Christian Response To Sustainable Agriculture Essay

What is sustainable agriculture? Sustainable agriculture is an alternative for solving fundamental and applied issues related to food production in an ecological way. ‘‘Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals– environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity” (Kaushik 92). Energy conservation is a huge controversy around the world. There is too much energy being wasted and people are not caring enough to fix this problem. To fix this problem we need to turn to renewable energy resources.

Times have changed, and so has the family, the community and our environment. And these changes have impacted our lives and earth immeasurably. This is where the factor greed comes in to play, the need for more. This need for more called for extensive measures, measures like fertilizers, pesticides and equipment to work the ground and harvest the crops became necessity. Agriculture became a booming business that did not and still does not promote the well-being of the employee nor the individual let alone the family unit and community. Since 1950 an average farm size has doubled, but the number of laborers decreased substantially and the number of small local farmers has been cut in half. Farmers have been forced to become more efficient and there 's been a reliance on greater chemicals and technology, which has become very extensive and expensive. Sadly, what has been short term expansion has become a long-term threat (Trautmann, 2012). This greed driven increase has led to subtle damaging ramifications that most people are ignorant to. Their needs are being met as quality is being forsaken. Our environment is being squandered. Selfishness abounds.

Again, he uses specific evidence behind his statements such as times and dates. For example, he states that the Agrarian Era was the second longest and started around 10-11,000 years ago (32). In this section he explains how the use of agriculture started and spread, as well as how it could cause them to forget their earlier nomadic and peaceful lifestyle (39). Christian also includes a discussion of when the first signs of a ‘patriarchy’ formed. Patriarchy, when men began to claim natural superiority, is a belief that continues to the modern day in various forms (49). From there he illustrates that agriculture spread throughout the world, allowing villages to grow to cities and states until there was even the creation of global networks (62). Finally, these cities grew to civilization and the start of the third, ongoing

By shifting his range of vision from regional and national to global, Christian has captured the world in a way that brings shame to other historians. He makes his argument credible by providing evidence from the era of foragers showing their diets and coming to a conclusion that hunting and gathering lifestyle was predominant during this time. More evidence comes during the agrarian era where farming was the most prominent approach to gain food. Evidence of this came from the Nile valley to early Mesopotamia where the soil was rich and eager to be cultivated. The rise of agriculture is believed to be a push rather that a pull factor. In other words, there was nothing that made foragers want to be farmers but something pushed them to do so. Perhaps a lack of resources or increasing population growth required a different and more reliable source of food and resources. determining the end of the agrarian era and the beginning of the modern era can be difficult. As new technologies were discovered and increasing production. Christian uses the economical knowledge of an economist named Angus Maddison to find that the gross domestic product of the world was increased by ninety times from 1700 to 2000. New governments and hierarchies were formed, and unlike the rulers of before, they cared for their people. Despite the substantial amount of information available from this modern era, it is

Nobody denies that the need for more food grows with the global population. Factory farms seem to be a solution to this problem since they produce mass quantities of food for cheap compared to their organic counterparts, which are forty-seven percent more expensive (Consumer Reports). The factory farming business, however, is not the best way to feed more people since it pollutes the environment. The factory

Many support agricultural modernization, as a solution Africa’s, and many other impoverished nations hunger problems. This would include the industrialization of their agricultural industry, using modern, genetically enhanced seeds, and fertilizer. Yet, some of the same groups that are promoting the organic movement in the United States are advocating against the globalization of modern industrial agricultural practices (Paarlberg 179). Those who support modernization of such nations argue that the current process in inefficient, and inadequate. They believe that globalization of the highly capitalized, science-intensive, agricultural system that has been developed in the West, is the answer to the worlds hunger problems. They also warn that if the West abandons its current practices, it may fall victim to famine due to inadequate production (Paarlberg 179). However, supporters of organic production point to the fact that each year, approximately ten million tons of chemical fertilizer are poured onto our corn

To conclude, our current way of agricultural life is not sustainable. The article “What’s for supper” has made me realize that if I hope for a better future for generations to come I should support a locally sourced lifestyle. This article is an eye opener to me and proved to me the importance of supporting locally grown produce. Locally grown produce supports the environment as well as jobs for people in the community. The current system takes a toll on every species on the planet. Humans are overproducing on a massive scale and are wasting close to half of our supplies and

The manipulation of the land for fast production ruins its overall health. The modern technology and advances of equipment provide farmers more efficient ways to farm. In

To continue, agriculture and farming is essensial because we need food to survive and it helps with a regions economic growth. This human activity however, is creating

I believe that we need to think of the Earth as a gift and a home. We must take care of our Earth but our personal health must come before Earth’s. Lastly, our decision making should be guided by the Bible and my common sense. Our Earth is truly a gift and it is a good gift from God. Genesis 1:31 states, “God saw all that we made, and it was very good”. We need to change the way that we look at the Earth. Normally if we get a really nice gift we treasure it and do our best to protect it. This is the same mindset that we need to have about our land. Secondly, we do need to recognize that we have dominion over the Earth. God created us to take care of the Earth. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and then he created man to be stewards of it. It is important not to get to crazy and do things to harm the Earth but we must also remain healthy. Humans come before the land and they always should. Lastly, when living on Earth we must make good decisions. These decisions should be based on what our teachings tell us and our common sense. It is just common sense that cutting down a tree or throwing a wrapper out the yard will harm the Earth. This semester I have learned so much, and thought deeply about many topics. I know that the Earth is a gift and we are so blessed to have this beautiful creation to live in. The many field trips that we went on made me realize many things about our Earth that I didn’t realize. Specifically the wastewater treatment we went on made me realize how much waste we produce and it makes me feel like we are hurting our Earth. Too often people don’t think about the things that they are doing to our Earth. Psalm 8:6 states, “You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet”. The Bible states many times in context that we are to care for the Earth we have been

The issue of Deforestation has been high on the global environmental agenda for many years, and remains a serious problem today. In the tropics and many other parts of the world, nations continue to lose the valuable biodiversity, soil and water conservation, and climate regulation that natural forests provide. Christianity can only address this matter by continuing to combine an acceptance of the command to people to ‘multiply and replenish the earth’ (Genesis 1:28) with a balancing injunction to act as stewards of the environment. Charities such as Christian Ecology Link and World Vision work to increase awareness of the current ecological crisis and encourage adherents to live sustainably and make ‘green’ consumption choices.

When you watch commercials depicting starvation in African countries like Mali, do you wonder what it would actually take to end hunger? Plenty of answers appear successful in concept, but have unforeseen complications, such as building factories in Africa to produce and process biofuels. And other obstacles such as civil wars, poor sanitation, and massive debt keep countries like Democratic Republic of the Congo from advancing. Maybe we complicate the solution to the hunger crisis by focusing on economy instead of food sustainability. Before a country can advance economically and technologically, it has to be able to feed its inhabitants. Therefore, by altering the crops currently grown in the African savannas to create agricultural sustainability, it will diminish hunger, and lead to economic growth.

The Brundtland report defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” From early times, philosophers, such as Thomas Malthus, believed humanity could not be sustained. Malthus believed mankind would reach their carrying capacity, specifically with regards to food. Yet, this notion changed in subsequent years, thanks in part to the green revolution. This revolution helped increase crop yields due to new fertilizers, pesticides, etc. While there became more food available, sustainability, with regards to producing food in an environmentally friendly way, ran into some difficulties. While the Brundtland commission defined sustainability, there are three components that must be integrated for the well-being of all—social, environmental, and economic. Each component of sustainability must be looked at critically when considering the sustainable use of any resource. While many simply worried about having enough food available in the world, one must think of food sustainability with regards to environmental, economic, and social implications. As follows, the importance of food sustainability will be discussed, along with the attempts to measure food sustainability.

Agriculture in the United States has changed dramatically over the centuries. Since the 1960’s large commercial farms have been leading in sales. As a direct result of their success we, as a society, have access to affordable food. However, the success of large farms has lead to many negative impacts such as increased usage of resources and decreased diversity in crop fields. This begs the question, what can be done to reduce the negative impacts of large farms. One solution growing in popularity is sustainable agriculture. The idea of sustainable agriculture is to create farms that need little to no outside help from irrigation, pesticides, or fertilizers. Sustainability can be achieved in many way through

Organic agriculture is the oldest type of agriculture there is. Many people don't know exactly what has to be done to say that you are farming organically, these days. Organic Agriculture has been increasing in size over the past few years as more people worry about what they are eating. Many people donít know what it exactly means to be farming organically.