The Effects of Sustainability on Agriculture

In this post I examine what some of the effects sustainability will have on agriculture.

Large industrial agriculture systems have been built on things like mechanization, cheap fossil fuels, the increasing use of chemicals in the form of pesticides and fertilizers, and the need to maximize productivity.

While these factors have driven the machine that is industrial agriculture, there have been some detrimental side-effects. These include things like the depletion of healthy topsoil, water contamination, increased inequality and a decline in labor standards, the loss of family owned and run farms, increased costs of production, climate change (agriculture is responsible for one third of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity), and a decline in living standards in rural communities.

So how does sustainability impact these detrimental effects? It does so in 3 primary ways; environmental health, economic profitability and social and economic equity.

When viewing the topic of sustainability in relation to agriculture it is useful to look at it from a holistic systems perspective. Thus, farms are not separate from ecosystems which are not separate from communities in those ecosystems. All these aspects are inter-linked and play a vital roll in sustainable agriculture.

However, there are 4 fundamentals that need to be considered when making the transition from industrial agriculture to sustainable agriculture. These include....

• Water: water is the primary resource that enables agriculture and society to prosper. However, when agricultural practices are mismanaged to the detriment of the environment, then water systems tend to deplete. For example, the advent of industrial agriculture has seen the depletion of many of our underground aquifers. Droughts mean that crops and livestock can be severely impacted. Sustainable farming methods take into account water depletion and work to prevent future droughts by improving water conservation and storage (such as rainwater catchment systems). They use reduced water irrigation systems or manage crops to consume less water. Another factor sustainable farming takes into consideration is water quality. There needs to be a move away from chemicals found in pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers that contribute to water contamination. 
• Energy: as mentioned earlier in this article, the industrial system of agriculture has been driven by cheap fossil fuels, particularly petroleum. The continued use of such non-renewable resources will reduce farms to barren wastelands while contributing to global warming. Thus, in sustainable agriculture systems there has to be a reduction on the reliance of non-renewable energy resources. Instead, we need to focus more on taking energy directly from nature with the use of wind and solar as 2 primary examples.
• Air: there are numerous industrial agriculture activities that have reduced the quality of air. These include things like smoke from machines and agricultural burning, dust from tillage and harvest, pesticide drift from spraying and nitrous oxide emissions from the use of fertilizer. Sustainable practices to improve air quality might include less reliance on mechanization, fire breaks to reduce smoke, appropriate amounts of tillage and the planting of cover crops or perennial grasses to reduce the amount of dustbowlification. 
• Soil: the depletion of healthy topsoil is one of the major threats to our ability to produce adequate food. Soil management is essential to the system of sustainable agriculture. Healthy soil ultimately means that you will not have to use any pesticides in your crop management. Agriculture systems that impair soil quality result in higher inputs in terms of pesticides, water, nutrients, and energy for things like tillage. The aim of sustainable agriculture should be to produce soil with enough organic matter so that ulterior inputs are no longer required.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to transition away from industrial agriculture to more sustainable practices. It requires that responsibility be taken at every level of the system from producer, to retailer, to consumer (A 2011 study reported that as much as 30% of all fresh produce is lost between the farm and the retailer. This means that retail stores must charge higher prices to recoup these significant losses). As with so many aspects of the new social/connection economy much of it depends on cooperation... and awareness!!