What is natural farming?
Natural farming is a farming method that is environmentally sustainable and has been used for thousands of years; way before the 1st agricultural revolution. This type of farming does not require pesticides, fertilizers, chemical products and advanced technology. It takes advantage of what is in the soil to restore the health of the soil to grow crops without any inorganic compounds assisting its growth. It can be 1000 times more productive than farming with technology and GMO’s. This method quickly resurfaced in the 20th to the 21st century, after the many technological advances in agriculture emerged before it (such as the Green Revolution). This method was developed again in the mid-201th century by Japanese farmers
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The Green Revolution is a great example of using technology to increase crop production, especially in LEDCs. It increased production of yield and food, it used pesticides, fertilizer, GMOs, irrigation and HYVs, machinery and factories; all of these things are used currently in farming with the use of technology. It's possible in the future there will be even more advancements of technology uses in farming for more efficiency and effectiveness.
Pros & Cons of the farming systems
Advantages: Natural Farming
Maintains the health of land; no use of harmful chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, etc. in the soil, or waterways.
A better nutritional value and better taste; no additional additives.
Decreases amount of pollution entering the environment; environmentally friendly
No need of uses of expensive machinery and techniques for crop production.
Advantages: Technological Farming
Products produced by this method are ultimately cheaper than the ones made in natural farming.
Increase in food production.
The population of the hungry and in poverty reduced due to
The records of the last census taken todays population is approximately 7 billion. To put it into perspective of the amount of work farmers take into hand the average farmer feeds 155 people one their own. (“Comparing Agriculture of the Past to Today”) . Notice that a census is only taken on the people of the world, but farmers and their operations are not separately accounted for. “It is impossible to calculate the exact number of farms and farmers in the United States.” (Conkin 147). Of course farmers do not use the simplistic technology of the past to achieve these high expectations. Farms implement the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to improve crop production. The GPS is a system that uses satellite signals to find the location of a radio receiver. (“The Science and Technology of Agriculture”) Using biotechnology has also became an interesting subject of big time farmers. This is the changing of genetic material if living things to improve the production of the product. An example of a GMO would be crops that have been modified to be resistant to disease. Disease resistant crops are one of the most widely used in the field of GMO’s. (“The Science and Technology of Agriculture”).
The supply of food had to be able to feed more people and ensure stability. The traditional method would often see poor harvest or shortages of land, the new methods the Agricultural Revolution provided ensured the stability that was needed in Europe. Dikes and drain land was developed so farmers and landlords could farm larger areas. They also experimented with new crops that would restore the soil and supply more animal food. The iron plow was another great agricultural innovation because it allowed land to be cultivated longer without having to be left unplanted. Crop rotation and a new method of animal breeding also contributed to the success of the Agricultural Revolution. However, these new methods caused peasant revolts because it challenged the traditional peasant ways of production. The increased production of food with the new and efficient production methods allowed death rates to fall and children to grow because people were more nouritoused. The increase in food production allowed Europeans to grow without the fear of
The sooner the world realizes that organic farming has many for effects on a variety of different categories other than just how the foods are simply healthier for us, the easier organic farms will become the more common form of farming. Overall, organic farms have an extraordinary amount of benefits for many animals total health and treatment. They can easily be classified as a higher quality farming than industrial
Economically, the Agricultural Revolution majorly impacted the way of life in the Europe, through new technological farming advancements and improved land efficiency, ultimately leading to a greater abundance of food. Compared to feudal society when people depended on small individual crop yields, many fields were combined in order to produce much larger harvests, increasing the bounty of food overall. Improved land efficiency came with new innovative ideas, including crop rotation. Allowing nutrients such as nitrogen to return to the soil, crop rotation along with fodder crops rotated the fields of crops every few years, leading to more successful yields of crops. Additional advancements in farming technology, such as the seed drill, helped
Although some people chose to leave the farming industry, industrialization was assisted by farmers who practiced four-year rotation of crops, growing of certain crops, and dividing the country into large farms. Crop rotation used land in different ways. Growing turnips, clover, and rye grass helped replenish
Brilliant farming ideas came out of the Agricultural Revolution, but there were also negative effects. One negative effect would have to be that farmers would need larger amounts of raw goods in order to maintain their increasing outputs.
The green revolution allowed for a rapid increase in high yield crops through the use of genetically modified seeds that allowed developing nations to survive in the face of famine.
Another economic factor in organic farming, in general, is that organic food is typically more expensive that its non-organic counterpart. This observation goes along with both large and small organic farms. When people go shopping, they often look for the cheapest item. Since
Modern agricultural technologies goals is to obtain the highest yields and get the highest economic profit as possible
Today, in the United States, farmers and ranchers produce a wide variety of commodities for food, fuel, and fiber in response to markets. These farmers understand and recognize the significance of managing their soil as well as their plant productivity. America’s farmers are true professionals because crop production is a very complex business.
One that stood out was the horse drawn tool and the reaper, “This new tool had sharper blades that cut through the thick prairie roots found throughout the Midwest. Another important tool that defined this period in Midwest farming was the reaper, a device that could cut grain better than the scythe” (Argo, Web). These tools are what started the evolution of farming allowing it to grow at a rapid pace once they started becoming more innovated. From my readings in farming the essentials are not productivity but how you execute it and how you are able to build on top of that applying the technologies that are being provided. It is crucial for a lot of these struggling farmers to be able to keep up with technologies or even be ahead of them before your competitor to stay in the business. Throughout this paper we will gradually see that technology place a tremendous role on in agriculture and food, especially as the population continues to grow so rapidly and food can only be produced so fast, “The first goal of agricultural development is to produce sufficient food and other agricultural commodities to satisfy the needs and preferences of the growing human population”
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
Modern technology is already being used in agriculture. The best example is the use of gene technology or what’s popularly known as agricultural biotechnology in developing drought and herbicide resistant crops. Through genetic engineering, scientists have been able to introduce traits into existing genes to make crops resistant to drought and herbicides. One good example is the use of Bacillus Thuringiensis, commonly known as Bt. Bacillus Thuringiensis, is a bacterium that dwells in soil. It acts as a reservoir “of cry toxins and cry genes for production of biological insecticides and insect-resistant genetically modified crops.”
Agriculture has changed dramatically, especially since the end of World War II. Food and fibre productivity rose due to new technologies, mechanization, increased chemical use, specialization and government policies that favoured maximizing production. These changes allowed fewer farmers with reduced labour demands to produce the majority of the food and fibre.
1) Crops are more productive and can produce higher yields than normal crops as they are disease and virus resistant.