Jane Zheng
Professor Reynolds
Project#3 Web
“The way we
eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.” This is
the prologue of film Food, INC made
by Michael Pollan. As a fact, it is the huge revolution on agriculture and food
industry that achieves this incredible fact. After the end of World War II, with benefits
brought by the increasing use of fertilizers and pesticides, and the
use of large-scale mechanized operations in agricultre, traditional
farms and ranches were transformed into industrial production mold.
In the past, one may expect to see the idyllic
life in countryside, which is composed of birds’ singing and
cows’ mooing; but now, the only song you can hear is the roar of the machines.
Because of this transformation, people have access to a lot of cheap food,
meanwhile, also paid a high price for it.
In America a few people
care about the growing process of vegetables, cows and chickens. The farmers
regard their crops and animals as product. On our way of pursuing high
production efficiency and profit, we unconsciously lose our connection to land
and animals. Everything on a farm connects to machines and chemicals. Besides
the emotional loss of this disconnection, we see negative consequences on
environment, ecology and human healthy recent years.
Begin with the
environmental impacts caused by the overuse of fertilizers. The air is polluted
by the overuse of fertilizers, and the greenhouse effect also has a strong connection
with it. “University of California, Berkeley,
chemists have found a smoking gun proving that increased fertilizer use over
the past 50 years is responsible for a dramatic rise in atmospheric nitrous
oxide, which is a major greenhouse gas contributing to global climate change” (State
News Service).
Fertilizers usually contain a mixture of
phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium in varying quantities, depending on the
application. Nitrites and nitrates are used most widely in agriculture. “When excess nitrites and
nitrates enter aquatic ecosystems, a deadly increase in the ammonia cycle
occurs resulting in excessive ammonia in the water, which can kill aquatic
plants and organisms” (Rogers).
In addition, plants and fish kills will happen because of depleted
dissolved oxygen, when phosphorus is overused in aquatic ecosystems. This
happened in Texas, the toxigenic alga
Prymnesium parvum has caused significant fish kills in Texas reservoirs and
fish hatchery ponds since 2001 (Kurten, Barkoh, Fries). Indirectly, rising food demand results in increases in
livestock population and consequently livestock fodder through fertilizer use,
causing a proliferation of harmful bacteria such as E. coli in water resources.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified agriculture, with its
high use of pesticides and fertilizers, as the primary cause of water
pollution.
Last but not least， when the
amount of fertilizers exceed the capability of environmental
self-purification, they disrupt the chemical balance of ecosystems, sometimes to the point
where the ecosystem cannot recover. Take the Chesapeake Bay as an example. The overuse of fertilizers causes extreme excess in algae, which blocks
sunlight and creates areas where life is impossible, called dead zones” (Fidler). The same thing happens in California. A study made by climate scientists in UC
Berkeley shows that “since the year 1750,
nitrous oxide levels have risen 20 percent - from below 270 parts per billion
(ppb) to more than 320 ppb. After carbon dioxide and methane, nitrous oxide
(N2O) is the most potent greenhouse gas, trapping heat and contributing to
global warming. It also destroys stratospheric ozone, which protects the planet
from harmful ultraviolet rays” (State News Service)
As we know,
shifting cultivation in different years is best for lands. Growing different
kinds of crops on the same piece of land in different years is beneficial to the soil to restore fertility. It allows lands to produce more economical profit in
long term. In the opposite, no matter the owner of farms or the leaders of food
industry, they are only interested on the immediate profit. Low price is the
competitive factor in business world. Naturally, they use fertilizers
pesticides to increase production and reduce their costs. Fertilizers enhance soil chemistry by introducing nutrients deficient in
or lacking in soils. However, the overuse of chemical fertilizer leads negative
effects to our land. The most prominent problems are infertile
soil, acidic soil, increased microorganisms, groundwater pollution, salt burns
and excess growth. Chemical fertilizers may help plants grow, but they also damage
the balance of soil. “The unnaturally high levels of nutrients that some
chemical fertilizers contain can over saturate soil and cancel out the effectiveness
of other nutrients” (Debaney). Having become accustomed to mechanized
agriculture and using fertilizers for almost 50 years, farmers find that they
do not earn more money then they used earn, although they produce more than
twice amount of crops and meat on the same piece of land than their fathers did
in the past.
The overuse of
fertilizers has a strong connection with the policies of US government. What is
the origin of artificial fertilizers? After World War Two, a numerous backlog
of ammonium nitrate was left in US. Ammonium nitrate is not
only the raw material of explosive, but also a type of fertilizers. In order to reduce the economic losses, America founded the first chemical fertilizers factory in Alabama. The
origin of chemical pesticides can be also traced back to the poison gas
manufactured for military use. In addition, the government encouraged
wide application of fertilizers in the green revolution of the 1950s and 1960s.
In Chesapeake Bay “crop yields doubled and then doubled again, as farmers
increased the applications of fertilizers and suppressed weeds with herbicides.
Use of green manures (clover or other N-fixing plants) and animal manure from
widely dispersed, small-scale barns declined, keeping arable lands in
near-continuous production” (Fisher). “The green revolution also touched urban
areas. Individual homeowners began to desire thick green lawns with smiling
wives and cavorting children, and lawn care companies became a growing industry
for homes, apartment buildings, public spaces, and golf courses. USDA
recommendations for lawn fertilization, reconfigured as pounds per 100 square feet,
are equivalent to those of corn, the most heavily fertilized crop on
agricultural lands. Just as on agricultural lands, rain infiltrating through
fertilized lawns leaches excess nitrogen to groundwater, and overland flows
during heavy rains carrying to storm drains and streams. Currently, fertilizer
sales in the Chesapeake region are 40-50% for non-agricultural use” (Fisher).
When
all the above-mentioned factors are taken into consideration, a conclusion
could be drawn that excessive mechanized agriculture does harm our environment and
the rights of farmers and consumers. For farmers, they can not feel happy in
farm work any more, even worse they feel guilty of what they did for the
environment with no consciousness. Furthermore, they do not gain any more
economical benefits than they had in past. Carole Morison is a chicken farm
owner near the Chesapeake Bay. After two decades of raising chickens at her
farm on Maryland's eastern shore, Carole Morison quit last year, in part
because she was tired of polluting the Chesapeake Bay. "I'll be the first
one to say that I'm part of the problem," Morison says. "My only wish
is that other people would own up and quit the denial and finger-pointing and
say, 'We have a problem. Let's fix it.' " (Shogren). For the consumers,
most of the public, we eat so much unhealthy food which threatens our health
more and more serious. However, the only winner of this revolution is the oligopolies
of food industry. Just a handful of companies changed what we eat and how we
make our food. It is the time for people to recognize the shadow hidden by the
growing prosperity and abundance in food industry.
Annotated Bibliography
Shogren,
Elizabeth. "Manure, Fertilizer Part Of Chesapeake's Problem." NPR.
NPR, 23 Dec. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2012.
In
“Manure, Fertilizer Part Of Chesapeake's Problem, Shogren
talks about the serious environmental pollution caused by overuse of
fertilizers. Through the record of Shogren’s interview with farmers in
chicken farms, like Carole Morison and Bob Aman, I feel their
willing of fixing the environmental issues. Morison quit her farming last year.
"I'll be the first one to say that I'm part of the problem," Morison
says. "My only wish is that other people would own up and quit the denial
and finger-pointing and say, 'We have a problem. Let's fix it.' " It shows
the innocence of the farmers, they are also victims in the revolution of
mechanization agriculture.
"Fertilizer
and Waste Are Killing the Chesapeake Bay." Chesapeake Bay Action Plan.
Ed. Tom Fisher.
This article gives a brief
introduction of the agricultural history of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. It
analysis the causes of environmental issues in the Chesapeake Bay are in
different historical periods. With data and images at the later part of this
article, we see the environmental problem of the Chesapeake Bay is more serious
than past, which needs appropriate management immediately.
"FERTILIZER
USE RESPONSIBLE FOR INCREASE IN NITROUS OXIDE IN ATMOSPHERE." General
OneFile. States News Service, 2 Apr. 2012. Web. 4 May 2012.
A new study made by climate
scientists in UC Berkeley, which shows the overuse of fertilizers does pollute
atmosphere. Especially, the nitrous components in fertilizers intensify the
greenhouse effect.
Fidler, April. "The Effects of Artificial
Fertilizers." EHow. Demand Media, 18 May 2010.
This
article lists the effects of artificial fertilizers briefly. It talks about the
benefits of artificial fertilizers and the negative effects of overuse of
fertilizers. “One major drawback of artificial fertilizers is that they are
applied to the topsoil, and run the risk of being swept away from the soil and
into storm drains, sewers, ponds and streams.”… this quote can be used to explain
the cause of dead zones, which happened in the Chesapeake Bay.
Kurten, Gerald L., Aaron Barkoh, Loraine T.
Fries, and Drew C. Begley. "Combined Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilization
for Controlling the Toxigenic Alga Prymnesium Parvum." North American
Journal of Aquaculture 69.3 (2007): 214-22. Print.
Rogers, Chris Dinesen. "Environmental Effects of
Fertilizers." EHow. Demand Media, 28 Dec. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2012.
The author talks about two main type
of fertilizers- nitrites/nitrates and phosphorus. The negative consequences of
excessive of these two kinds of fertilizers are also described shortly. The symptoms
of the Chesapeake Bay match the descriptions.
