Industrial Agriculture
The essay will provide the description of industrial agriculture as well as it advantages and disadvantages. Industrial cultivation is a practice of modern agriculture that refers to the industrialized manufacture of livestock, fish, poultry, and harvests. The techniques of industrial cultivation are techno-scientific, financial, and governmental, which include development in cultivation machinery and farming techniques, the creation of new markets for use, heritable skill, methods for attaining economies in production, the application of patent defense to genetic information, and global trade. These techniques are common and prevalent globally. The majority of the dairy, eggs, meat, fruits, and all types of vegetables available in superstores are produced by the methods of industrial cultivation.
Cheaper food is one of the benefits of industrial agriculture;for the most part, essential foods tend to be economical with predictable prices, thus the food supply meets the requirements of the customer. According to the Chapter One of the book “Omnivore’s Dilemma”, Michael Pollan examines the sources of mass produced calories which range from sweet corn syrup to corn that are cheap to attain hence reducing the price of the products. Industrial growth has also increased the flexibility of goods; often they are shipped from far away. Progress in biotechnology enabled developing new kinds of crops that are impervious to particular plant diseases. In the book “Omnivore’s Dilemma” (Chapter Three), Pollan states that industrial foods can be obtained from forest, a factor that encourages meditative exercise for those who have lost the source of the sustenance. Another benefit of industrial agriculture is greater availability and variety. Since food has become economical to produce, farmers can capitalize in growing more types and varieties of livestock and plants than before. In the Chapter Two of “Omnivore’s Dilemma”, Pollan mentions a meal made entirely of food purchased at Whole Foods. Progress in biotechnology has also made it possible to create hybrid diversities of plants resistant to diseases that can be grown in many places.
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Longer shelf life and accessibility is also an advantage of industrial agriculture. Food shelf life has been prolonged to increase the useful value. Due to fewer geographical limitations and irrigation, farmers have higher access to water. Despite geographical limitations, people are also familiar with using fertilizers and constructing greenhouses that diminish the effects of seasonal and climate changes.
Modern technologies and skills have made farmers’ work easier as compared to the past, because nowadays they have choice of cooperative laborers for various jobs despite being intelligent enough to use machines and work better than manually. It means that farmers are capable of hiringbetter quality workers to complete specialized tasks. Finally, the industrial agriculture also helps in decreasing time to market as there has been great progress in methods of food production, administering, packaging, preservation, and distribution. That means that goods are supplied to markets and grocery stocks faster than before.
Among the disadvantages of the modern agriculture is the removal of barriers that ensures high fields for maximum productivity leading to inferior food prices and larger food sustainability to the needy. Also, it limits the usual habitat of some species, which can lead to soil erosion. Application of manures can adjust the ecology of lakes and rivers; also, the use of chemicals on the ground creates excess run-offs in lakes and rivers causing pollution. Animal interests are significantly reduced compared to biological; animals are kept in close-fitting living circumstances, they are over-fed and have a short life span before being killed.
Even though the production gains accredited to industrial cultivation are imposing, they affect the environment, social sphere, and the economy.Agriculture influences the environment in various ways. It frequently uses enormous amounts of water, power, and chemicals with little consideration of long-term unfavorable effects. However, the environmental costs of cultivation are mounting. Insecticides and herbicides are accruing in field and surface waters.
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Valuing the business costs of industrial cultivation is an enormous and difficult job. A full accounting incorporates the dividends paid to the shareholders of fertilizer and pesticide manufacturers, but not only the advantages of cheap prices for food. Endocrine disrupters are particles capable to influence the act of animal and human hormones production and distract important hormone-needy activities like breeding. In the “Omnivore’s Dilemma”, Michael Pollan suggests to reduce the costs of food transparency but neglects the macro-perspective of the economists. More investigation is needed to establish the scope of the health and ecological damage made by compounds and the relative involvement of agriculture and activities.
In addition, there are immense indirect costs understood in the high energy necessities of the modern cultivation. Agriculture needs energy at all points: fuel to run enormous combines and threshers, manufacture and transport insecticides and fertilizers and also the power to refrigerate and transport unpreserved produce across nation and around the globe. The use of fossil energy adds to ozone toxic waste and global warming, which might exact a high price for increasing violent climate events and uprising oceans.The full prices of industrial cultivation call into question the notion of cheap food. Michael Pollan states that the costs and benefits of a meal should be a transparent in order for eaters to be aware of the impact of food decisions on the environment.
Industrial cultivation also has compound social complications in terms of where and how citizens live. The effect of reducing the number of cultivators is robbing the rural America of the community and economic-based activities. As cultivators leave the ranch, rural towns and towns lose auxiliary services like equipment constructors, gasoline posts, cafes, and car premises. Currently, the high plains nations are facing the fast decline in the number of population as a result of variations in cultivation.