Farming systems options for global agriculture: An agroecological perspective (Part 1)*

Increases in agricultural productivity around the globe over the past nearly a century reflect improved genetics, but also an increased reliance on external inputs of energy and chemicals to replace management and on-farm resources. And in particular, the structure of modern livestock production systems has changed dramatically, especially in terms of animal numbers and densities, crop/livestock diversity, and scale of operations.

Modern livestock production systems have generally favored substituting land and animals and the associated inputs (eg. machinery, fuel, irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, waste storage) for management, public health/safety, and ecological considerations. The intensity to which the natural environment has been modified to attain this productive capacity has directly resulted in degradation of natural resources; notably land, water, and the biodiversity, that sustain these systems.

Large-scale livestock operations in the USA now typically specialize in production of one animal type, often at one stage of its life cycle (more highly-specialized). In swine production, hogs may be transferred from a farrow-to-feeder farm during the initial life stages, to a feeder-to-finish farm and finally to a slaughter plant, rather than being raised at one farm. Ongoing consolidation, expansion, and proliferation of excessively large, highly-specialized livestock operations continues to be the norm (note graphic).

The short-term economic gain resulting from extensive energy and chemical use on row crops and large-scale, concentrated livestock production has proven uneconomical when longer-term availability and suitability of land and water resources required for future agriculture and food production is considered (ie. diseconomies of scale). In many cases, excessive wastes generated in concentrated livestock operations have exceeded the land’s assimilative capacity for plant nutrients, directly resulting in the increased occurrence of groundwater and surface water contamination from nitrate, phosphorus, and e-coli, among others.

Over especially the last 40+ years, and especially in watersheds with high densities of large-scale livestock farms, excessive amounts of plant nutrients (eg. N, P) are added to farm fields with consecutive (eg. annual, biannual) manure and process wastewater applications, especially on fields adjacent and nearest to the production area(s). Use of livestock manure to enhance soil fertility and to promote plant health and proper plant nutrition are sustainable agricultural practices. Use of the land as a means of livestock waste disposal is not only unsustainable; it is a direct threat to the groundwater, surface water, and the health/safety of everyone downstream.

Agriculture contributes to pollution of global water resources through leaching and runoff of crop nutrients, pesticides, and animal wastes, and through soil erosion from croplands. Recently, the American Public Health Association (APHA) called for a national moratorium on large-scale, “factory farms,” also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2020/01/13/precautionary-moratorium-on-new-and-expanding-concentrated-animal-feeding-operations. Their position states, “the enormous accumulation of manure and other untreated waste created by CAFOs is often stored and disposed of in a manner that pollutes the air, surface, and groundwater, posing risks to the environment and human health, particularly for CAFO workers and nearby residents.” Further, “these operations also disproportionately affect low-income, disadvantaged communities with high proportions of racial and ethnic minority residents, raising serious social and environmental justice concerns. Despite the growing evidence that CAFOs pose health and environmental risks and negatively impact workers and communities, CAFO regulations and their enforcement have failed to adequately protect human health and the environment” (APHA, 2019).

Further examples of water resource challenges and associated public health and safety issues connected with concentrated and large-scale livestock operations include, but are not limited to, nutrient and raw manure contamination of groundwater, surface water, and local/regional drinking water supplies; excessive soil erosion and nutrient runoff from cropland and the associated contamination/sedimentation of waterways and aquatic ecosystems; e-coli and algae blooms in lakes and streams; and dead zones (hypoxia) in the Great Lakes (ie. Lakes Erie and Michigan), Estuaries (eg. Chesapeake), and the Gulf of Mexico. Contamination of groundwater is particularly troublesome with respect to long-term water treatment costs to communities with public water systems and private well owners to ensure safe drinking water for citizens, families, and businesses.

Additionally, from a longer-term perspective and on a larger-scale, we must never forget that once pollutants enter an aquifer and contaminate groundwater, in most cases, these pollutants (and potentially harmful public health/safety hazards) travel unnoticed in the aquifer and watershed, until they are detected in public and/or private drinking water supply wells. And by then of course, it’s too late. Groundwater contaminants like nitrate are also used as environmental indicators showing pathways exist for other (potentially more harmful) chemicals to enter groundwater and contaminate local/regional drinking water supplies.

The search for solutions to increasingly complex and interrelated agro-environmental problems ultimately requires a shift in both the scientific methods and scale in which agriculture and food systems research and appropriate technology development are organized and conducted. Farming/agricultural systems research and extension (F/ASRE), agroecology, regenerative farming/agriculture and other systems-oriented (ecology-based) approaches fitted to agriculture are viewed as essential approaches for addressing complex agro-environmental issues as well as ecological problems resulting from agriculture; and for developing more efficient and sustainable farming systems.

The science of agroecology is rooted in our collective consideration and comprehension of agriculture and natural history. Agroecology can be defined as the study of complex interactions between the components, reactions, and processes of the global (natural) environment, and human (anthropogenic) activities associated with agriculture and food systems. Agroecology provides the ecological basis for more sustainable farming, as well as the opportunity to characterize or refine the cumulative effects of agriculture activities at watershed, ecoregion, national, and global scales.

It is hard to overemphasize the importance of diversity in terms of a healthy and sustainable agriculture, ecology, economy, and society, in general. If the ultimate goal of our agroecosystems (ie. agriculture, economy, policy) is sustainability, the first and primary component is diversity. And if building more sustainable societies is a goal still worth pursuing as individuals, communities, watersheds, and nations - then diversity must be a cornerstone.

Suffice it to say that, from my perspective, transition to more sustainable farming/food systems and regenerative agriculture requires a gradual shift away from research and technologies that promote large-scale, highly-specialized cropping/livestock operations, and toward on-farm resources and the information and appropriate technology requirements of more diverse, management-intensive (ecology-based) systems.

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*Adapted from:

Oberle, S.L. 1994. Farming systems options for U.S. agriculture: An agroecological perspective. J. Prod. Agric. 7:119-123.

Oberle, S.L., and D.R. Keeney. 1991. A case for agricultural systems research. J. Environ. Qual. 20:4-7.

Alessi, R.S., S.L. Oberle, and M.E. Mayhew. 1994. Systems engineering principles and applications for the design of a whole-farm information system. J. Prod. Agric. 7:135-143.

Burkart, M.R., S.L. Oberle, M.J. Hewitt, and J. Pickus. 1994. A framework for regional agroecosystems characterization using the national resources inventory. J. Environ. Qual. 23:866-874.

Burkart, M.R., D.E. James, S.L. Oberle, and M.J. Hewitt. 1995. Exploring diversity within regional agroecosystems. p.195-223. In C.A. Francis (ed.) Exploring the role of diversity in sustainable agriculture. ASA Spec. Publ. ASA, CSSA, SSSA, Madison, WI.

Oberle, S.L., and M.R. Burkart. 1994. Water resource implications of Midwest agroecosystems. J. Environ. Qual. 23:4-8.

Oberle, S.L., and D.R. Karlen (eds.) 1995. Developing sustainable farming systems: Social, economic, and environmental considerations. Proc. of ASA North Central Branch Meetings, Des Moines, IA, 1-3 Aug. 1994. Am. Soc. Agron., Madison, WI. 47p.

Oberle, S.L. 1998. Agriculture, ecology, and a new millennium. Program of the 1998 Joint Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) and the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS), June 4-7, 1998, San Francisco, CA.

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