Today we are in a rapidly growing world, and with the
population skyrocketing the demand for food necessary to feed all those people
is through the roof. With all the
things happening in our growing world, an extreme emphasis has been put on
producing the most massive quantities of crops per acre as possible. Unfortunately, some of the means used
to accomplish such a purpose, like chemical additives and fertilizers, can be
harmful to the environment. In
light of some of these harmful farming practices, environmental preservations
and resource conservation has become an increasingly important issue. Is it worth the toll on the environment
to be able to produce greater amounts of crops?
The issue of agriculturally driven environmental damage is
widely prevalent throughout the world.
Some fear that attempting to enact practices for lessening environmental
impacts will lead to decreased production and will do more harm than good, but
that is not always the case. In
many third world countries, such efforts have seen that some immense reductions
in the uses of pesticides actually have led to increased crop yields. Here in the United States, as well as
in many other well developed countries, steps have been taken for years to help
cut down on the environmental impact of farming, and further steps are still
being taken. The United States,
for instance, is set to revise its Farm Bill in 2012, which will focus on how
to solve issues such as eroding and degrading soil and pollution from
pesticides. There are also
voluntary programs through which the government and other sources will pay agricultural
landowners to enact greener policies and help build up natural resources. One such example would be the
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which provides farmers with up to 50% of
the costs of establishing approved conservation practices on part of their land
and maintaining those practices for 10 to 15 years.
Some would argue that government conservation programs and restrictions on chemical usage, along with the countless hours of paperwork that every farmer must now complete detailing every acre of land and what has been done to it, can become distractions from actually raising crops, and cut down on how much is raised. If land has to be set aside for conservation reasons, that is less land for the growth of food crops that could be distributed into the market and bring income for the farmers. If you take the time to research crops markets, however, it can be seen that, even with so many conservation practices in place, there are quite often surpluses of crops. And as for the potential income that farmers lose, the government makes sure to reimburse the farmers for their efforts as fully as possible.
Some would argue that government conservation programs and restrictions on chemical usage, along with the countless hours of paperwork that every farmer must now complete detailing every acre of land and what has been done to it, can become distractions from actually raising crops, and cut down on how much is raised. If land has to be set aside for conservation reasons, that is less land for the growth of food crops that could be distributed into the market and bring income for the farmers. If you take the time to research crops markets, however, it can be seen that, even with so many conservation practices in place, there are quite often surpluses of crops. And as for the potential income that farmers lose, the government makes sure to reimburse the farmers for their efforts as fully as possible.
These efforts and the countless other efforts like them are
all aimed at one goal, to protect our environment and ensure that we will have
it for generations to come. The
environment is a vital part of not only our future, but the future of
humanity. In order to ensure that
we can continue to produce what we need to live, and that future generations
can do the same, we need to start protecting the earth now. Agricultural impacts from harmful
practices can lead to contamination of water and soil, loss of usable soil for
growing crops, and damage habitats for many living things. Cutting back on chemical pesticide use
and preventing soil erosion and pollution are just a few small ways that
agriculture can have a massive impact on protecting the future.
The world today wants to “go green”. Society is on the right track, looking
for ways to cut down on energy usage and conserve our natural resources, as
well as protect the many environments and habitats on the earth and the living
creatures that live there. Improving
agricultural practices is just one way of protecting our resources and ensuring
that biodiversity is not lost in many areas. As humans, it is our responsibility to preserve the planet
we live on and to ensure that we take the best care of it that we possibly can. That includes how we grow our food and
use its resouces.
