Industrial farming is bad for the health of workers, eaters, and downstream neighbors. Here are some of its costly health impacts: Pesticide toxicity. Herbicides and insecticides commonly used in agriculture have been associated with both acute poisoning and long-term chronic illness.
Factory farms are bad for animals because it makes it so they can't live a natural life. Animals born and raised on factory farms don't know what it is like to be free. They are bred into a lifetime of extreme confinement and suffering. Animals feel stress, anxiety, and fear like humans.
1.Subsistence farming:-
- Intensive subsistence farming:-
- Primitive subsistence farming:-
- Shifting cultivation:-
- Commercial grain farming:-
- Commercial mixed farming:-
- Commercial plantation farming:-
Industrialized Agriculture: Uses heavy equipment and large amounts of financial capital, fossil fuels, water, commercial inorganic fertilizers, and pesticides to produce single crops. The major goal of industrialized agriculture is to steadily increase each crop's yield---- the amount of food produced per unit of land.
Industrial agriculture got an early start in the United States. To avoid the laborious task of manuring soils to supply nutrients, inorganic fertilizers, such as superphosphates, came into use as early as the 1840s.
Today, there are two divisions of agriculture, subsistence and commercial, which roughly correspond to the less developed and more developed regions.
By radically changing the way we acquire our food, the development of agriculture has condemned us to live worse than ever before. Not only that, agriculture has led to the first significant instances of large-scale war, inequality, poverty, crime, famine and human induced climate change and mass extinction.
However, agriculture is focused on the working of soil and other facilities to produce crops, animals and trees for human consumption or further refinement into products, while industry is focused more on refining and processing raw materials into products for sale.
J. L. Nehru observed in 1963 that agriculture is more important than industry as industry depends on agriculture. Agriculture is also dependent on industry for the supply of materials for building up social and economic overheads in the agricultural sector.
Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago.
The model of factory farming has, over the years, been optimised to minimise costs and maximise profit. The advantages of this are that large supplies of meat can be produced and supplied very quickly, at very low cost, all year round. Automated processes also simplify work for farmers.
The maximization is achieved through typical intensive farming practices like increased use of fertilizers, insecticides, abundant irrigation, heavy machinery land treatment, planting high-yield species, expansion of new areas, among others.
Subsistence Farming is farming that provides for the basic needs of the farmer without surpluses for marketing. The difference between industrial farming and subsistence farming is farming that meets the bare miniume of the farmer industrial farming meets the needs of a larger population ans has more money.
Foreign aid that increases agricultural productivity boosts incomes throughout the economy and increases demand for U.S. exports. The end result is more jobs for Americans producing goods and services for export, and more income in the American economy.
The prevailing agricultural system, variously called “conventional farming,” “modern agriculture,” or “industrial farming,” has delivered tremendous gains in productivity and efficiency. This has made agriculture efficient, but has had an impact on the environment.
With the Green revolution introduced in late sixties for increasing food production in the country, plant nutrition- responsive crop hybrids with greater potential in crop yields, application of synthetic agrochemicals, farm mechanization and improved cultural practices were adopted by farmers.
The industrialization of agriculture is said to have achieved two goals: to “free” Americans from farming so they could join the labor force in offices and factories, and to make food and farming cheaper so Americans could afford to buy the products offered by new industries.
Agriculture is the leading source of pollution in many countries. Pesticides, fertilizers and other toxic farm chemicals can poison fresh water, marine ecosystems, air and soil. They also can remain in the environment for generations.
Prices of meat are steadily decreasing. Despite any person's opinions, it is a fact that factory farming is currently the most efficient way of producing mass amounts of animal protein. Supporters argue that factory farming is good for efficient food production and for lowering the cost of said food.
Farmers have an increased prevalence of many acute and chronic health conditions including cardiovascular and respiratory disease, arthritis, skin cancer, hearing loss, and amputations. Other health outcomes have been little studies in the agricultural workplace, such as stress and adverse reproductive outcomes.
Agricultural livestock are responsible for a large proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions, most notably methane. In addition, overgrazing is a major problem regarding environmental sustainability. In some places, stretches of forage land are consumed so extensively that grasses are unable to regenerate.
Small farms have been replaced by factory farms that pollute nearby air and water, undermine rural economies and reduce the quality of life for neighbors. But factory farms leave consumers with fewer choices and make them pay more for meat, poultry and dairy products, while farmers get paid less.
Agriculture is a significant source of air pollution. Nitrogen fertilizers and use of animal waste release ammonia. Research indicates climate change will exacerbate air quality issues by increasing ozone and particulate matter levels, which will adversely influence respiratory issues and cardiovascular conditions.
Hunter-gatherers enjoyed a varied diet while farmers obtained their food from starchy crops, due to dependence on limited crops farmers ran risk of starvation if one crop failed, and the spread of parasites and diseases due to agricultural communities being clumped together.
Monocropping is the practice of growing the same crop on the same plot of land, year after year. This practice depletes the soil of nutrients (making the soil less productive over time), reduces organic matter in soil and can cause significant erosion.
The Pros and Cons of Industrial Agriculture
- It increases food production. Large-scale industrial farms have an advantage over traditional farms when it comes to producing food fast and in larger amounts.
- It lowers consumer costs.
- It encourages technological development and innovation.
- It creates employment opportunities.
- It lengthens food availability.
The industrial capitalism started in Great Britain where the advantages were to have power and trade was very beneficial. (3:40) What role did agriculture factor into industrial capitalism? Farmers started to benefit from the food prices going up so they can invest in their products.
The Agricultural Revolution of the 18th century paved the way for the Industrial Revolution in Britain. New farming techniques and improved livestock breeding led to amplified food production. This allowed a spike in population and increased health. The new farming techniques also led to an enclosure movement.
(i) More Demand of Raw-Material: There was a rapid growth in the demand for raw material. It was an effect on industrialisation. (ii) Mechanised Farming: To meet the increasing demand for more raw material the farmers used the new machines for sowing, ploughing, digging, reaping and thrashing purposes.
The increase in agricultural production and technological advancements during the Agricultural Revolution contributed to unprecedented population growth and new agricultural practices, triggering such phenomena as rural-to-urban migration, development of a coherent and loosely regulated agricultural market, and
