Commercial Farming

Commercial farming opened the gates to modern day food consumerism in an indirect way. Extensive and intensive farming paved way for fewer farmers to feed maximum number of people than ever before.Abundance in food production through usage of various pesticides and chemical fertilizers yield massive harvests. But, they make the land barren in a very short period plus pollute the air, water and most importantly fetch very little price for the crops produced. The world is in a crucial situation where it has to decide whether the benefits of commercial farming outweigh the damages as believed so long, or it is the other way round.

 

Commercial Farming Statistical Facts

Dr. Hatherill, a toxicologist in University of California, states the total crop loss incurred in 1940 before the widespread use of DDT and other fertilizers was 7%. After decades of improvements in farming, now the total crop loss is nearly 15%. Food lost due to insect attacks has risen from 31% to nearly 37% in 60 years.

The insects have become resistant to the pesticides. But, we human’s have not. Lifelong consumption of pesticide drenched food is talking its toll on most of the US people now. There is a drastic increase in the cancer rate, among people who were born between 1945 and 1965. This generation was the first direct consumers of chemically protected plants and they are paying the price for that now in their middle age.

The situation of farmers and the lands which used these chemicals in the Asian and African countries is much worse than America. Nearly 92 farmers who used BT cotton seeds in their land for the past 20 years committed suicide in India in the past 2 months, unable to meet the mounting debts and constant losses. China, Thailand and their neighboring countries have lost their ethnic trees completely, due to commercial farming. Thailand suffers from the worst flood in the country’s history due to unchecked deforestation and conversion of forests into agricultural land for decades. EPA identifies agriculture as one of the greatest means of water pollution.

 

Commercial Farming Remedial Measures

There is no one step remedy for the commercial farming problem. Natural farming or organic farming will not produce enough

food to serve the world. Decade long plans, extensive co-operation and large scale campaigning through mass media are necessary.

1. Farmers should form communal groups among themselves and start cultivating organic vegetables and fruits.
2. Urban organic farming in terraces and open lands should be encouraged.
3. World governments should curb the expansion of huge estates and preserve the mountains with their original fauna and flora.
4. Government of each country should take steps to preserve the excess food produced by commercial farming for a few years. They should select the worst affected agriculture lands and ban chemical usage there.

They can start incorporating such measures on one village at a time in each state. Then it can be extended to ten villages per state and so on. The decrease in food production should be compensated with the saved food grains.

1. In the mean time, public should be educated on healthy food habits. Junk food production should be curbed steadily. We should minimize food wastage as much as possible.
2. Campaigns to switch to our grandfather’s minimum but healthy diet should be popularized.
3. Curbing public food consumerism is one of the ways to bring down the gap between the food production and the demand.

Some farmers claim that some chemicals used in commercial farming have negative implications to human life as well as the farm produce itself. In view of that some have resorted to organic farming which

more of natural methods than the scientific processes. In organic farming they make use of natural material like tree leaves, cow dung, grass, straw and hay in place of fertilizer to boost the soil fertility. As a result the land is preserved and sustainably last longer and benefit generations to come .