41. Consequences of Agricultural Practices

Impacts on the environment

Pollution: The development of pesticides and herbicides helped increase productivty and created environmental and human health costs

• Environmental costs

  • pesticides can harm the environment when they are sprayed and spread to surronding area

    • some pesticides do NOT break down in the environment and are poisonous

    • can enter living creatures and sterilize them, leading to declining wildlife populations

  • create hormone and neurological problems in humans

    • field workers and laborers experience these effects

  • many problems arise from agricultural runoff

    • pesticides enter water streams and are found as residue on crops and in tissues of livestock

    • reduce aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity

  • synthetic fertilizers can enter unregulated environments through runoff systems

    • they can enter through various types of farm systems

    • CAFO’s (concentrated animal feeding operations)

    • when more fertilizer than what the plant can absorb is sprayed, you * get nutrient pollution, which results in excess fertilizer being carried into runoffs and waterways

      • can lead to algae blooms

      • algae blooms create dead zones: bodies of water with very LITTLE life

      • some blooms produce byproducts that can make water poisonous for livestock/pets/humans

      • can also lead to lowering property value

Land Transformation: increases food production by converting forests into pastures, livestock land, and farmland

• destroys temperate rainforests because of deforestation

• deforestation occurs to create space for pastureland, farmland, land for grazing, ranching, etc

  • sometimes, land converted for such reasons is not well managed and becomes unusable and leads to desertification

    • process by which once fertile land becomes desert as a result of climate or human activities

Conservation Agriculture: consists of farmers and ranchers working together to conserve water resources, minimize soil disturbance, and maximize the diversification fo species

• USDA and UNFAO work on such projects

  • reports from both organizations show that conservation practices can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve soil health

Impacts on the landscape

Shifting cultivation: results in significant loss of old-growth forest land

• process of trees being cut down and existing vegetation is burned to make a layer of ash that increases soil fertility

• intense fires being made in the Amazon

  • another part of the overall imapct on the Amazon due to shifting cultivation also includes the El Niño effect

• impact of shifting cultivation can be reduced if farmers re-use old plots of farmland

Paddy rice farming: mountain terraced paddies alter the landscape on a huge scale

• efforts from ancient Hani people made paddy terrace rice farming helped make this system integrate nature, production, culture, and sustainability

Nomdic Pastorialism: lower availability of tradtional land has lowered their ability to minimize how much they impact the landscape

• groups of families travel together in herds and these people have a deep understanding of the land they operate/move within on

• competition from other land use sources has caused these people to be pushed off of their tradtional land they operate on and are experienced with

• leads to desertification, more soil erosion because grass can’t hold the soil down, and loss of soil fertility

Draining Wetlands

• practices such as land reclamation drain wetlands to increase areas for agricultural production

• threatens extinction of wetlands

Irrigated Agriculture

• creates several years of drought

• deep drillling has provided acess to deep aquifers

  • in jeopardy due to excess use from agriculture

• biodiversity is lost when habitats are submerged by water from dams

• dams block fish from migrating and reproducing and mating

Impacts on Society

Changing Diets

• poultry consumption exceeds beef consumption

• fresh fruits and veggies have become central to diets around the world

• concern for health lead to shifts

Changes in women’s roles

• sometimes leave farms for cities to find work

• have access to different technologies than men do

Changes in use of Agricultural Products

• demand for alternative fuel sources

• initiatives have been implemented to increase renewable fuel use

• decrease in greenhouse gas

• biofuels

  • less energy to produce

  • will NOT help reduce global warming

  • made from veggie oil

  • more expensive than petroluem level diesel