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Chemical fertilizer on crops and crops cycle essays
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Today, chemical fertilizers are used worldwide on people’s crops and other plants. One may ask, what is chemical fertilizer and how does it contribute to our environment? To start with, crops need a number of nutrients to survive like nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorous for their growth. Overtime, soil nutrients decrease because the crops are harvested or they die. The nutrients do not come back to the soil until the crop decomposes so when you add fertilizer, the process is sped up and plants grow faster.
The question is asks if the use of chemical fertilizer is bad for crops.
Our group argues yes. Yes, chemical fertilizer is bad for crops and the environment around it too.
Our first reason is that chemical fertilizers contain many elements that are bad for crops.
-Chemical fertilizers contain salt that is bad for the crop’s soil. It consumes the soil’s important nutrients and minerals that are normally found naturally in crop’s soil. Many people think that using chemical fertilizer will replenish the lost nutrients, but the fertilizer only replenishes nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. A lot of times, phosphorus is drained from the soil into groundwater. Phosphorus does not dissolve in water, causing water contamination to many water resources. It could hurt both crops and humans. The phosphorus can also cause soil to harden when the chemical fertilizer is used over a long time.
-Also, all chemical fertilizers are highly acidic which causes the soil to have a lot of acid. Acid reduces the beneficial organisms and decrease crop growth.
The second reason is that chemical fertilizers cause the crop to be weaker.
- Although chemical fertilizers help crops grow faster, the fertilizer causes crops to be weak and unhealthy. The fertil...
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...eps.com/effects-of-chemical-fertilizers.html http://www.ehow.com/list_7349879_effects-chemical-fertilizers-humans.htmlhttp://www.planetnatural.com/organic-gardening-guru/fertilizers/ http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Chemical-Fertilizers-Are-Bad-For-You-and-Your-Garden Id=4166826 http://www.garden-counselor-lawn-care.com/chemical-fertilizer.html http://homeguides.sfgate.com/fertilizers-pollutants-78452.html http://www.fao.org/docrep/w2598e/w2598e06.htm http://www.ext.colostate.edu/ptlk/1620.html http://www.turfprousa.com/health_effects_of_synthetic_fertilizer_3006a.html http://healthychild.org/easy-steps/avoid-nitrates-and-nitrites-in-food/ http://healthwyze.org/index.php/component/content/article/100-how-chemical-fertilizers-are-destroying-your-body-the-soil-and-your-food.html http://www.tfi.org/statistics/fertilizer-use
http://www.tfi.org/statistics/statistics-faqs
For years farmers have been adding natural fertilizers to their crops. It is a big risk though. Over fertilizing is very dangerous. It puts high concentrations of salt into the soil. It can also affect the water resources nearby. Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potassium are the basics of fertilizer. If a certain nutrient is short in supply the fertilizer might not work as well. Calcium, iron, manganese are also nutrients that might be needed. So don’t just trust the fertilizer bag that says it has all the nutrients, test it out. (Miller and Levine 717)
After years of a cruel war that pitted brother against brother, the United States of America entered into a period of time called Reconstruction. Reconstruction was an act implemented by Congress to help rebuild the majorly devastated southern states. Another of its goals was help newly freed slaves successfully merge into life as a free people among many hostile whites.
Muthyam’s article states, “conventional farming’s dependency on chemical fertilizers destroys topsoil,” (Muthyam 4) and without healthy topsoil we can never produce more antioxidants or carbon. The increased production of these elements could alleviate climate change. The human beings who feel strongly about the climate change issue would be challenged on their “Bt gene” eating habits. Muthyam makes the reader think twice about buying conventional farming products because they are contributing to the problem presented. No one likes to hear about others starving which strikes the reader when they read organic farming can feed masses. The article states “we could feed our entire population through urban agriculture alone” (Muthyam 6). She also refers to the chemicals and synthetic fertilizers as being poison, which gets people double-taking their decisions to consume these conventional products. Consumers of conventional produce wouldn’t consider eating a product if it was directly labeled as
...at over planting can do to the land, the majority of the United States just moved on and continued to treat the land just as poorly as before. John Pursell views chemical fertilizer as a thing that turns soil into “chemical wasteland” and mentions that today’s soil is often not good enough to resist heavy rainfalls.
Sure farmers may have a big fuel bill at the end of spring for having to go out and spray pesticides. Spraying pesticides doesn’t waste the farmer’s time, it just wastes their money that they use to pay for the expensive pesticides. Pesticides are beneficial to farmers, and are a farmer’s best friend. The pesticides take care of weeds, pests, and diseases. Pesticides kill the weeds, diseases, and pests. They are a farmer’s right hand man because it saves them from having to go out and pull weeds by hand. The pesticide business is a fifty million dollar business (Pros and Cons of Pesticides). I think pesticides are a great thing because they save people’s lives by getting rid of the diseases that can get in foods, and they get rid of all the back breaking work for agriculturists.
To help keep crops from being destroyed, conventional farmers use many methods such as pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Nearly 1 billion pounds of these chemicals are used every year (“pesticides”). Because of this excessive use, some scientists express concern that using artificial chemicals in the farming process could produce unhealthy crops. People who ate it over a long period of time could suffer from degraded health and stunted growth (“Organic Foods”). For example, in 1989, the EPA banned the use of Alar which was a chemical used to ripen apples (“Farming, Organics”). This chemical proved to be carcinogenic after causing tumors in mice after several laboratory tests (“Organic Food”). As a result of these findings there was a dramatic increase of the sales for organic food (“Organic Food”). Another study found that Atrazine (one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States) has the potential of being carcinogenic and reducing sperm counts in males (“Organic Food”). This was further proven when evidence was found that chemicals u...
... into fertilizer, this change also releases many harmful chemicals into the air, and once again the earth’s atmosphere is being destroyed.
With the world having so many people on it we use a lot of pesticides and fertilizers. If it was not for the help of these we would not have gotten to the place we are now. Pesticides and fertilizers do a lot more than just help grow and safe from pests. “Nearly 50% of the world labor is employed in agriculture and they significant risk”
For years organic farmers and conventional farmers have feuded over which is superior. Organic farmers argue that their product is more eco-friendly because they do not use the synthetic chemicals and fertilizers conventional farmer’s use. Conventional farmers argue that their product is healthier and yields more. People tend to have stereotypes regarding the two types of farmers. Organic farmers are usually thought of as liberal, hippy, tree-huggers while conventional farmers are usually thought of as right-wing, industrialists. Obviously, some do adhere to this stereotype, but a majority of these farmers are normal, hardworking people. Although these farmers, both believe in their methods, one is no better than the other. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, but there is no true superior method of crop farming.
Biofuels are produced from crops and these crops need fertilizers to grow better. The downside of using fertilizers is that they can have harmful effects on surrounding environment and may cause water pollution. Fertilizers contain nitrogen and phosphorus. They can be washed away from soil to nearby lake, river or
Farmers apply nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, manure, and potassium in the form of fertilizers to produce a better product for the consumers. When these sources exceed the plants needs or if these nutrients are applied before a heavy rain then the opportunity for these excess to wash into aquatic ecosystems exists.
Chemical farming has become such a cultural norm that humans have turned a blind eye to what is really happening behind the scenes and have come to accept what the big manufacturing companies have told us. What these companies don’t want us to know is that when you produce food on a conventional farm you are producing food that is harmful to the environment. Conventional farms use fossil fuel derivative fertilizers to help add nutrients to the soil, but “these are the reason the earth is experiencing dangerous climate changes” (Sustainable Table). Also, the quality and consistency in the crops are lowered when they are planted on a chemical farm because many companies use artificial manure that leads to “artificial nutrition, artificial food, artificial animals and finally artificial
Soil is the most important non-renewable resource on any farm. Healthy soil is key to a good
Fertilizers are essential to modern industrial agriculture. Two of the most important plant nutrients are nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitric acid, phosphoric acid, ...
The new chemicals which are produced to kill these strong pests and weeds may be more harmful to other plants and remove nutrients within the soil, in turn reducing the yield of agricultural crops. The benefits of these characteristics are seen in Argentina according to Pelletier (2010) as they use glyphosphate resistant soybean which allowed the comeback of this crop, as the soil was severely damaged from monoculture (The cultivation of a single crop in a defined area).... ... middle of paper ... ...