Industrial And Bio Energy Needs

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

Seventeen years ago, when I was born, the world population was 6 billion. By the time I started kindergarten, the population increased 9% to 6.6 billion. When I passed my driver’s test, the population grew to 7.4 billion which is another 10.8% increase. So it is safe to say the statistic “The population expectancy is going to reach 9.7 Billion people by the year 2050” (“United Nations”), is more than just an over repeated prediction, it is a reality my generation will be faced with. “In one minute there are 250 children born, which correlates to one birth every eight seconds” (“Census Bureau”). Meaning the demand for agriculture is only increasing to keep up with this growing population. Producing more food requires higher yield, precision agriculture, and perhaps finding creative ways to grow more food in less space. One important way to ensure maximum agriculture production is with healthy soils that are full of life.

Over the next forty years, global population is expected to reach nine billion people. This increase in population, combined with expected economic growth, will cause an increase in food demanded and inevitably drain the resources we use for food production. So far, agriculture has been able to respond positively to the rising demand for crop and livestock products. However, farmers are already faced with many new challenges associated with feeding an expanding global population. Farmers must now meet strict new emissions requirements and produce more food on fewer acres while minimizing their environmental footprint. The demand for food is expected to grow substantially in the next couple decades. Some of the factors affecting an increase in food demands are population growth, rising incomes of individuals, food supply factors, and biofuels.

Throughout time, humans have pushed forward in every aspect in life in order to improve their living standards, wealth and most importantly the agricultural sector which is the base of every human race. Food is the basic requirement for any individual to stay alive and healthy. In an article by Tamsin McMahon, she states that over the past 60 years, the world population has grown from 2.5 billion to 7 billion while world hunger dropped from 40% down to 15% (McMahon T., July 2012). This shows that our agricultural advances through technology have helped control world hunger and decrease it by more than half, but this is a short-term solution if we want to consider the future generations that depend on our current actions toward the three main pillars of agriculture which are: Health and nutrition, Economy and sustainability all while considering the local small farms and corporate farms.

As the Earth’s population grows at breakneck pace over the next several decades, who will feed the world’s people? Agriculture has undergone an extensive expansion and transformation throughout the last few centuries, beginning with the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s. New technology allowed for better and greater methods of production. With the development of modern technology, people try to think some way can plant less, get more. Many farmers plant only one crop in the same place year after year. However, those against monocropping claim that it is very hard on the environment and actually less profitable than organic means of farming (“Monoculture Crops – Learn About The Effects Of Monocropping”). In addition, the destructive nature of agriculture has recently shown its hand. While our supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants are filled with abundant food options, people forget to ask themselves where all this food comes from. Globalization has opened up economies of scale and has allowed people to tap into different types of products, whether that is food or clothing. But the availability of an increased mass market comes at a cost. However, today, the modern farming techniques have grown into a headache for farmers and governments alike, because they are the consequences of overproduction, industrial waste and other problems arising from the modern methods of agriculture. Thus, modern techniques are harmful to environments, animals, and humans.

Farming for our food causes many issues. Growing our food is causing a major decrease in finite resources, like fertile soil and water (Clemmitt 555). Fertile soil and water are being wasted on crops that are not successfully growing. The decrease in finite resources is caused by old, non-efficient techniques, like the throw-and-grow (Clemmitt

As of December 31st, 2014, the population of the United States was estimated to be over 320 million with a net gain of one person every 13 seconds (U.S. Census Bureau). In the year 2011, the world population reached 7 billion and is currently predicted to reach 9 billion by the year 2050 (Monsanto). In order to meet the expected needs of our growing population, agriculture production will need to at least double (Monsanto). Agriculture is essential to everyone’s daily lives. This raises many concerns for agriculturists and for our growing population as a whole. With the population of the United States continuously growing, space is also becoming more limited. Therefore, agriculturists are having to find new, innovative ways to produce

Local sustainable farming has many attributes, but one of the most important is to preserve the quality of the environment. Even though farming is not a new concept, many people do not know what it is or how it works, yet most of them think that food just comes from supermarkets. The current industrial agriculture system have improved the yields of production by growing monocrops such as corn and soy, which in turn is leading the land to erosion. It has also implemented the use of new technologies, mechanization, chemical products, and government policies (Ingels, Campbell 1.) However, it has had significant costs. Land deterioration, water contamination, and human health problems related to diet are some of them. As the industrial farms, sustainable farms also have high yield of production. As shown in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” Polyface, a local sustainable farm located in virginia, produces in a season: 30,000 dozen eggs, 10,000 broilers, 800 stewing hens, 25,000 Lbs of beef, 25,000 lbs of pork, 1,000 turkeys, and 500 rabbits (14). Opposite to Industrial farming, local sustainable agriculture is helping the land recover thanks to the implementation of multicropping and the use of

As the world has become revolutionized by technological advances, particularly over the past 50 years with the development of the micro-computing, the agriculture industry has kept pace with others in this regard. The technological innovations in the agricultural industry, which include GPS assisted planting and harvesting, irrigation, and fertilization techniques have greatly increased yields, which ultimately has led to more

In the article “ Warming world is a threat to the world’s food supplies,” CCPA Monitor writer John Vidal (2013) explains that climate change affects food supplies and triggers a domino effect in the world, such as economy, policy, environment, and agriculture. The writer also indicates most vulnerable people are easily affected by climate change, as the poor people and children and the number of those people still rising. There will be up to 2 billion more people to be fed by 2050. According to the author, climate change will cause crop shortages and price increases, that government are actively adjusting countermeasure to the issues (Vidal, 2013).

Many people have heard or seen the commercials about how a farmer feeds 155 people in today’s world vs 28 people in years past (http://www.sdcorn.org). Farmers need to produce more food in the next 40 years than in the previous 10,000 years combined. According to the United Nations, 1 billion people across the globe suffer from chronic hunger today. This number is expected to dramatically increase as the world’s population grows to a projected 9 billion by 2050, requiring a 70 percent increase in the amount of food the world’s farmers produce annually (). The problem the world faces is how to feed the ever-growing population off of diminishing acres of farm land. It is urgent that the world comes together to form a plan to control the amount of land consumed by urban sprawl.

In this regard, studies show that famine has been reduced 20% in this period (Brownell, 2008), food supply raised 12-13% between 1960 and 1990, whereas without the new technologies food production were decreased around 20% and price was increased 35-65%. The other research in Asia shows that with 1% increase in production, the numbers of poor people decrease by 0.48% (Pingali, 2012). Furthermore, green revolution has had a great influence on labor’s life and provided opportunities for them to improve their life. In fact, this revolution has affected labors in some terms such as employment and wage. As I noted above, green revolution has increased productivity, so bulk density of generated plants enhance the need for extra labors for fertilizing, transplantation and weeding (Das,

In the 21st century Agricultural field is faces with many challenges such as: an increase in food production due to global population

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

Climate change and the diminishing of the natural resource base caused by human activity to provide their needs and satisfy their insatiable appetite for more things as well as the pressure on the nature caused by population increase has necessitated the need for such behaviors and activities as will assist man to cope in this situation. These behaviors and activities to cope are called resilience and Walker and Salt (2006) defined resilience as the ability of a system to absorb disturbance and still retain its basic function and structure. To reach to this resilience level, there is need for redesigning of the use of the natural resource base in a manner that will ensure its sustainability. One of the systems that depend on the use of natural resource base for its total thriving is the agricultural system. The extent to which an agricultural system is resilient depends solely upon the practices used to extract benefits from the system, that is, to improve productivity. It is therefore imperative to ensure that farmers employ sustainable practices, stakeholders put in measures that promote these sustainable practices and policies be developed that support the sustainable practices. Nevertheless, there are other various drivers and disturbances that impact on agricultural system apart from the unsustainable practices and these drivers also determine the level at which the agricultural system will be resilient. In this paper, I will discuss the agricultural system and its