Impacts of Agricutlure on the Environemnt Essay -- Papers

Impacts of Agricutlure on the Environemnt The negative environmental effects of agriculture – water and air pollution, loss of habitats and biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and nutrient losses – have received major attention and continue to persist. Environmental concerns arise from many agricultural activities and sources including concentrated livestock production, pesticide and chemical use, deforestation, drainage of wetlands, soil erosion from cropland, and the use of fragile lands. Damage to Soil Soil erosion from farmland threatens the productivity of agricultural fields and causes a number of problems elsewhere in the environment. An average of 10 times as much soil erodes from American agricultural fields as is replaced by natural soil formation processes. Because it takes up to 300 years for 1 inch of agricultural topsoil to form, soil that is lost is essentially irreplaceable. The consequences for long-term crop yields have not been adequately quantified. The amount of erosion varies considerably from one field to another, depending on soil type, slope of the field, drainage patterns, and crop management practices; and the effects of the erosion vary also. Areas with deep organic loams are better able to sustain erosion without loss of productivity than are areas where topsoils are shallower. Erosion affects productivity because it removes the surface soils, containing most of the organic matter, plant nutrients, and fine soil particles, which help to retain water and nutrients in the root zone where they are available to plants. The subsoils that remain tend to be less fertile, less absorbent, and less able to retain pesticides, fertilizers, and other plant nutrients. Why then is erosion allowed to ... ... of the many potential problems caused by the heavy use of chemicals in modern agriculture. This, combined with the rapid rise in the cost of fertilizers and pesticides, has led many farmers to seek ways of reducing their reliance on chemical- intensive methods of farming. A small but growing percentage of farmers are farming with no synthetic chemicals, and many others are reducing their overall chemical use. Agriculture research has begun to focus on ways of maintaining environmental quality while producing acceptable crop yields. One example is integrated pest management, aimed at controlling pests through a combination of methods that minimize undesirable ecological effects. Continuing research and education need to be conducted on farming practices that produce profitable yields while maintaining environmental quality and the long-term productivity of the land.