What is sustainable farming?

What is sustainable farming?

Let’s start with the term itself. What does sustainable farming actually entail?

There are a few different definitions circulating. However, the consensus is that sustainable farming is all about meeting the global demand for food while taking steps to protect the natural environment.

It has gained more attention recently, as the fight against climate change has gathered more momentum. Climate activists have pointed at the way we grow our food as a major contributor to global warming, and are demanding change to farming methods.

Sustainable farming can involve a whole variety of different techniques and priorities, depending on factors like the geographical region and the type of food being produced.

However, they all aim to maintain the yield of food while reducing its impact on the environment.

What are the problems with modern farming?

Before we get into the methods we can use to make agriculture more sustainable, it’s important to understand what the issues are with the farming methods we use today.

1. Going global

Before the dawn of modern industrial farming, food was grown on a much smaller and more local level. However, technology has allowed us to manipulate the environment to produce and distribute food on a global level.

At the same time, demand for out of season foods means that suppliers often import items like fruit and vegetables from other countries.

This means that much of the food we eat has travelled miles and miles, and used up untold resources, before it even gets to us. Many foods now come with a carbon footprint, and thanks to complicated infrastructure, it’s very difficult to find out the environmental impact of our food choices.

2. Rising demand

We’re a growing population; more of us means a higher demand for food.

At the moment, around 50% of the habitable land in the world is taken up with growing food.(1)

But we’re also changing the way we eat, in ways that are bad for our own health as well as for the environment. Rather than minimally processed whole foods which we make from scratch ourselves, we now rely heavily on processed and pre-made foods.

One rather horrifying statistic states that 72.1% of the daily energy consumed by Americans comes from dairy, cereals, refined sugar and vegetable oils, and alcohol.(2)

This is a far cry from the days when people would eat produce made on local farms or even in their own gardens. Not only do we have much less information about how our food is grown, but many of these products contain ingredients which are grown using environmentally damaging methods.

3. Meat and dairy

Similarly, industrial agriculture has allowed us to make products such as meat and dairy on an enormous scale. We worked out that factory farming would allow us to produce a lot of meat in a very small space, while feeding animals with specially designed foods would increase the yield of their meat and milk.

Unfortunately, meat and dairy production is extremely inefficient, polluting, and takes up a lot of space and resources.

The FAO estimates that 14.5% of global emissions come from the meat and dairy industries.(3)

Meanwhile, for every 100 calories of human-edible crops given to livestock, we humans access only 17-30 calories in the form of meat and milk.(4) In terms of efficiency, we’d be a lot better off simply eating the grain ourselves!

4. Damaging the ecosystem

Under pressure to produce more food at a lower price, farmers have turned to agricultural methods which increase yield but damage the environment.

One example is the use of chemical pesticides. Rachel Carson’s famous book ‘Silent Spring’ showed the disastrous effect on the environment of pesticides, leading to a ban of DDT.(5) However many chemical pesticides are still in regular use to grow non-organic foods.

These can kill insects which prop up their ecosystem and the other wildlife within it. In fact, many environmentalists are deeply concerned about the decline in the bee population, which has been ravaged by pesticides such as neonicotinoids.(6)

We need bees to pollinate our crops; their loss would be devastating to our ability to grow food. The UK has just reversed a decision to ban neonicotinoids.(7)

5. Growing monocultures and decreasing biodiversity

Other methods fall into this category, too. For example, producers often plant monocultures in their fields to produce as much of one crop as possible.

However, natural wildlife depends on biodiversity, and planting only one type of crop can damage the local ecosystem.

This happens a lot with palm oil production, where sections of rainforest are removed to make space for vast areas of palm plants where nothing else can live.(8)

Related reading

• What are the three pillars of sustainability?
• Which whole foods for which vitamins?