Industrial Agriculture vs. Sustainable Agriculture

What is industrial agriculture?
Industrial agriculture, the most common type of commercial agriculture system produces most of the world's food and fiber. It works by giving and receiving. With these types of farms, there are "inputs" like adding things such as pesticides, feed, fertilizer, and fuel to a farmer's crops, and the "output" or result is large amounts of meat, milk, eggs, etc. With industrial agriculture, it's job is to produce the highest number of "output" while using the lowest possible cost by relying on economies of scale, modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade.

 

Animals living in an industrial farm

Pigs or other animals who live in these types of farms are resided in confinement. Farmers use antibiotics or pesticides to help reduce the spread of disease in these crowded, harsh, living conditions, and to stimulate livestock growth by killing intestinal bacteria. It is said, that in the US, 70% of pesticides are used for agriculture. Not only are antibiotics and pesticides used, but a wide variety of artificial methods like antimicrobial agents, vitamin supplements, and growth hormones are given to these animals. When we, as consumers, go out to the grocery store to buy these products, many of these animals have been given pesticides so that farmers can prevent livestock loss due to pests. Not only is putting chemicals into an animal's body immoral, but it can also cause health problems to consumers. These pesticides travel through soil and water and have also affected residents living near such farms. These types of farms do not only have a human health impact, but it also affects animals residing in these living conditions. Because of it's cramped space, animals result in a lack of exercise, contagious diseases, and weak immune systems. Because fossil fuels have been used to power the machinery, the environment is also paying a deadly cost.




What is sustainable agriculture?
Sustainable agriculture is a farming approach of raising food that is healthy for the environment, consumers, animals. It is humane for workers, and also respects animals. This type of agriculture is the opposite of industrial agriculture and has three distinct characteristics compared to industrial agriculture.



Conservation and preservation: Everything is reused. What is taken out of the environment is put back in. Resources are replenished and the waste from sustainable farming stays within the farm's ecosystem and therefore does not cause buildup or pollution.

Biodiversity: These farms sustain biodiversity by raising different types of plants and animals. Livestock is then rotated around the fields to both, enrich the soil, and and prevent diseases and pest outbreaks.

Animal Welfare: Animals are treated with respect, and are well cared for. Unlike industrial farms, they live in big, vast, fields instead of cramped, dirty pens. Animals in sustainable farms carry out their normal activity and behaviour like grazing, rooting, pecking, etc. They are also fed on a natural diet appropriate for their species.

Although this method ensures the biodiversity of these organisms, one can not help but worry about how this method of organic, low-input, no pesticide, integrated, small-scale sustainable production can feed not only one family, but hundreds more. This type of farming needs not only a farmer's skill, but also he/she's patience. Can sustainable farming produce sufficient food for the ever-large growing human population?

Productive Livestock or Biodiversity?

So, what would you choose? Industrial agriculture where crops and livestock have been injected with chemicals and pesticides that can be produced in bulk and can feed a growing population, or crops and livestock that live in harmony with the environment to ensure biodiversity but may not be able to feed the entire human population?

Although the idea of feeding the whole world in a low-cost fashion appeals to many people, one cannot ignore the fact that these animals have been injected with different chemicals to be the size they are when we see them at the grocery store. These animals have not only been living in harsh conditions, but have also been injected with artificial growth hormones, battled different diseases found in industrial farms, etc. By putting these chemicals into these species, it does not respect an animal's dignity, so to say, but these chemicals also affects us, humans, as consumers.

Sustainable agriculture is the way of a perfect harmony between humans, animals, and their environments and not for humans to be dominant of nature. This type of farming enables biodiversity and not a specialization. A community, and not competition. It focuses on permanence, quality, and beauty, not speed, quantity, and profit.



Sustainable farms rarely use chemicals and pesticides so consumers can be assured no health problems are to arise. One may ask, "Can the way of sustainable agriculture feed the world?" The answer is yes. Scientists and researchers have said that once these results begin to multiply, it has the potential to contribute quite substantially to the global food supply." Not only is this a look into the future, but scientists have said that the soil on sustainable farms are extremely healthy which benefits both health and climate stability while industrial farm soil is the opposite. Many have agreed that the the problem of reducing hunger and poverty is not how much food we make, but instead, how the food is distributed.

Sources:
http://lifemorenatural.com/?p=1155
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_industrial_agriculture/industrial-agriculture-features.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_farming
http://12.000.scripts.mit.edu/mission2014/solutions/organic-industrial-agriculture
http://www.sustainabletable.org/intro/whatis/
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/organicagriculturefeedtheworld.php
http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/business/business-news/organic-can-feed-the-world-claims-report/36461.article

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