Resource Conservation

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.

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.