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Essay / Organic farming and community supported agriculture (CSA) as the future of food
By 2050, the total population is expected to reach around 9 billion people. The challenge facing the world's population in the future is to ensure food security for all. This means providing nutritious, produced food that is accessible to everyone. Since agriculture uses a large part of scarce land and water resources, food production must become more sustainable in the future in order to preserve global resources and ecosystems and ensure high-quality food. Unfortunately, there is no single solution that would solve future problems in one fell swoop. A combination of solution approaches is needed, which differ by location, location and country. Not all approaches are equally suitable for different countries. With a focus on the goal of producing sustainable food, the approach of supporting and consuming only local food from organic farms, in the form of community supported agriculture, will be discussed in more detail below. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay The basic concept of community supported agriculture is to develop a partnership between local farmers and consumers who share the reward but also the risks of the harvest. Such communities already exist all over the world. To optimize this concept in the problem-solving approach I suggest, supported producers only operate organic farms and produce vegetarian foods. The consumer pays a subscription before the growing season and receives a share of the harvest in exchange. In other words, during the main season, CSA members receive a weekly delivery of local, seasonal foods from nearby organic farms. Outside the growing season, delivery varies depending on the location of agricultural land. In Germany, delivery is generally made every two weeks out of season. Community supported agriculture benefits farmers as well as consumers. The former receive financial support beforehand and the latter receive a fresh, healthy and local food supply every week. By far the biggest problem with conventional agriculture, which is currently more widely used, is its negative impacts on the environment, such as loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, water and air pollution. and greenhouse gas emissions, to name only the main implications. The goal of most conventional crops is to get as much yield as possible. Achieving this goal largely contributes to the above-mentioned negative implications on nature. Reducing yields from organic farming, which requires more land to produce the same amount, could negate some of the biodiversity benefits of organic farming. Supporting local organic farms as a CSA member also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. At every stage of the food chain, from field to customer, greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, including animal husbandry, agriculture, transportation, storage and disposal. food. A large amount of greenhouse gases result from food waste. About a third of all food produced is thrown away. By far the largest contributor to greenhouse gases is the use of fertilizers and the raising of livestock. They contribute large amounts of nitrogen andmethane to the total quantity of greenhouse gases produced. Another aspect of food production that generates large amounts of greenhouse gases in the form of carbon dioxide is food transportation. Long distance transportation by boat, train or plane is more efficient than short transportation from the supermarket to the customer. Small quantities of food are typically collected by car by the end consumer and these short trips are the least efficient and generate the largest food carbon footprint in the overall transport contribution. In this case, the CSA member can, for example, generate less greenhouse gases if they choose an environmentally friendly method of collecting food from the collection stations. But beyond the mode of transportation, supporting local, plant-based and organic foods significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to plant-based eating, no greenhouse gases are emitted from livestock and agriculture, meat production and crop production to feed livestock. Additionally, it also reduces food waste. One of the main characteristics of community supported agriculture is that harvested fruits and vegetables do not take a long time to transport from the field to the customer. In other words, there will be no waste due to long-distance transportation and storage. Another advantage in reducing waste is that even fruits and vegetables will be consumed if they do not meet the requirements, such as appearance, shape and size, to be sold in supermarket chains. To meet growing food needs, water and land are essential for agriculture and food production. For agriculture alone, 70% of the planet's fresh water is used. For agriculture and food production, high quality water and availability of water resources are essential. With the rapid increase in population, this can no longer be guaranteed. Some countries are already facing serious water shortages and conventional agriculture and livestock farming play a major role in this problem. Most of the water is used for irrigation. Improper use and inefficient management of water irrigation leads to water wastage and consumption of more water than necessary. Additionally, commercial agriculture causes environmental pollution due to the disposal of animal waste and the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals that leach into water and soil. Organic farming, on the other hand, reduces environmental contamination by avoiding fertilizers and pesticides, which leads to better water and soil quality. With better soil quality, the water holding capacity of the soil is also increased. This means that soil water can be stored longer and less irrigation water is needed. This higher capacity also makes the soil more resilient to extreme weather events like droughts, which will be more common in the future due to global warming. The other scarce resource is land. Agriculture already covers 38% of the world's available land area. Most of it is used for growing food and breeding. For meat production, land is used for animal grazing as well as crop production to feed livestock. One of the biggest challenges facing the world's population in the future will be providing enough food for a growing population. Here the question arises whether organic farming can provide enough food to meet the demand.