Discussion Responses ALS3153

  

During the second week of discussion, you will make 3 replies to the posts your classmates. These posts also must be substantial (not, “I agree” or “I disagree”). Your responses must also include outside reference material. As stated above, I suggest that you include a question in every post directed at your classmates. This makes it more likely that there will actually be some back and forth discussion in these posts! These three posts to others in your group are due before midnight on Sunday, September 20th .

Instructions:

During the second week of discussion, you will make 3 replies to the posts your classmates. These posts also must be substantial (not, “I agree” or “I disagree”). Your responses must also include outside reference material. As stated above, I suggest that you include a question in every post directed at your classmates. This makes it more likely that there will actually be some back and forth discussion in these posts! These three posts to others in your group are due before midnight on Sunday, September 20th .

1)

Natasha Gordon

When considering the issues regarding the sustainability of agriculture I feel like something of importance is undoing the damage that has already been done. Certain unsustainable agricultural practices have stripped areas of soil to the point where they are no longer able to support farming. By reversing some of the negative impacts that farming has had we can solve multiple problems. If an area has been eroded and is no longer useful, treating that land and helping it flourish again will offer more land to farm on, properly this time around. The amount of food required to sustain the worlds population is only growing, while agricultural land is being destroyed everyday. We need to maintain the good land we have left and help to replenish what we have destroyed. This could provide jobs as well as increase agricultural production to help feed more people and possibly assist with the increasing number of underfed and malnourished people in the world. Regenerative agriculture can help with things like climate change, environmental restoration, famine, and work opportunities. 

What are some agricultural practices you think could help reverse the damage done to crop land?

2)

Pedro Rodriguez Aparicio

The issue that I consider to be the one of greatest importance regarding sustainable agriculture is the overuse of Water and damage to hydrological systems. The reason this action is an alarming issue is simply because in order to have sustainable agriculture, one needs a sustainable irrigation system. Extensive water usage around the world have created devastating effects to the environment, ultimately affecting people. Droughts are becoming more frequent, some of the worlds most important rivers are experiencing it. Other areas in the world are seeing massive forest fires, partly due to drier than usual areas, which are more flammable. With over 70% of the world’s water usage is already used to irrigate crops, implementing more sustainable or new methods can be costly and not as effective for the majority of the people involved in the agriculture production industry. Finding solutions to this issue is imperative for the future of this planet, the solutions that have been proposed or implemented are a step in the right direction but there is still a lot to accomplish. So what can we do? 

In my opinion, we need to develop a viable solution that can be implemented in the most water wasteful environments in the Agriculture Production Industry, which is animal farming. In accordance to Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems by Stephen H. Gliessman, Mr. Gliessman states that animal derived products utilize twice as much water then plant derived products. After doing some in depth research, I can say that there are many contributing factors that can be considered water wasteful in the Animal Production Industry.

As stated by Extension in 2018, an innovative and progressivie outlet for agriculture, the average farm raised cow consumes over 100 pounds of food per day. To keep cows fed, it takes around 25 gallons of water to produce one pound of grain mix. The amount of water used to produce such feed is slowly starting to be rejected by farmers, because of the environmental consequences it is producing. This is why, one more sustainable solution is to switch from feeding cattle whole grains to Alfalfa. According to the University of Idaho, Alfalfa only needs 5 to 7.4 inches of water to produce 1 ton of Alfalfa. Alfalfa Hey is also similar to whole grains in nutritional benefits, which prevents the cattle from undergoing too much of a change in diet. 

Solutions such as change of diets, different irrigation systems, and more are valuable and can slowly contribute to a better ecological future. These solutions will create a very important change, but the change will not come if people like us develop innovative tactics to create the change.

3)

Valerie Campbell

Agricultural resources and infrastructure are allocated incredibly poorly. The land that is used for farming is likely the result of deforestation and habitat destruction of indigenous species throughout the globe, and much of what humans grow is fed to livestock, which in turn emit large quantities of greenhouse gasses such as methane. This problem is especially prevalent in the Midwestern United States, which only allocates less than 25% of its total crop yield for direct human consumption1. Modern agriculture is dangerously unsustainable, and its exorbitant demand for Earth’s limited arable land will jeopardize the planet if it is allowed to continue. Promoting a vegetarian diet would help resolve this issue, as it allows the consumption of agricultural resources to be used more efficiently; additionally, entomophagy serves as a promising alternative to conventional livestock, as insects require less space and resources to raise for consumption. Growing more food for humanity – rather than for a different kind of food – will be the key to this planet’s salvation.