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2. Feeding the Hungry
Traditional farming was very good and environmental friendly since there was rare signs of environmental degradation as farmers were concerned with ecological changes. The current capital-technology intensive farming has largely led to serious environmental degradation because the farmers and scientist only focus on long term sustainability of food production and low cost food. Technology has really contributed to monoculture through the introduction of agrochemical that has provided fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides. The ever increasing population and the current global hunger are what prompt the use of new technologies which are very harmful in the society. This piece of writing criticizes and assesses some of the strategies put in place to feed ever growing global population.
It is unfortunate that most countries have resorted to monoculture as one of the ways of producing food in large scale to feed the huge population. However, the need to maximize profit through specialization thus boosting country’s economy is the main cause of monoculture in many countries. It is evident that modernized agriculture has brought immense negative contributions in the ecological system and further extended the influence on peoples’ lives, culture, political and social status. Mechanized farming has led to introduction of pesticides, fertilizers and even genetically Engineered Food. Nevertheless, use of fertilizers and pesticides has greatly depleted and polluted soil, water and every other useful resource used in farming thus causing serious consequences on the environment (Gritzner 59-65).
There has been great efforts of modifying herbicides and even increased use of crop engineering to boost food production and feed the hungry generation. Some of these practices have yield intended change but with a very serious harm to the environment. Mechanized farming is not beneficial since it does more harm than good but efforts to indulge in agro ecology are also greatly suppressed in many ways including the government. The need to make money and the intensive advertisements by huge agrochemical corporations is really hindering farmers from adopting the best style of farming that is environmental friendly. Farming can be done in a way that animals and crops grown mutually benefit each other without inclusion of chemicals and fertilizers which are harmful to the environment. Although it is important to feed the society, their health issues must also be taken care of. The size of land does also not support crop rotation and generally the whole issue of agro ecology (Gritzner 59-65).
A capital-technology intensive agricultural practice such as use of fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides which has contributed to monoculture has posed danger in our ecosystem. I strongly support agro ecology since it is the only way environmental degradation can be minimized and our environment can remain at least green and useful to every living organism found in it. Agro ecology would also largely contribute to increase in food production without harming our great environment. Human activities accompanied with intensive and extensive agricultural research on improvement of production yield has overtaken the issues regarding the quality of our ecosystem and the human health to a greater extent. I am left wondering whether the most important thing that farmers emphasize on is just money but not the quality and the eventual effect of their products. Farmers must ensure that the crops they grow are very healthy for human consumption (Gritzner 59-65).
I believe greediness has hugely contributed to environmental degradation particularly by most governments who have encouraged farmers to use monoculture and mechanized farming in order to increase the countries’ income in the international markets. The government should instead insist on large scale food production but not cash crop farming. Farmers should be encouraged to grow both subsistence farming as a way of providing food for their families. Why can’t the administrations consider the plight of their people in terms of health and the effects of their proposals to the ecosystem? Many diseases are on the rise such as cancer which consumes very many people globally due to the increased use of fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, pesticides and technological modification of crops and animals yet no action is taken by the major players (Gritzner 64-70).
Agro ecology may not be implemented at this time because the farmers are convinced that what is in the market is the best especially as far as revenue collection is concerned. However, if societies and citizens can rise against this culture that derail human lives and the ecosystem, farmers may relent and get back to the poly-culture. Unless organizations come out strongly to fight this vice, there will be more depletion of the environment. Poly culture should be practiced to ensure the soil gets enough nutrients and the farmers get healthy and sufficient food.
The ever increasing population is actually imposing an immense threat to the environment and eventually the climate. Climatic changes are of a major concern globally and cannot be assumed. Climatic changes have really affected our surrounding in different ways that cannot be avoided in any way. Every nation and village has been affected and this concerns every kind of humanity despite of other distinguishing factors such as race, ethnicity, age, sex and religion. The impact of climatic changes is very bad. The effects of climatic change have led to death, malnutrition, droughts and are costly in most countries. The issue of climatic change is serious and some experts and scientists say that the climatic change is still going to be a major issue as people can do very less to stop its impact but every individual can at least do something to control the climatic changes. Everybody should be responsible enough to control climatic change. There is no way the issue of food production can be raised without touching on the climatic changes (Cramer & Schellnhuber 177-185).
Climatic changes have been brought about by global warming which is as a result of increase in population and use of land, industrialization. Climatic changes have made us see nature different and the water levels have also gone down. Cases of Katarina have gone so high and rainfall is not falling most of the times as it used to in other previous days. The vegetation cover is no longer the same the way it used to be in the old days and some animals having stopped to exist like long before. Animals have not been able to get food that can satisfy them because of lack of rainfall. Agricultural production has really gone down and unless the climatic changes are addressed, no major increase in food production will be realized. No water is enough for the human consumption (Cramer & Schellnhuber 177-185).
There are many impacts that are experienced in many parts of the world due to the global warming. The temperatures have averagely grown and very violent storms plus extreme weather events in many parts of the world. Forests that support much wildlife are at risk especially the Canada’s forests as well as meltdown of ice sheets and alpine glaciers in arctic areas. Governments should form bodies that can control the impacts of environment changes which have increased the risks of diseases and freshwater shortages (Cramer & Schellnhuber 177-185).
Generally, traditional kind of farming should be adopted to avoid harm to our precious surrounding and prompting serious climatic changes. Hunger will definitely increase if climatic changes and global warming is not taken care of. The global warming is a big problem worldwide and has very serious consequences on the ecosystem and the human life. Human activities should be controlled and other new options can be applied that do not harm the environment. People should ensure that they are careful enough in their actions to avoid damage to our surrounding by carrying out the most appropriate farming method to feed the hungry world.
Works CitedCramer, Wolfang, and Hans J. Schellnhuber. Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change: [international Symposium on Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gas Concentrations, Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, (adcc), Exeter, United Kingdom, on 1 – 3 February 2005]. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006. Print.
Gritzner, Charles F. Feeding a Hungry World. New York: Infobase Pub, 2010. Internet resource.
