Organic Farming
Behcet Kaya
CSU Channel Islands
May10, 2017
Abstract
Human ecology is the complex relationships between people and their environment. One important aspect of that relationship is the interaction with farming ecosystems. The major disparity between organic farming versus conventional farming is the interaction on farming ecosystems such as biodiverse insects, microbiological taxa in the soil, and greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere.
Numerous research done by international communities indicates that organic farming has many advantages over conventional farming and even modifying conventional farming will enhance the environment. Conventional farming has proven to be ecologically hazardous, but without it we cannot sustain ourselves with enough food production to feed the masses. Organic farming has proven to be beneficial in many ways such as improving soil health, as well as enhancing the richness of insect species, which in turn benefit insect pollination of plants. As we speak, further research on the subject is underway to improve organic farming with the aim of meeting food security.
Organic Farming
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate several studies that have been conducted on organic farming vs conventional farming and the effects both have on the human ecology. The paper does not take into account other factors such as the economic sector of organic farming and how much of organic farming contributes to the economy. This study is purely to show that biodiversity in the fields are being depleted and this damage can be reversed. Conventional farming has proven to be ecologically hazardous, but without it we cannot sustain ourselves with enough food production to feed the masses. In this paper, research shows that even in conventional farming can be improved to reduce biodiverse depletion and the reduction of green house gases into the atmosphere.
According to Batary, Sutcliffe, Dorman, and Tscharntke (2013), organic farming has proven to be beneficial in many ways such as improving soil health and enhancing the richness of insect species, which in turn benefit insect pollination of plants. They also argue that organic farming and livestock help benefit one another; moving grazing livestock helps the soil and prevents the erosion of the landscape, whereas, livestock receives different nutrients from the land. In comparing conventional agro-system and organic farming types, it has been found that organic farming supports a higher species richness and is therefore beneficial to insect-pollinated plants, which in turn helps the density and diversity of bees and other pollinators (Batary et al., 2013).
Tuck, Winqvist, Mota, Ahnstrom, Turnbill, and Bengstsson (2014) demonstrated that organic farming is defined as farming where the use of pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizer is prohibited or strictly limited. They argued that organic farms have other distinguishable characteristics such as the use of more complex crop rotation, the use of weed and pest control strategy, and the use of animal manure, green manure, or compost in place of synthetic fertilizers. It has already been proven that when organic farming flourishes it enhances the richness of species when compared to conventional farming.
This suggests that conventional large-scale farming increases the population of one or more kinds of species that live in that particular crop, while at the same time eliminating other biodiverse species due to large-scale farming of one crop. The intensive farming, used to meet the demands of food for the masses, has usurped major land use under agricultural production, and organic methods could undoubtedly play a major role in halting the continued loss of diversity from industrialized nations (Tuck et al., 2014). It has been suggested that organic farming has immense impacts on soil conditions, one of which is the acidity of soil; however, farming’s effects on soil organisms were ambiguous (Tuck et al., 2014).
Excessive use of chemical fertilizers in the developing nations and in particular in Chine has resulted in poor water quality and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), mainly N2O nitrogen oxide with two nitrogen combined with one oxygen. Zheng et al. (2016) argued that, this is true for the most important food production areas in dry croplands “due to increasingly limited water supply for irrigation. (p.xxx)” They have suggested that the use of Biochar compound fertilizer increases nitrogen productivity and economic benefits and decreases carbon emission of corn production.
“Climate change is affected by the anthropogenic (human made) impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) production and is influenced by industry, transport, as well as by conventional agriculture.” (Moudry Jr. et al., 2013). In this research, it has been determined that 9.2% of the total GHG are produced by agriculture. In addition, agriculture is the fourth largest producer of man-made GHG in Europe. Recent research by many nations has shown that agriculture is where we can reduce GHG emissions. In this study, the two methods of oats grow evaluated one for the organic and one for the conventional method.
Conventional method produces CO2 /0.650kg CO2e/kg of oat grains. In organic farming they were 0.303kg CO2e/kg of oat grains (Moudry Jr. et al., 2013). The results clearly show that reduced use of synthetic fertilizer in conventional farming produces lesser GHG gasses. During the organic farming process, protection against microorganisms that causes diseases (pathogens) which is accomplished by mechanical devices does produce more greenhouse gas emissions and also the seed production phase (Moudry Jr. et al., 2013).
This leads to the temperature of the soil is crucial in the process of organic matter decomposing within the soil. According to Dennis et al. (2016), that due to climate change, there is the possibility that the temperature of soil will increase in the future; therefore, the process of organic matter properly decomposing is an important part of the cycling of nutrients within the soil and the ultimate productivity of agro-ecosystems. They also point out that the ratio of the amount of organic matter vs the amount of microbial decay is important not only for soil accumulation under climate change, but also for the continuation of agricultural production. In soil management, the use of Biochar has shown to be an effective means to stop the growth of organic carbon5 in the soil and lessen the effects of climate change (Dennis, et al., 2016).
Important research is being conducted by Antonio et al.,(2016), in the improvement of soil organic matter quality and also increasing the sustainability of agricultural eco-systems in tropical acid soils; in topical areas there are excessive weathered soils such as Oxisols and Ultisols which are unable to produce, but important catalysts to soil organic matter. Humic acids are crucial in the soil organic matter pool for both Oxisol and Ultisols, and act as catalysts in both soil chemical and physical properties (Antonio et. al., 2016).
Another important empirical research study conducted by Luker-Jans, Simmering, and Otte (2010) investigated the impact of biogas plants on the relationship between unchanged grassland and corn production areas “at different spatial scales” . There is a relationship between biogas plants and the increase of corn areas. In this study the authors find that biogas plants and animal farming is a good use of land change.
Biogas typically refers to a mixture of grasses produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas can be produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste, or food (google.com).
According to British research team, Feber, Johnson, Bell, Chamberlain, Firbank, Fuller,(2015). Organic farming, results show a low intensity system benefits for a range of taxa. Encyclopedia Britannica, defines as taxon, plural taxa, is any unit used in the science of biological classification, a biological nomenclature. Their study concentrated on the effects of organic farming on the landscape and on the activity density and species density of spiders and carabid beetles. Spiders’ activity density and species density were influenced by organic farming and surrounding landscape (Feber et al., 2015). These interactions between landscape and farming systems is so important to biodiversity, and “it is vital to develop strategies for managing farmland at the landscape-scale for most effective conservation of biodiversity” (Feber, et al., 2015).
According to Viorica Robu, G. Covaci, Iuliana M. Popescu (2015), plants have the ability to synthesize a wide variety of chemical compounds that are used to defend against attack from predators such as insects, fungi and herbivores mammals. They argue that essential oils are used to protect stored products and the chemical constituents of volatile oils interfere with the insect’s nervous system, but it has no effects and is nontoxic to mammals. There was a detailed study done on various types of essential oils for the purpose of obtaining highly selective and biodegradable pesticides and environmentally friendly products to solve the problem of long term toxicity from toxic pesticides (Robu et al., 2015). Essential oils are volatile in nature, “But there is a much lower level of risk to the environment than current synthetic pesticides” (Robu et al., 2015).
The Romanian National Research and Development Institute of Soil Sciences, Agro-Chemistry and Environment, conducted a study of soil acidification under organic farming. The soil fertility research was conducted on a vegetable growing environment and measured pH values over 15 years. The fertilizers used in this research were compost, and or green manure, both of which maintain relatively stable levels of soil fertility properties. The pH soil status check shows no significant changes over a period of fifteen years (Stefanescu S.L., et al., 2015).
Discussions:
Current conventional farming causes three important issues. Intensive farming created more land use for agricultural purposes by cutting down forested areas in Brazil, and Africa for mass production of food needs, but did not really help hunger in Africa and other under-developed countries. There is enough food produced, but transportation and distribution are not efficiently maintained. In addition the amount of greenhouse gasses produced by intensive farming is considerably large. How do we solve this problem?
By encouraging farmers and promoting them to grow food locally. It has been shown that the average cost of food transportation is $725.00 a year per household (Kingsolver, 2008). If we grow whatever we can locally and make it available in a public market place for exchange, it would solve major food needs in under-developed countries and the cost of food in our market is reduced. We still have some conventional farming is improving by using oil products instead of toxic herbicides. In this paper I have shown that conventional farming can be improved by using organic essential oils (Robi et al 2015). Experiments have shown using essential oils instead of pesticides also reduces the PH acidity in soil.
We must reduce, change, and improve our conventional farming system because of the acidification of soil. Eventually the soil will not produce because it will have become too acidic, due to micro organism depletion in the soil. The worldwide concern now is the depletion of biodiversity due to intensive conventional farming. That is why we have to concentrate on organic farming. Research has proven that organic farming enriches biodiversity. World governments must promote locally grown organic foods.
So what can we, as individuals, do? When we eat out, we can help this process by asking the restaurant owner if they buy from local food growers, or at least purchase a percentage of their food sources from local organic farms. Eat out in restaurants who use local food sources. Also, try and buy organic at the grocery store. And, if possible, if you own a home and have backyard, grow your own tomatoes and other vegetables without using pesticides and herbicides. Not only does it help the environment, but is healthier eating all the way around.
In conclusion, human ecology is about relationships between people and their environment. In this paper, the concentration has been on the relationship between organic farming vs conventional farming and their interaction on farming ecosystems such as biodiverse insects, microbiological taxa in the soil, and greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere. The aim is to increase biodiverse insect populations and microbiological organisms in soil and stop the acidification of the soil by excessive conventional farming. Numerous research done by international communities indicates that organic farming has many advantages over conventional farming and even modifying conventional farming will enhance the environment. As we speak, further research on the subject is underway to improve organic farming with the aim of meeting food security.
References
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