All living things need food. We, as humans, have an advantage over other forms of life by being able to grow and enrich our food. However, underdeveloped countries do not have the advantages of refrigeration, good soil, adequate water, food packaging and food storage as are available to the industrialized nations. These factors contribute to a big gap in the quality and the amount of food available in these underdeveloped countries.
As stated above, industrialized nations use technology to increase food production, package food for longer life, and encourage specialization by large commercial farms. Large-scale farming is taking a drain on our resources by having to use various methods to preserve the food and keep it as fresh as possible. One method of preservation is packaging. The negative consequence is that packaging consumes about ½ the paper produced and ¼ of the plastics for this process. The problem of waste disposal from the packaging of the food also enters the picture. The removal of these waste products adds to the pollution problem.
The human population impacts the environment by demands for more food. This demand is met in a variety of ways. One method is to clear more land for growing food. It is estimated that about 400 billion acres of forest are destroyed each year. True not all this land is used for growing food for human consumption but other species use this land for food and shelter. Will this destruction eventually cause weather and climate changes that will affect food production for the human race?
We use about 300 billion pounds of fertilizer each year to increase food production and prevent the degradation of the land. The use of the land for mono cropping relies on the fertilization to replace the nutrients used by the plants. This type of farming is profitable because they are only dealing with one type of food source. However, some of the farms are now rotating crops to become less dependent on fertilization using a crop that will help replenish the lost nutrients.
Another serious but necessary problem for farmers is the use of pesticides. It is estimated that about 6 billion pounds of fertilizer are used each year to protect their crops. The down side is that about 2 million people suffer from cancer caused by contaminated food and water. Does the need for food out weigh the deed for pesticides?
Irrigation is another way to increase food productivity. Bringing water to places that otherwise would be unable to support the growth of crops can also have a down side. One factor is that the irrigation process is using the groundwater faster than the water can be replaced. The other factor is that water carries the dissolved salts to the plants it irrigates. Over a period of time, the water evaporates leaving the salts behind that eventually will kill the crops.
Soil is very important for food production. It takes about 10,000 years to build about one foot of soil and only 48 years to destroy this amount. Therefore, it is to our benefit to save the land and use it wisely. We must remember the "Dust Bowl" of the 1930's.
This event happened in the southwestern Great Plains region and lasted approximately ten years. It was caused by the misuse of land and hears of a sustained drought. Because wheat prices were high, farmers plowed up grasslands and planted more wheat. This increase in production would then bring them a larger profit. Year after year they worked the land. The lack of grass to anchor the soil caused the soil to dry up. As the land dried up, the wind caused great clouds of dust and sand to rise and cover everything. Large areas of farmland became useless and people were forced to migrate to other areas, mainly California.