What are the pros and cons of industrial agriculture?
What Are the Pros of Factory Farming?
- It keeps prices down for consumers. Factory farming allows for livestock products to be produce on a large economic scale. …
- It allows automation to help provide food resources. In the past, farming meant an intense amount of daily manual labor to produce a crop. …
- It improves production efficiencies. …
What are the disadvantages of sustainable agriculture?
- because of the reduced use of chemicals and organic ways.
- reduced emissions
- better nutrition .
- better resistance and good biodiversity in the farm
What are the methods of sustainable agriculture?
Sustainable agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T … and resource-efficient farming methods (27). These vertical farms target both personal and commercial farming and can be found in spaces ranging from traditional greenhouses to kitchen gardens …
What are the different types of sustainable agricultural practices?
Sustainable agriculture strives to help the environment by:
- Reducing agricultural runoff;
- Preventing pollution of lakes and rivers;
- Saving water;
- Naturally maintaining soil fertility by recycling nutrients on farm;
- Enhancing carbon sequestration by soils and perennial vegetation;
- Promoting energy efficiency of farming operations;
- Decreasing emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases;
WORK CITED
Axelrod, S. J. “Health Problems in Industrialized Agriculture” School of Public Health. September 1949: 1172-1175. Print.
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How does agriculture affect the environment?
While agricultural operations provide unique opportunities to conserve biodiversity, they also can threaten wild species and spaces. From habitat loss to pollution, agriculture contributes to many of the environmental challenges that WWF actively addresses.
Why is farming important?
Farming is the only viable livelihood option for three-quarters of the world’s extremely poor people. Subsidies provided by U.S. and European governments to their agriculturalists encourage overproduction, which drives down world prices and forces many producers in developing countries to cut corners environmentally. Producers facing declining harvests from cleared lands expand into surrounding wild lands that are rich in biodiversity, resulting in a cycle of increasing poverty and biodiversity loss.
How does farming affect the atmosphere?
Many farming practices—such as burning fields and using gasoline-powered machinery—are significant contributors to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contends that the livestock sector alone is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gas production. Additionally, clearing land for agricultural production is a major contributor to climate change, as the carbon stored in intact forests is released when they are cut or burned.
What is the largest industry in the world?
Agriculture is the world’s largest industry. It employs more than one billion people and generates over $1.3 trillion dollars worth of food annually. Pasture and cropland occupy around 50 percent of the Earth’s habitable land and provide habitat and food for a multitude of species.
What is industrial agriculture?
Industrial agriculture is all about controlling nature, curating the land for human use, and choosing which plants are valuable. Although much of biodiversity loss is a secondary result of farming techniques (think: habitat loss or unintended chemical runoff), plants are often eradicated on purpose (think: weeds).
How has industrial agriculture helped the world?
Industrial agriculture has had great success in producing abundant, low-cost food. World hunger has been declining for decades, and food production per capita has increased sharply since the 1960s. But this success has come with costs that raise questions about the sustainability and the unintended effects of the global “rationalization” …
What are the uses of insecticides?
Insecticides are intensively used to combat insect pests, such as fruit and corn borers (e.g. tomato fruit borer Helicoverpa armigera, eggplant fruit borer Leucinodes orbonalis, and the European corn borer Ostrinia nubilalis) or the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella, to avoid economic damage. For instance, only the costs for insecticides to control the invasive spotted wing fruit fly Drosophila suzukii in sweet cherry production in Switzerland amount to approximately US$ 313/ha (Mazzi et al., 2017 ). Furthermore, insecticides provide a key management tool against anopheline and aedine mosquito disease carriers for malaria and dengue, but also against tsetse flies, fleas, and others ( WHO, 2012 ). Disease agents transmitted by animal vectors (mainly insects) cause altogether more than 1 million human deaths per year ( WHO, 2016 ).
How have individuals and groups responded to industrial agriculture?
Individuals and groups have responded to industrial agriculture by using their purchasing power to support sources of locally grown food. One manifestation is ‘community-supported agriculture’ (CSA), in which individuals purchase ‘shares’ in a particular farm’s annual crop.
Is industrial agriculture sustainable?
It is generally accepted that industrial agriculture that uses large swathes of monocultures, tillage, and injudicious application of inorganic fertilizers is unsustainable. To make it sustainable, ecofriendly approaches, such as no-till, cover cropping, growing more genetically diverse crops, crop rotation, the use of organic fertilizers and integrated pest management strategies are becoming more relied upon. Residue management practices and tillage affect the water holding capacity of soil, its physical properties, temperature, and microbial activity. Some microbial isolates showing tolerance against various abiotic stresses are listed in Table 3.1.
What is sustainable agriculture?
Sustainable agriculture serves as a much-needed alternative to the industrial farming practices that have been employed in the United States for decades. These methods, which include repeatedly planting the same crop on one plot of land and encouraging growth through the heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers, …
Why is agriculture important?
Sustainable agricultural methods provide the means by which humans can meet our needs without harming the environment. This is important not only for us and our continued enjoyment of nature and natural resources but also for the animals with which we share our space.
Why are antibiotics not used in agriculture?
Antibiotic Resistance: Because antibiotics are not used for preventive medicine in sustainable agriculture, implementing sustainable methods of production increases the effectiveness of antibiotics in treating people. Pandemics: Industrial agriculture, in which animals are kept in tight quarters, is a driver of disease.
Why do farmers use the same land to raise livestock and crops?
Using the same land to raise livestock and crops reduces the need for fertilizers, as the manure from the cattle provides nutrients to the plants. This practice also helps control soil erosion and has no impact on crop yield.
How does agriculture affect the environment?
Environmental Impacts. Industrial agriculture is a driving force behind water pollution, soil degradation, and air pollution. The animals housed in CAFOs produce tons of manure every year which is either stored or applied to fields as a fertilizer.
What is the Farm Bill?
The Farm Bill also provides for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Conservation Stewardship Program which provide financial and technical assistance to farms that use sustainable methods that encourage improved water, air, and soil quality. The total budget for these programs is less than $5 billion.
What are the three main goals of sustainable agriculture?
The three main goals of sustainable agriculture are economic profitability for farmers; the promotion of environmental stewardship; and an increase in welfare for farmers, their communities, and their animals while producing enough to meet the needs of humans.
