Unfortunate Collateral
The population of the world is growing at an alarming rate, While the rate is slowly decreasing( 1.16% in 2016 vs 1.07% in 2018) there is still 7.7 billion people in this world. Isn’t that something crazy to think about? Think about how much food your family eats on a daily basis, can you imagine how much it would take to feed 7.7 billion hungry mouths? Thanks to some research done by some statisticians, we estimate the world eats about 11.5 million pounds of food each year. Now everyone, at least I believe, deserves 3 square meals a day but this large amount of food comes with some unfortunate collateral.
The Unfortunate Truth
Unfortunately, because the population is growing at a faster rate than the agricultural industry can keep up, there are some poor methods of farming that are being used to keep up with the demand of food that is necessary to sustain the population. Did you know that in the last 40 years the earth has lost a third of its arable fertile land? Most of that loss is due to soil erosion due to poor farming methods or from human pollution.
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For example, take a cattle farm that used to raise approximately 40 head of cattle according to the USDA average family. Now these farms are raising hundreds of head of cattle to keep up the demand. This sounds great but it is causing havoc for the soil, because these cattle are being allowed to overgraze since it is harder to rotate fields when there is little space. When cattle overgraze the earth starts to erode due to lack of grass and nutrients to hold the soil together.
Kill The Pests, Kill The Soil
Who likes bugs in there fresh delicious fruits and vegetables? Certainly not me. You can thank pesticides for the fact that you don’t have a fair amount of protein from insects in your fresh fruits and vegetables. Pesticides have also improved the yield of crops by 30% over the years but does the benefit outweigh the costs? Sure, pesticides kill the bugs to give a better quality product, but it also has many side effects that is causing the soil predicament. Pesticides can seep into the water tables when irrigating crops which can mess with the alkalinity of the soil, or kill areas of foliage that aren’t the crop that it was intended for.
Big Bad Insect?
Along with that it can also kill the life forms that are helping to create the land that you farm. This can be from honey bees, to birds, to certain mammals, and yes, even insects too. Insects play the largest role in creating arable land, believe it or not. About 85% of arable soil is created by arthropods such as ants and termites, that by activities such as burrowing which increases soil aeration. They also help by breaking down particles into forms that are simpler to absorb thus increase soil fertility.
Kick Out the Overproduction Mindset
Thus, in conclusion we as humans need to break away from the mindset that more is always better. We need to move away from promoting ways to increase overproduction because that is what is creating this decrease in the land that is available to farm. We need to focus on alternative farming methods and methods that are laden with negative consequences for the future of our lives and the future of our children's’ lives.
