Greenpeace: Industrial agriculture large source of green house gases

The report, entitled "Cool Farming: Climate Impacts on agriculture and mitigation potential", describes how energy and chemical-intensive farming has led to increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily as a result of the overuse of fertilisers, land clearance, soil degradation, and intensive animal farming. The total global contribution of agriculture of climate change, including deforestation for farmland and other land use changes, is estimated to be equivalent to between 8.5-16.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide or between 17-32 per cent of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

"The environmental impacts of industrial farming have reached critical levels. Governments of agriculture-driven economics must support future farming methods that work with nature, not against it," said Natwipha Ewasakul, a campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

- The Nation