Cultivate evolutionary mixes

24.06.25

The environmental benefits of cultivating Aleppo Mixture

There is a broad consensus on the negative effects of industrial agriculture on the environment, which have increased since farmers became dependent on chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Since the 1950s, the use of fertilizers and pesticides has increased dramatically around the world. Crops absorb only one-third to one-half of fertilizer applications, and less than 1% of the pesticides applied reach the pests it intends to control. The chemicals penetrate the soil and end up in aquifers and rivers.
Other negative environmental effects are the loss of biodiversity, the decrease in soil fertility due to erosion, salinization and acidification, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the abandonment of rural areas, social injustice and poor food quality

The origin of these negative effects can be traced back to the Green Revolution, an agricultural development process promoted by USAID (the American Agency for International Development) based on the integrated use of new varieties, fertilizers, pesticides (fungicides, insecticides and herbicides) irrigation and mechanization, and began with a visit to Mexico in 1940 by the founder of one of the largest seed companies.

In the context of the Green Revolution, the ideal variety was the one that was good anytime and anywhere, but which in practice was good only in the presence of the other components, including chemistry, water and machines.

The loss of biodiversity is probably among the most important negative effects, also because the Green Revolution is the opposite of what ecology tells us, namely that:

greater diversity = greater productivity = greater resilience

Applying this simple relationship to agriculture would mean feeding the world (greater productivity) and absorbing the effects of climate change with less damage.

Biodiversity can be brought back to agriculture by also creating supply chains that generate income, both by increasing the portfolio of cultivated species and by cultivating non-uniform varieties such as the Aleppo Mixture. It is possible to return to cultivating species that were common in Italy, such as millet, or to cultivate sorghum and barley for human food — all species much more resistant to drought and much more nutritious than wheat and corn, while the Aleppo Mixture, especially in the case of durum wheat and common wheat, has been shown to produce well (up to 40 quintals/ha) without the use of synthetic chemistry.
Therefore, cultivating biodiversity considerably mitigates the impact of agriculture on the environment without sacrificing productivity and profitability.

Text by Stefania Grado and Salvatore Ceccarelli

24. 06. 25

24.06.25