Is Organic Farming the Future of Food Security?

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Agriculture is the backbone to life as it provides food, clothing, medicine and raw materials to humans and nations. Biological agriculture provides the systematic access to nutritious, affordable, and sufficient amount of food in times to come. Although this system of agriculture is effective and highly beneficial, it is highly capital demanding, has an advanced environmental and health risks, and yields low quantity of production for the satisfaction of the entire world in the future.

Organic agriculture provides employment to majority of people who are not employed and serves as a great way of combatting rural poverty by securing food in the local areas. However, it is labor intensive, that is, it requires a lot of workers for mechanical practices and a lot of capital for its execution. A great deal of people assume that biological agriculture involves only production, but this farming system also focuses on how people who needs these foods are able to easily access it. Farmers acquires large acres of lands in the remote areas and transport food to the cities where people can afford to buy it. Farmers tends to also rely solely on nature for their crops to grow well, thereby totally eliminating usage of pesticides (for pests’ prevention), additives (for food improvement), preservatives (for spoilage prevention) and genetically modified seeds and breeds (for improving the sustainability, growth, nutritional content and ease of farming). Therefore, there is a decrease in farm yields and an increase of prices of goods in the markets.

Manure contains well-known human pathogens. and if properly treated, can be a safe form of farming in organic system of agriculture. Manure also reduces the need of artificial fertilizers and herbicides, which adds more nutrients and restructure the soil, therefore decreasing the chances of erosion in the community. In today’s agricultural system, organic products are highly substantial, but the health risks can cause catastrophic effects. There are claims that the consumption of organic products increases subjection to biotic contaminants. Although these claims have no evidence to support them, it is important that organic products apply to the safety standards of conventional foods. Manure which are untreated and which do not follow the proper safety measures can contaminate the farm products and make it unhealthy to the consumers, and even result to life threatening diseases. Fungicides are not permitted anywhere around the production and processing of the farm produce, and this can result to molds in foods. It is safe for organic farmers to make use of natural pesticides, however, too much of it can become toxic to bees. Organic dairy cows produce a lot of methane due to their strict diets and they belch twice as much as conventional cows, which can increase the risk of global warming and if inhaled by humans, can be very harmful to the body.

Organic farming helps in biodiversity and animal welfare by preserving natural habitat areas and encouraging natural predators such as ladybugs and bees to live on the farm. Organic farming also reduces the effect of global warming by aiding the carbon in the atmosphere return to the soil therefore multiplying the nutrients in the soil. Although, organic farming is said to be the future of food security as it involves both crops and livestock farming, it can’t still maintain the global dietary needs, but through the help of some agricultural measures it can be able to sustain at least the local food system. Crop rotations are effective in organic farming because planting different kinds of crops at the same time can increase the profits of the land and also increases the amount of nitrogen in the soil. But full dependence on organic farming, can generate poor yields and not the quantity needed to satisfy the global dietary needs. Organic farming needs large acres of land in order to satisfy the global dietary needs, but covers about one percent in each part of the world therefore, so to get more lands, the constant cutting of trees may cause deforestation, which will reduce the carbon in soils, water retention, structure, and fertility in the soil, thereby damaging other agricultural practices. If soil stores too much carbon, it can be very dangerous for the Earths atmosphere, as it will make the Earth extremely cold to live in. Also, a study in the UK confirmed that organic milk covers more lands in production than conventional milk, which means that organic food is an agricultural system the world cannot afford.

In conclusion, organic agriculture accommodates the reduction of global warming, due to this the world can now become a cleaner place for both animals and humans. The organic agricultural system is highly convenient to local farmers but manually intensive and not overly affordable. The health hazards can lead to unfortunate consequences like liver cancer, which is dangerous to human race. The quantity of organic farming yields is in a very low capacity than what the global population will depend on for food security at long run. It cannot sustain the global nutritional needs if we fully depend on it; therefore, we need the help of other agricultural practices in order to put a halt to food insecurity.

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