Agriculture - 2

So, what is it that makes farming so terrible in the eyes of some environmentalists? too many commercial fertilizers, polluting the water, ruining the soil, too many herbicides and pesticides and causing air pollution are just some of the more common complaints. Before we look at these problems, let me say that we have the most efficient agricultural industry, providing some of the least expensive food in the world. People complain every time the price of food goes up. Yet those same people would have farmers use more expensive methods to produce the food in a more "environmentally safe" manner. Farmers are already working on an almost non-existent profit margin. To expect them to switch to more expensive methods without the cost of food going up would be ludicrous. Many of the methods used by farmers were put into place to get the cost of production down and realize at least a small profit. the two ends of the food chain get the least percentage of the food dollar. The farmer is lucky if he gets a very small profit above his production costs and the retailer works on a small profit margin. The bulk of the food dollar disappears between these two entities. Processing, storage, transportation, etc. are the big reason that food cost are what they are. Now many of the environmentalists say that the higher cost of food would be worth it to clean up the environment and that they would be willing to pay more for their food. first, I am not too sure just how willing the would really be and second, they would be forcing everyone else to pay too. Environmentalists have a tendency not to look at the overall picture when making some of their suggestions. There are people that can hardly afford the prices that food is now and could definitely not afford higher prices. However, environmentalists think with their emotions rather than their brains.

Let's take a look at some of the problems I listed in the previous paragraph. The use of too much commercial fertilizer is a good place to start. Why do farmers use so much commercial fertilizer? a lot of the reason is the ever growing need for more and more food. As the population grows and the farmland acreage shrinks, farmers need to produce more food from less land. This is also one of the main reasons for the extensive use of pesticides and herbicides. People want more and better looking food, so weeds and pests must be kept away so the crops will form better. Some of these things could be done almost as well without the use of all the chemicals, given enough time and manpower. Could natural fertilizers be used instead of commercial fertilizers? Yes, "but" where farmers use a lot of natural fertilizer (manure) they then get accused of polluting the ground water. The runoff goes into streams and part of the liquid seeps into the ground water. This leaves the farmer with very little options. Either he is accused of polluting the ground with chemical fertilizers or he is accused of polluting the water with the runoff from manure. That seems like a no win situation to me. When crops are grown on a field they take nutrients out of the soil. These nutrients need to be replaced and fertilizer of one type or another is the way it is done. Another problem is that on large crop farms there are no animals from which to collect the manure to use as fertilizer. In the past most farms were very diversified, having several different types of animals and several different crops. Except for the susistance farmer, you no longer find very many of this type of farm. Usually one or two crops or one type of animal are raised. For those people who wish all farm animals to be done away with and all of us to become vegetarians, this would be a real problem; no natural fertilizer at all. This is common of people thinking with their emotions. Another example of thinking with the emotions in this area is the people that believe that manure contaminates the ground and that bovine flatulence pollutes the air causing global warming. At the same time these people lament the fact that herds of bison no longer abound. What do they think happened to the fecal matter and flatulence from the huge herds that once were so common?

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