Friend or Foe
I’m a member of a professional agriculture sorority and spend much of my time with a group of corn-fed, red-blooded, agribusiness loving, farmer’s daughters. These girls are some of my best friends, but there are certain things I avoid discussing with them in the name of civility and sisterhood. Climate change is one of those things. Just this Monday I sat through a meeting where we discussed withholding membership status from one of the newest rushes because she was, and I quote, “really into sustainability.” It is confusing and worries me that people who make up the world of agriculture —a lifestyle and trade more dependent on the health of the planet than any other— find conflict with those who fight for the environment. Proponents of sustainability and supporters of the ag-industry should be allies, not enemies.
With more and more scientists weighing in, it’s clear that climate change is a serious threat that will have real consequences. Michigan’s number one crop, a plant that until recently wouldn’t grow in Michigan due to low temperatures, corn, is likely to take a big hit in the near future. Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University and Donald Wuebbles of the University of Illinois advise us that by 2040 corn fields in Iowa will experience three consecutive days of 95-degree weather, a beating the crop is not likely to survive. Michigan corn is next on the hit list. And yet little is being done in the way of slowing this or other penalties of climate change.
If humans are so fundamentally entangled in, and dependent on the health of this planet, how can it be that they are so utterly disconnected and indifferent to it? The number one factor that affects people’s concerns about climate change is the weather, despite the fact that a generally warmer day to day temperature in one place is no indication of overall climate change. Going without a jacket in the middle of November and saying “thanks, global warming,” or cursing the rain in a drought because you want to wash your car have become more mainstream than tilling land or sewing seed. Call it superficial but I think it’s an indicator of just how disconnected humans have grown from the production of their sustenance. This disconnection has led to an agricultural system that is quickly making agriculture less and less of a possibility, where a select few know a lot about growing a lot of one kind crop at a time, and the rest of us are generally clueless.
In a country where an average citizen is likely unable to identify the plants of foods they eat on a daily basis —much less know when any given food is in season— it might seem that all hope is lost. It’s not. We know what can be done to reduce our impact on the earth, and above transportation, agriculture is number one on the list of things to change. Eating locally, seasonally, and organically are three doable steps that everyone can take toward a more sustainable agriculture system.
Eating locally reduces fossil fuel consumption. “If every U.S citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week.” (Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, p.5) Eating seasonally reduces energy consumption and is a good rule of thumb for buying local without going to a farmer’s market. Not to mention, foods taste much better when you consume them when they’re meant to be consumed. In addition, organically raised foods contribute much less to pesticide pollution, soil degradation, as well as fossil fuel consumption.
Supporters of industrial agriculture refuse these options with the arguments that organic farming doesn’t make sense economically, it can’t make enough food to feed the world, and genetic modification and technology are really going to save us.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that organic farming is 22 to 35 percent more profitable than conventional agriculture for farmers. It is possible, after a period of adjustment, if a lot of us started eating organically, to dismantle the big corporate conglomerates controlling agriculture, and shift profits back to the farmers.
As for making enough food, a study conducted at the University of Michigan suggests that “organic farming can yield up to three times as much food as conventional farming on the same amount of land.” It is possible to maintain current production under organic farming, and that isn’t event taking into account the extreme excess of food per person in the U.S, overconsumption, obesity, or even the insane amount of plate-able waste.
GMO’s aren’t good for farmers or the environment. Monsanto, the largest producer of genetically modified seeds’ best-selling products are “roundup ready crops,” alfalfa, canola, corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, sugar beets, and wheat seeds that are engineered to survive being sprayed with roundup, a harmful herbicide also sold by Monsanto. These seeds don’t produce viable offspring and thus must be re-purchased each year. Saving seeds, a practice that used to be a fundamental part of farming, is impossible using sterile, herbicide-resistant crops. Farmers are bound to corporate monopolies, and the arguments for organic farming are beneficial to “ag-people,” as well as “hippies.”
Living sustainably is in the best interest of all human begins, farmers and environmentalists alike. As an environmentally conscience student at The Pioneer Land Grant University, once dubbed Michigan Agriculture College, I believe all of our environmental studies majors and ag-industries majors have the potential to be close friends.
With more and more scientists weighing in, it’s clear that climate change is a serious threat that will have real consequences. Michigan’s number one crop, a plant that until recently wouldn’t grow in Michigan due to low temperatures, corn, is likely to take a big hit in the near future. Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University and Donald Wuebbles of the University of Illinois advise us that by 2040 corn fields in Iowa will experience three consecutive days of 95-degree weather, a beating the crop is not likely to survive. Michigan corn is next on the hit list. And yet little is being done in the way of slowing this or other penalties of climate change.
If humans are so fundamentally entangled in, and dependent on the health of this planet, how can it be that they are so utterly disconnected and indifferent to it? The number one factor that affects people’s concerns about climate change is the weather, despite the fact that a generally warmer day to day temperature in one place is no indication of overall climate change. Going without a jacket in the middle of November and saying “thanks, global warming,” or cursing the rain in a drought because you want to wash your car have become more mainstream than tilling land or sewing seed. Call it superficial but I think it’s an indicator of just how disconnected humans have grown from the production of their sustenance. This disconnection has led to an agricultural system that is quickly making agriculture less and less of a possibility, where a select few know a lot about growing a lot of one kind crop at a time, and the rest of us are generally clueless.
In a country where an average citizen is likely unable to identify the plants of foods they eat on a daily basis —much less know when any given food is in season— it might seem that all hope is lost. It’s not. We know what can be done to reduce our impact on the earth, and above transportation, agriculture is number one on the list of things to change. Eating locally, seasonally, and organically are three doable steps that everyone can take toward a more sustainable agriculture system.
Eating locally reduces fossil fuel consumption. “If every U.S citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week.” (Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, p.5) Eating seasonally reduces energy consumption and is a good rule of thumb for buying local without going to a farmer’s market. Not to mention, foods taste much better when you consume them when they’re meant to be consumed. In addition, organically raised foods contribute much less to pesticide pollution, soil degradation, as well as fossil fuel consumption.
Supporters of industrial agriculture refuse these options with the arguments that organic farming doesn’t make sense economically, it can’t make enough food to feed the world, and genetic modification and technology are really going to save us.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that organic farming is 22 to 35 percent more profitable than conventional agriculture for farmers. It is possible, after a period of adjustment, if a lot of us started eating organically, to dismantle the big corporate conglomerates controlling agriculture, and shift profits back to the farmers.
As for making enough food, a study conducted at the University of Michigan suggests that “organic farming can yield up to three times as much food as conventional farming on the same amount of land.” It is possible to maintain current production under organic farming, and that isn’t event taking into account the extreme excess of food per person in the U.S, overconsumption, obesity, or even the insane amount of plate-able waste.
GMO’s aren’t good for farmers or the environment. Monsanto, the largest producer of genetically modified seeds’ best-selling products are “roundup ready crops,” alfalfa, canola, corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, sugar beets, and wheat seeds that are engineered to survive being sprayed with roundup, a harmful herbicide also sold by Monsanto. These seeds don’t produce viable offspring and thus must be re-purchased each year. Saving seeds, a practice that used to be a fundamental part of farming, is impossible using sterile, herbicide-resistant crops. Farmers are bound to corporate monopolies, and the arguments for organic farming are beneficial to “ag-people,” as well as “hippies.”
Living sustainably is in the best interest of all human begins, farmers and environmentalists alike. As an environmentally conscience student at The Pioneer Land Grant University, once dubbed Michigan Agriculture College, I believe all of our environmental studies majors and ag-industries majors have the potential to be close friends.