More People, More Problems, So What’s The Solution?
With an ever-changing climate and exponentially increasing food needs, there are many possible solutions. But which ones work best?
Food production and agriculture contribute heavily to environmental climate change issues of the modern day. And we are caught in a constant struggle between providing food for an exponentially growing population and protecting the environment, with the success of one always coming at the expense of the other.
Mass farming can provide for huge portions of the population, using synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and factory machinery to produce massive yields of meats and fresh fruit and vegetables. However this efficient production comes at great cost to the environment, when emissions of greenhouse gases contribute to global warming and chemical fertilizers and pesticides contaminate and destroy the soil and natural ecosystems of an area. With the detrimental impacts of this agricultural method becoming increasingly public in recent years, some have turned to the other extreme, sustainable farming.
Sustainable farming works to create a method of agriculture that protects the natural resources that are so severely depleted in industrialized, mass farming. Sustainable farming uses techniques like crop rotation and organic fertilizers to promote crop growth while working in conjunction with the natural ecosystems of an area. Sustainable farming is the movement towards natural, low impact farming that produces little waste or emissions and utilizes natural microorganisms to grow fresh produce. Sustainable farming has significant limitations however, both in geographic location and in consistent production yield. With climate change increasing the unpredictability and severity of weather, a stable, reliable method of production is made all the more important for the future.
So is there a solution to this divisive problem? If you look at public opinion, there is tentative affirmation. When asked if they see a solution to the growing food needs, most individuals responded with something along the lines of “I think there might be, but I don’t know what it would be.”
“Honestly, I can’t think of anything except addressing food production and climate change separately,” says Melanie Barrios, a resident of Manhattanville. “They’re both very big problems that need individual attention and I just don’t see how both can be tackled at once.”
But in a world where climate change is impacted by nearly every human action, and where agriculture plays such a significant role in environmental degradation, can these two systems ever be separated? Leyla Ahmadi of the National Resources Defense Council says, “NRDC does a lot of work involving agriculture’s effects on the environment and human health, and we approach the issue from a number of angles.” In many ways, it seems that a solution can only be successful if it addresses both issues in multiple methods.
Recent research has focused on ways to make sustainable, low impact agriculture more accessible and productive. Projects have begun developing revamped greenhouses where food production could be significantly increased while avoiding any detrimental environmental impacts. Innovative designs are being developed by companies all over the world, like Except, an Australian sustainability company that is creating an amazing proposal for the Polydome, a dynamic and progressive form of a greenhouse. The Polydome is a revolutionary approach to greenhouse agriculture that could possibly offer commercial scale, zero-impact food production. While most current greenhouse function as a monocrop producer, meaning only one type of crop is grown, the Polydome is designed as a polyculture system with diverse variety of crops and animals that can grow in symbiosis.
“Plants, crop, animals and insects are strategically interwoven to connect waste, water, and energy flows and capture the benefits of varied space and light conditions,” says Chris Muglia, the management associate for the Polydome project. “With its high yields (60–90 kg per square meter) and diverse outputs (over 50 crops) even a small Polydome system can provide a richly varied food supply for a large population.”
The Polydome is part of a larger movement towards geographic expansion of sustainable farming. While mass, industrial farming has been able to avoid geographic limitations by forcing climates to sustain water intensive crops in areas of drought and inserting harmful chemicals and pesticides into the soil, sustainable farming movements are working to create low impact agriculture systems in areas of food need. The urban farming movement is a part of this larger effort to increase the accessibility of fresh, healthy foods especially in highly populated, urban areas.
Vertical farming is another proposed solution that has major benefits in urban areas. Vertical faming is the process of growing crops in vertically stacked layers, or vertically inclined surfaces and structures. Vertical farming can occur in buildings all over the world, from the skyscrapers of New York to apartments in California, utilizing spaces that were formerly useless and vacant and creating a dynamic agricultural system. According to David Rosenberg, CEO of AeroFarms, vertical farms can grow in 16 days what otherwise takes 30 days in a field while still using 95 percent less water, 50 percent less fertilizers, zero pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. Furthermore, vertical farming occurs indoors and as such, protects crops from the harsh unpredictability of climate change and provides consistent, fresh and local produce.
Innovative designs like the expansive Polydome or creative vertical farming are all steps towards a comprehensive solution for agricultural impacts on climate change. Like farmers Jacqueline Maisonpierre who says, “Organic farming is the only way” or David Rowley who says, “We have to eliminate waste entirely”, it is clear that there is a shift in the focus of the agricultural industry happening now. Sustainability is a need; an agriculture that destroys productivity of its natural resources will eventually destroy its ability to produce. Ultimately, the cornerstones of sustainability must be “ecological, social and economic integrity.” An agriculture that fails to meet the needs of the society it serves will ultimately not be supported by society. And farms and industries that are not profitable are not financially viable, no matter how environmentally friendly they might be.
While addressing specific environmental or food production concerns is admirable, it is not enough. Solutions must be a combination of social, economic and ecological integrity and a more permanent solution must be the goal. Mass farms cannot be sustained when they utilize environmentally destructive techniques and current sustainable farms cannot be economically profitable and as such can never be permanent. Any approach towards sustainable agriculture must prioritize permanence as its end goal, a comprehensive program that is able to create stable agricultural networks to provide for both our people and protect our planet.
In order to hear the author, Max Vieira, and her classmates discuss a range of environmental issues in the face of climate change, members of the public are invited to a panel discussion. “Living in a Climate Changing World” the 4th Action Into Awareness Student Panel will take place on Wednesday, April 27th, from 6:30–8:30 pm in Held Auditorium (304 Barnard Hall) at Barnard College in New York City.
