At every stage, food provisioning releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Farming in particular releases significant amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, two powerful greenhouse gases.
Jun 30, 2015
How much does agriculture contribute to global warming?
Right now, agriculture generates an estimated 25% of annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to the WRI; that’s when you combine food production and the land-use changes associated with farming, such as clearing vegetation and plowing.
Is agriculture the leading cause of global warming?
The Problem A new report released by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which examines how land use changes have contributed to the warming of Earth’s atmosphere, has concluded that agriculture and forestry have contributed nearly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.
How agriculture can positively affect global warming?
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Organic agriculture can remove from the air and sequester 7,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per acre per year.
Why agriculture is bad for the environment?
Agriculture is the leading source of pollution in many countries. Pesticides, fertilizers and other toxic farm chemicals can poison fresh water, marine ecosystems, air and soil. They also can remain in the environment for generations.
How does agricultural activities affect the environment?
Agriculture contributes to a number larger of environmental issues that cause environmental degradation including: climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, dead zones, genetic engineering, irrigation problems, pollutants, soil degradation, and waste.
How does agricultural production produce greenhouse gases?
Airborne greenhouse gases are responsible for the effects of climate change. Carbon dioxide is emitted by farm equipment moving across the farm’s fields during tilling, planting, the application of pesticides and fertilizers and harvest. The more passes across the farm field, the more carbon that is emitted.
How does agriculture contribute to co2 emissions?
Using estimates from 2005, 2007 and 2008, the researchers found that agricultural production provides the lion’s share of greenhouse-gas emissions from the food system, releasing up to 12,000 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year — up to 86% of all food-related anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions.
Carbon Sequestration in Soils
Agriculture as Carbon Cap and Storage
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Scaling up from soil to the entire industry, the agricultural sector could be “broadly carbon neutral” by 2030, effectively negating the agricultural industry’s humongous carbon footprint. Translation: We would avoid emitting a whopping 2 gigatonnes — that’s 2 billion metric tonnes — of carbon dioxide. Given that, practicing sustainable agriculture, along with reducing deforestation, is far m…
Local Food Systems and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
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Combined with the two big green steps mentioned above, local food systems can help reduce agriculture’s impact on global warming even further. The example that resident sustainability engineer Pablo used for calculation — cherries grown close enough to be transported by truck rather than airplane — won’t apply to everything, but the lesson is clear: Employing organic agricu…
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Fertilizer and Pesticide Use
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But wait, there’s more! If we consider some of the embodied energy required for industrial ag, it gets worse. According to Will Allen, green farmer extraordinaire, including all the “manufacture and use of pesticides and fertilizers, fuel and oil for tractors, equipment, trucking and shipping, electricity for lighting, cooling, and heating, and emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous o…
Land Use Changes and Agriculture
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It’s not just the actual farming (if you can call it that) that makes industrial agriculture so detrimental. In almost every case, land use changes — say, deforestation, or paving over green space for suburban expansion — result in more surface warming. One exception: When deforestation occurs to create more agricultural land. That’s right, deforestation results in surfac…
Introduction
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Agriculture is the growing of plants (crops) and animals (livestock) for food and other purposes. In 2007, lands used for crop growing and animal grazing took up 40–50% of Earth’s land surface, a 10% increase since 1961. Agriculture contributes to global climate change by releasing carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), the t…
Historical Background and Scientific Foundations
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For most of the human race’s existence, it did not practice agriculture. For many hundreds of thousands of years, humans and their near-human ancestors practiced various forms of hunting and gathering, finding edible plants and animals in the environment rather than raising them. The first known tools, made about 2.5 million years ago, were food processors, chipped stones devis…
Impacts and Issues
- Is Meat the Number One Cause of Global Warming?
In 2007, vegan and animal-rights organizations ran ads in the U.S. media stating that emissions from meat-raising contribute more to global warmingthan cars do. For example, an ad by the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) read: “Too Chicken to Go Vegetarian? … - Mitigation of Agricultural Emissions
Altered agricultural practices can reduce agriculture’s contribution to global warming. More efficient delivery of nitrogen to crops would reduce N2O emissions and other ecological harms; livestock management for more efficient digestion of feeds would save money and reduce CH4…
Primary Source Connection
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Methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are major greenhouse gases. Agriculture is a common, and often overlooked, contributor of methane and nitrous oxide. Both methane and nitrous oxide are produced naturally by livestock and soil management. Some human-controlled agricultural management techniques, however, increase methane and nitrous oxide production. This article …
Bibliography
- Books
Parry, M. L., et al, eds. Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2007. - Periodicals
Asner, Gregory P. “Grazing Systems, Ecosystem Responses, and Global Change.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources29 (2004): 261–299. Deutsch, Claudia H. “Trying to Connect the Dinner Plate to Climate Change.” The New York Times(August 29, 2007). Izaurralde, R. César, et …