Essays. Remember, you should not hand in any of these essays as your own work, as we do not condone plagiarism! If you use any of these free essays as source material for your own work, then remember to reference them correctly May 21, · Essay on Environmental Protection: Environment is the basis of our survival and the earth’s existence. The environment is the total of the natural surroundings around us. Environmental protection thus refers to the protection and saving of the environment from the dire impact of human and human-made activities. Environmental protection is an important issue because the [ ] The Use of the Land Essays. Cities and Suburbs. History with Fire in Its Eye. The Civil War: An Environmental View. Roads, Highways, and Ecosystems. Three Worlds, Three Views. Environmental Justice for All. Choosing Future Population. Nature Transformed is made possible by grants from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. Nature Transformed
Sustainable Vs. Conventional Agriculture | Environmental Topics and Essays
The science of agriculture has been refined and perfected over time to accommodate for the ever-increasing human population.
Until recent centuries, productive crops were mostly organic and existed with some permanence as part of a landscape. As communities grow though, less and less land is available for food production and existing crops become easily exhausted. Food insecurity caused by rapid population growth has pressured science to step in and produce many synthetic chemicals and gene manipulation techniques to maximize the potential of plants.
In addition, agricultural production has increased tremendously worldwide over the last century. Coupled with this growth however is the pollution and degradation of the natural environment. Many agricultural techniques exist today, but in an effort to adjust to the exponential trends of our population without compromising the integrity of the environment it is necessary to have a global transition towards sustainable farming. Fortunately humans have been perfecting agricultural methods for thousands of years, which can help to answer this question.
This paper will analyze and compare two types of farming, organic and conventional. In a comparison of agriculture, my goal is to assess the impact and performance of each practice and then identify the best method for growing crops.
Although there are many types of agricultural practices, they can be generalized as sustainable or conventional based on the techniques used. This is a traditional, more permanent type of farming that relies on ecosystem services to maintain the integrity of the landscape while still producing sufficient yields, essays on environmental protection.
Conventional farming uses synthetic chemicals and fertilizers to maximize the yield of a particular crop or set of crops, which are typically genetically modified, essays on environmental protection.
This method requires a significant amount of chemical and energy input and weakens the ecology of a landscape. In a comparative analysis of these two techniques, it is important to highlight the fact that the crops studied differed in soil composition, essays on environmental protection, geography, and rotation systems.
Due to the many different factors determining crop health and productivity, there is a need for much more extensive research on the subject. Therefore, my goal in writing this paper was to use reliable, long-term research that made specific assessments of the two generalized types of farming and then compare the results. Agriculture has played a tremendous role in the advancement of human society. Agriculture has been around since roughly 10, B. and has enabled humans to manipulate ecosystems and maximize population growth Xtimeline.
The science has encouraged people to live and develop rich, permanent essays on environmental protection all over the world. When humans first discovered the potential of planting seeds, they suddenly had the ability to explore the world and establish infrastructures wherever soils were fertile. Soon after the start of agriculture people began to select for genes that maximized plant yields. Selective breeding was first implemented on plants over essays on environmental protection, years ago to produce desired characteristics in crops USDA.
This discovery further contributed to the permanence essays on environmental protection size of settlements. With breakthroughs in agriculture, populations increased and development spread. Early farming techniques depended on local climate conditions, but most farmers would continue to plant on the same field year-after-year until the soils were exhausted of nutrients.
This encouraged ingenuities such as crop rotation and intercropping Economywatch. Intercropping is a technique in which a variety of crops are grown together, creating a microclimate that favors the survival of each plant, maximizes potential yields and maintains soil fertility Archaeology. For example, Native Americans developed an intercropping technique over 5, years ago called the three sisters, where maize, beans, and squash were grown together Archaeology.
Maize consumes a lot of nitrogen, while beans supply nitrogen to the soil, and squash benefits from a shady, moist climate. Intercropping is one of many early discoveries in agriculture still being implemented today that promotes biodiversity, maintains soil composition, and fortifies plant health.
Techniques such as irrigation, intercropping, and crop rotation have progressively increased efficiency in agriculture. Over the last few centuries however, radical changes have been made in farming and many countries have made a shift toward conventional methods.
Factors such as growing populations, economic instability, climate change, and pressures from companies to produce higher yields have contributed to this shift. However, adopting these conventional methods subjects farmers to the greed of industry, as their crops depend on a high input of energy, synthetic chemicals, and genetically modified organisms.
And once committed to the conventional practices, farmers find themselves locked in a perpetual cycle of loans, subsidies, and essays on environmental protection. Conventional agriculture is a broad term that has a number of definitions, but a crop can be classified as conventional if synthetic chemicals are used to maintain the plants. A significant amount of chemical and energy input is required in conventional agriculture to produce the highest possible yield of crops, essays on environmental protection.
Conventional agriculture was developed to make farming more efficient, but achieves that efficiency at a major cost to the environment. The goal of conventional agriculture is to maximize the potential yield of crops. This is achieved through the application of synthetic chemicals, genetically modified organisms, and a number of other industrial products.
In maintaining a conventional system, biodiversity, essays on environmental protection fertility, and ecosystems health are compromised Huntley, Collins, and Swisher.
Production of these crops is beneficial to nothing but food security and economy. Once established, a conventional farm requires constant maintenance but produces maximal yields.
Maintenance is made easy for farmers as conventional farming typically involves monocropping, but is also very expensive. In a conventional system farmers will designate entire fields to just one crop, which creates uniformity.
Uniformity can determine both the success and failure of conventional systems. A uniform crop is ideal because it reduces labor costs and makes harvesting easy, but it can also impact biodiversity and make crops susceptible to pathogens Gabriel, essays on environmental protection, Salt, Kunin, and Benton Chemicals and genetically modified organisms make maintenance of conventional systems relatively simple for farmers, but require a constant input of energy and money.
In a conventional system, farmers can apply pesticides and herbicides to crops at a much more efficient rate if they are made up of just one type of plant, essays on environmental protection, but this has a number of unintended consequences.
Since the essays on environmental protection of conventional agriculture is to maximize yields, environmental health and biodiversity are usually not preserved. Where conventional farming represents one extreme of agriculture, sustainable farming represents the other. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life essays on environmental protection all involved.
Sustainable agriculture is a more holistic approach to farming than conventional in that it relies on ecosystem services and is typically much less detrimental to the surrounding landscape. Sustainable agriculture is a natural way to produce food and has a number of social, economic, and environmental benefits.
There are many types of sustainable farming that all rely on natural cycles to ensure plant health and crop performance. Sustainable farming forgoes the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers to produce food. Instead, farmers will plant a variety of plants together to promote biodiversity and ward off pests and pathogens Essays on environmental protection and Altieri Where conventional systems promote uniformity and depend on synthetic chemicals for protection against disease and pests, sustainable systems rely on biodiversity as a measure to protect against these things.
Sustainable agriculture profits farmers, economies, and food banks while existing symbiotically with the landscape.
One example of many in sustainable farming practices, which emphasizes economic benefits and environmental health, is conservation agriculture. Conservation agriculture underlines the focus of sustainable agriculture in that it focuses on producing high yields without compromising the integrity of the environment. The environmental impact and production levels of each method will determine its overall viability as a solution to growing trends, essays on environmental protection.
It is necessary essays on environmental protection make these comparisons in order to identify the best agricultural method that can sustainably meet the needs of the current population. Although these comparisons are based off of scientific data, there is much more research that needs to be done in order to make a definitive judgment.
To meet the needs of the current population requires a tremendous amount of resources. In addressing this rapid growth, production levels become a serious point of comparison. Most research indicates that sustainable crops produce much less than conventional systems.
There are many environmental benefits associated with sustainable agriculture, but its production capacity is limited.
In general, sustainable agriculture fails to match up to conventional agriculture in terms of production. This result varies though, and in some instances organic crops actually best conventional crops. Although certain conditions may favor organic crops, conventional agriculture is designed to produce the highest yields possible. Many factors contribute to this difference in production.
Conventional crops are designed specifically to produce maximal yields; therefore, the difference should be expected. Typically conventional crops are genetically modified to essays on environmental protection better under certain conditions than sustainable crops Carpenter However, these crops are also sprayed with toxic pesticides and herbicides to make up for their uniformity. Although levels of production are reduced in sustainable agriculture, studies show that higher levels of biodiversity are linked to healthier crops.
Biodiversity plays a large part in this comparison because it is a determinant of agricultural health and performance. The greater the biodiversity, the more immune plants are to pests and disease Gomiero, Pimentel, and Paoletti This is important to highlight because conventional agriculture discourages biodiversity and instead relies on essays on environmental protection chemicals to maintain crop health.
Techniques such as integrated pest management and intercropping could be applied to conventional systems and in turn promote biodiversity. High biodiversity is important to sustainable farming because it enhances the performance of the ecological cycles that essays on environmental protection crops depend upon.
It is important to encourage high nutrient levels and biodiversity as these two factors contribute significantly to the health of the crops and the landscape. Although biodiversity does not directly determine crop yield, it does play a major role in the health and permanence of sustainable farms.
Despite the impacts conventional methods have on agricultural land, not all conventional farms degrade biodiversity. The global impact agriculture has can be significantly reduced if conventional farmers adopt sustainable techniques.
In addition to higher levels of biodiversity, sustainable farming is typically associated with better soil quality. The increased concentrations of these nutrients can be contributed to the depth of the food web and amount of biomass in sustainable systems.
Sustainable crops are more permanent than conventional crops because they work in harmony with the landscape rather than drain it of nutrients and biomass. Soil management is vital for existing farms because agricultural production is increasing globally and land is becoming less available to accommodate this growth.
Conventional systems can improve soil quality by practicing sustainable methods like no-tillage farming, agroforestry, and integrated pest management, but sustainable agriculture is the most effective form of food production in terms of maintaining soil conditions, essays on environmental protection. Again, research shows that an increase in biodiversity and a reduction of chemical input can result in conventional farms with more healthy soils and improved crop performance.
A major problem concerning agriculture is soil erosion caused by nutrient loss, run-off, salinity, essays on environmental protection, and drought. Organic systems enhance soil composition as well as prevent soil erosion due to the greater amount of plant material and biomass in the soil. Compared to sustainable farming, conventional crops are terribly inefficient at maintaining the essays on environmental protection of agricultural landscapes.
Conventional agriculture is therefore unable meet the demands of the growing populations without consuming a substantial amount of land and non-renewable resources.
On a global scale, water is a renewable resource that can meet the needs of our current population.
Essay writing on environment in english -- Environment essay in english
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