs and how to reach Net Zero by 2050, and at the very latest reduce 45% of emissions by 2030 while being consistent with the nine planetary boundaries.
One of the top polluting industries worldwide, agriculture will need to come up with significant improvements and transform its processes. What are the aspects of farming that have the greatest effects on the environment? And what are the quick fixes modern farming could implement to prevent and start repairing damage?
I would rather call the agriculture industry one of the most emitting rather than polluting as the greenhouse gases are cycled and the agricultural emissions contribute to this cycle. There are process emissions that will remain in this sector forever and the challenge is how one manages those in the most positive way for the ecosystem. In terms of improvements on processes, the framework is the same as for other industries: to avoid, reduce or sequester.
Reduction of emissions could come through tackling food waste as the biggest leveler there. The financial sector is critical here as it links with the level of production (and overproduction). The challenges would be how to finance what needs and should be financed rather than profiting from unnecessary overproduction.
By far the greatest impact on the environment is deforestation, which the COP26 discussed together with the methods to tackle the deforestation value chain. I hope the signatories will deliver on those points. The commitments signed are there and the collective ambition is clear.
Another solution would be to reduce and replace different fertilisers and alter rice production by eliminating the water flooding method to reduce the impact on climate change.
As agriculture is one of two major methane emitters, such solutions would drastically lower the methane emissions to the atmosphere. I would call them quick fixes towards achieving the COP26 goals.
Producing and delivering products locally is also one of the best ways to reduce GHG emissions, as well as restoring nutrient cycles.
It is critical to realise that farmers have been adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change for years. They are the forefront of the climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
Though farming is one of the top contributors to GHG emissions, farmers are also among those that are dealing with the greatest consequences of climate change. What are the greatest challenges and opportunities facing farmers in the years ahead?
Farmers are and will be affected by the weather and climate change over time. It is critical to realise that farmers have been adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change for years. They are the forefront of the climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. The challenge is to link the farmers with the climate goals in a way that they work for those farmers. To address the SDGs with farmers contributing and feeding into those systems, by recognising the current complexities and practices.
Could you tell us more about regenerative agriculture? And how are you working to promote it?
Regenerative agriculture is a knowledge-intensive system of agriculture, in which farmers understand that they are embedded in an ecosystem; they understand that ecosystem and the cycles of nature; and at the very least they maintain that level of ecosystem services and natural cycles. Ideally, they can enhance those in a way that moves them from being sustainable to regenerative farmers. They regenerate the ecosystem by working with nature’s cycles (for example, carbon, water or energy).
The practices are as old as the world. Ecosystems have always existed and we only decoded their ways. As mentioned before, we kind of lost the connection with those practices, but we are now returning to them using knowledge and experience. I work on promoting and educating about how the ecosystems work and to broadscale the practices across different farms, my own family farm included. With the European Carbon Farmers, we measure some of the ecosystem services, for example additional carbon sequestration and work on policy-level as well, including the work on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU to shift from action-based payments to result-based payments.
The Savory Institute also supports the global movement of regenerative farmers and land managers. You can find out more at https://savory.global/
The overall objective of carbon farming is to increase the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) stored in the soil and thereby reduce its presence in the atmosphere.
We’d love to know more about your family’s regenerative grassland farm, the Ciasnocha Family Farm in Poland’s Zulawy Wislane, and your work as the CEO of European Carbon Farmers.
In terms of the family farm, it is about running a financially viable business, which has been a success for many years now, whilst stewarding and enhancing the ecosystem and the society that we are embedded in. The transition to the regenerative farming started with my dad, following Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004 and the changes in the regulatory environment at the country.
The creation of the European Carbon Farmers is the cornerstone of my family farm practices, together with my global insight into climate change and various environmental policies, farming contributions to climate change and a possibility to impact the change positively. Our aim is to promote regenerative agriculture, developing and helping to shape climate finance that goes to farmers, including agricultural carbon credits and impacting the regulatory change, including the Common Regulatory Policy.
The overall objective of carbon farming is to increase the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) stored in the soil and thereby reduce its presence in the atmosphere.
In practice, farmers aim to contribute to efforts to tackle climate change by using various agricultural methods ranging from crop rotation, cover crops, and reduced tillage to precision nitrogen application.
For me, carbon farming is a sub-set of regenerative – it refers to enhancing the carbon cycle managed by the farmer, while regenerative agriculture refers to enhancing various ecosystem cycles, including carbon. Enhancing can mean both emission reductions (i.e. better fertilizer management) and carbon sequestration (i.e. changing annually tilled land into a permanent meadow, or better managing livestock – as promoted by the Savory Institute).
You can read more about carbon farming on the official EU website.