Chapter 10: Feeding the World
10.6 Conventional Agriculture
The prevailing agricultural system, variously called “conventional farming,” “modern agriculture,” or “industrial farming,” has delivered tremendous gains in productivity and efficiency. Food production worldwide has risen in the past 50 years; the World Bank estimates that between 70 percent and 90 percent of the recent increases in food production are the result of conventional agriculture rather than greater acreage under cultivation. North American consumers have come to expect abundant and inexpensive food.
Conventional farming systems vary from farm to farm and from country to country. However, they share many characteristics such as rapid technological innovation, large capital investments in equipment and technology, large-scale farms, single crops (monocultures); uniform high-yield hybrid crops, dependency on agribusiness, mechanization of farm work, and extensive use of pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides. In the case of livestock, most production comes from systems where animals are highly concentrated and confined.
Both positive and negative consequences have come with the bounty associated with industrial farming. Some concerns about conventional agriculture are presented below.
Ecological Concerns
Agriculture profoundly affects many ecological systems. Negative effects of current practices include the following:
Decline in soil productivity can be due to wind and water erosion of exposed topsoil, soil compaction, loss of soil organic matter, water holding capacity, and biological activity; and salinization (increased salinity) of soils in highly-irrigated farming areas. Converting land to desert (desertification) can be caused by overgrazing of livestock and is a growing problem, especially in parts of Africa.
Agricultural practices have been found to contribute to non-point source water pollutants that include salts, fertilizers (nitrates and phosphorus, especially), pesticides, and herbicides. Pesticides from every chemical class have been detected in groundwater and are commonly found in groundwater beneath agricultural areas. They are also widespread in the nation’s surface waters. Eutrophication and “dead zones” due to nutrient runoff affect many rivers, lakes, and oceans. Reduced water quality impacts agricultural production, drinking water supplies, and fishery production. Water scarcity (discussed in a previous chapter) in many places is due to overuse of surface and ground water for irrigation with little concern for the natural cycle that maintains stable water availability.
Other environmental ills include over 400 insects and mite pests and more than 70 fungal pathogens that have become resistant to one or more pesticides. Pesticides have also placed stresses on pollinators and other beneficial insect species (e.g. honeybees). This, along with habitat loss due to converting wildlands into agricultural fields, has affected entire ecosystems (such as the pract