Look! The land becomes green, no hungry people in the world? Good, what is happen? The world tends to sustainable agriculture. The green revolution extended in the world, this mean the land becomes green because the people return to agriculture. Actually, there are many hungry people in this world. Therefore, we need the solution. We must use the technology development to feed hundreds millions of hungry people. How we can use it? Sustainable agriculture is the best domain that we can use technology development to produce food. We need to product different kinds of food, especially corn, wheat, rice and beans. So many researchers requested from governments to support agriculture field. If any country uses sustainable agriculture, it wills independence and satisfaction by itself. In Rosenberg’s (2007) article, “Oil and Food Do Not Mix,” he says “agriculture’s effect on your every day lives and why it’s simply fun to eat” (para.7). Governments should be encourage and support the farmers in their countries to use sustainable agriculture for many reasons: sustainable agriculture gives people more good food for healthy, it is give them sufficient food, and more using sustainable agriculture will decreases the price of food.
In “Sustainable Agricul Ture” the author states “Sustainable agriculture is the successful management of resources for agriculture to satisfy changing human needs while maintaining or enhancing the quality of the environment and conserving the natural resources” (2006, para.1). This is the definition of sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture produces abundant food without depleting the earth’s resources or polluting its environment. According to Bulletin (n.d.), “”Exploring Sustainability in Agriculture" defines sustainable agriculture by providing snapshots of different producers who apply sustainable principles on their farms and ranches” ("Exploring Sustainability in Agriculture", para.1). According to Dufour and Baier (2006) in their article, Organic Food Production, Consumption in United States Discussed; USINFO Webchat transcript, July 20, “Sustainable agriculture has three legs to stand up: 1) it is economically viable, so that a farmer can make enough money to make a decent living for he/she and their family, 2) it is environmentally sustainable—it must at least preserve the ecological assets, such as soil, clean water, air, plant and animal resources, that make farming possible, and 3) it should be socially just—meaning that workers on farms (including the farmer) can make a living, perhaps even have adequate health insurance” (p.3). Agriculture has changed since 1950; in the past, farmers used initial machines to plow the land. This kind of machines cannot accompany with the development in the world and the rapidly increasing of the population. Therefore, they replaced ancient tools with new machine to get those most, fastest, and easily product. Farmer used chemical materials to produce more food. In 20th century, farms are biological systems, not mechanical ones. Since population need high production, the industrial model has degraded soil and water, reduces the biodiversity that is a key element to food security.
The first reason for using sustainable agriculture creates good food for people to be healthy. There are many diseases are spread in the world now because bad food is eaten by people. Naturally delicious food is created with care from healthy plants and animals. Farmer who uses sustainable agriculture does not use chemical fertilizer to keep soil healthy. Leahy’s (2006) article “Development: Want to Save the World? Go Organic” says that “Organic and other forms of sustainable agro-ecology do not depend on chemical fertilizers, so they must find other ways to enrich soil and keep it that way. That also means there are more minerals and other nutrients in the soil so … food quality high” (para.9). In addition, farmer who uses sustainable agriculture does not use chemical pesticide. Miller (2004) claims, “killing of natural predators and parasites that keep pest species under control. With its natural enemies out of the way, a rapidly reproducing insect pest species can make a strong comeback only days or weeks after initially being controlled” (p.48). Farmers can uses good sources of water and lands to product good food for people. Using these sources, jobs are founded and poverty further decrease.
Second, sustainable agriculture give sufficient food to the people. Growth of population in the world increases very quickly, so we need sufficient food to protect them from hunger. Many countries have big land and natural sources, but they cannot use its very well. So these countries need help from some organization which are interested in agriculture. Unfortunately, there are many hunger and thirsty people in this world. We saw in television news many people are very hungry in Africa, South Asia, and in South America. According to Wood (2004) in his article, “Policies, investments, incentives and GM crops” “demand is growing, rapidly in some places, so farmers need to increase the amount they produce from a given area of land- otherwise we’ll expand agriculture land use and destroy more habitats and biodiversity” (p.3). More food to people, no hunger in the world and more equity between the people, all these things are very interesting. We need to protect people from starvations. According to “Community health responsibility of all” (2007) the author says “starvation is the greatest threat to children's survival. Even the number of children with these three diseases put together is still smaller than the number of starving children! It is this reality that has become of deep concern to many parties” (para.3). Starvation is very big problems and we need to stop it.
Finally, sustainable agriculture not only gives people good and sufficient food, but also it gives them food with low price, it is reduce the price of food. If the food is founded and the people cannot buy its, then the food will decay. So the governments must support the farmers to sell their products in low price. Indian people, as an example, cannot buy expensive food; in spite of India as an agriculture country. People in many different capacities, from farmers to consumers want to have economic profitability. When the governments give water, chemical material, and seeds to the farmers in low price, they can sell the crops in low price since the cost is very low. In Berntell’s (2004) article, “Food Production should not degrade water supply” he states “Production patterns tend to undermine their own resources base and threaten the resilience of ecosystems which support them. For example, river depletion hurts fisheries and biodiversity.” (p.3). Food price inflation allows increasing the number of poverty population.
An opponent of sustainable agriculture that gives the people good, sufficient, and cheaper food is sustainable agriculture needs many sources to produce food. Some people say the sources do not available in all countries. Fore example, Jordan has not sufficient water and the farmers depend on raining for water. People said that sustainable agriculture needs more workers, seeds, machines, and more and more technology and all of these things demand high costs. They claim that if we require equitable control of resources and full participation, then we reach to the top. That is right, but where we can apply that? We can do that that in only 8% to 10% in the world because the authorities in most countries refuse that for variant reasons; political, socially, or economically. They suggest all people must be able to participate in the essential decisions that determine their lives, especially in the field or market. In Earles 's article, "sustainable agriculture:An introduction" he says "off the farm, consumers and grassroots activities are working to create local markets and farms policies that support sustainable practices. They are working to raise consumers’ awareness about how their food is grown and processed and how plants, animals, the soil, and the water are treated. And they are working to forge stronger bonds between producers and consumers that will cement the foundations of locally and regionally self sufficient food system" (p.2).
In conclusion, sustainable agriculture is ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just. Sustainable agriculture presents a positive response to the problems of both traditional and modern agriculture. It seeks to take the best aspects of both traditional wisdom and the latest scientist’s advances. Sustainable agriculture gives the population the highest value of natural food. Rural areas become very rich if the population in these areas looks after the land, crops, and water. Land is very necessary in order for a majority of the world’s population to escape poverty and grow the food it requires. We think that at the same time, the right of landless farm workers and the urban poor must be recognized. Sustainable agriculture has many benefits: it gives us the good, sufficient, and cheaper food. We need these benefits to stay alive in this life. People cannot live without wheat, corn, rice, and many crops. They need plants wealth as they need animal’s wealth. Sustainable agriculture is one that produces abundant food without depleting the earth’s resources or polluting its environment. It is the agriculture of social values. We think in the 21’s century, sustainable agriculture is still in its infancy more than any model farm economy.
References
Bulletin. (n.d.). Exploring sustainability in agriculture. Retrieved February 17, 2008, from http://www.sare.org/publications/exploring.htm
Sustainable agriculture: definitions and terms. (2008, January 9). Retrieved February 17, 2008, from http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/terms/srb9902.shtml#toc1
Dufour, R. & Baier, A. (July 21, 2006). Organic Food Production, Consumption
in United States Discussed; USINFO Webchat transcript, July 20. News From The Washington File. Retrieved February 18, 2008, from LexisNexis Database
Wood, S. (November 27,2004).Policies, investments, incentives and GM crops. Viewpoints: Food and All?. Retrieved February 17, 2008, from bbc.co.uk. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4038189.stm
Berntell, A. (November 27, 2004). Food production should not degrade water supply. Viewpoints: Food and All?. Retrieved February 17, 2008, from bbc.co.uk. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4038189.stm
Leahy, S. (December 18, 2006). Development: want to save the world? Go organic. Retrieved February 18, 2008, from LexisNexis Database
Rosenberg, E. (August 23, 2007). Oil and food do not mix. Retrieved February 18, 2008, from LexisNexis Database
Sustainable Agricul Ture. (2006). Sustainagri.org. Retrieved February 26, 2008, from http://www.sustainagri.org
Community health responsibility of all” (November 21,2007). Retrieved February 28, 2008, from LexisNexis Database
Miller, G. T. JR. (2004). Environment: Problems and solutions. Wadsworth the price of oil-in context. (2006, April 18). CBC News. Retrieved February 28, 2008, from http://www.cbc.ca
Earles, R.(2005). Sustainable agriculture: an introduction. Google.com. Retrieved February 28, 2008, from google.com
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