Page 164 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 1

The significance of pastures

animals (e.g., through grazing in pastures only) are much healthier than those
fed through intensive methods involving the use of manufactured corn silage
containing GMOs. This reveals that extensive production is more beneficial
for animal welfare and access to healthy food than intensive production.
With the increasing awareness of producers and consumers in recent years,
common initiatives such as AAFS and food networks have emerged. These
initiatives should be promoted through sustainable means of production
towards self-regulation and self-sufficient such as local authorities, community
farms, and farming schools. This will support agroecological production and
food security.
In climate change adaptation strategies, to protect and improve pastures,
community-based (common) practices should be promoted against
enclosure movements. For the self-regulation of commons, cooperatives
and producer unions should be strengthened and rural to urban migration
should be decreased. For this purpose, first of all, rural producers should
generate enough income from agricultural sector and the technical and social
infrastructure flaws (in areas like transport, education, health, etc.) should be
improved, and alternative job opportunities should be created in rural areas
to decrease the migration of young people from rural to urban areas and
push factors of the rural areas, such as inter-regional inequalities should be
eliminated.
Future studies should closely examine the effects of climate change on
meadow-pasture systems in various bioregions, and efficient practices should
be implemented towards increasing the carbon emission capacity of pastures
and their resistance against climate change. For the sustainability of these
efficient practices, rural policies should be determined with a participatory
planning approach, in collaboration with rural producers, who are/will be the
practitioners of common, modern, agroecological and restorative agriculture
methods.

Notes

The current study benefits from the findings of the dissertation study by the
writer, “Rural-Ecological Commons: Case of Pastures in İzmir” submitted in
2018 as part of the PhD program administered by İzmir Institute of Technology,
Department of Urban and Regional Planning.

Year 1 / Issue 1 / Jan 2022 149