Sustainability in agriculture

Presentation of prof. Ilaria Pertot – Extract

The presentation

As climate changes, our diet should change too, as well as the methods of agriculture, due to urbanization.

PROBLEMS CAUSED BY GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming causes extreme events, such as heavy rains our droughts, which can ruin crops.

There is less and less arable land because of these phenomenons and over usage of soil. Northern regions in comparison are becoming more and more arable for various crops, also because of the global warming, but not keeping up with the loss of arable land. Industrial areas also take space away from agriculture.

CAUSES OF URBANIZATION

Soon the 70% of people will live in big cities. If we keep our everyday diets, we can’t be sustainable – millions of tons specific items simply can’t be naturally available on the market. We can’t keep the production near cities just yet, at least not in the optimal quantity and quality.

In conclusion, we most probably have to change our diet, but there are other ways for handling the issue, by cultivating crops in in cities.

HOW CAN WE CULTIVATE IN CITIES?

Hydroponic cultivation and aeroponic cultivation are our two main options. In case of hydroponic cultivation sterilization and water is needed. During aeroponic cultivation we are even more sustainable – we grow without soil and water only as much as necessary and don’t use sterilization.

In the cities we also need to consider vertical and indoor farming, because hydroponic and aeroponic cultivation doesn’t solve the problem of space – with new technology we can use spaces much more effectively than by conventional farming. Indoor farming, with artificial light is in Asian countries proving to be effective.

In these ways we can bring fresh food near consumption.

ADAPTING OUR DIET

Cereals and oilseed crops have high caloric density. Formerly people moved more, did more manual work and didn’t heat their houses, so burned more energy. We keep the old-style diet even though we live differently. We eighter should change our diet or move in order to burn the calories.

EFFECTS OF BREEDING

Why are fruits not as tasty as before? It is mostly due to breeding. What attracts the consumer, is bought, and makes profit – the buyer cannot taste the product. Because of this reason they make standard, colorful breeds – paying less attention to taste.

ECO-FRIENDLY AGRICULTURE

Sustainability uses natural resources which are renewable. Less water, less fertilizers, non-fossil energy – this is what sustainability means in agriculture. Raising awareness can change market demand, moving our society towards a more sustainable direction. How can these rules be applied and used in modern innovations?

  • Using drones fertilizers can be applied only where needed.
  • Alternative energy sources, such as solar panels can be used.
  • Automatization and robots also make agriculture more effective.
  • Lab-grown products can be a solution, if technology improves, but not yet. The energy needed during growing artificial meet in labs is unfortunately more than in the natural way. Production is very expensive because of the serious equipment lab-grown meet and plants require.
  • Some species of insects are fast breeding, the only reason we don’t use this source is because of the cultural barrios.
  • Against pesticides, we don’t have a non-chemical weapon just now. Synthetical chemicals can pollute water, if the water is draining into the soil. Instead of synthetic chemicals, we can use microorganisms as antagonists of plant pest and pathogens. Such products are already available on the market.
  • Mating disruption is currently used to sustainably protect our plants from certain insects.

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