Sustainable Agriculture
Farming is one of the largest industries in the world, and it’s the essence of our survival. However, Our World in Data estimates that agriculture contributes 33% of greenhouse gas emissions to global greenhouse gas emissions. We can’t continue to farm this way, but we can’t stop farming, so we need to convert to sustainable agricultural practices. Sustainable agriculture is environmentally friendly methods of farming that meet society’s agricultural needs, while still preserving land for future generations. These methods include anything from using renewable energy to switching to a less water dependent plant to using sensors in soil. Sustainable agriculture has no limits as long as the methods are environmentally safe and continue to produce enough food for the 8 billion people on Earth.
Technology is an extremely valuable resource that could advance agriculture to new levels. Kim Preshoff at TED-Ed believes small things like sensors could be placed in soil to measure the nutrients and water levels of the soil. This would allow farmers to be extremely efficient because they can selectively water plants that need more water, while skipping plants that already have enough water. Additionally, farmers would have access to very important data for the preservation and maintenance of their crops. Additionally, farmers in India have designed solar-powered cold storage boxes to preserve crops for longer periods of time.
While technology is very beneficial, it can also be very expensive. Farmers with fewer resources and more affordable budgets, technology is simply not an option. However, sustainable agriculture doesn’t need to involve technology. In fact, in Nepal, Bangladesh and Cambodia, farmers have found new strands of rice that require less labor and produce greenhouse gas emissions. They managed to increase income (because the new plant is less labor intensive) while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable agricultural practices shouldn’t be overly complicated, they just need to produce food without harming the environment or any animals in the process. Even discontinuing harmful practices is a step toward a greener future. According to Michael Westendorf and Carey Williams, animal science specialists, farmers often overfeed their cattle, thus wasting food and creating unhealthy and “unproductive” animals.
Biodiversity is the essence of a strong ecosystem and essential for survival, but what is biodiversity? Biodiversity is a combination of ecosystem diversity, genetic diversity and species diversity that creates variation in an ecosystem, allowing it to adapt in the face of change. Ecosystem diversity is variation in the characteristics of an ecosystem or environment in a specific geographical location. Ecosystem diversity allows an ecosystem to continue to thrive even if there is a change in environment. For instance, if an ecosystem relies completely on one coral reef, and that coral reef is destroyed, the ecosystem will not survive. Genetic diversity is the variation in genetic traits within a species. Genetic diversity is to ensure that one species will not go extinct if, for instance, the climate changes because some of the species with traits better equipped for the new climate will still thrive. Species diversity is the variation in species within an ecosystem. For instance, an ecosystem should have a lot of different kinds of animals, so it will still thrive even if one species is removed from the ecosystem. These three factors weave the net that is biodiversity. However, our current farming practices threaten the biodiversity of so many ecosystems on Earth. When a farmer takes a thriving, biodiverse ecosystem and destroys all of the habitats and kills all of the animals to plant a new crop, it completely kills the biodiversity of that ecosystem, and the ecosystem itself. All that remains is one plant species, so places like Costa Rica have implemented a new system. Instead of killing everything, those farmers incorporated the ecosystem into their farms, so the ecosystem can thrive, while still producing large amounts of produce. In fact, the forest coverage in Costa Rica doubled after they began this new system.
Sustainable agriculture isn’t about having a lot of resources or inventing a complex, genius solution, it’s about being creative and doing small things to save the environment. Continuing to farm using our current methods is simply not possible. The land being used to farm is becoming infertile, meaning future generations will not be able to farm there. Farm land should not become a privilege because it’s essential to survival. We cannot continue like this, sustainable agriculture is the only possible way to continue.
Sources:
Preshoff, Kim. “Can we create the ‘perfect’ farm?” TED-Ed. 12 October 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFqecEtdGZ0. 5 December 2022.
Boyle, Katie. “The Importance of Sustainable Agriculture — The Future of Farming.” Bard: Graduate Programs in Sustainability. https://leadthechange.bard.edu/blog/the-importance-of-sustainable-agriculture-the-future-of-farming. 5 December 2022.
“Impact of Sustainable Agriculture.” WWF. https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/sustainable-agriculture#:~:text=Images%20%2F%20WWF%2DUK-,When%20agricultural%20operations%20are%20sustainably%20managed%2C%20they%20can%20preserve%20and,better%20management%20practices%20for%20agriculture. 5 December 2022.
Westendorf, Michael. Williams, Carey. “Nutrient Management on Livestock Farms: Tips for Feeding.” Rutgers: New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. June 2007.https://esc.rutgers.edu/fact_sheet/nutrient-management-on-livestock-farms-tips-for-feeding/#:~:text=Overfeeding%20can%20be%20harmful%20to,up%20in%20the%20manure%20pile. 7 December 2022.
