"Every day, nearly 16,000 children die from a hunger-related cause — 1 child every 5 seconds. People are hungry because the "global food system" we have built is out of control—it prioritizes historically unprecedented corporate profits, while failing to feed people and steward our land and water resources for future generations." ~ PAN: Feeding the World
With human population
growing at a rate of approximately
78 million people per year
with
over 7 billion people living on the planet today
and estimates reaching
between 8 and 11 billion by 2050
and
up to 15 billion by 2100, humanity faces perhaps our greatest challenge of keeping fed while keeping a healthy, productive foundation to feed ourselves with. Despite the odds,
this can be done.
Learn more.
Pesticides
Although the use of pesticides has its benefits, such as controlling or killing potential disease-causing organisms and insects, weeds and other pests, reducing yield losses and time savings to the producer and lowering food and fiber costs for the consumer, there are many drawbacks, such as the gradual erosion of soil, threat of toxicity to humans and other animals, increased pest resistance and the unintended killing of pests' natural enemies. Astonishingly, over 98% of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, including non-target species, air, water, bottom sediments, and food. According to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, 9 of the 12 most dangerous and persistent organic chemicals are pesticides. As insects and weeds develop a resistance to pesticides, farmers are forced to use more, increasingly toxic chemicals to control these 'superweeds' and 'superbugs'. Known as the "pesticide trap," farmers get caught on the treadmill as they are forced to spend more on pesticides each year just to keep crop loss from pests at a standard rate.
Factory Farms
Factory farms, also known as CAFO's (Concentrated Animal Feed Operations), are not what you typically see advertised on their products, with images of happy animals free-roaming farmlands beneath the bright sun in endless, lush green fields. It's far from it. Factory farms cram animals, such as cows, hogs and chickens, by the thousands into tightly packed, filthy, windowless sheds where they are confined to gestation crates, wire cages, barren dirt lots or other cruel confinement systems. As PETA explains, "These animals will never raise their families, root around in the soil, build nests, or do anything that is natural and important to them. Most won't even feel the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter." Designed to produce the highest possible output at the lowest possible cost to the operator, factory farms operate without regard for public health, the environment, food safety, rural economies, animal health, or their surrounding communities.
A
comprehensive examination of nearly 300 studies worldwide
shows that organic, small-scale farming
can feed the world. Organic farms in developing countries outperformed conventional practices by 57% and that organic agriculture could produce enough food, on a per capita basis, to provide 2,640 to 4,380 calories per person per day, which is more than the suggested intake for healthy adults.
According to the study, "With the average yield ratios, we modeled the global food supply that could be grown organically on the current agricultural land base. Model estimates indicate that organic methods could produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without increasing the agricultural land base and while reducing the detrimental environmental impacts of conventional agriculture." Furthermore, a
United Nations Human Rights report
states that "Eco-Farming can double food production in 10 years."
Overgrazing
Soil erosion due to overgrazing leading to desertification. Click to enlarge.
Overgrazing is the intensive animal consumption of plants, which
extracts an unsustainable yield of floral biomass from an ecosystem, typically
occurring over an extended period of time and without a sufficient recovery period. Overgrazing is most commonly caused by an
unsustainable animal density on the land, a lack of rotation of grazers and grazing at inappropriate times in relation to the flora productivity cycle. Overgrazing applies to overpopulations of wild or domesticated animals, but is most commonly used in reference to human-tended domestic grazers, such as cattle, sheep and goats, and is a
significant driver of climate change
and
major cause of desertification worldwide with one third of all rangeland being overgrazed. Overgrazing also causes
soil erosion, reduces the usefulness, productivity and biodiversity of the land
and may lead to
soil compaction, reduction in long-term grazing productivity, loss of topsoil, and increases in surface runoff and flooding frequency and intensity.
Learn more.
Monoculture
Tractor spraying pesticides on soy bean in spring. Click to enlarge.
Monoculture, which is the
practice of growing one type of crop intensively over a large area, is at the core of industrial food production. The chosen crop,
most commonly corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton or rice, is typically replanted in the same soil area year after year with no introduction of a different crop, which creates a system with very little diversity.
Monoculture benefits
include limiting waste from inefficient harvesting and planting, reducing plant competition, controlling unprofitable organisms and allowing the production to be standardized. However, monoculture farming
quickly depletes the nutrients in the soil, relies heavily on chemicals, such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and can
lead to a quicker spread of diseases where a uniform crop is susceptible to a pathogen.
According to a study published in Nature, planting a mixture of crop strains in the same field is effective at combating disease.
In one study in China, the planting of several varieties of
rice
in the same field increased yields by 89%, largely because of the 94% decrease in the incidence of disease, which also made
pesticides
less necessary.
Learn more.
"Farmers use five times
more weed killers on their crops then they did in 1997, and with 94 percent of soybeans and 72 percent of corn being grown this way, herbicide use has exploded, according to a story in
The New York Times. Glyphosate is the largest selling herbicide and it's a main ingredient in Roundup, one of the most popular and widely used herbicides in the U.S. But recent findings are
showing once again, that Monsanto's Roundup
can cause major health problems.
A new study
shows that even when it's diluted to .02 percent of what is sprayed on crops it can cause DNA damage. The study found that inhaling glyphosate causes acute membrane damage, impairment of mitochondrial functions, and damage to DNA." ~
Treehugger
Irrigation
Crop Irrigation using the center pivot sprinkler system. Click to enlarge.
Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the land for various purposes, such as growing crops, maintaining landscapes and for use in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. An irrigation scheme typically draws water from a river or
extracts groundwater
and distributes it over the irrigated area, which,
according to FAO, can cause degradation of the land through salinization, alkalization, waterlogging and soil acidification, reduce socio-economic conditions by increasing the incidence of water related disease, inequity and weaker community infrastructure, create poor water quality through a reduction in irrigation water quality and create water quality problems for downstream users. Furthermore, irrigation can
create ecological degradation reducing biodiversity and damaging downstream ecosystems due to reduced water quantity and quality and create groundwater depletion by reducing the base flow and wetlands and by creating dry drinking and irrigation wells.
According to FAO, "The positive aspect of irrigation is that, by intensifying food and forage production in the most favourable lands, it can allow a country to reduce excessive pressure on marginal lands now under rain-fed cultivation or grazing. Such lands are already undergoing a process of degradation (known, in semi-arid areas, as
desertification). The transition of people who have subsisted for generations on rain-fed lands to irrigated farming may be a difficult social change. However, change will in any case be unavoidable in areas where land degradation becomes acute. Where the opportunity exists for irrigation development, it can serve as a constructive alternative to either famine or mass migration. Irrigation development may have both positive and negative impacts on the environment. To be sustainable, irrigation must avoid the negative impacts."
Learn more.
"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." ~ Aldo Leopold
Slash and Burn
Slash and burn cultivation in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Click to enlarge.
Slash and burn agriculture, which is
used by 200 to 500 million people worldwide, involves the cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. It is primarily associated with rain forests and
used by tribal communities for subsistence farming
(i.e. farming to survive). Following slash and burn,
the cleared area, known as swidden, is used for a relatively short period of time and then left alone to return to a more natural state, however, in many cases,
soil loss and erosion is so high that recovery time can take millennia. Slash and burn agriculture
may be sustainable when practiced by small populations in large forests, as it has been for about
12,000 years, where fields have sufficient time to recover before again being slashed, burned, and cultivated, which
allows for people to farm in places where it usually is not possible and provides communities with a source of food and income. However,
this technique is not sustainable beyond a certain population density because, without the trees, the soil quality soon becomes too poor to support crops, which leads the farmers having to move on to
virgin forest
s and repeat the process.
Throughout the tropics,
slash and burn agriculture results in nearly a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Irresponsible practices of slash and burn agriculture by a large amount of people can lead to a multitude of environmental issues, such as the
temporary or permanent loss of forest cover, which occurs when fields are not given sufficient time for vegetation to grow back;
soil erosion, which occurs inevitably, but especially when the technique is used on fields located right next to each other
and leads to water shortages and a loss of nutrients;
desertification, which is caused by fields losing their fertility and ability to support any type of growth; and a
loss in biodiversity, which occurs by destroying or driving off various plants and animals by cutting and burning their habitat, which is typically situated in tropical regions where biodiversity is extremely high and can lead to the extinction of a species.
In 2004, in Brazil alone, 500,000 small farmers were each clearing an average of one hectare of forest per year.
Learn more.
Over the past 100 years, intensive farming has tripled the levels of phosphorus and doubled the levels of nitrogen in the environment compared to natural levels. Most of this phosphorus and nitrogen that's used to grow crops washes into rivers and steams or gets released into the atmosphere. For example,
only 20% of nitrogen used in agriculture is actually productive, whereas the rest makes its way into the environment. All of these added nutrients in the water fuel massive algae blooms, including toxic algae, which can degrade or destroy coral reefs and sea grasses that provide valuable habitat for marine species, kill fish and
suck the oxygen out of the water when the algae blooms die leading to dead zones where fish and other marine life cannot survive. On a global scale,
eutrophication of coastal systems has risen from fewer than 75 systems in 1960 to more than 800 systems today. Of these 800 systems,
more than 500 have experienced deoxygenation or have become dead zones. Eutrophication also results in economic losses to tourism and recreation industries, capture fisheries, and aquaculture operations. For example, in 2009, a
massive toxic algae bloom
off the coast of Maine led to the closure of commercial shellfish beds, which crippled a $50 million industry. The
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
predicts
that intensive agricultural practices will release nitrogen inputs by almost another 50% by 2050. To protect and maintain healthy, productive water resources for future generations, it will be important to focus on
developing sustainable agricultural policies
that can help achieve food security without compromising water quality.
Learn more.
"The world is in transition from an era of food abundance to one of scarcity. Over the last decade, world grain reserves have fallen by one third. World food prices have more than doubled, triggering a worldwide land rush and ushering in a new geopolitics of food. Food is the new oil. Land is the new gold. This new era is one of rising food prices and spreading hunger." ~ Lester Brown Learn more.
"For the first time, we have shown that it is possible to both feed a hungry world and protect a threatened planet. Currently, farm and ranch lands cover nearly 40 percent of Earth’s land area—the largest use of land on the planet. Though modern agriculture has boosted crops yields, increases between 1985 and 2005 were less than half what is commonly reported and are slowing. And because one-third of crops are used for livestock feed, biofuels and other nonfood products, the number of hunger-abating calories produced per cultivated acre is far lower than it could be—even (perhaps particularly) in fields with high-yielding, but animal-feeding, crops. All that comes with a hefty environmental price tag. Humans have already cleared 70 percent of all grasslands, half of all savannas, 45 percent of temperate deciduous forests and 27 percent of tropical forests. In addition, intensification of agriculture—changes in irrigation, fertilizer use and other practices aimed at boosting per-acre yield—has increased water pollution, local water shortages and energy use. Strikingly, agricultural activities such as clearing land, growing rice, raising cattle and overusing fertilizers make up the single largest contributor of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, accounting for roughly 35 percent of the total." ~ University of Minnesota, International Team Crafts Plan for Feeding the World While Protecting the Planet
