How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address The Environmental and Human Health Harms of industrial agriculture.

Leo Horrigan, Robert S. Lawrence, and Polly WalkerCenter for a livable future, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

The Union of Concerned Scientists said…

That industrial agriculture views the farm as a factory with inputs and outputs, The goal is to increase yield and decrease the costs of production, usually by exploiting economies of scale.

The Industrial Agriculture System…

The industrial agriculture system consumes natural recourses at very unsustainable rates and contributes to many forms of environmental degradation.

Fossil fuels Water Top soil Phosphorus

Air pollution Water pollution Soil depletion Diminishing biodiversity Fish die offs Animal die offs

The Industrial agriculture system…

Meat production contributes disproportionately to these problems because of the need to feed grain to animals to produce meat, instead of feeding it to humans. This is one example of a loss of energy in the agriculture system.

The Industrial Agriculture System…

Industrial agriculture depends on expensive inputs on the farm. Pesticides Fertilizers Farm equipment Fuel Many of these generate mass quantities of waste that harm the environment and are a key part of the unsustainable system in use.

The Industrial Agriculture System…

These inputs are a large investment and concentrate on large scare production, which creates problems in our food systems. This drives out small scale producers. Creates unfair competition Normalizes the industrial model which the developing world adopts.

The Industrial agricultural system

Some of the energy related issues to the Industrial agriculture model are Monocultures, eroding biodiversity and creating the need for

“nutrients” (fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, fungicide etc.…) Massive use of polluting fertilizers and the need for the creation of

these recourse intensive devices. Water, being consumed at an unsustainable rate, needs to be pumped

and transported.Again the problems are more inherent when the output is meat.

The Industrial Agriculture Model…

As parts of the developing world adapt the Industrial agriculture model, it creates inequities and changes dietary habits change to maintain the production of the industrial agriculture model. Since 1950 meat consumption has doubled among the worlds riches 20

percent but the worlds poorest did not increase consumption In China countrywide meat consumption nearly doubled in the 1990s.

The Industrial Agricultural Model…

Resource intensive agriculture in considered unsustainable for these two main reasons. Much of the consumption is non renewable (fossil fuels in particular). And the consumption of renewable resources is happening faster then

the rate of regeneration.

The average farms uses 3Kcal of Fossil energy in creating 1 Kcal of Food energy, In feedlot beef production the ratio is 35:1. This does not include transportation and storage energy.

Sustainable Agriculture Systems

Based on small scale, profitable farms. Use few off farm inputs. Integrate plant and animal production where appropriate. Maintain a biotic diversity. Use technologies appropriate to the scale of production. Take advantage of renewable energy resources.

Sustainable Agriculture Systems…

The transition of to a sustainable sustainable method of production would create a closer producer consumer relationship, meaning more direct marketing of local foods.Localized marketing strategies create less transportation from the farm too the plate.

High Yield Low cost?

Over the past 50 years farmers have become heavily dependant on synthetic chemicals.

In 1920 US farmers were producing 30 bushels of corn per acre. In 1999 they were producing 134 bushels per acre that’s a 350%

increase. These high yields come with great costs to the environment, socially and ecologically. Low prices give us the sense that food comes cheap, but it does not include the cost to clean up farm pollution. For example costs of government subsidies to agriculture, in 1996 the

Us government spent 68.7 billion on agricultural subsides.

High Yields Low Cost?

Studies have shown that farm consolidation leads to the deterioration of rural communities.We have found depressed median family incomes, high levels of poverty, low education levels, social and economic inequity with ethnic groups, etc., …. Associated with land and capital concentration in agriculture . University of California.

Environmental Impact

Fertilizers In 1998, the world used 137 million metric tonnes of chemical fertilizer, which is a ten fold increase since 1950. Chemical fertilizer’s increase the acidity of soil until it impleads plant growth. Fertilized crops show less biologic activity then plots that are organically fertilized.

Pesticides Each year the world uses around 3 million tonnes of pesticides coming from 1600 different chemicals, increased pesticide use can be attributed to mono-cropping which makes crops more venerable to pests. High volume use reflects the imprecise nature of these products. It is only estimated that .1% of pesticides reach the target pests leaving the bulk of the pesticide an impact on the environment. Since the massive use of pesticides plants and animals are known build a resistance to such applications, pesticide resistance has increased from <20 in 1950 to 500> as of 1990.

Soil and land Land degradation is a serious issue facing agriculture today, since WW2 poor farming practices have damaged about 550 million hectares an equivalent to 38% of the farmland is use today.

Water Agriculture diverts water from other sources to create unsustainable irrigation systems, these irrigation systems cause runoff which is harmful. The US environmental agency blamed current farming practises for 70% of the pollution in the nations rivers and streams. Agriculture accounts for 2/3s of all water use worldwide.

Water use in irrigation is extremely inefficient, the FAO estimates that crops use only 45% of irrigation water. In the case of Chinas Yellow river, only 30% of the water extracted for irrigation actually reaches crops, while agriculture extracts 92% of the water from the river.

Agriculture and Energy

Again… converting grain into meat creates a large loss of energy. Conservative estimates are that cattle require 7 kg of grain to create 1kg of

beef. Compared to 4kg for pork and just over 2 kg for chickenFossil fuel energy is also a major input to industrial agriculture. The food production system accounts for 17% of all fossil fuel use in the US,

and the average US farm uses 3Kcal of fossil energy to create 1Kcal of food energy.

Fossil fuel energy in feedlot production is 35:1 Kcal for beef protein produced. In addition the transportation process to get the food to your plate is very

intensive because of transporting processing and packaging food require large amounts of fuels, this does not include refrigeration.

Agriculture and Energy

Most vegetable shipments travel about 1600 miles (2574 Km) from Maryland Most fruit 2400 miles (3701 Km)Some estimated food energy inputs for processing various foods are. 575Kcal/Kg canned fruit and vegetables . 1815Kcal/Kg for frozen fruits and vegetables. 15,675Kcal/Kg for breakfast cereal. 18591Kcal/kg for chocolate.Processing accounts for 1/3 of the energy use in the US food system. Each calorie of processed food produced consumes about 1000 calories of energy. In likelihood the food system has become more energy intensive.

Agriculture and global warming

Agriculture is directly responsible for about 20% of human generated emissions of green house gasses according to the intergovernmental panel on climate change.

Changes in land use contribute about 14% of the total human generated emissions of greenhouse gasses.

Unsustainable Agriculture

Unsustainability in agriculture is not a new issue, civilizations have risen and collapsed because of their farming practices.

Todays agriculture is considered unsustainable because it is eroding natural recourses faster then they can regenerate.

Its also heavily dependant on high energy inputs such as fossil fuels.

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable agricultures long term goals are not to minimize inputs while maximizing outputs like our current system, the goas of a sustainable system are to maintain topsoil, biodiversity and community preservation. Take into account environmental health, economic profitability and

equity. Recognize natural resources and the environment an not only an

economic activity.

Sustainable Agriculture

Methods of sustainable Agriculture Crop rotation Cover crops No till and low till farming Soil management Diversity Nutrient enrichment Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Rotational Grazing

Questions

That industrial agriculture views the farm as a factory with inputs and outputs, The goal is to increase yield and decrease the costs of production, usually by exploiting economies of scale. What do you think this means?Do you think methods of production in agriculture change diet patterns ?Did you find the comparisons of energy relevant? Were they easy to understand?Do you believe there are energy issues related to factory farming?What do you think are the biggest energy related issues related to industrial agriculture?In what ways can we adjust the current agricultural system to lower its energy demands ?Do you think it is possible to make changes in the current agricultural system?