Bad Effects of Modern Agriculture

Modern agriculture has been designed to produce food in large quantities. There are many bad effects of modern agriculture and how modern agriculture impacts the environment. Modern agriculture describes the current practices of agriculture. It has been said that modern agriculture produces food and fibre in an environmentally sustainable way. Modern agriculture involves intensive chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides to increase crop yields. It also involves high inputs of fossil fuels for tractors, irrigation pumps and other machinery used in the cultivation, transportation and processing of agricultural produce. In this article, you will learn the bad effect of modern agriculture, the greatest impact of agriculture on the environment, and modern agriculture’s effects on the environment.

What Is Modern Agriculture?

Modern agriculture is a system of production that involves the use of tools and techniques developed through scientific research. It refers to the methods and techniques used to grow plants or efficiently raise animals. Recently, the world has shifted to more modern agricultural practices such as large-scale farming, mechanisation, and genetic modification.

Modern agriculture can be broken down into six basic steps:

1. Crop Production: Growing of crops using modern techniques, such as fertilisers and pesticides.
2. Feed Production: This is growing feed crops to feed animals raised for meat or milk. These include corn, soybeans and hay.
3. Meat Production: Raising cattle, pigs, and other animals for human consumption. This includes beef cattle (such as steers) and dairy cows (for milk).
4. Poultry Production: The raising of chickens and turkeys for meat consumption by humans.
5. Dairy Production: The raising of cows for milk production by humans.
6. Processing: The processing of food products after they are harvested from farms (such as making bread from wheat).

The Greatest Effect of Modern Agriculture on the Environment  

Many criticise the bad effect of modern agriculture on the environment, especially due to soil degradation, water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, which are some of the biggest contributors to climate change.

The use of pesticides has been one of the most significant effects of modern agriculture on the environment. Pesticides kill insects that may damage crops and plants. The problem is that pesticides can also kill birds, bees and other animals that eat the insects or plants treated with these substances.

1. Soil Pollution

Modern agriculture also uses fertilisers to help plants grow better and produce more food. Fertilisers are made from nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and other minerals found in soil, and these fertilisers help plants absorb nutrients from the soil to grow well. However, many fertilisers also contain chemicals that can pollute water resources if not disposed of properly after application on farm fields or lawns. 

Soil degradation refers to changes in soil quality over time due to human activities like deforestation, intensive cultivation and mining. These activities cause chemical transformations and physical alterations in soils that affect their fertility, structure and capacity for holding water. Soil degradation can lead to reduced crop yields, increased susceptibility to disease among plants, loss of biodiversity and reduced carbon storage capacity.

Farmers use slash-and-burn techniques to clear their fields before planting new crops each year in these regions. This process destroys topsoil at an alarming rate and contributes significantly to global warming through carbon emissions from burning trees and grasses.

2. Water Pollution

Water pollution is another major problem caused by modern agriculture because it relies heavily on irrigation systems that use large amounts of water extracted from rivers or groundwater wells. This process can lead to water shortages in some areas and flooding in others due to erosion caused by excessive use of fertilisers.

3. GreenHouse Effect

Modern agriculture also uses a lot of energy to produce food. Greenhouse gas’s effect on the environment is one of the bad effects of modern agriculture.

Agriculture contributes to global warming by releasing large amounts of methane into the atmosphere through livestock production (enteric fermentation), rice cultivation, land clearing and burning vegetation to make way for new fields (soils). A recent report from the Centre for Biological Diversity estimates that modern agriculture is responsible for up to 25 % of global greenhouse gas emissions. This figure includes carbon dioxide from soil respiration, nitrous oxide from fertilisers, methane from livestock digestion and solid waste decomposition. The CO2 emissions from deforestation are due to the expansion of farming activities into forests or other lands previously not cultivated for food production.

Conclusion

Modern agriculture has been developed over the last century, and its impact on the environment is significant. The main forms of modern agriculture are industrial farming, which involves large-scale monoculture, and organic farming, which focuses on small-scale diversified farms.

Industrial farming is a type of farming whose focus is on maximising farm size and output. It relies heavily on technological advances to increase yield and profit margins for farmers. Soil degradation, water pollution, and greenhouse gases are the main bad effects of modern agriculture on the environment.