Thread by @GeorgeMonbiot

The agricultural age is ending. For most of humanity - and for the rest of the living planet - this is good news. Perhaps the best news we've had for centuries.
#Farmfree food.
My column.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

I discussed this extraordinary shift towards #Farmfree food with Charlotte Smith on Farming Today this morning. From 9'30": bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

Our food will be produced on a tiny fraction of the land.
Its environmental impacts will be much smaller.
Nature can recover, and carbon can be drawn down on a massive scale.
Food will be cheaper and better.
Its supply will be far more reliable.
Everyone can be fed.

Farmers will lose out, however. #Farmfree foods are likely to drive most of them out of business within a generation or so. So they will need public help during this transition. Instead of pouring subsidies into a dying industry, governments should be helping people to leave it.

And legislation must get ahead of the new technologies, with strong anti-trust laws and limitations on patents, ensuring that - unlike global farm commodity markets today - they cannot be captured and concentrated by a few big players.

All this and more will be explored in our film #ApocalypseCow, at 10pm on @Channel4 this evening.

@Channel4 Here's my response, in the comment thread, to the people expressing horror at the idea of #Farmfree foods.