What’s wrong with modern agriculture?

In many respects it is easier to work with natural ecosystems than attempt to fight or control them with chemical substances. For many decades, ecologists have warned against the tendency to view the natural world in simplistic terms. Unfortunately, these warnings have largely gone unheeded by mainstream elements of the agricultural industry. Commercial imperatives, often imposed by economic interests having little or no connection to the land being farmed, have precipitated the departure from agricultural practices that previously acknowledged and respected the land. In place of systems of agriculture that worked collaboratively with nature, agricultural scientists have been encouraged to provide short term “solutions” and to avoid the complex relationships that exist between living organisms and the environment.

Whenever the sequence of checks and balances within an ecosystem is disturbed, there will always be significant consequences at some point.

Chemical dependency – a never ending cycle

After focusing on limited varieties to ensure maximum yield for each crop, conventional agriculture must protect the genetically compromised stock by vigorously eliminating natural pests and agents of disease. The consequence is an overall reduction in normal, life sustaining biodiversity. The vulnerability of this position becomes evident when large human populations depend on sustenance from intensively developed grain species such as wheat and rice.

The organic alternative would see the preservation and development of unique regional varieties with a corresponding diversity of resistance to insect pests and disease. The emphasis for modern agriculture has been placed upon the use of synthetic chemicals to achieve maximum yields as quickly as possible. After initial benefits there is often a downward spiral of diminishing returns accompanied by increased quantities of additives.

Chemical fertilizers are not the answer

Chemical fertilisers provide a sudden boost of water soluble nutrients to plants but do not improve underlying soil fertility. These should be compared to the effects of refined sugar as a food source for humans. An immediately accessible source of energy that quickly fades without supplying the full range of nutrients required for healthy development. Over time crops grown in nutrient poor soils tend to become weak and increasingly dependent on chemical fertilisers.

Because they are water soluble, chemical fertilisers are likely to contaminate groundwater then contribute to salination. When captured in our larger rivers and ocean outfalls they are known to contribute to both the choking proliferation of water weeds as well as the algal blooms that have the capacity to turn fresh water stagnant and toxic.

Pesticides and herbicides

The use of chemicals to control insect pests and disease are not the inherently sensible and practical solutions that they are commonly portrayed to be. Obviously many of these substances pose significant health risks to humans, domestic animals and other wildlife. While some of the recently engineered products will break down to safer constituents after a period, there are others that don’t. Along with accumulations of toxic residue from earlier generations, these can remain present in soil for many years.

Historically, the major deficiency of chemical agents has been their lack of specificity in targeting the disease or pest species to be controlled. Whenever non-selective chemicals are applied to protect crops, the result will include the destruction of many useful and harmless organisms. These short-term solutions can over the longer period lead to problems of greater magnitude than the initial infestation.

Consider a scenario in which a crop-eating larva is “controlled” by broad-spectrum pesticide. While most of the larvae are destroyed and cause no crop damage for a season or two, the chemical agent has also wiped out natural predators of the larvae, uniquely adapted species of mite and wasp. Several years down the track the problem larvae are rediscovered. The handful of survivors from the first season continued breeding and has now modified their genes to enable a strong resistance to the chemical agent that once controlled them. Unfortunately the mite and wasp were not able to breed for resistance and have been all but wiped out leaving the problem larvae with genetic immunity and no natural predators to eliminate them. This can quickly lead to the vicious cycle where new chemicals or greater quantities of the old product must be applied each year in attempts to control a stubborn pest with no natural enemies.

Unsustainable practices – the outlook

Modern chemical based agriculture faces a crisis of sustainability. The most serious issues are environmental degradation and the destruction of complex ecosystems. The industrial processes required to synthesise chemical fertilisers and biotoxins contribute to atmospheric pollution and global warming. The raw material and natural resources associated with their manufacture are utilised too rapidly for replenishment. There are further demands on energy resources when large quantities of crops need transportation across considerable distances to market. Due to structural inadequacies of the agricultural mainstream, many of these problems will increase into the future. Unless corrected through co-ordinated planning and the move toward ecologically sustainable practices, the outlook for modern agriculture remains sub-optimal.