Roughly 10,000 years ago, humankind had one of its biggest
breakthroughs: the advent of farming. That may not sound glamorous,
but agriculture changed everything. Freed from the constant
search for food, humans could settle down and form communities.
From there came the development of trade, then cities, then
science, then technology, and then the world we know today.
Source: USDA (Tim McCabe) |
The first farmers
used organic techniques. So did their children, and their children's
children. Generation after generation produced food in Earth-friendly
ways. It's not that they were early environmentalists. There
just wasn't any other way to farm.
Traditional farmers used animal manure
as a natural fertilizer.
They rotated the types of crops grown on the same piece of land
to avoid wearing out the soil. And they let fields lie fallow,
or unplanted, every few years to help the soil rejuvenate itself.
Most of the time, these farmers' methods did not do major environmental
damage. (That was possible because the population was fairly
small and land was cheap and plentiful.)
VITAL BUT VULNERABLE
Farmers were always at
the mercy of the weather. Just a modest drought
could wipe out an entire crop. Even if the weather cooperated,
there was always the risk that insects or other pests might
devour the harvest. Feeding everyone was often a daunting task.
With each improvement of their relatively primitive farming technology, early civilizations
may have begun to harm the land that gave them food. Irrigation
ditches, canals, and other changes to the land helped farmers
water crops and run their farms—but could have also negatively
affected the natural environment.
Whatever the farming technique,
it's vital to respect the land. Drought, deforestation,
and overuse led to disasters like the Dust Bowl of the
1930s.
Source: NOAA |
NEW TECHNOLOGY, NEW PROBLEMS
Then came the Industrial
Revolution of the 19th century. Biologists
and chemists created fertilizers that worked faster and better
than manure. After WWII, most farmers began to rely on chemical
pesticides, which wiped out weeds and insects. New plant varieties
withstood weather fluctuations and yielded more produce per
acre. High-tech irrigation
methods literally turned deserts green. Monoculture
replaced crop rotation.
In the 1960s and 1970s, just when it looked like population
growth might exceed our capacity to grow food, technology created
the Green
Revolution. Scientists developed combinations of
irrigation, new seeds, and chemicals to dramatically increase
farm yield, but led to other problems such as pesticide
runoff.
By 2000, humans grew more food than ever before. And the number
of underfed people was reduced to half what it had been in 1970.
Still, by 2050, the United Nations Population Report estimates
there will be roughly 10 billion people in the world and more
than 4 billion of them will suffer from malnutrition. As with
most developments in human history, the Green Revolution solved
certain problems but created new ones. We are just beginning
to grasp how modern, commercial farming can harm the environment.
NATURE OFFERS SOLUTIONS
Some farmers have responded by returning to old techniques.
You probably recognize the word "organic"
from supermarket labels and farmers markets. Some grocery stores
and restaurants specialize in organic foods.
Sometimes the best way forward is to look back.
Sales of organic fruits and vegetables in the U.S. have grown dramatically.
Source: USDA/Cornell
University |
Some farm machines are getting into the act: they're running
on fuel made from soybean oil.
Bugs that eat pests can replace
chemical pesticides.
Source: USDA NRCS |
|
Other machines use dishwashing
soap and vegetable oil as a natural pesticide.
Source: USDA |
Is it possible to feed all of us with nutritional food without
compromising our health and the health of our planet? Answering
that question will be one of the great challenges of the 21st
century.
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Chemical 
