Modern Farming

♥Sustainable agriculture♥

In most traditional farming of the past, a significant amount of nutrients are removed from soil without being replaced. Major contributing factors to the depletion of healthy soil on farms globally are:

  • over-tilling the land,
  • monoculture (just growing one type of plant on sections of farmland without implementing crop rotation),
  • and synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

From processes like these, there is constant degredation of soil nutrients, leading to poor fertilization from year to year; as well as an increase of weeds, bugs, and vermin. Basically, the farmer slowly loses control of the farm as a whole, when the quality of the soil is not managed over time. The solution to these ecological problems is sustainable agriculture. Sustainable ag. ensures land-use practices that restore, protect, and maintain ecosystems and biodiversity. Conventional farmlands are thus transformed into ecologically thriving carbon sinks.

Sustainable Ag. Techniques; Carbon Sinks, Cover Crops, and more

Sustainable agricultureSustainable agriculture works to make sure that farming is done in ways that protect the quality of ecosystems. Sustainable agriculture turns farms into thriving ecological lands that sequester atmospheric carbon; while producing crops for food, and plants that increase farms' biodiversity. It is important for the farmer implementing sustainable agriculture techniques to understand the relationship between all of the farm's organisms and the farm's environment; in order to optimally create biodiversity on the farm, and to focus efforts on maintaining nutrients within the farm's soil, water, and air.

A few sustainable agriculture practices that increase soil health are:

  • cover crops, 
  • concerted efforts to maintain proper soil nutrition, 
  • no-till or low-till farming, 
  • crop rotation,
  • and polyculture (vs. monoculture)

Cover crops refer to a variety of crops grown on farmland during off-seasons in order to maintain soil health. Examples of cover crops include: legumes like alfalfa, various grasses and cereal crops like rye, oats and barley,  brassicas like turnips and radishes or turnips and non-legume broadleaves like flax and spinach.

Polyculture is also a practice of introducing a variety of crops on farmland, including multiple species of plants. In the case of polyculture, crops and plants are planted, and rotated to different sections on the farmland, year-round. Even if polyculture is implemented on a farm, crop rotation and low/ no-till farming should be continually practiced year-round in order to ensure the health of a farm's ecosystems and soil. Biodiversity of a farm's crops, plants on the farm, and other ecosystems on the farm, as well as proper soil nutrition - deter pests. Polyculture also helps maintain a farmland's healthy ecosystems; also reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Creating Carbon Sinks

Real-world examples of sustainable agriculture predominantly include farms that work to satisfy human food demand; while maintaining biodiversity and healthy ecosystems on the farmland. Sustainable agriculture transforms otherwise conventional farmland into environmentally-friendly carbon sinks.

Sustainable farms enhance environmental quality and agricultural economy through enhancement of natural resources. For example, carbon farming is a sustainable agriculture practice that maintains healthy soils and is common practice in most organic farming. Practices to maintain soil health are found in regenerative agriculture, as well as permaculture (see section on permaculture below, and please see Green City Times' article on Regenerative Agriculture). 

Sustainable Practices

Project Drawdown recognizes these sustainable practices, related to both sustainable agriculture and reforestation, as top climate solutions, creating carbon sinks:

  • Land is a critical component of the climate system, actively engaged in the flows of carbon, nitrogen, water, and oxygen—essential building blocks for life. Carbon is the core of trees and grasses, mammals and birds, lichens and microbes. Linking one atom to the next, and to other elements, it’s the fundamental material of all living organisms. FROM  -  drawdown.org/sectors/land-sinks
  • Plants and healthy ecosystems have an unparalleled capacity to absorb carbon through photosynthesis and store it in living biomass. In addition, soils are, in large part, organic matter—once-living organisms, now decomposing—making them an enormous storehouse of carbon. Land can therefore be a powerful carbon sink, returning atmospheric carbon to living vegetation and soils. While the majority of heat-trapping emissions remain in the atmosphere, land sinks currently return a quarter of human-caused emissions to Earth—literally.   FROM  -  drawdown.org/sectors/land-sinks
  • In their biomass and soil, forests are powerful carbon storehouses. [Forest] protection prevents emissions from deforestation, shields that carbon, and enables ongoing carbon sequestration.   FROM  -  drawdown.org/solutions/forest-protection
  • Multistrata agroforestry systems mimic natural forests in structure. Multiple layers of trees and crops achieve high rates of both carbon sequestration and food production.    FROM  -  drawdown.org/solutions/multistrata-agroforestry
  • An agroforestry practice, silvopasture integrates trees, pasture, and forage, into a single system. Incorporating trees improves land health and significantly increases carbon sequestration.    FROM  -  drawdown.org/solutions/silvopasture
  • Pumping and distributing water is energy intensive. Drip and sprinkler irrigation, among other practices and technologies, make farm water use more precise and efficient.  FROM  -  drawdown.org/solutions/farm-irrigation-efficiency
  • Building on conservation agriculture with additional practices, regenerative annual cropping can include compost application, green manure, and organic production. It reduces emissions, increases soil organic matter, and sequesters carbon.  FROM  -  drawdown.org/solutions/regenerative-annual-cropping
Shropshire Agroforestry Project - Shropshire Agroforestry Project
Shropshire Agroforestry Project, Shropshire in England
Soil Nutrition
Sustainable agriculture makes efficient use of non-renewable natural resources; as the degradation of agricultural natural resources is the leading issue in depleting a farm's soil nutrient levels and the health of farmland ecosystems. Artificial pesticides, excessive tilling of the soil, and monoculture (re-planting the same crop, or same type of crop, on the same land season after season, lack of crop rotation) lead to degradation of a farm's soil health. A successful sustainable farm must focus a substantial amount of time year-round on healthy soil nutrition to help maintain long-term quality growth.
Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, phosphates and other soil nutrients; a healthy soil PH level, and healthy salt content in soils; can be enhanced in farm soil simply by optimally reusing crop leftovers, farm plant debris, or even some 'green' livestock manure for natural fertilization. Other important techniques to improve soil health on farms include: implementation of polyculture, cover crops (to keep the land productive vs. barren during off-seasons), and no-till or low-till farming. These sustainable agriculture techniques not only improve the health of a farm's ecosystems, but help fight climate change by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere; creating both healthy farmland and a healthy planet.
What are easy ways to reduce a farm's carbon footprint?
In focusing on possible, easily overlooked, improvements in farms trying to successfully implement sustainable agriculture - issues with poor irrigation, and other water quality issues, can always reduce quality of agriculture. The use of treated, reclaimed rainwater and greywater, on a farm, are easily implemented sustainable agriculture practices; that also serve to save water resources. Another example of sustainable farming is the independent production of nitrogen through the Haber process; that uses hydrogen from natural gas or possibly created with electricity (ideally renewable energy) via an electrolyzer. These farming techniques are a part of the emerging regenerative agriculture process.
In sustainable agriculture, it's important to manage long-term crop rotations; while still working to help improve the farmer's carbon footprint and the quality of ecosystems in their farmland. Natural fertilizer processes help with the soil; while farmers must also manage natural resources (crops, plants, trees, rainwater, etc...), and manage the level of non-renewable energy resources used on the farm, to help maintain healthy soil nutrition. With added efficiency on the farm, certain crops, plant and animal waste, tree, and plant croppings, etc... can also be used as sources for biomass/ biofuel production.

For information on how agricultural renewable resources (i.e. biomass) can be developed and optimally produced on farms, please see the following Green City Times' articles: 

Cellulosic biofuel – fuel solutions

Anaerobic digestion – a proven solution to our waste problem

Renewable energy: biomass and biofuel

Besides increasing biodiversity on farms (through polyculture and agroforestry techniques for example), maintaining healthy farm ecosystems, and a focus on soil nutrition; other critical considerations in sustainable agriculture are-

  • Managing water wisely
  • Minimizing air, water, and climate pollution
  • Rotating crops and embracing diversity. Planting a variety of crops can have many benefits, including healthier soil and improved pest control. Crop diversity practices include intercropping (growing a mix of crops in the same area) and complex multi-year crop rotations.
  • Planting cover crops. Cover crops, like clover or hairy vetch, are planted during off-season times when soils might otherwise be left bare. These crops protect and build soil health by preventing erosion, replenishing soil nutrients, and keeping weeds in check, reducing the need for herbicides.
  • Reducing or eliminating tillage.  Traditional plowing (tillage) prepares fields for planting and prevents weed problems, but can cause a lot of soil loss. No-till or reduced till methods, which involve inserting seeds directly into undisturbed soil, can reduce erosion and improve soil health.
  • Applying integrated pest management (IPM). A range of methods, including mechanical and biological controls, can be applied systematically to keep pest populations under control while minimizing use of chemical pesticides.
  • Integrating livestock and crops. Industrial agriculture tends to keep plant and animal production separate, with animals living far from the areas where their feed is produced, and crops growing far away from abundant manure fertilizers. A growing body of evidence shows that a smart integration of crop and animal production can be a recipe for more efficient, profitable farms.
  •   [BULLET POINTS FROM  - ucsusa.org/what-sustainable-agriculture]

Other sustainable solutions for the global conservationist community; carbon offsets

Steps that can be taken by individuals to help with the deforestation problem include: going paperless, going vegetarian (or at least eating less red meat), recycling and buying recycled products, and using Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood products. Other personal lifestyle solutions to help with global sustainability efforts include; using more cloth and alternative products (like bamboo products for sustainable lifestyles), eating less fast food, and eating vegan meals as often as possible instead of meat; as ways of supporting the use of agricultural land for regenerative farming ultimately used in diet and manufacturing of consumer products.

Paper products were once trees, so reducing your use of paper products in your daily life will realistically translate into saving trees. Additionally, meat, and fast food restaurants, contribute to deforestation because deforested land is often land used for cattle grazing. Red meat from cows makes its way to fast food restaurants (but not before millions of acres of once pristine forest is degraded or destroyed); in addition to the waste streams of paper products fast food restaurants create (also major contributors to forest degradation). Fast food restaurants, globally, can help stop deforestation; as numerous corporations in different segments of the manufacturing industry have started joining global conservation efforts recently. In addition to reforestation measures taken by governments, private companies, and concerned individuals;, and lifestyle changes by individuals taken to help the address the problem, governments can help with climate change cause by deforestation in other ways.

Governments like Brazil, and around the world, have the ability to enact carbon emission trading systems, forcing companies, and the major industries involved in deforestation, to purchase offsets to their destructive behavior. Carbon offsets can be purchased by individuals, non-profit organizations, and private businesses of every size, from small businesses to large international companies, and even governments; in order to lower their net carbon footprint and/ or in order to support sustainability efforts worldwide. Carbon offsets help balance out global GHGs and other environmental degradation; for instance damage to the environment wrought by companies which commit deforestation, and companies which are reliant on fossil fuels, are a partial solution to the deforestation problem.

In many cases, carbon offsets are purchased by international companies in industries running polluting factories, using carbon-intensive fuel for energy, and manufacturing fossil fuel intensive products; and this often includes companies involved in deforestation. Some offsets often formally offered in emission trading schemes globally include: forestry projects (like planting and caring for trees; restoring, maintaining, and protecting forests and their ecosystems), as well as renewable energy and energy efficiency projects worldwide.

The amount of carbon offsets required for a company to purchase in an emission trading system (ETS) is proportional to the amount of pollution, GHGs, released by the company involved in the ETS; and should also be measured by the deforestation that a company commits, and the subsequent effect of that behavior by the company on the environment. However, as of now, most ETS around the world only use the amount GHGs released by companies, not deforestation, as a metric to assess a companies' responsibility for purchasing carbon offets. ETS, and other carbon pricing mechanisms (such as a carbon tax), can be mandated by states, provinces, and entire countries.

For further information on ways to help with the problem of deforestation, please see this article from Mother Nature Network>>>   5-ways-to-stop-deforestation

As noted above, regenerative agriculture techniques and sustainable agriculture practices are key to reversing the global effects and negative trends of unsustainable ag. practices. Sustainable agriculture practices include increasing the use of permaculture; as well as urban and community gardening.

Permaculture

Prermaculture

The simulation of natural ecosystems, both in agriculture and urban planning, has the potential to help reduce man’s carbon footprint on the earth. In working to maintain permanent agriculture and permanent culture similarly there is progress toward the sustainable goals created in many cities worldwide. Some fields of permaculture and urban gardening include ecological design, Ecological Engineering, Environmental Design, Integrated Water Resource Management and Sustainable Architecture. All of these professions work with nature rather than against; working toward the goal of sustaining both nature and society for future generations.

The depletion of the earth's resources due to the processes of mass production and consumption, inefficient waste management, and the destruction wrought on nature due to fossil fuel infrastructure development are reasons for the need of permaculture and urban gardening techniques in agriculture. The need to work with existing resources in order to save the environment, and people alike, is a goal that has many nations working toward carbon neutrality in agriculture, as well as eco-conscious techniques in agriculture to preserve biodiversity. Chemical fertilizers and other environmentally hazardous methods like pesticides, are the way of the past in agriculture. The future of gardening/ agriculture lies in sustainable methods like urban gardening (techniques that can easily be applied to larger scale agriculture/ farms).

Urban gardening

Here are the major components of urban gardening::

"Container gardening: Common for people with small patios, yards, or balconies. Container gardening makes use of a variety of containers – buckets, old tires, raised beds, windowboxes, kiddie pools, barrels, shoes, and watering cans – for growing all manner of plants for food or beauty.

Indoor gardening: When no patios, decks, yards, or balconies are available, indoor gardening can also be an effective urban gardening method. Plants can be grown in containers similar to those in container gardening, as well as in indoor greenhouses or solariums (sunrooms).

Community gardening: This is a method of using outdoor public or private spaces to cultivate gardens for food or pleasure as a group and is a great choice for those with no yard or outdoor space.

Guerilla gardening: A more subversive form of urban gardening, guerilla gardening is a way of adding plants to public spaces that don’t technically belong to the gardener such as a vacant lot, median, beside a highway, or in little strips of dirt.

Greenroofs: Roofs designed with a growing medium for the purpose of cultivating plants are also a form of urban gardening and can be used to grow food, trees, and many other types of plants." from Ecolife

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