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Advantages/disadvantages of chemical fertilizers
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Edward Buckler is quoted saying, "I think we should take a shot at revolutionizing agriculture" (33), in which society should be in agreeance to. As time progresses, there are a number of issues on the horizon. Implementing a plan to defeat harm on society is a focus point with which society should be on the verge of taking action, if it is not so already. First, the advantages of an agricultural change far outweigh the outcomes of continuing on the path we are. Change will revolutionize the way society not only works, but also the way people live. Harm to the environment has been done; continuing with the conventions society has adopted will only worsen the health of the environment along with the health of humans. In order for humans …show more content…
Humans rely on nutrients as a source to survive. With crops being a vital part of society, both economically and the importance of the well being of humans, changing the way crops are grown is a concern. It is no surprise farmers are using annual seeds, all while turning a blind eye to an issue bigger than the success of their yearly crop. As farmers continue to practice conventional farming, these conventions are being passed down generation to generation. Hence the problem society is a part of. Annual seeds need to take a back seat to the more efficient and environmentally safe perennial seed. With a growing population, more and more farmers will continue to farm the way they are taught and continue to harm the environment from these conventions they have adopted, leading to a potential collapse in society. This collapse will be due to poor farming methods and heavily used products that will harm the environment and eventually harm humans as a result. A worldwide plague could be a result, which is not farfetched
There is no such thing as just changing something from one part and not having its effects distribute throughout the entire ecosystem. As an ecosystem continues changing and evolving, so will the organisms living around or in it. We must adapt to the environment or we will become extinct, unable to adapt into the rapidly changing environment we live in. Althout human impact on an environment may benefit us, it can also be harmful to nature. By taking care of what we do to the environment, we can prevent future negative changes in the environment and preserve earth’s natural state.
Agriculture fixates more on the production of food instead of stewardship, caring and protecting the land. Berry indicates, “Once one’s farm and one’s thoughts have been sufficiently mechanized, industrial agriculture’s focus on production, as opposed to maintenance or stewardship…” (Berry, 2005, para. 11). When farmers direct their attention on producing crops for the corporation, the farmers forget the reason why they farm in the first place. The farmers mislead thoughts on production create agricultural distress because they lack stewardship. Stewardship involves an intimate relationship with nature, but farmers focus more on the efficiency of production, neglecting the farm. Berry emphasizes that production steers the way of farming instead of the actual farm and community. Berry claims, “…emphasis on production permits the way of working to be determined not by the nature and character of the farm in its ecosystem and in its human community” (Berry, 2005, para. 11). Corporations control the farming industry, mistreating the farms and the farming communities. Production disregards the environment of the farm and demands more than the farm can produce, resulting in damage to the
In the largely manufactured city of South Central LA, as illustrated by Ron Finley in the video ‘Guerilla Gardener’, people are suffering. Obesity rates are skyrocketing, people are dying from diseases that could be easily treated, all because of produce that is not only expensive, but also unfresh and overwhelmed with pesticides and insecticides. Ron Finley sees this happening in his community and is determined to do something. He explains in his video how gardening is not only a solution to the ongoing food crisis, but is also therapeutic, revolutionary, and life-changing.
In an argument, the lawyer representing Monsanto Company stated that the amount of arable land around the world is quickly dwindling. This means that it is time to take extra drastic measures to improve food safety throughout the world. Genetically modified seeds and related chemicals offer the best solution for such food safety concerns and thus the company was right to make such investments. This idea comes from recent realization of a robust population boom throughout the world, an inability for traditional agricultural practices and seeds to withstand changing climatic systems. Modification of the seed’s genetic material to withstand climatic and other environmental threats seems to be a viable solution to the challenge.
The new mechanism = the crowd instead of the old centralized organizations plus the new driver = the quality instead of profit eventually leads to a new highly participatory society redefining our own relationship to the environment.
...o. “The Great Agricultural Transition: Crisis, Change, and Social Consequence of the Twentieth Century US Farming”. Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 103-124.
Crops can kill thousands and build millions. During the Potato Famine, an infamous crop failure, “1845 to 1947, more than one million people died of starvation or emigrated. Additionally, over 50,000 people died of diseases: typhus, scurvy, dysentery” (American University). For thousands of years crops have fueled large societies allowing for mass population growth and human expansion. But the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural reliance bered many consequences along with its pros. Switching to an agricultural way of life provided health issues among humans, drastic changes socially and culturally, as well as ecological implications. This paper examines the changes accumulated by this transition including its enduring
History provides the opportunity to explore the origins of a topic or problem. The information from Agriculture and rural society after the Black Death provides an overview of agricultural and rural society’s agrarian issues; during the Middle-Ages these issues were centered around depopulation and social conflict (Dodds & Britnell, 2008, pp.3-50). Problems in the economics of society in the medieval fourteenth century involved the decline of social status and labor services (Dodds & Britnell, 2008, pp.73-132). Other examples are seen in change and growth describe of that in 1870, the Great Plains only had 127,000 people; six decades later in 1930, there were 6.8 million people; 74 percent of the population lived in non-metropolitan areas; from 1930 to 1940, there was a loss of 200,000 people; 75 percent of these counties lost populations from the Great Depression and severe drought, which had caused the abandonment of farms (Kandel & Brown, 2006, p.431). To understand these past experiences, the door to hindering issues must be opened to determine how agricultural sustainability forges change.
Agriculture has been around for hundreds of years. With its negative effects on humanity, agriculture has greatly affected the environment. Many archeologists believe that adoption of Agriculture was not an improvement but a disaster for humans in many ways. Jared Diamond, the author of the article called “The worst mistake in the history of the human race” argues that hunter-gatherers were better off than the farmers. In a way agriculture is believed to cause many problems for humans such as sexual inequality, deep class division, changed their diet which later led to poor health and diseases.
Those agriculturists that think the problems of food production can be solved through technology fail to see the importance of the hard work it takes to make the food. This hard work reinforces the cultural times among farmers and their families. “A culture is not a collection of relics or ornaments, but a practical necessity, and its corruption invokes calamity. A healthy culture is a communal order of memory, insight, value, and work, conviviality, reverence, and aspiration” (43). It reveals the needs of human as well as their limits; a healthy farm culture can be based only upon familiarity and can grow only among a people soundly established upon the land. It supports and protects a person’s knowledge of the earth. We cannot allow another generation to forget the importance of this culture. If we do, the knowledge that is held will be lost
At some point in time, human populations decided to settle down and harvest their own food instead of searching for it in the woods. In modern times, people tend to view this as a great advancement or revolution. Why would people want to search for food daily and forage for tubers or berries when they could just head to the supermarket or their own backyard? Scientist have determined, however, that this development brought many negative effects to the human population. The societies who adopted agriculture were malnourished and unhealthy, but they gained enough of an advantage over hunter/gatherer populations that the benefits outweighed the cost – at least in their eyes. Our society today has been shaped by this “revolution” and its effects,
It is easy to respond to Diamond 's argument that the agricultural revolution was "the worst mistake in the history of the human race" with a defensive attitude based on what diamond calls the "progressivist perspective." This perspective counters with the idea that agriculture was an essential development in the history of the human race. The "progressivist perspective" is what modern American 's have been taught and conditioned to believe in order to support and defend our current way of life; making it the default argument. The basic problem with both of these theories is they are both absolutes and adopting strictly one or the other leads to polarization, and fails to acknowledge the multiple variables that led to the institution of agriculture, but also the variables contributed to the consequences attributed to the adoption of agriculture. Both theories also superficially suggest that agriculture was a direct conscious choice independent of evolution and the changing environment. When considering the impact of agriculture on the human race, as with most things, the answer likely lies somewhere in the middle and must be considered in relation to the changing environment. There is a benefit and a cost to every choice. Choices are complex responses made to people, places, circumstances, and conditions. Considering these facts, the agricultural revolution can neither be considered completely good or completely bad, but rather both and detrimental to its development.
The developments that arose out of the Enclosure Movement and the Industrial Revolution have shaped how we farm today. Farmers today produce large amounts of crops for great numbers of people. New tools and technologies, including genetically modified foods, are being developed to further advance these farming practices. Therefore, it can be said that the world is going through another Industrial Revolution, one that could last for many years to come.
The protection of the environment however has just recently become the major issue that it is in today’s society. People worldwide have slowly begun to realize and become aware of the blatant destruction and deterioration of the environment and ozone. As well as the consequences and side affects, that we, as a society have created. The majority of people are just becoming aware of the frightening reality of the situation. As society becomes more informed on the issue of the environment, they too become more impatient, and feel that in the snap of fingers, the damage can be reversed and future damage can be stopped instantaneously.
The global population in the year 2050 is expected to be nine billion and the agricultural demand is expected to double. With the current population already over seven billion people, there are hunger issues all around the world (“New” par. 1). How are we going to deal with food shortages in the future? With less land to work with, strains on the soils, and the lack of water, it is getting harder for the farmers of the world to support our growing population. These complications are making it harder for farmers to produce quality, affordable food. To help the crops grow better, farmers use fertilizers and chemical sprays to enhance growth and control the weeds. Farming in the United States is a relevant business because it supplies people with food, provides people with jobs maintaining the used equipment with the new equipment being much more expensive, and it provides research for more efficient ways on how to feed the world.