Organic food tends to be slightly more expensive and that can put off a lot of people who struggle with their monthly bills anyway. But for those who can afford it you absolutely should be supporting organic farms. The alternative is to support intensive farming but it’s become very clear that intensive farming is extremely destructive and threatens all of us.
What is intensive farming?
In the simplest of terms, intensive farming focusses on the quantity rather than the quality of the food produced. The use of pesticides and chemicals is commonplace.
“Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is a kind of agriculture where a lot of money and labour are used to increase the yield that can be obtained per area of land. The use of large amounts of pesticides for crops, and of medication for animal stocks is common.” – Wikipedia
Why is intensive farming bad?
The benefits are that food is produced in greater quantities and therefore tends to be cheaper. The disadvantages however are alarming.
To increase food production the following tends to happen:
1. Other plants have to be removed
To remove other plants to make way for the new crop herbicides have to be used. Herbicides (also known as weedkillers) vary in how destructive they are and although they are not considered dangerous to animals they do mean a loss of habitat and food sources for different animal species. The herbicides can also remain in the environment for years causing soil and water contamination.
2. Pests have to be removed
In order that ‘pests’ don’t munch away on the crops pesticides are used to kill them. ‘Pests’ include insects, rats, fungi and some other plant species. Getting rid of insects decreases our biodiversity and in fact is putting all our food production at risk.
“Insects serve as the base of the food web, eaten by everything from birds to small mammals to fish. If they decline, everything else will as well,” – National Geographic
Pesticides not only kill off insects which are vital to our survival they are also contaminating the environment.
“Pesticides can contaminate soil, water, turf, and other vegetation. In addition to killing insects or weeds, pesticides can be toxic to a host of other organisms including birds, fish, beneficial insects, and non-target plants.” – NCBI
Exposure to pesticides has also been linked to many health concerns in humans, including asthma, ADHD, depression and anxiety and even cancer.
Insects have declined so much that anyone over the age of 20 might have noticed that any car journey now results in far fewer insects ending up on your windscreen. I can’t even remember the last time my windscreen was covered in the remnants of insects and that’s a bad thing because it just shows you how bad the insect decline is.
How to Have an Insect Friendly Garden
3. Chemical fertilisers are added to the soil
Using chemical fertilisers is detrimental to the environment in many ways.
- They contaminate our water leading to harm for all marine life.
“When the excess nutrients from all the fertilizer we use runs off into our waterways, they cause algae blooms sometimes big enough to make waterways impassable. When the algae die, they sink to the bottom and decompose in a process that removes oxygen from the water”. – Scientific American
- Using fertiliser has a negative effect on soil quality, which at first seems strange, because surely the fertiliser is being used to improve the growing conditions? Actually the fertiliser can increase the acidity of the soil which in turn means it’s less useful for growing crops. – Environment
- The use of fertilisers is a cause of climate change. Fertilisers often contain nitrogen which is a contributor to climate change; although not as well known a cause as carbon dioxide.
- Your food may not be as nutritious as it could have been. The plants can grow so fast that they are lacking in essential elements like zinc, calcium and iron. This will cause health problems in all of us over time.
- Other health concerns include; increasing the risk of developing cancer for adults and children and the brain development in unborn children. These negative consequences to humans of using chemical fertilisers has been known about for many years:
“A 1994 study by the University of Wisconsin suggest show that typical concentrations of nitrate (a common fertilizer) and a pesticide in the groundwater may compromise the nervous, endocrine, and immune system of young children and developing fetuses. A study in 1973 associates high levels of sodium nitrate in groundwater with the prevalence of gastric cancer, and another one in 1996 with that of testicular cancer.” – EP Online
4. Animals are often moved inside to reduce the amount of space they need (battery or factory farming)
Not only is factory farming cruel to the animals it has many other harmful effects on the environment.
- Animals are routinely pumped full of antibiotics which is creating a rise in superbugs which are resistant to antibiotics.
- The animals are crammed into smaller spaces; the myth is that this saves the land for other things, when in fact more land is required to grow the crops that feed the animals.
“The crops fed to industrially reared animals worldwide could feed an extra four billion [people] on the planet.” – The Guardian
- Rainforests are being destroyed to make way for intensive crop production so that factory farmed animals can be fed. Not only does this mean the habitat of many critically endangered animals are being destroyed but deforestation is also a major cause of climate change.
Why You Should Eat Organic Food
By supporting organic farming over intensive farming you’re helping to protect our future food production. (And that of your children and grandchildren). If the insect decline carries on at the rate it currently is, there will be serious food shortages within decades. Climate change is also going to get a lot worse if intensive farming carries on as it is now.
If you can afford to spend a little bit more on your groceries, buy organic food whenever you can. You don’t have to go vegan, but responsibly sourcing your meat from organic farms and reducing the amount of meat you consume will go an awful long way to combatting the destruction that intensive farming has caused.
The Easiest Vegetables to Grow in the UK
For other ways you can help to reduce climate change read 50 Simple Ways To Go Green
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