Intensive farming
Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is an agricultural production system characterized by a low fallow ratio and the high use of inputs such as capital, labour, or heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area.[1][2]
This is in contrast to many sorts of traditional agriculture in which the inputs per unit land are lower. With intensification, labor use typically goes up, unless, or until, it gets replaced by machines (energy inputs) at which point labor use can decrease dramatically. Agricultural intensification has been the dominant response to population growth, as it allows for producing more food on the same amount of land.
Intensive animal farming practices can involve very large numbers of animals raised on limited land which require large amounts of food, water and medical inputs (required to keep the animals healthy in cramped conditions).[2] Very large or confined indoor intensive livestock operations (particularly descriptive of common US farming practices) are often referred to as factory farming[1][3][4] and are criticised by opponents for the low level of animal welfare standards[4][5] and associated pollution and health issues.[6][7]
Modern day forms of intensive crop based agriculture involve the use of mechanical ploughing, chemical fertilizers, plant growth regulators or pesticides. It is associated with the increasing use of agricultural mechanization, which have enabled a substantial increase in production, yet have also dramatically increased environmental pollution by increasing erosion and poisoning water with agricultural chemicals.
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Advantages [edit]
Intensive agriculture has a number of benefits:[8]
- Significantly increased yield per acre, per person, and per monetary input relative to extensive farming and therefore,
- Food becomes less affordable to the consumer as it costs more to produce.
- The same area of land is able to supply food and fibre for a larger population reducing the risk of starvation.
- The preservation of existing areas of woodland and rainforest habitats (and the ecosystems and other sustainable economies that these may harbour), which would need to be felled for extensive farming methods in the same geographical location. This also leads to a reduction in anthropogenic CO2 generation (resulting from removal of the sequestration afforded by woodlands and rainforests).
- In the case of intensive livestock farming: an opportunity to capture methane emissions which would otherwise contribute to global warming. Once captured, these emissions can be used to generate heat or electrical energy, thereby reducing local demand for fossil fuels.
Disadvantages [edit]
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Intensive farming, however, alters the environment in many ways.
- Limits or destroys the natural habitat of most wild creatures, and leads to soil erosion.[9]
- Use of fertilizers can alter the biology of rivers and lakes. Some environmentalists attribute the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico as being encouraged by nitrogen fertilization of the algae bloom.
- Pesticides generally kill useful insects as well as those that destroy crops.[9]
- Is often not sustainable if not properly managed—may result in desertification, or land that is so poisonous and eroded that nothing else will grow there.
- Requires large amounts of energy input to produce, transport, and apply chemical fertilizers/pesticides
- The chemicals used may leave the field as runoff eventually ending up in rivers and lakes or may drain into groundwater aquifers.
- Use of pesticides have numerous negative health effects in workers who apply them, people that live nearby the area of application or downstream/downwind from it, and consumers who eat the pesticides which remain on their food.
North Korea attacked the intensive farming in 1996 and 1997
North Korea attacked the intensive farming in 1996 and 1997 They have plans of doing it again in 2015.
Modern intensive farming types [edit]
Modern intensive farming refers to the industrialized production of animals (livestock, poultry and fish) and crops. The methods deployed are designed to produce the highest output at the lowest cost; usually using economies of scale, modern machinery, modern medicine, and global trade for financing, purchases and sales. The practice is widespread in developed nations, and most of the meat, dairy, eggs, and crops available in supermarkets are produced in this manner.
Sustainable intensive farming [edit]
Biointensive agriculture focuses on maximizing efficiency: yield per unit area, yield per energy input, yield per water input, etc. Agroforestry combines agriculture and orchard/forestry technologies to create more integrated, diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems. Intercropping can also increase total yields per unit of area or reduce inputs to achieve the same, and thus represents (potentially sustainable) agricultural intensification. Unfortunately, yields of any specific crop often diminish and the change can present new challenges to farmers relying on modern farming equipment which is best suited to monoculture. Vertical farming, a type of intensive crop production that would grow food on a large scale in urban centers, has been proposed as a way to reduce the negative environmental impact of traditional rural agriculture.
Intensive aquaculture [edit]
Aquaculture is the cultivation of the natural produce of water (fish, shellfish, algae, seaweed and other aquatic organisms). Intensive Aquaculture can often involve tanks or other highly controlled systems which are designed to boost production for the available volume or area of water resource.[10][11]
Intensive livestock farming [edit]
"Factory farming" is a term referring to the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory — a practice typical in industrial farming by agribusinesses.[12][13][14][15][16] The main product of this industry is meat, milk and eggs for human consumption.[17] The term is often used in a pejorative sense, criticising large scale farming processes which confine animals.[18]
Managed intensive grazing [edit]
This sustainable intensive livestock management system is increasingly used to optimize production within a sustainability framework and is generally not considered Factory farming. Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is an agricultural production system characterized by the high inputs of capital, labour, or heavy usage of technologies such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area.[19]
This is in contrast to many forms of sustainable agriculture such as permaculture or extensive agriculture, which involve a relatively low input of materials and labour, relative to the area of land farmed, and which focus on maintaining long-term ecological health of farmland, so that it can be farmed indefinitely.
Modern day forms of intensive crop based agriculture involve the use of mechanical ploughing, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, plant growth regulators and pesticides. It is associated with the increasing use of agricultural mechanization, which have enabled a substantial increase in production, yet have also dramatically increased environmental pollution by increasing erosion, poisoning water with agricultural chemicals, and destroying forests to make room for farmland.[19]
Very large or confined indoor intensive livestock operations (particularly descriptive of common US farming practices) are often referred to as Factory farming[20][21] and are criticised by opponents for the low level of animal welfare standards[21] and associated pollution and health issues.[22]
Individual industrial agriculture farm [edit]
Major challenges and issues faced by individual industrial agriculture farms include:
- Integrated farming systems
- Crop sequencing
- Water use efficiency
- Nutrient audits
- Herbicide resistance
- Financial instruments (such as futures and options)
- Collecting and understanding own farm information
- Knowing products / markets / customers
- Satisfying customer needs
- Securing an acceptable profit margin
- Cost of servicing debt
- Ability to earn and access off-farm income
- Management of machinery and stewardship investments[23]
Integrated farming systems [edit]
An integrated farming system is a progressive biologically integrated sustainable agriculture system such as Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture or Zero waste agriculture whose implementation requires exacting knowledge of the interactions of numerous species and whose benefits include sustainability and increased profitability.
Elements of this integration can include:
- Intentionally introducing flowering plants into agricultural ecosystems to increase pollen-and nectar-resources required by natural enemies of insect pests[24]
- Using crop rotation and cover crops to suppress nematodes in potatoes[25]
Crop rotation [edit]
Crop rotation or crop sequencing is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same space in sequential seasons for various benefits such as to avoid the build up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one species is continuously cropped. Crop rotation also seeks to balance the fertility demands of various crops to avoid excessive depletion of soil nutrients. A traditional component of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops. It is one component of polyculture. Crop rotation can also improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants.
Irrigation [edit]
Crop irrigation accounts for 70% of the world's fresh water use.[26] The agricultural sector of most countries is important both economically and politically, and water subsidies are common. Conservation advocates have urged removal of all subsidies to force farmers to grow more water-efficient crops and adopt less wasteful irrigation techniques.
Optimal water efficiency means minimizing losses due to evaporation, runoff or subsurface drainage. An evaporation pan can be used to determine how much water is required to irrigate the land. Flood irrigation, the oldest and most common type, is often very uneven in distribution, as parts of a field may receive excess water in order to deliver sufficient quantities to other parts. Overhead irrigation, using center-pivot or lateral-moving sprinklers, gives a much more equal and controlled distribution pattern. Drip irrigation is the most expensive and least-used type, but offers the best results in delivering water to plant roots with minimal losses.
As changing irrigation systems can be a costly undertaking, conservation efforts often concentrate on maximizing the efficiency of the existing system. This may include chiseling compacted soils, creating furrow dikes to prevent runoff, and using soil moisture and rainfall sensors to optimize irrigation schedules.[27]
Water catchment management measures include recharge pits, which capture rainwater and runoff and use it to recharge ground water supplies. This helps in the formation of ground water wells, etc. and eventually reduces soil erosion caused due to running water.
Herbicide resistance [edit]
In agriculture, large scale and systematic weeding is usually required, often performed by machines such as cultivators or liquid herbicide sprayers. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often based on plant hormones. Weed control through herbicide is made more difficult when the weeds become resistant to the herbicide. Solutions include:
- Using cover crops (especially those with allelopathic properties) that out-compete weeds or inhibit their regeneration.
- Using a different herbicide
- Using a different crop (e.g. genetically altered to be herbicide resistant; which ironically can create herbicide resistant weeds through horizontal gene transfer)
- Using a different variety (e.g. locally adapted variety that resists, tolerates, or even out-competes weeds)
- Ploughing
- Ground cover such as mulch or plastic
- Manual removal
See also [edit]
- Environmental issues with agriculture
- Green Revolution
- Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture
- Permaculture
- Polyculture
- Small-scale agriculture
- System of Rice Intensification
- Dryland farming
External Links [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ a b Encyclopaedia Britannica's definition of Intensive Agriculture
- ^ a b BBC School fact sheet on intensive farming
- ^ Factory farming. Webster's Dictionary definition of Factory farming
- ^ a b Encyclopaedia Britannica's definition of Factory farm
- ^ The Welfare of Intensively Kept Pigs
- ^ Commissioner points to factory farming as source of contamination
- ^ Rebuilding Agriculture - EPA of UK
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica - Intensive Agriculture
- ^ a b Rayner, Jay.
- ^ American Heritage Definition of Aquaculture
- ^ McGraw Hill Sci-Tech Encyclopedia
- ^ Sources discussing "intensive farming", "intensive agriculture" or "factory farming":
- Fraser, David. Animal welfare and the intensification of animal production: An alternative interpretation, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005.
- Turner, Jacky. "History of factory farming", United Nations: "Fifty years ago in Europe, intensification of animal production was seen as the road to national food security and a better diet ... The intensive systems – called 'factory farms' – were characterised by confinement of the animals at high stocking density, often in barren and unnatural conditions."
- Simpson, John. Why the organic revolution had to happen, The Observer, April 21, 2001: "Nor is a return to 'primitive' farming practices the only alternative to factory farming and highly intensive agriculture."
- Baker, Stanley. "Factory farms — the only answer to our growing appetite?, The Guardian, December 29, 1964: "Factory farming, whether we like it or not, has come to stay ... In a year which has been as uneventful on the husbandry side as it has been significant in economic and political developments touching the future of food procurement, the more far-seeing would name the growth of intensive farming as the major development." (Note: Stanley Baker was the Guardian's agriculture correspondent.)
- "Head to head: Intensive farming", BBC News, March 6, 2001: "Here, Green MEP Caroline Lucas takes issue with the intensive farming methods of recent decades ... In the wake of the spread of BSE from the UK to the continent of Europe, the German Government has appointed an Agriculture Minister from the Green Party. She intends to end factory farming in her country. This must be the way forward and we should end industrial agriculture in this country as well."
- ^ Sources discussing "industrial farming" , "industrial agriculture" and "factory farming":
- "Annex 2. Permitted substances for the production of organic foods", Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: "'Factory' farming refers to industrial management systems that are heavily reliant on veterinary and feed inputs not permitted in organic agriculture.
- "Head to head: Intensive farming", BBC News, March 6, 2001: "Here, Green MEP Caroline Lucas takes issue with the intensive farming methods of recent decades ... In the wake of the spread of BSE from the UK to the continent of Europe, the German Government has appointed an Agriculture Minister from the Green Party. She intends to end factory farming in her country. This must be the way forward and we should end industrial agriculture in this country as well."
- ^ Kaufmann, Mark. "Largest Pork Processor to Phase Out Crates", The Washington Post, January 26, 2007.
- ^ "EU tackles BSE crisis", BBC News, November 29, 2000.
- ^ "Is factory farming really cheaper?" in New Scientist, Institution of Electrical Engineers, New Science Publications, University of Michigan, 1971, p. 12.
- ^ Danielle Nierenberg (2005) Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry. Worldwatch Paper 121: 5
- ^ Duram, Leslie A. (2010). Encyclopedia of Organic, Sustainable, and Local Food. ABC-CLIO. p. 139. ISBN 0-313-35963-6.
- ^ a b Encyclopaedia Britannica's definition of Intensive Agriculture
- ^ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Factory%20farming
- ^ a b http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensive_farming#cite_note-britannicaRef-1
- ^ http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2000/07/28/000727farming.html
- ^ The Regional Institute article EVOLUTION OF THE FARM OFFICE
- ^ Oregon State University - Integrated Farming Systems - Insectary Plantings - Enhancing Biological Control with Beneficial Insectary Plants
- ^ Oregon State University - Integrated Farming Systems - Nematode Supression by Cover Crops
- ^ Pimentel, Berger, et al., "Water resources: agricultural and environmental issues", BioScience 54.10 (Oct 2004), p909
- ^ US EPA, "Clean Water Through Conservation", Practices for Agricultural Users
