overview
Clean air, water, soil, and biodiversity: these are critical parts
of healthy ecosystems and all life depends on them. Yet, they
are threatened by a number of human activities. It might be
surprising, but the production of food is a big reason: from fruits,
vegetables, and grains, to meat and dairy products.
Biodiversity: the variety
of life in the world, or in
a particular habitit or
ecosystem
Ecosystem: a community
of living organisms and
the habits they live in.
Monoculture: The
industrial agricultural
practice of growing a
single crop, plant, or
livestock species in a field
or farming system.
(Right) An example of a farm
producing a variety of crops. This
is what agroecology looks like.
Photo: Soo Ann Woon / Pexels.
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But not all food is produced equally, some ways are more harmful
than others, and some can actually help heal the soil and our
planet. Industrial agriculture, often identified by large-scale
monocultures (planting of just one crop), heavy use of chemical
fertilizers and pesticides, and large scale livestock operations—
comes with steep costs to our environment, farmers, farmworkers,
and rural communities. These costs are already felt today—soil
isn’t as healthy, waterways are polluted, and people are dealing
with serious health issues in surrounding areas due to the use of
pesticides, to name a few—and this will continue to get worse
unless we act now to make our food systems more sustainable.