Agriculture: Growing Food – Growing Problems – Growing Definitions

JustinPrelude

Farming as a concept has done a lot for us a species, it was because of agriculture that we were able to transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to more permanent settlements (Barker, 2006). The development of a system in which a subset of the population is dedicated entirely to food production has facilitated the rise of more complex societal structure where other members could instead spend their efforts on other pursuits, such as science and art (Figure 1.). It’s funny to think that it was because someone, somewhere a couple thousand years ago, during a time where every foraged morsel of food was precious, somehow decided that putting seeds into the ground was a better idea than eating them immediately, that I am able to sit here typing this post in relative comfort and with a full belly. That was either a very smart move, or a very lucky one.

Figure 1: Author’s representation of the differences between hunter-gatherer and agricultural societies.

Despite being hailed as the veritable cradle of civilization, farming can be thought of as a double-edged sword. In the past prior to the green revolution in the early to mid-20th century (Hazell, 2009) , being a farmer was an even more tenuous career choice than it is now, back then synthetic fertilizers and high-yield crop varieties just weren’t as big of a thing as they are nowadays. The advent of intensive farming practices such as the use of pesticides and synthetic nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers represented the opening of Pandora’s metaphorical garden shed; these practices that seemingly produced back-to-back bumper crops quickly spread throughout the world, changing the face of food production forever (Figure 2.). However, as this module likes to emphasize: ‘The dose makes the poison’. These wonder-chemicals, while a blessing to farmers everywhere when used in moderation, had some less than pleasant side-effects when used in excess, which we will be looking at in detail over the coming weeks whenever my other projects stop breathing down my neck long enough for me to form a coherent narrative.

Figure 2: A completely accurate depiction of the state of farming before and after the advances in agricultural science and chemistry during the 20th Century.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to define the scope of what we mean by agricultural pollution. To the average person the typical mental image of agricultural pollution is that of harmful chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers leaching into pristine natural environments (Figure 4). While such an interpretation might hold some truth; the big picture is far more complex and constantly evolving.

Figure 4: A typical image of what the average person thinks agricultural pollution looks like. Image credit: Cannon (2012)

Each chemical or nutrient used in farms have different and far-reaching effects. For example: while some phosphate compounds such as fertilizers have no immediate toxicity to organisms such as fish (Kim et al., 2013), they have the potential to cause eutrophication and harmful algal blooms (Figure 5) which may lead to large ‘dead zones’ as alga deplete oxygen in the water column, condemning those within to death by suffocation. And it is not limited to just fetilizers, the livestock sector produces greenhouse gases accounting for 35% of total anthropogenic methane emissions, which is equivalent to approximately 2.2 billion tonnes of CO2 (Sejian, 2016).

Figure 5: Algal blooms in the U.S., a sign of eutrophic conditions or excessive nutrients. Photo credit: (EPA, 2019)

As we can see, agricultural pollution can take many forms. So for the purposes of this blog we shall define agricultural pollution simply as: The byproducts of agricultural practices that directly or indirectly result in environmental and socio-economic impacts (Merrington et al., 2003). To keep things interesting, the types of topics being covered will range from focused pieces on the impact of especially notable individual pollutants (e.g. Nitrogen) to broader discussions such as case studies and even fun stuff like how popular media presents agricultural pollution.

References

  • Barker, G. (2006). The agricultural revolution in prehistory: Why did foragers become farmers? OUP Oxford.
  • Cannon, J. C. (2012). Agricultural runoff: Bad for us, bad for otters. SeaOtters.com | For the love of sea otters. https://www.seaotters.com/2012/08/agricultural-runoff-bad-for-us-bad-for-otters/
  • Hazell, P. B. (2009). The Asian Green Revolution. Intl Food Policy Res Inst.
  • Kim, E., Yoo, S., Ro, H., Han, H., Baek, Y., Eom, I., Kim, H., Kim, P., & Choi, K. (2013). Aquatic toxicity assessment of phosphate compounds. Environmental Health and Toxicology, 28, e2013002.
  • Merrington, G., Nfa, D. L., Parkinson, R., Redman, M., & Winder, L. (2003). Agricultural pollution: Environmental problems and practical solutions. CRC Press.
  • Sejian, V., Bhatta, R., Malik, P. K., Madiajagan, B., Al-Hosni, Y. A., Sullivan, M., & Gaughan, J. B. (2016). Livestock as sources of greenhouse gases and its significance to climate change. Greenhouse Gases.
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (2019, December 17). The effects: Dead zones and harmful algal blooms. US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/effects-dead-zones-and-harmful-algal-blooms

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *