WorkSheet for Lesson 7: Climate Change and Traditional/ Industrial Agriculture

Worksheet for Lesson 7:
Climate Change and Traditional/ Industrial Agriculture

Learning Objectives:

1. Students learn about the impact of climate change on agriculture and the climate- related challenges of the sector.
2. Students learn about the impact of traditional and large-scale/industrial agricultural practices on climate change.

Introduction

Climate change disturbs the agricultural ecosystem, resulting in changes in agricultural climatic elements such as temperature, precipitation, and sunlight, while further influencing the arable, livestock, and hydrology sectors.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, climate change refers to:

the long-term changes in the Earth’s climate, beyond the increase in average surface temperature (…) [that] causes weather patterns to be less predictable, affecting the balance of ecosystems that support life and biodiversity. It also causes more extreme weather events, such as more intense floods, heat waves, and droughts, and leads to sea level rise and coastal erosion by accelerating the melting of glaciers.
UN, n.d.

Dr. Chang‐Gil in his publication describes climate change as:

changes beyond the average atmospheric condition that are caused both by natural factors such as the orbit of the earth’s revolution, volcanic activities and crustal movements and by artificial factors such as the increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases and aerosol.

The accelerating pace of climate change and global population and income growth threaten food security everywhere. Climate change places new and more challenging demands on agricultural productivity. Crop and livestock productivity-enhancing research, including biotechnology, will be essential to help overcome stresses due to climate change. Crops and livestock are needed that are doing reasonably well in a range of production environments rather than extremely well in a narrow set of climate conditions.

This unit has been developed for the reader to get an insight into climate change and its consequences and learn about the impact of traditional and large-scale agricultural practices on climate change. This will enable the reader to become acquainted with the subject, especially by understanding the opportunities and risks of these two practices.

Agriculture ecosystem

Crop and livestock production, fish farming, fisheries, and forestry for both food and non-food products are all included in the agriculture ecosystem. Climate change hurts the agricultural ecosystem, contributing significantly to pests and blights, population shifts, and changes in biodiversity. Biological changes such as altered flowering and harvesting seasons, quality changes, and shifting of cultivable areas reveal the effects of climate change on the agricultural and livestock sectors.

No industry is more climate sensitive. Climate change harms agricultural and food production in developing countries, particularly in those that are already climate- vulnerable (extremely dry, floods, and cyclones), have low incomes, and have an increased rate of hunger and poverty.

Traditional Vs Industrial Agriculture

Traditional agriculture can be defined as a primitive style of food production and farming that involves the intensive use of indigenous knowledge, land use, traditional tools, natural resources, organic fertilizer, and the cultural beliefs of the farmers. Traditional agriculture is characterized by very low use of technology, making its large- scale production ineffective. Production is usually, solely for the consumption of the farmer and those who cultivate the land. Traditional agriculture is a very basic activity on which most of the physical capacity of the farmer and his workers depends on its production. In this case, this type of agriculture is not so focused on trade. The farms are quite biodiverse and have plants that enrich the soil with nutrients. In this type of agriculture, many other organisms perform a variety of ecological and beneficial functions for production. It can be said that the strategies of traditional agriculture are based on ecology and nature.

After World War II, agriculture started to become more industrialized to reduce world hunger and improve the efficiency and security of the food supply. In the past 60 years, there have been significant costs associated with the global shift toward this type of farming. Industrialized agriculture uses chemical inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, and non-therapeutic antibiotics and is heavily mechanized and concentrated.

Industrial agriculture originated in the 1960s when petrochemical companies introduced innovative techniques for intensive chemical farming. As a result of the agrochemical industry convincing farmers that they could increase their profits by planting large fields with a single highly profitable crop and by controlling weeds and pests with chemicals, chemical fertilizers and pesticides have drastically transformed agriculture and farming. The risk of large tracts of land being destroyed by a single pest was high with this single-crop monoculture practice. It also hurt farm workers’ and residents’ health. Overuse of chemicals in agriculture has had disastrous long-term effects on soil health, human health, social relationships, and the environment.

Sustainable agriculture, on the other hand, is a production system, which employs practices that safeguard the environment, public health, human communities, and animal welfare. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity, and cycles that are adapted to local conditions. Organic farming combines science, innovation, and tradition to benefit the environment as a whole and improve everyone’s quality of life. It relies on ecosystem services and generally has fewer negative effects on the surrounding landscape than conventional agriculture. Sustainable agriculture takes a more holistic approach to farming than conventional agriculture.

Food production through sustainable agriculture is a natural process that has several advantages for the environment, economy, and society.

How can we reduce climate change?

Agriculture has a positive and significant role to play. Crops, hedgerows, and trees that grow on farmland capture carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and properly managed soils store carbon. However, food systems that are produced industrially require a lot of energy and rely on fossil fuels, which significantly contribute to climate change. Crops cultivated in the genetically homogeneous industrial agriculture typical of chemical farming are not resistant to the increasingly frequent and violent climatic extremes.

How can we reduce climate change?

As the world’s population increases, the demand for food is growing at an accelerated rate. To meet the demand for food, agriculture has had to evolve in recent decades. Therefore, traditional agriculture has gradually changed until it has become modern agriculture. Traditional agriculture can be defined as a primitive style of food production and farming that involves the intensive use of indigenous knowledge, land use, traditional tools, natural resources, organic fertilizer and the cultural beliefs of the farmers.

Traditional agriculture is characterised by very low use of technology, making its large- scale production unproductive. It can be said that the strategies of traditional agriculture are based on ecology and nature as well as polycultures that provide different types of food for their consumption. In this case, this type of agriculture is not so focused on trade. The production here is solely for the consumption of the farmer and those who cultivate the land. Traditional agriculture is a very basic activity on which most of the physical capacity of the farmer and his workers depends for its production.

Roughly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the agriculture food value chain. There are so many essential elements to this value chain, it is complicated, and it is different in various parts of the world, but it all must work as a system, to deliver the food needed all over the world, to a growing population. But, at the same time, do it in a way that not only protects our planet but makes the planet better. It must be farmers, working together with industry, food companies, retailers, government regulators, and NGOs, coming together with different ideas on how we solve this.

Impact of large-scale/industrial agricultural practices on climate change

Global modes of production, consumption and trade have generated enormous problems for the Earth, including the transcendental problem of global warming. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), agriculture is responsible for 10–12% of worldwide anthropogenic emissions and nearly a quarter of the ongoing growth of greenhouse gas emissions. Industrial agriculture contributes drastically to global warming, indicating the majority of total greenhouse gas emissions are related to agriculture.

The intense promotion of large-scale monoculture plantations and agrofuels as solutions to the present food and energy emergencies increase the tension on agricultural land, leading to further deforestation and more greenhouse gas emissions. In developing countries, in spite of the growth of industrial agriculture, there are still masses of small-scale farmers who can apply agroecological practices with potentially substantial impacts on greenhouse gas mitigation. In developed countries, the changes in agricultural policies will be essential to reverse the land consolidation curve. Such issues include the escalating demands for organic and local goods, an increase in farmer market expansion and a rising popularity of community-supported agriculture programmes.

Industrial farming encourages practices that degrade the soil and increase emissions while leaving farmers more vulnerable to damage as the planet warms.
Gustin, G. (2019)

Large-scale farming encourages practices that degrade the soil, waste fertilizer and exploit manure, all of which directly increase emissions of greenhouse gases. At the same time, it discourages practices like “no-till” farming and crop rotation that grab carbon dioxide from the air, store it in the soil and improve soil health. The industrial food system presents a barrier to realizing the potential climate benefits of agriculture. Large-scale farming operations are said to force small farms out of business, damage the viability of rural communities, reduce the diversity of agricultural production, and create environmental risks through their production practices. Farmers will need new technologies to combat drought and pests, more irrigation, and more equipment.

The ageing of a generation of farmers is also accelerating consolidation. The average farmer is approaching 60 years old, and many farmers are relying on the land to finance retirement. But they’re not selling it to young farmers, who can’t afford the high land prices. They’re selling it to larger farms or leasing it out.

REFERENCES

https://www.ecoliteracy.org/article/industrial-agriculture-agroecology-and-climate-change
https://www.eea.europa.eu/signals/signals-2015/articles/agriculture-and-climate-change
https://wfto.com/news/food-farming-and-climate-change-it%E2%80%99s-bigger-everything-else
https://climateatlas.ca/agriculture-and-climate-change
Dr Chang‐Gil K. (2008) The Impact of Climate Change on the Agricultural Sector: Implications of the Agro‐Industry for Low Carbon, Green Growth Strategy and Roadmap for the East Asian Region.
Dr. Chang‐Gil, K. (2008). The Impact of Climate Change on the Agricultural Sector: Implications of the Agro‐Industry for Low Carbon, Green Growth Strategy and Roadmap for the East Asian Region.
https://repository.unescap.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12870/4032/ESCAP-2012-PB- Impact-climate-change-agricultural-sector-agro-industry.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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https://ebrary.ifpri.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/130648/filename/130821.pdf
United Nations (n.d.). Climate change
https://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/climate-dictionary-everyday-guide-climate-change
European Environment Agency (2015) Agriculture and climate change
https://tinyurl.com/j2w8phxc
Portillo, G. (n.d.) Agricultura tradicional
https://www.jardineriaon.com/pl/agricultura- tradicional.html
Syngenta Group (2018), Environmental impacts of agriculture
https://youtu.be/gQheu5CW_Ls
Gustin, G. (2019). Industrial Agriculture, an Extraction Industry Like Fossil Fuels, a Growing Driver of Climate Change
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25012019/climate-change-agriculture-farming- consolidation-corn-soybeans-meat-crop-subsidies/
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