A crisis is brewing in the systems that feed us.

More than a third of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the way we produce, process and package food. It’s also the biggest driver of the diminishing variety of life on Earth. Solving these problems will require root-and-branch reform of farming. But so far, the burden has fallen on relatively slight shoulders: individual farmers and you, the consumer.

Across Europe, widespread frustration in rural communities is boiling over into anger that could derail efforts to make farming more sustainable, with protests against environmental measures emerging in countries including France, Germany, the Netherlands and, most recently, Wales.

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Modern farming methods consume natural habitat and douse soil, crops and seeds with chemical fertilisers and pesticides. There are forms of farming that merge habitats and crops and endow the soil with nutrients by other means, like planting more crops capable of turning airborne nitrogen into a biologically useful form, such as legumes.

So why aren’t more farmers embracing these changes?

Read more: Why the humble legume could be the answer to Europe's fertiliser addiction

“Governments are obliged to meet net zero targets while farmers are clinging to their livelihoods in a difficult economic climate,” says........

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