As the
global population increases, so does the need for food. Recently, there has become an urgency to
create ways of producing food that will not only feed more people, but also
create less stress on the environment.
Methods such as recycling crop waste and livestock manure, growing
symbiotic crops, and developing genetically engineering crops have all aided in
this movement.
Many crop
growers also produce livestock. As you
may guess, livestock tend to produce vast amounts of waste. Manure provides a good source of fertilizer
for fields. Rather than apply
manufactured fertilizers, a grower may apply manure to a field, reducing the
amount of waste and adding to the overall health of the soil.
Furthermore,
soil conservation is one of the up-and-coming ways of promoting sustainable
agriculture. No-till farming has become
more and more popular over the last decade.
By leaving a field un-tilled, farmers are cutting back on the amount of
fuel used, adding organic matter and nutrients into the soil so that fewer
fertilizers must be applied, and providing top cover to the soil to prevent
erosion. Another popular method for soil
conservation is crop rotation. When
symbiotic legumes (i.e. alfalfa, clover, soybeans, etc.) are rotated into
fields grown with corn, the legumes will convert unusable forms of Nitrogen
into those that can be used by the plants.
This will eliminate the need for fertilizer to be added to soil when
corn is planted year after year. By
conserving soil, farmers can reduce the need to apply additional fertilizers,
tasks that require the burning of more fuel.
Genetically
modified crops have also reduced the amount of pesticides applied to
crops. One example of genetically
modified crops is a certain species of corn being bred to have a gene that
produces a chemical toxic to European corn borers. The plant is able to repel the insect without
the help of chemicals applied to the plants.
Some ethical issues have arisen with this practice, however.
For more
information, the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program
has put together a pamphlet to list various advancements in sustainable
agriculture.
http://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/SARE-Program-Materials/National-Program-Materials/What-is-Sustainable-Agriculture
I think this article talks about a very important and relevant topic circulating around our society today. With the continuous increase in population and urban expansion through out the entire world, farmland must be taken care of and utilized to its fullest potential. I think it is great to reuse livestock manure as fertilizer, use fewer pesticides and not till the soil to help retain its limited nutrients. I think we can't stop at just these few practices, but must continue to research ways to conserve the soil as the world population and food demands increase.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are some really good ideas here as well, however I don't believe that there is a shortage of food in the world (I've read a few studies that say so), but it's a distribution problems due to policies and such, unfortunately. There is enough food to feed the world, however our farming practices need to become more sustainable, organic methods are the best because, once up and going strong, these farms can support themselves and be much for resilient than conventional farms. Although I don't agree with everything in her book, "Organic Manifesto" by Maria Rodale is a good lesson about agriculture.
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