World Food Security – Soil is the biggest carbon sink on our planet

Interview with CEO – Sir, Chrysostomos Vassili of the Vassili Group LLC

CEO of the Vassili Group LLC, Sir Chrysostomos Vassil, expressing his views on global food-security and why we all need to take notice.

I asked Sir Vassili to give a few examples of why he believes global food security is a serious issue in our present time
The examples he gave were as follows:

It is estimated that one in three people in the world (2.37 billion) did not have access to adequate food in 2020 – that’s an increase of almost 320 million people in just one year and this number is increasing.

So we must ask ourselves, are we producing enough food that can sustain adequate food production to feed entire human and animal population on our planet and do we have a plan to produce food to feed our future human population expansions? The answer is no to all, which should concern us all.

LETS LOOK AT SOME BRIEF FOOD IMPORTS EXAMPLES –

1) USA imports 15% of its overall food supply
2) UK imports 45% of its overall food supply
3) Germany imports 22% of its overall food supply
4) France imports 10.5% of its overall food supply
5) Italy imports 11.2% of its overall food supply
6) Spain imports 12% of its overall food supply
7) Portugal imports 15.4% of its overall food supply
8) Greece imports 13% of its overall food supply

So on average, we can say that all countries are showing that they are important between 10-20% of all food they consume, which means if all have a food deficit of 10-20% then that would account for the one in three people in the world (2.37 billion) did not have access to adequate food.

Now add to this food-security issues that are unforeseen, such as events of lack of rain, drought, crop diseases, soil erosion, war and other environmental disasters, no further farming land left to expand and farm,  as well as the continual global expansion of human population and animal population expansion to meet human population consumption for meat and fish and animal feed to sustain them, and finally the USD$100-billion meat industry for the production of pet foods for loving pets of cats and dogs, who also need to eat and survive, and most would never survive in the wild as domesticated pets, which means they are dependent upon humans to produce their food to survive .

This simply shows that food security is already a serious issue and requires restructuring into new sustainable technologies in addition to land farming, which requires great investment and development so as to bring about sustainable long term food security globally.
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So let us look at a few important point –

1) Creating feed for animals creates large scale environmental destruction, loss of bio diversity in the soil, loss of water resources, deforestation, uses of pesticides, fertilizers, much of which run into the soil and natural water system such as streams, lakes, rivers and oceans and create dead zones that kill approximately 212,000 metric tons of fish a year and there are over 400 sites like this globally, destroying natural food source annually for over half a billion people on our planet.

2) To create a single plant base burger adds 3.5 kilos of carbon to our atmosphere, and a meat beef burger adds it back into our soil via animal waste, where it belongs  – It is argued that we should eat more plant based foods and less meats, but it is counter-argued and proven that  e.g. farming to create a Soy-Burger/Plant based Burger adds 3.5 kilos of Co2/Carbon to the environment. In short, to grow enough Soy to create one plant based burger adds 3.5 kilos of carbon to the environment and to grow enough beef to create one beef burger adds back 3.5 kilos of carbon to the environment via animal wastes which naturally fertilizes the soil, the beef off-sets the environmental destruction created by the grown soy plant burger, and this is because of the amount of natural waste the animal puts back into the soil. This is a factual general argument, which resolves nothing, if anything, it leads to more argument on the subject, and achieves no viable solutions.

3) Soil is the biggest carbon sink on the planet, it can hold 3 times the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. The waste from farmed animals naturally fertilizes the soil and puts back the 3.5 kilos of carbon into our soil, yet this will be counter argued by many different factors, one of which is the natural bodily gas animals release, which is believed to be damaging our environment/atmosphere, so we find ourselves once again arguing back and forth on the subject.

4) We lose 200,000 Tons of soil EVERY HOUR, we loose soil equivalent to the size of Nicaragua or North Korea EVERY YEAR. According to the United Nations we have 60 Harvest Left and thereafter we will have a global food crisis that will cause famine globally. The 60 harvest timetable predicted could strongly be argued that with better agricultural farming practices we can farm without issues for another 100+ years and others may even argue another 1000 years, but in reality this is not a solution, we should not have time frames on our food security, and as long as we are dominantly relying upon fertile soil to grow our food, which does have a life span, then we must seek more sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions, sooner, rather than later.

5) It is important to understand that this is not about whether we should convert from meat eating carnivores to plant eaters only, and all to become Vegans or visa-versa, or hold a balance between both, on the contrary, whether we become vegan or remain as meat eating societies, the damage is still inevitable to our land based farmed soils and our environment. Land based farming for animal feed or human feed adds equally a large carbon footprint and eradicates our fertile soils which we as a human race rely upon as our food source and survival, and let’s not forget our pets.

6) In the past farmers would allow their lands to rest a year skipping a crop production, in certain fields/lands, so that the land can revive and replenish itself, but in today’s world where our populations continue to expand and any type of interruption in food production will create shortages which could create major food security issues, it is not possible to apply the old methods of farming globally.

7) Also, this is not about whether plant based food is healthier than meat based foods or visa versa, this is another pointless and endless argument, for example, as hunter gatherers we ate over 800 species of plants, today we eat a mere fraction of such wild grown plants, the rest we have forgotten about and no longer eat nor farm and most edible wild plant species growing in the wild, we have wiped out and destroyed due to commercial plant farming, reducing our wild plant food security by up to 95% less than what it should be, and as for meat, some cultures like the plains Indians of Dakota USA lived mostly on Buffalo meat all year round and they were some of the healthiest and longest lived people in history, one can even argue that the Liver of an animal contains more combined Vitamins and Minerals than any other plant or fruit on the planet, and considered a top Super-Food, but we would not logically consider that as a daily dietary food intake nor as a replacement to the multiple plants and fruits we would need to eat to get the same benefits of eating Liver.

This is about FOOD-SECURITY and how we must start to better our development of food-production and security and not about Vegetables v Meats. It’s about food being developed in an environmentally friendly and stable way so we can avoid global famine disasters in our near future and certainly within our lifetime and to safeguard our planet and all living things upon it.

8) Even if we were to dismiss the UN  warning of 60 Harvest left as fiction and nonsense, the fact will still remain that we already suffer global food shortages TODAY, agricultural land does not increase in its size, and if it did it will be at the expense of deforestation which leads to more environmental disaster, but, one fact that exist and cannot be argued with is that we as a human race do increase in numbers, world population increases by the second, yet our existing food-security which is already strained will never be able to increase based on our existing agricultural lands already farmed for human food and animal feed, it will not increase to meet the growing global population. Our near future will suffer food-security issues unless we apply different technologies that will drastically reduce the amount of land farming required at present to feed the global human population and create greater and healthier crop yields.

How do we increase our crop yields by 100% or more to create better and healthier crops with zero negative impact on our environment and soil, without requiring more agricultural Land?

The answer is HYDROPONICS, AQUACULTURE, AQUAPONICS, AQUA”B”PONICS​

Those that question on whether we can sustain food-security for present population, then let me refresh what I said above –‘’one in three people in the world (2.37 billion) did not have access to adequate food in 2020’’

Many will try to argue this as being all due to Covid-19, but the reality is that crops do not stop growing because of Covid-19 and animal farming for meat and poultry did not stop due to Covid-19, and I ask anyone to try to name a single year in past century where there wasn’t food shortages and famine happening in our world.

We simply need to look at the farmed lands available to us on our planet –

​EARTH LAND –

1. Earth surface is only 29% land which equates to 149 million km2
2. Earth ocean is 71%  which equates to 361million km2
3. Earth Habitable land surface (General)  71% which equates to 104 million km2
4. Earth Glaciers land surface is 10% which equates to 15 million km2
5. Earth Barren land surface is 19% which equates to 28 million km2
6. Earth Human Habitual land is 50% which equates to 51 million km2
7. Earth Forests is 37% which equates to 39 million km2
8. Earth Shrub lands is 11% which equates to 10,909,090 million km2
9. Earth Urban and built-up land is 1% which equates to 1,090,909 km2
10. Earth Fresh Water is 1% which equates to 1,090,909 km2
11. Earth Animal Feed, Meat Dairy Agricultural land is 77% which is 40 million km2
12. Earth human Crops Agricultural land is 23% which equates to 11 million km2
13. Earth / Global Meat & Dairy Calories supply 18%
14. Earth / Global Plant Based Calories supply 83%
15. Earth / Global Meat & Dairy Protein Supply 37%
16. Earth / Global Plant Based Protein Supply 63%

So we either start creating more farmlands, obviously by destroying more of our environment, echo system and animal and plant life, as well as vital forests, or we become inventive.

We believe that the future of food-security must come from Hydroponics, Aquatics, Aquaponics and Aqua’B’ponics

Brief example –

HYDROPONICS is the cultivation of plants without using soil, a soil FREE solution. Hydroponic flowers, herbs, and vegetables are planted in inert growing media and supplied with nutrient-rich solutions, oxygen, and water. This system fosters rapid growth, stronger yields, and superior healthier quality plants.  Uses 95% less water than land farming, no pesticides, no fertilizers, soil free, insect and disease free, up to 98% less crop waste, can grow all year round in any environment globally, creates healthier and cleaner crops with zero damage to our soils and environment, and 52 Acre Hydroponic Site can grow equivalent to 8,000 Acres of land based crops.

2) AQUAPONICS is a system of aquaculture in which the waste produced by farmed fish or other aquatic creatures supplies the nutrients for plants grown hydroponically, which in turn purify the water. Aquaponics has an automatic recirculating system, aquaponics does not require much monitoring or measuring, reusing and recycling the same water and plants are fertilized from fish waste, supplying a stead yield of plant based foods and protean/fish. This has zero impact on our rivers, lakes and sea, it allows existing fish stocks to increase naturally in their own environment which enhances our food future food security.

3) AQUA’B’PONICS is AQUAPONICS with a an added system that grows flowers and plants for Honey Bees, and bee keeping, so that the system harvests, edible vegetables, fish and natural healthy honey all year round with zero impact on our environment.

4) AQUACULTURE is fish farming either in lakes or sea, however, VGPIP only funds Land Based Aquatics, which recirculates and rejuvenates the same water with zero impact on our environment. Creating 100% healthy Organic Fish, with zero disease or infestations or contaminations, using naturally farmed plant feed grown organically in hydroponic systems and from organic insect farming to create natural organic feed.

We are planning during 2022-2035 to invest in following areas so that we can create food-security –

• Develop in USA, UK, Europe & Africa, a minimum of 1000+Large Scale Hydroponic Centres, on a total combined land area of 52,000 Acres, of which the land will be non-agricultural land, producing vegetable and fruit crops equivalent to the crop yield of 8,000,000 acres of ”Grade-1” agricultural land farming, unaffected by climate change or the environment, producing sustainable yields of organic foods for 100+ years. Based on systems that uses 95% less water than farm lands, soil free, insect and disease free, can be grown in any environment.2)  Develop in the USA, UK, Europe & Africa a minimum of 200+ Aquaculture Centres, on a total combined land area of 40,000 acres of which the land will be non-agricultural land, producing organic fish varieties for human consumption, producing a total of 55,000,000 Tons per year of organic fish, producing sustainable yields of organic foods for 100+ years. Based on same water circulation systems, with 2% water loss annually.3) The Hydroponics and Aquaponic Centers are aimed to be developed on outskirts of cities and towns and the size of each development will vary in accordance to population ratio and existing food produce infrastructure

  5) Each project will be powered by a hybrid of renewable green energy plant, with its own battery storage and electrical substations, which allows each project to operate 100% on renewable clean green energy with a zero CO2 emissions and carbon footprint, have a zero negative impact on climate change, or on any animal, insect or bird life.

  6) The development of Water Treatment Plants, Bore Wells, Desalination Plants and Distillation Plants to supply water

  7) The projects will create overall in total up to 1,700,000 direct new jobs and up to 12,000,000 indirect jobs, globally

  8) The food produce of this aimed project will be in addition to the existing global food produce, it will provide food-security globally and help eradicate hunger and famine and provide the opportunity to create new crops in areas that would not be possible to grow and assure food-security is sustained and stable for the next 100+ years to meet our present and future global populations.

  We hold an ethos which is focused on projects for the general benefit of society and with respect to humanitarian purposes, and these aimed projects are vital to sustain and increase our present and future global food security.

without such projects, we will between now and 2035 risk unimaginable human suffering that the world has never faced before in its recorded human history, with more refugee economic migration increasing globally simply out of need to eat, we must act now to apply sustainable food-security for all mankind.

We must all move away from this diversional timewasting argument of VEG or MEAT dietary choice and market directions, it removes us from the reality of food shortages we are all currently experiencing and food prices that have increased 10-40% globally, which reflect food shortages, let’s all please prioritise this subject and all focus on food production that is sustainable and meets our global populations and not just some of us.

We saw during Covid-19 the crazy panic rushes to supermarkets for food hoarding as well as other essentials, so we can say that human reaction to store food without much consideration of others and their needs for food, was seen globally, some called this shameful behaviour, others called itself preservation, and others referred to it as panic and human nature to react in such a way, and interestingly, this was not due to lack of food or food shortages, this was mainly due to late food deliveries due to lack of movement.

Can we imagine how the human population would actually react if there was a public announcement that we not only do not produce enough food to feed entire population but cannot feed future populations with existing farming lands?

My advice to all, is grow your own food, no matter how little it may be, even if it’s just a window box, it’s not the amount that you will grow that matters, the fact that we are reconnecting to learning how to grow our own food is a major education in our own self-preservation, so let’s educate ourselves and our children how food is grown and how we can be self-reliant if we needed to be, if anything we will re-educate our present and future generations on how we can all grow our own food.

Growing food was the first activity that gave us enough prosperity to settle and lay foundations in one place, form complex social groups, tell our stories, and build our cities, and every human being knew how to grow food.

Speaking to handful of children from age of 10-17, most could not recognise the names of most vegetables and many thought they just appear in supermarkets as if by magic, and when I asked, ‘if food ran out, what would you do’ and the only answer given was ‘’go to supermarkets’’. None knew how food is produced or grown, half thought potatoes grew on trees like apples; the point that I am getting to is, ‘’why aren’t schools teaching vital education on how food is farmed or to at least recognise and identify the food types each child consumes daily’’, such simple education which is vital for our human survival is completely ignored within schools.

Children are so far removed from the reality on how our food is created that we leave them vulnerable for survival and self-preservation as well as the future of our global food-security, I think it’s time for our children to put down their smartphones and get their hands dirty in planting something, and made responsible for what they planted until it matures to be harvested, and prepared for food and eaten by that child, and by doing this simple exercise, we may have given them a survival skill that could safeguard our planet and the food-security required for their future.

In the last 100 years, almost 50-80% of populations of all developed countries where employed in agriculture, today, that figure is 2-5% per developed country, a frightening thought.

Educators and schools internationally, educate children on growing food and farming and make it compulsory and part of schools studies that every child should grow something, until it is harvested and prepared for consumptions, teach our children to respect nature, food and to help them understand how it is grown and importance of food