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The Wrong Goal
| Article
# : |
20081 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1992 |
2,479 Words |
| Author
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Kenneth P. Vogel
Kenneth P. Vogel is a research geneticist with the
Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, and is stationed at the University of Nebraska
in Lincoln where he is adjunct professor of agronomy. He has
conducted research on the breeding and genetics of native
prairie and introduced grasses since 1974. He is a fellow of
the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society
of America. |
Agriculture is producing more food for more people than during any previous time in history. More people are better fed and better clothed today than ever before because of modern agricultural production systems. However, some well-intentioned people criticize these extremely successful food-producing systems as being wasteful of resources and unsustainable. The problems cited are excessive use of misuse of agricultural chemicals and soil erosion.
Agricultural chemicals, including fertilizers and pesticides, have been incorporated into the production systems because they improve total productivity, food quality, profitability, and more importantly, the stability of production. Yield losses due to weeds, insects, or diseases can be devastating and have occurred throughout human history, including biblical crop losses to locusts and the Irish potato famine. These losses can often be controlled by the use of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and vaccines stabilizing production at moderate costs.
Misuse of agricultural chemicals can cause environmental problems. Excessive use of nitrogen fertilizer in some midwestern states has resulted in groundwater contamination. Misuse of pesticides has also resulted in environmental problems both on the global and the regional scale. Widespread contamination caused by DDT is a case in point.
Modern farming systems are also criticized for being wasteful and unsustainable because of soil losses to wind and water erosion.
Annual crops such as wheat, rice, corn, potatoes, beans, and so forth, which are staples worldwide, have to be planted each year. This entails the tilling of soil every year. And tillage operations, if not adequately managed, can lead to excessive soil erosion. Topsoil loss greatly reduces the yield of a field, and on a national level it can result in permanent agricultural poverty.
A major reason why farmers use practices that depend upon the excessive use of chemicals and result in soil erosion is because they are economically rewarded for maximizing production without any short-term penalties. Over time, of course, sustained soil losses can and do reduce a farm's yield and therefore its value. Similarly, groundwater contaminated with chemicals can also reduce a farm's value.
Agricultural scientists at traditional research laboratories, universities, and experiment stations are
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