Farming: A Necessary Evil?

It would surprise many to hear that in terms of lake and river contamination, agriculture is by far a worse offender than industry or any other sector. Should we jump to convict this repeat offender or instead consider the issues involved? And how can we apply the world’s environmental principles to evaluate the truth of the matter? Kevin P. Craver evaluates the problem posed by agriculture in “Ground Control: Farmers part of the problem, solution to water pollution”.

Agriculture is clearly humanity’s most necessary occupation. Until we go back to hunting with bows and arrows, farming crops and raising food animals will be necessary to support the population of Earth. However, there are some serious pollution problems involved. The nitrogen in fertilizer used by the majority of agribusinesses in America causes algal blooms, which in turn lead to eutrophication of lakes. This is a serious problem and threat to lake ecosystems and wildlife. Phosphorous is an additional pollutant that does this as well. The chemicals in pesticides pose serious environmental threats as well.

Agriculture is a tricky issue, though, because it is extremely necessary. To control the negative environmental effects, one must mediate the effects with technologies and concepts instead of taxes. One effort to do such is using filter strips or buffers in between agricultural area and water drainage, so that the water is filtered before draining into watersheds. This mitigates some of the strong problems caused by water pollution. As well, state environmental agencies issue discharge permits to large agribusinesses like factory farms to limit pollution.

However, many farmers haven’t implemented these precautions, and Craver says that the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t have the manpower or funding to properly monitor compliance. Regulation seems to be the most important control to runaway pollution, and it isn’t being done properly in the United States.

To think long term about the situation, policy makers should consider the wellbeing of future generations as well as that of the farmers. Explained in the sustainability principle is the idea that regulations should be made to protect not only economic growth of those living in the present, but the health and rights of those living in the future. In this vein, several other things should be considered in farming. Using up the soil and depleting nutrients is another unsustainable practice that should be curbed in terms of protecting the rights of future generations of farmers.

The author of this article comments that within the last 20 years environmental impact on water has gone down significantly. That being said, improvements can not stop now. Technological progress has made available many new methods to reduce water contamination. All that remains is to implement them.

We can conclude that agriculture is a necessary evil. There are many ways to reduce it’s impact, but regulations on monitoring and implementation of meditation technologies is an important step.

References

Craver, Kevin P. Oct 24, 2009. Ground Control: Farmers part of the problem, solution to water pollution. Northwest Herald. Accessed Nov 25, 2009 from http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2009/10/22/r_fx2rzrrprsyqyg0w9h0atq/index.xml