The need for sustainable agriculture is increasingly recognized to address socioeconomic and ecological challenges in the agricultural sector. Farmers must develop new farming systems that integrate digital information across all sectors, focusing on agroecosystem disservices (AEDS). As climate change and population growth intensify, the agricultural sector’s need for sustainable solutions is paramount. This paper presents an overview of smart agriculture, which uses digital and geospatial technologies to monitor, assess, and manage soil, climatic, and genetic resources.
Sustainable agriculture focuses on factors like soil health, water quality, and biodiversity as foundational for sustainable practices. It helps preserve natural resources while promoting social equity and economic profitability. Sustainable agricultural practices aim to protect the environment, expand the Earth’s natural resource base, and maintain and improve soil fertility. The goal of sustainable agriculture is to meet society’s food and textile needs in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Sustainable agriculture is transforming agriculture by enabling farms of all sizes to be profitable and contribute to their local economies. It integrates three main goals: environmental health, economic profitability, and social equity. Sustainable agriculture insists on moderate consumption of non-renewable resources, with nature and future generations in mind. Agriculture contributes directly to sustainable stewardship of land, air, and water, creating and maintaining conditions under which humans live.
📹 Can we create the “perfect” farm? – Brent Loken
Explore the innovative ways countries are revolutionizing farming to ensure we can feed humanity in a way that works with the …
What agriculture is most sustainable?
Permaculture is a food production system that mimics the growth of vegetables and plants in natural ecosystems, using natural principles to reduce waste and increase efficiency. It involves growing grains and vegetables without tillage, each plant having various purposes, herb and plant spirals, hügelkultur beds, and developing swales to hold water.
Aquaponics and hydroponics are innovative farming methods that involve soilless plant and vegetable growth, feeding plants with nutrients carried by water. Hydroponics systems use mineral solutions to feed the plants’ roots directly in a passive medium such as perlite or gravel. Aquaponics farming systems combine aquaculture and hydroponics elements, using water containing nutrients from fish waste to feed the roots of plants and vegetables. The water is purified by the plants and returns to the hydroponics section of the system.
These practices aim to offset environmental harm caused by large-scale agriculture, such as forest clearings, habitat destruction, pesticides, and intense carbon outputs. Policymakers and environmentalists are actively promoting eco-friendly farming solutions to overcome these damages.
What are the three pillars of sustainable agriculture?
Sustainable agriculture aims to achieve environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity, also known as the “three legs” of the sustainability stool. The University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program emphasizes the importance of stewardship of both natural and human resources. Stewardship of human resources includes considering social responsibilities, such as laborer working conditions, rural community needs, and consumer health and safety.
Stewardship of land and natural resources involves maintaining or enhancing these resources for the long term, ensuring that the needs of present generations are met without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their own needs.
What are the three main goals of sustainable agriculture?
Sustainable agriculture aims to achieve environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity, also known as the “three legs” of the sustainability stool. The University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program emphasizes the importance of stewardship of both natural and human resources. Stewardship of human resources includes considering social responsibilities, such as laborer working conditions, rural community needs, and consumer health and safety.
Stewardship of land and natural resources involves maintaining or enhancing these resources for the long term, ensuring that the needs of present generations are met without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their own needs.
Which agricultural practice is most likely to increase sustainability?
Sustainable agriculture practices, such as crop rotation and diversification, organic farming, conservation tillage, agroforestry, sustainable livestock farming, cover cropping, biological pest control, and no-till farming, aim to balance immediate food and fiber needs with the long-term health and sustainability of the planet. These practices prioritize soil organisms and the environment, ensuring farming remains viable and prosperous in the long term.
By embracing sustainable practices, we are not only focusing on present food requirements but also laying a robust foundation for future generations. By embracing these practices, we can ensure a sustainable future for all.
What are the sustainable development goals of agriculture?
By 2030, sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices are crucial for achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Natural farming practices, which are socio-economic and environment-friendly, can help achieve these goals by reducing input costs, ensuring better income and financial stability, alleviating poverty, promoting gender equality, and ensuring sustainable production and consumption patterns. This method ensures food security and zero hunger through better yield, diversity in cropping, and access to a range of nutritional sources.
Natural farming also contributes to water availability and sustainable management, reducing CO2 emissions, and reducing chemical inputs in agriculture. It also helps prevent land degradation, ocean acidification, and marine pollution. Additionally, natural farming ensures good health for farmers and reduces various diseases in the community.
What is the importance of sustainable design?
Sustainable design is a holistic approach that optimizes building performance, minimizes negative impacts on occupants and the environment, and incorporates energy efficiency principles into construction projects. It aims to maximize site potential, minimize non-renewable energy consumption, use environmentally friendly products, protect water, improve indoor air quality, enhance operational practices, and create healthy environments. Sustainable design encourages compromise and tradeoffs throughout a building’s life-cycle, ensuring a healthy and productive environment.
What type of agriculture is most sustainable?
The growing awareness of environmental harm caused by large-scale agriculture has led to the promotion of eco-friendly farming practices. These practices include permaculture, aquaponics and hydroponics, using renewable energy resources, crop rotation and polycultures, and using trees to increase crop yields. Permaculture is a food production system that mimics natural ecosystems, combining intention, smart farming, and design to reduce waste and increase production efficiency. It involves growing grains and vegetables without tillage, each plant having various purposes, herb and plant spirals, hügelkultur beds, and developing swales to hold water.
Aquaponics and hydroponics are innovative farming methods that involve soilless plant and vegetable growth, feeding plants with nutrients carried by water. These systems use mineral solutions to feed plants’ roots directly in passive mediums like perlite or gravel. Aquaponics farming systems combine aquaculture and hydroponics elements, using water containing nutrients from fish waste to feed plants and vegetables, which can grow in various mediums. The water is purified by the plants and returns to the hydroponics section of the system.
What are the three goals of sustainable agriculture?
Sustainable agriculture aims to achieve environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity, also known as the “three legs” of the sustainability stool. The University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program emphasizes the importance of stewardship of both natural and human resources. Stewardship of human resources includes considering social responsibilities, such as laborer working conditions, rural community needs, and consumer health and safety.
Stewardship of land and natural resources involves maintaining or enhancing these resources for the long term, ensuring that the needs of present generations are met without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their own needs.
Why is it important to use sustainable practices when designing a farm?
Farmers are increasingly adopting conservation practices to create fertile soils for robust crops, protect water sources, store carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create more resilient fields to extreme weather events. This approach benefits both farmers and nature, as seen in the growing movement of sixth-generation Indiana farmers like Sarah Delbecq and her husband Benoit. They aim to be good stewards of their land, ensuring it remains in better shape than how it was found, and preserving the environment.
How does sustainability apply to agriculture?
Sustainable agriculture aims to protect the environment, expand the Earth’s natural resource base, and improve soil fertility. It aims to increase farm income, promote environmental stewardship, enhance farm families’ quality of life, and increase production for human food and fiber needs. Sustainable agriculture includes conventional and organic practices, aiming to produce long-term results such as meeting the needs of a growing population, protecting the environment, and sustaining the economic viability of agriculture systems. This regionally integrated system of plant and animal production is crucial for a sustainable future.
What are the concepts of sustainable agriculture?
The objective of sustainable agriculture is to enhance environmental health, economic profitability, and social equity. However, achieving this goal is challenging due to various factors affecting the function and integrity of agroecosystems.
📹 Traditional Farm Design vs. Permaculture Design: What’s the Difference?
You will see that a permaculture design can be a little complex, but this video explains the most important permaculture design …
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I’m a farmer. If you want to have any chance of solving the challenges of sustainable agriculture, make sure farmers have the money to afford what is needed to make this happen . Supermarkets pay us the same for our produce as they paid us 12 years ago, while all costs from fertilizer to labor to electricity have increased dramatically. They take a HUGE mark-up and sell at many multiples higher price. They need to pay farmers A LOT more if we even stand a chance, for a hope, to a sustainable future.
I really believe farming should be taught and practiced in school as mandatory subjects so the people can understand the value of food and joy of growing eatables in their backyards. There is need to encourage people to grow garden and vegetables instead of lawns. I think it will help the nature as well as our mental health.
The most important part is to find an alternative to beef. 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions are due to the production of beef and cheese. Deforestation’s #1 cause is creating pastures (look at the amazon or the boreal forest). A truly green world is one where we don’t eat a lot of beef. Without that, all of this is simply not the full picture. Sincerely, a meat loving chemist.
The major impact we have had on our planet is astonishing. Day by day things are getting more and more severe. We recognize this and are determined to do our part in reconstructing our planet. Planet Cents enables meaningful change by connecting people to our sustainable marketplace, making it easier to live sustainably- Team Planet Cents
Imagine if our generation would spend their energy and time to implement innovations like these, instead of becoming professional protesters and blaming others. We would get there much faster without excluding the great advancements humanity achieved so far. Innovation, BEING the difference and entrepreneurship – that’s the way to go!
Agricultural revolution is required when their is shortage of food produced for the total number of people to be fed. Which is not the case; the food produced is surplus for the world’s population. In India if for next two years farmers don’t grow wheat then still the country’s population can be fed through the buffer stock. So the problem is mismanagement of food. Food is in excess with some and they waste it. And many don’t even have food to have a single meal a day. Another agricultural revolution might be required when world’s population crosses 9 billion.
I absolutely love article’s like this thank goodness we have the internet this is how we solve problems by sharing methods and looking for solutions… to help our world … this is amazing we waste so much food less is better we can do this more answers will come out of this we can get it right! Wow this is amazing.. there are so many amazing people in our world! Thank you we can’t drop the the ball… such exciting times! Yeah!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!
This is a great article, but I can’t help but feel like we’re only talking about the science, environmental impact, and technical aspects of this. What about the social dimensions of this second agricultural revolution? Like how can the concentration of resources into the hands of giant corporations like Monsanto affect the feasibility of a global initiative such as this?
I’ve managed to actually grow some plants and vegetables of my own, it’s so simple yet incredible to know exactly where your food came from and the work put into it. The final satisfaction you get from eating your own produce is great. So glad to be able to watch how to grow things and learn how to not kill your plants on youtube and google.
My opinion: i’m from brazil and i whatch more articles of the usa than the brazillian ones, because these are VERY cool! Better than the brazillian ones! Ted-ed is one of the better ones! When i discovered then i watched hundreds os articles! That have a nice animation, and nice learning, better than the school sometimes! This comment is only my opinion 🙂
I saw an ad here in Youtube of a local department store offering discountts to those who will present a vaccination card.? Why arent they offering big discounts to their customers who are buying 50% or more of vegetables, fruits and other healthy products of their total purchases instead.? They know for a fact that prevention is better than solution or cure. Ive noticed in some supermarkets, they even price vegetables and fruits way too high than unhealthy products. If these people really are concern, they should promote and support healthy lifestyle because I think this is a wake up call to all of us, we need to change our ways of living…we need to eat healthy.
Energy, food and transportation are becoming more alarming problems than we thought . It’s so nice to hear that humans are trying to adopt a new method in order to solve these overwhelming matters. In the future, we will get more people adapt to this approach ; they will know that it’s their mission to save the planet
Hats off to people who has created such a amazing animated article ❤️👍 Indeed as population grows, there is will increase pressure to agricultural sector. Instead of putting money in developing chemical fertilizers and pesticides and thus destroying the land further, we use focus the ways the more yield is produced with very less damage. Most focus should be on making organic compost which will yield the nutrition of land. And for that better waste management can be implemented. So here we not only feeding hunger but also managing waste as well
Dear TED-Ed team I saw that you made a mistake in showing the correct map of India, you have excluded our proud state Jammu & Kashmir from it. But actually in our actual country map, Jammu & Kashmir is at the top and serves as the crown of this beautiful country. I hope that you will correct your mistake in future articles. Yours Truly An Indian
A few things I would like to critique. The focus is to not find ways to feed 7+ billion people but how can we actually prevent total global collapse? Agriculture is a key factor to sustaining our livelihood but is it actually sustainable for many generations? This article criticized rice paddies for contributing methane but in fact beef production is the number one emission of methane. This sounds misleading and also biased. Either corn and soy lobbies are influencing this article or someone is. We have to ask hard questions and make real cultural changes. We have to adapt with time but we also have to be realistic about what is best for future generations. Food is the solution to our problems but can be the opposite. We can never solve our issues, we always trade for new issues.
What about veganism though? I heard that animal agriculture is not sustainable for many reasons (polluting; wasteful: it takes 50000 Liters of water to create 1KG of meat (this is because the water given to the crop is rightly added to the calculation) whilst it takes 1000 for 1Kg of Wheat and 2000 for 1Kg of Soya and 3000-5000 for Rice (for those of us interested in having a balanced diet meat has 25% protein content. Soya has the same. Wheat 13%, rice 25%). Cattle are the ‘middle men’ of nutrients. Just cut out the middle-man, eat the veg cows would eat. If you love to eat, you will eat more this way xD. If as this article mentions, cattle were grown on ‘grass fed ranches’, which take more space than conventional methods, it would take an area spanning the CURRENT DEMAND of North America ONLY. In other words, with a growing population the ideal solution is to need less farm space and meat-eating does not seem to cut it.
I have mixed feelings from this animation. Robotics will be used as a way of minimising water and making most of the resources for the environment. But what energy will they use? Coal/oil/renewable? Okay let’s say it’s all renewable. How much land is needed to source the energy required for this method of polyculture farming? How much does it cost? (Who owns it?) Can the local farmer even afford these robots? Most likely not which means endebting them further. 20,000 farmers commited suicide in India alone last year with 50% of farmers there already under debt. Most likely their land will be bought out by very few large co-operations (for little money) who will produce ALL of the worlds food. Okay so let’s go back to the original problem. The individual’s consumption in relation to resources. 80% of the worlds farmland is used for livestock. If you look at how much energy/water is needed to grow an animal to then consume them for energy, it’s increadibly wasteful. As stated in the article we need to transition to a plant based diet and the quicker we do this, the slower we will need to transition to robotics to solve our problems. We don’t need gloabalism, we need to become more self-reliant as societies and grow our own food LOCALLY. That way we’re not wasting on energy needed for transportation & keeping everything within a circular economy.
Why did this article only show historically developing countries manual farming along with rain forests?, Yet there was no mention of Europe or the USA doing the same apart from grass fed beef, not sure if upholding stereotypes while discussing the future is very helpful for the progrssion of the world
I understand that is important to change our agriculture methods but we have to think first this technologies are available to big farmers. I live in Brazil and the little and medium farmers almost don’t have the collaboration of government. They priorize the agrobusiness which is responsible for deforastation and to not respecting indigenous people. What about think in family agriculture and to hear indigenous people? How they live in harmonic way of environment? We just need to hear about other way to live with nature and ecossystem and not to see only to the money. I can’t see change if we don’t hear traditonal communities… if not, this change will be selective considering a little group of people and it won’t solve the true problem such as inequalities.
40 percent of terrestrial land area, and what about the Oceans? How much of those regions are being harvested too? And of that 40 percent of the Terrestrial Farming “space” how much is growing grain food for meat production? A lot? An awful lot? Now how many chickens can a person eat in a year? 50? That’s a lot of feed to make a chicken a food item. Let’s skip the chicken. We can still stay in the Poultry business and instead produce eggs? Then is the conversion of land to corn to feed to chicken to egg a more efficient use of meal and land? How about we skip the chicken and the egg and decide to eat something directly from the land? How about a plant based protein? That means we don’t need to grow chickens to make eggs or to replace chickens for human and pet food. So my thought as is so many others thinking, we can reduce our need for Agricultural land. Ok, then what does the farmer do with that land? He can a: rewild it and that has harvestable products and b: he can look at syntropic food forests for a complex web of plant species that produce a range of food items at different times of year with minimal inputs like irrigation and soil treatments and pesticides. The cost of production goes down as there is no large industrial planting and harvesting and the input costs of irrigation and pesticides and fertilizers are not spent. Money not spent is real money for the Farmer to keep. I hope we start to lower our agriculture land area needed and change it from industrial farming to syntropic food forests.
except we’re already OVER producing food. Look back to the beginning of the pandemic and see the massive mounds of potatoes and other crops that were either trashed or died on the vine because it just wasn’t profitable. We already grow enough food RIGHT NOW to feed 1.5x the world population, its a problem of distribution. Companies are unwilling to distribute food unless they can profit, so the problem isn’t the amount we can grow – it’s CAPITALISM.
‘History has amply demonstrated that despite all mankind’s good intentions, “to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” (Jeremiah 10:23) So it is unlikely that on their own humans will ever provide food for all. Greed, mismanagement, and egotism have led mankind to the precipice. FAO Director-General Diouf commented: “What is required in the final analysis is the transformation of hearts, minds and wills.”‘ -Quote from JW online library
Nothing will change if we don’t end socialized agricultural practices. Subsidized farming innately industrializes and monopolizes the agricultural sector, depleting open opportunity for participation by common people. Common people will only engage agriculture with abundant free opportunity to produce their own livelihood through their own land and efforts, and those efforts must provide the incentive for them to obtain personal entrepreneurial gains, opportunity for personal wealth. Agriculture is the foundation for society, because it is the foundation for the natural marketplace. socializing agriculture removes it from the open marketplace, leading to a cascading trophe of socio-economic instability and expanding wealth gaps inevitably across every industry and economy.
Answer is no and yes. As I’ve just written a Masters thesis in planning on the topic, I am convinced that we need large-scale food production in greenhouses, to feed this growing world population and achieve sustainable farming methods. Besides that we can have some bio farms for the posh peeps, but production rates will be substantially lower at these farms
We all can take an immediate and enormous leap to higher food production and lower pollutants by going vegan … consuming no animal flesh, secretions, or other body parts. The vegan movement’s impact on human and animal lives is an order of magnitude more robust than all other beneficial changes. Adopting a vegan diet is healthier, leads to lower medical costs, is easy, nutritious, widely varied, and delicious. The strongest reason to go vegan for many is my reason too: empathy for animals who are confined, stressed, force-bred, and brutally killed to be eaten. Go vegan and pump up sustainable plant production … we can do it all!
This is unscientific, hippie, alarmist BS. The near-term human population is most of the way to capping out, and farming becomes more productive over time due to incremental improvements that are driven by capitalism. We don’t need an international ‘revolution’ to do anything. Also, this vision of sprawling farms mixed in with jungle and wildlife is ridiculous. It would be so inefficient to pick through all the non-crop plants, and the animals would be eating the crops all the time. Have you people ever been out in nature? Future farms are going to be more compact in greenhouse towers with controlled environments for hyper productive yields without the need for pesticides, fertilizers, mass flooding, etc.
Giving up one meat (it’s a hard one) is the biggest change humanity will have to accept for insuring the eco system (and social) of the next generation. 1 Ton of meat estimate for 60 of grain. We are feeding our food – it’s not sustainable in any way you look at it. The meat industry eats the food of the poor and pull its price high. 🤷🏾♂️ fun fact. It doesn’t means you have to become a vegan, just to realise that we have gone to far and to try lower the amount significantly. Like meat once a weak, or in weekends.
Btw none of the food that is on sale in your local market is safe to eat.. although you may find dioxins on every food you eat.. companies that own such big farm lands use cheap fertilizers and pesticides that increases dioxin level in the food they grow and this is actually a big problem now because all of these chemicals(like BPA, PCB, Dioxins, phthalates which are all located in your chip bags) that these big companies are feeding the population is causing loss in male fertility by 50% and so to combat this eat less fats like meat, milk, eggs, and anything with plastic packaging.. of course not many of us can actually afford to live this healthier lifestyle but it should be everyone’s goal to do so.
Keep humans on the farm, promote regenerative agriculture. It’s the only way to feed the planet, empower people to live meaningful and resilient lives. Don’t end animal agriculture or replace human agriculture with some technocrat-controlled synthetic modality of production. Stop conflating traditional farming practices with “conventional” farming, pointing out all the environmental issues with the latter as a pretext for transitioning the entire world’s diet to centralized “green” production. It’s nothing more than a power play by the ultra-rich, who profited from messing up the food system in the first place. They don’t get to now “fix it” according to their desires. YOU have to start growing your own food, taking your own power back.
I appreciate your article and the knowledge shared, but I can’t ignore one mistake done continuously by Ted ed, you play with map of India in all articles. See J&K is a integrated part of India, by not showing it in Indian map, you are hurting many people and and challenging are sovereignty. I request you not to gag in that territorial dispute, and show the official map of India. Or colour the disputed territory. Else I will inform my government and they take strict action against TedEd, so please do not repeat this again. Because once it is a mistake, twice it is a coincidence,and thrice it is intentional.
There was no mention of indoor growing facilities or other farming methods, right? Seems like a discussion about the future of farming without a discussion of CEA farming is missing something rather important. CEA is easily receiving the largest amount of investment dollars and in locations with little water and high amounts of natural sunshine (California?), CEA presents real opportunities and potential solutions. I had an outdoor organic farm by the way, and even I see the potential benefits.
This article is wrong in like a million different ways. For starters, there are good reasons we don’t “grow our crops intertwined with nature”. Like that rabbit in your article lol. I suppose if you want half of your crop yield to be eaten before it’s harvested then that’s fine, but I hardly see how that’s “increasing our output on the land we’re already using”. No, the future of farming is actually in vertical farming using hydroponics and aeroponics. This article is selling an unrealistic pipedream.
When humans began to farm 10,000 years ago, it was an agricultural revolution that changed the way we live and eat. Today, we’re in the midst of another agricultural revolution, a more sustainable one that can incorporate Indigenous planting practices, consider local ecosystems, leverage modern technologies, all while factoring in food scarcity and climate challenges.
good article, but I’ve noticed you talking too less about how a more vegan world is of paramount importance, a plant based diet is definitely soo less harmful for the environment than for example a flexetarian diet grown in a sustainable agro-eco system with the high tech solutions that you are mentioning.
The key for the real second generation agriculture revolution is reaching small farmers and support them, doing revolution with big companies won’t be real revolution, it will only destroy small farmers. So the solution is reaching small farmers and work with them, share with them, giving visions to them. And the most important is that not forgetting to touch the soil.
From where i live, farming is always associated with poverty. This is why nowadays, most young people do not want to be farmers or study agriculture. Currently, farmers gain very little profit from the rice that they grow. Many rice fields are being turned into large subdivisions also. My father has been a farmer and supported our family through it, and i can say that the support that farmers receive from the government isnt really that much.
The biggest thing any one of us can do as individuals to help the planet is go vegan today. Because humans can undoubtedly live long, healthy lives — usually healthier than animal-eaters — on a plant-based diet, the choice ultimately comes down to your taste preference, or the future of the planet.
Sounds great. Sadly, I have zero faith in humanity, a great percentage of earth’s population lives in poverty, and not to mention so many lack the intelligence to comprehend to gravity of the situation. Humanity seems to be focused of self destruction and division, and the population is too great to control. Come to think of it, there are many many many reasons why humanity is doomed and I cant sit here and spend the rest of my time naming them all. For such a plan to take place, humanity needs to change its nature from greed to full cooperation, and it’s not looking like it’s going to happen anytime soon.
Way to take something simple and turn into a machine and chemical disfunctional dystopia. How about looking at how agricultural functioned for thousands of years without destroying the land or complex machinery. The answers are simple like eco-villages, biodiversity, permaculture and a little using your brain and some effort.
We already had a second agricultural revolution in the form of GM crops, dwarf wheat being the first most successful one. While multi-dimensional and data-driven fields will help stretch it out further, it may well be time to address what a post soil-food future would be like, and how it can be achieved.
-did he say farming started ten-thousand years ago? Gobekli Tepe is dated to 9000 bce…. that’s eleven-thousand years ago. -grass-fed cows and he supposed benefits to green house gases is a myth. Earthling Ed has made… gosh… three debunks now? four? the point is he’s debunked “regenerative-agriculture.” everyone still needs to go vegan, yesterday, but today is more realistic, and tomorrow is too late. -the rest of the info is legit
As cool as these ideas and progressions are, I think that advanced 3D printers will be the future of food. As soon as we can print organs for medicine, the next step will be to mass produce printed/lab-grown meats, which will reduce the demand for livestock which in turn will reduce the demand for pastures/ranches. So, very well within our lifetimes, we’ll have “Star Trek” food replicators.
Let’s remember that technology needs electricity to work. So if that will be covered while using those bots and drones then, fine otherwise, that’s another issue. I’ve heard that using solar energy 100% of the time is still a challenge, so hopefully we can improve that otherwise come up with other solutions than to rely on technology.
Globally we don’t have a shortage of food, we have inequalities in our food system based on an incomplete understanding of the natural environment and outdated linear economic models and thinking. Regenerative agriculture (if done well) has a lot of potential to positively transform environmental, economic, and social outcomes. The future of our civilization depends on working together to understand and implement solutions at a grass roots level, but also having adequate support in terms of policy, business, and research. Changing mindsets is critical to this, overcoming our cultural inertia and the status quo. A ‘quick fix’ technological solution is unlikely to solve our issues long term, so we need a system wide approach that works in harmony with nature… Ecologically, socially, and financially responsible. Ngā mihi nui
Drones and sensors are cool an all, but how about some Permaculture, Regenerative Agriculture, Silvopasture, etc. And while we (in the US) could certainly reduce our meat consumption, animals are in integral part of the farming ecosystem, and when raised correctly, they do not pose as big a problem for greenhouse emissions.
I rarely see anyone talk about the biggest issue in environmental protection, sustainable agriculture, energy management, and carbon output, which is controlling population growth. Humans produce a huge carbon footprint and uncontrolled population growth puts an enormous strain on resources. No one seems to want to admit that reconsidering family size is a viable, free, immediate action that anyone can take to address climate change impact.
This is an interesting article but I’m still confused about the economic factors in achieving all this. Especially at the end about large scale farms and low scale farmers. I always hear about people being unable to afford healthier options and someone down below commented that farmers needed to be paid more which I get because how would they afford all that equipment otherwise?? 🤔🤔
“Global cooperation” isn’t exactly what you need. Each growing zone is unique. Cooperating with those near your growing zone or those whose growing zone is only marginally different will be the best strategy. The tips that work in India may not be relevant to Idaho. I’ve tried to learn from other growers “globally.” And they don’t understand my growing conditions, so it has turned out that are very few places that are worth my time to consult with.
I have a team trying to work on the coordination factor, which is kind of crucial. The article is missing a couple of critical components, though. First, it’s completely missing the soil microbiome. The soil microbiome is the ket for the success of the second agricultural revolution. We need to restore soil before anything else. Second, the system needs to be far more local. It makes no sense to grow something on the other side of the planet, transporting it somewhere else, packaging it, then transporting to grocery stores. We need to produce as much food locally as possible to reduce emissions.
В переводе с латыни Tempus темп – быстрое, тёплое, безопасный (жизненно важный), развивающийся и менее опасный, чем огонь. in Latin, Tempus temp is fast, warm, safe (vital), developing and less dangerous than fire. Революция в значении латыни – это быстрое движение при условии, что окружающая среда (огонь, очаг, в культурах Весты, Заратустры) не сожжена. И основы остальной универсальности не пострадают. Revolution in the meaning of Latin is a rapid movement, provided that the environment (fire, hearth, under the cultures of Vesta, Zarathustra) is not burned. And the foundations of the rest of the universality will not suffer. Древнейшая алхимия лежит в основе живой флоры и фауны и сил, которые – земля питает жизнь (vita tera), вода, дыхание (doh(x)i, облака), тепло (солнце, теплота). The most ancient alchemy underlies the living flora and fauna and the forces that – the earth nourishes life (vita tera), water, breath (doh(x)i, clouds), heat (sun,warm).
Me being an indian who was born and brought up in this soil, have always drawn the map of India with full Jammu and Kashmir and always felt thats the Crown of OUR India. IT REALLY HURTS to see the image of Indian map shown in the animation.. But apart from that it is evidently necessary to change method of farming and there are few good suggestion for the same. But farming should have its independance. Under no circustance tech should take over. Probably we need more research on how few of our ancient methods of farming that can be reintroduced. However this clearly paves the way towards better co-living with wildlife. Otherwise with which we human species cannot survive..
Meanwhile in the Philippines, there’s a senator who owns one of the biggest real estate companies and also heads the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform. It is disheartening to see a person in power hijack the future of food production and food security for their wealth and own personal gain.
In order to implement a new technology in a community, the community need to be stable, in order to have stable community we need a stable region, the problem with climate change is not about climate or have anything to do with environment but the social economic of the people. Unless we can deal with social and economic problem the hope for change is as far as the next galaxy
kênh bạn có thể thêm phần việt sub nữa đc ko ? làm ơn đi vì nhiều khi muốn coi ted-ed nhưng phần lớn tôi không hiểu đc bạn nói gì, tôi biết tôi cần thêm nhiều khoá bổ túc với tiếng anh, nhưng tôi vẫn mong các bạn thêm phần việt sub vì nhiều người việt cũng muốn học hỏi từ bên kia biên giới nhưng cách biệt về ngôn ngữ vẫn còn là vấn đề cực lớn trên con đường tiếp cận tri thức với chúng tôi .
Inspiring article. I believe that the future of sustainable agriculture will need to gain momentum on a local level. The first step is education. I am raising millions of worms for organic fertilizer for my garden, but also to share the knowledge of how to do it. If every person has the ability to create organic fertilizer and grow their own garden, what is more sustainable than that?!
My Dad is a third generation farmer in South Carolina and is trying desperately to get out. What was a great living for a hard working bunch of guys in the 70s – early 2000s is now next to nothing. Farmers get paid the same amount for their crops and have to pay extremely high prices for their equipment and fertilizers. Subsidies don’t even begin to remotely cover the costs. He can’t even repair his equipment any more without John Deere charging him thousands of dollars to have a guy come out with a laptop just to plug it into a tractor and mash a few buttons. I know no one in the comments can do anything about it, but I wouldn’t be surprised in the next 20 – 30 years if food prices skyrocketed due to lots of farmers leaving the trade.
This is all very true and a good outlook on all the small things that need to happen. However, just like the Haber-Bosch-process – that enabled the immense increases in crop production throughout the 20th century – wasn’t mentioned, the conclusion missed to talk about genome editing and the potential of crispr-CAS to improve crops. If we are talking about the next agricultural revolution, the “perfect” farm will be important, but the “perfect” lab will be essential. Open to discuss this opinion 🙂
Participation of more people in agriculture, using sustainable agroecology technologies like cultivating heirloom seed varieties is essential for agriculture to thrive. Heirloom seeds can only predict climate change very well they even postpone the flowering phase. Such a wonder. Heirloom seed varieties have 55% more nutrients than hybrid varieties.
I believe that these ideas should be combined with factories that use stem cells to create real meat. This is because sometimes as supply decreases (less meat as we shift to plants), demand increases. This is a peculiar psycological effect (take the alcohol ban in America as an example), that although does not always occur, could happen with meat. I believe we should use a combination of plants and meat to keep our omnivorous diets whilst still saving the environment. (This is also what I think about nuclear and green energy). Long story short: use integrated (with wildlife) farms supported by modern technology paid for by the government; use greenhouses using UV light in richer countries as transport is less expensive (for the high demand), and as they have the money to fund these greenhouses in the first place; and finally create stem cell factories to supply the population with meat.
everything sounded good up until you said “drone”. “A farmer’s best fertilizer is his shadow” – Chinese Proverb. A drone doesn’t smell, touch and observe the same way I can. Technology won’t save us from our current situation, what is required is to dial back technology to the scythe, pitchfork and the use of animal husbandry, and getting more people who have the knowledge of how our ancestors farmed. Don’t try to download this job to technology, it is our most important job, and it needs a human to perform every step of it.
This cannot work! We have a food forest, are off the grid with solar power and use only rain water for everything on our homestead. I also work for a large farming establishment during the harvesting seasons, so I am involved in both industrial farming and sustainable living. Sadly, this article is only whimsical thinking; yes, there is alot we can do to improve farming, but permaculture principles are in direct conflict for “mass production;” impossibility to harvest large scale to start with. I really hope we can find a way but realistically we are so far off as all I have seen for the past 6 years is technology taking over farming but only making things worse. The people in the IT departments who develop these new systems never pass on the training to those who need to use it. Those same IT specialists only develop systems; not maintain them, so most systems work initially but deteriorate as time goes on. Additionally, most large farms are run by the major pharmaceutical companies. There is no stopping them!
We have to make agriculture sustainable. All of us have to stop deforestation and make it practical to do agriculture with forest because if deforestation keep on going at this pace then it will have worse affect on climate and our agriculture is game of climate if climate change occurs at its extreme we can’t think of food for all
Controlling nature created the problem, more control won’t solve it. “Agroforests” and “work with native plants” can be better, less intervention. But mass production with technology replacing humans having the knowledge is always a problem and never a solution. Plus, plant-based diets can’t support human health as new researches are clarifying and we can’t bend our biology to accept our ideologies. Instead of stopping mass industrial production to save the planet, the idea is to reduce the availability of essential animal products… it’s all backwards, and it all steems from the wrong premisse, that the civilized way is the blessing from which everything should come and to which everything should work to be maintained.
I feel the biggest problem farmers face all over the world.. is inadequate Income and possibly use of “spare” time … as well as ehhancing the “hidden value” of their “single use” land to dual/multi use. For example… • Aquaponics below and food above is one dual use… • Vertical Farming that converts single level farmland to multi-level .. • AgriVoltaics (AV) .. is another dual/multi-use of Farmland • Food/Dairy Processing using AV electricity would move “Food Processing/Income” closer to the farms.. • Then there is DIRECT F2C.. Farmer To Consumer.. Marketing/Sales… totally eliminating the Middle Person(s) . • Then there is “Remote E-Working” in Rural Areas for housewives, elderly, etc.. and 3D Printing .. away from large, urban centralized, Factories too… Take AV… just 7% of the 15 Million km2 of the Global Farmland could generate ALL THE ENERGY NEEDED BY MAN TODAY and in 2050 by a 150TW System generating 180,000TWhrs or 180Trillion KWhrs of Electricity.. With a NET INCOME (not Revenue) … at say 1cent/KWhr… this would add $1.8 Trillion/yr to the Income of Farmers.. more than DOUBLING their INCOME Today… using the same land to grow food below and generate Electricity above. This can also REDUCE Water Consumption by >50% too… This is just one example of the Benefits of Dual/Multi use of the Farmers huge Asset … 15Trillion m2 of Farmland … TAKE YOUR PICK AND… GO FOR IT… This Renaissance-I can ensure a Revival and Resurgence of Villages, Rural Communities and their Economies all over the world.
you know well that in the world of comments criticism is never welcome. therefore, probably against logic, before directing my criticism to what was said in the article and exalted by the community I prefer to ask you, if you want to hear it first. Nobody likes to be attacked for just saying what you think, ?so you want to hear it?
“will require a global shift to wear more plant-based diets” THIS is how you know this article was made by people who are oblivious. Instead they should have said “Restore the grasslands, restore the ruminants, restore the environment”, instead they want to cut down the ecosystems to put wheat fields…
I dont like the question: “How can we feed growing number of population healthy diet”. We shouldnt aspire to this goal. We should aspire to lower our population. We need to restore Earth and its soil. Which means we can no longer exploit it so much to meet our demands. If we dont, we would face doom, as every fallen civilization before us. BTW, I am not talking about any kind of eugenics, if someone got the wrong impression. I am talking about lowering birth rate dramatically.
I study Agriculture specializing in Plant Pathology where we study different pathogens that inflict harm to our crops and causes diseases. We found out that monocropping (planting a single crop over a wide area), which is a well-known cropping system of conventional agriculture, encourages more plant disease epidemics as it deteriorates the ecosystem and the biodiversity of the area, thus reducing the yield and income of the farmers. Sustainable agriculture will help prevent the spread plant diseases as it encourages diversity and vitality, not just to the farm, but also to the community as well. With sustainable practices, like multiple cropping and agroforestry, the population of the pathogens in the soil microbiome is reduced as they have to compete with the flourishing essential microbes in the soil, thus decreasing disease incidences. The goal of our generation is to provide food and controlling epidemics that destroy our food while taking care of the environment.
I personally think that at some point due to innovation and population growth,the earth would become too small to sustain us all hence the need to become a multi-planetary species I hope that future technology will enable us do that and PS,If u personally think it’s not possible,then don’t discourage others from doing it-RESPECTFULLY😁 👍
A contented person is happier. For more details, please watch the sermon of the Light of Wisdom Church, welcome everyone to study and discuss together. article “To live is to continue living ｜The Essence Of Happiness And The True Freedom 06” If you think it makes sense, we must not only believe it ourselves, but also spread it to more people. Evangelism is not only the job of pastors, but also the responsibility of every believer. This is also the aspect that the Lord values most when ascending to the kingdom of heaven.
Underground farming using led lighting in a controlled environment, no predators, no pesticides, no crop insurance, no machines, etc. Aka below the frost line farming. Aka below extreme heat surface farming. The agricultural revolution . Harvesting crops that don’t require pollination like lettuces and leafy greens. Instead of 10 acres of land you can have 10 levels of one acre dug into the earth. “giant shelf farming”
I am a controls and robotics engineer. And I grew up on a farm and I live in a rural agricultural area. Although this may scream sustainability doesn’t scream the ability to actually control your produce. It lacks quality control. Along with that it doesn’t deal with the fact that if you’re allowing environment to stay natural, you have the inability to grow certain crops. This means they have to be trucked in. The way better off with some crops going to some sort of greenhouse type of system. A completely enclosed environment. A food factory. Can using vertical growing methods or stacking methods. I’m putting these factories as close to possible to distribution centers.
Farmers in India have a high suicide rate. Do NOT buy vegetables from supermarkets. Buy from local farmers/ hand cart vendors. These are poor people who give for low rates. They are exploited by the rich and companies ( supermarkets) . Supermarkets are not even sustainable. They use so much plastic packaging. Did you know that reliance exports veggies to foreign places? They take it from farmers at very low rates and earn huge profits in export. Don’t make the rich richer. Uplift those who need it. Conclusion: – buy from local farmers/ vendors not supermarkets – Push for permaculture
To nurture the planet and make it a glorious and thriving bunch of life and health, we need people to work like that. But people are selfish and crooked and don’t like to think about that (P O L I T I C S). So we need to have someone who isn’t like that. For that we need to raise the next generation to be thoughtful and selfless during such times. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 That its a Utopia not a Dystopia 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
Amazing. We bought a house last winter (3.14 acres) with a cottage and noticed some muscadine vines and fig trees. Little did we know, it was a fruit forest and orchard. It wasn’t listed as such and definitely not expected. Once spring came around we began identifying what we had and couldn’t believe it. The land was neglected for quite a while so uncovering every square foot has been a surprise. Which has led to a year of studying fruit trees, growing, pruning, and now permaculture. Turns out the previous owner planted with tremendous vision and what you describe here, with the directions, placement, ditches, and ground cover, are all what is currently happening on this property. Thank you for explaining with such great detail. This helps us appreciate what we have and understand why they did what they did, and how to continue the practice. I feel like the past year of my life has been the most enlightening yet. Very grateful for your time in making this article. We just made this website yesterday so we’ll post our stuff soon hopefully 🙂 #rookies
Meanwhile, back at the farm… nobody is going to pick up his house, garage, sheds, barns and rebuild them in the middle of his property. When you have a large patch of land and you are farmer that can barely survive economically, you cannot afford to turn your business property into some kind of middle age farm set up. Do I oppose your ideas? Certainly not! If we had a real chance to do things right form the start – about 300 years ago – then we should have done it this way.
Part of the reason people build the houses closer to the road in northern climates is because of snow and snow removal. Though yes, building on higher ground is necessary, if you decide to build a long way from the road you will spend an awful long time or need awfully expensive equipment to remove snow when trying to get in and out of the property during the winter. And where I live once it snows it pretty much is there for the next 3-4 months. And if you don’t plow it out you will have massive drifts forming during the winter and will be stuck where you are. That is the main reason why building close to a road, that is regularly plowed during the winter, has become a normal thing to do.
I think some kind of middle ground can be achieved. In Poland, where I live, old way of dividing fields had impact on bio diversity. Fields were divided by balk- narrow patch of unplowed land. Natural border with high grass, bushes and trees, home to birds, small mammals, and many more. Mini wild world among fields of grain. Disappears each year more.😢
Ease of use and dramatically increased production is the main points of difference. The conventional farmstead design allows diversity and abundance. I believe the idea is to have permanent production units. How far apart they are or how mixed up they are is not a significant point. Thank you. Stay safe. MonoCulture is a different story.
My only issue with this is trapping water. We know over-irrigation can destroy lakes (see: Aral Sea). Capturing precipitation on a large scale could impact areas where that water would otherwise drain–and figuring out where those areas are could be challenging. Understanding data like this, esp in this age where water is becoming scarcer (see: California, USA; also: cities planned to be built in deserts) will help us be better in future.
We have a small practical problem. When trying to implement this in some of the rural places the house needs to be near the fruit trees due to fear of fruits being stolen or we need some kind of security. And cameras or fence is not well respected. But having a home near the fruit trees does stop such trespassing. Any suggestion on how to change the design. Also a big THANK YOU for such a lucid and clear explanation.
I live in the tropics in a tropical dry forest climate. I do incorporate forage trees on countour because I have a hilly landscape. We graze in strips also on contour between the fodder trees. On more extreme slopes, we plant nitrogen fixing trees for fodder to cut and carry to the animals in times of dry and no rain season, with fruit and lumber trees.
And after some point deep down the permaculture rabbit whol u discover ernst götsch. It took me 10 years. Definitely youtube him tis method absolut genius. And i saing dis after i red jole saladi, sep holzer,bill mollison, mark shepard,allen savory, elena ingham, gabe brou, fukuoka and richard perkins. Erns götsch had the missing tools i was lookuing for. Its very useful in forest garden smal and large. I have a small one for now home to about 50 genera from asimina to xantoxylum
The different is that those who are right now on the top power with money and land owner certificate are those who control the way this world farm. Those who own those farms are those who cannot afford to hide people and pay those wages anymore because machines are much more easier and cheaper to run and maintain and faster too. End of the day, in another word. More human of today had been change their ways of life because of those who change the way of farming and running societies. To have machines. They need workers in factories more than farmers on farms. To have machines they need workers on building infastructures more than farmers. To have machines they need more workers in mining industries than farmers. To have countries they need more troops ready for those battlefield than farmers. Simple fact about today societies around the world.
Hello there from Pakistan Great articles on this subject Have you ever thought of keeping a whatsapp group where interested people can share their experience or ask queries,, if there is any such group then I am in 😁 and if you don’t have then would be a good idea to create one I am working on permaculture and growing crops on beds and need help and tips from time to time, would be great if like minded people can share their thoughts on a single platform like whatsapp etc. Thanks Zeeshan
One only has to look at the differences to understand why we do not engage in permaculture on a commercial scale. The research on this so far has been pretty clear; 25-50% less yield from regenerative organic agriculture. But I’ve seen cases of entire fields being lost to weeds on organic farms. Now don’t get me wrong, I like the general concept, I also like regenerative agriculture. But so long as our global population isn’t capped, you stand NO chance of feeding this worlds’ population using these methods.
I also think that you did a great job with your diagrams and visual aids. And I have no problem with your accent. Jeez….for those that find it difficult…..How many languages do happen to speak? I wish that we in the USA were encouraged to be bilingual or multilingual as are most people naturally in most other countries. We are left in the dust when it comes to understanding others to some degree just from our inability to process concepts in more than one language or brain pattern. I wish I had been fortunate enough to be exposed to more than English during my childhood and development. When traveling in Cambodia, I met children less than 10 years of age that were speaking eight languages….they needed to do so in order to speak to the tourists from so many countries. Thank you for putting yourself out there and trying to help build a better, more sustainable, and thus more just world!!! I will certainly check out more of your articles. Subscribed.
You’re confusing modern farming with traditional. The reason modern farms look like this is scale. Population levels require scalable agriculture. With a smaller population, then traditional farming, permaculture, is attainable. Without machinery there is a far higher resource cost in human effort for permaculture farms of 1000 acres or even 10,000 acres – as in Australia.