When you hear the word "agriculture," what kind of scenery do you imagine? A landscape of "lush greenery" spreading out under a blue sky over a vast expanse of land, or "golden ears of wheat and rice" swaying in the wind blowing across the land. Many of you may have imagined such peaceful and tranquil landscapes. However, how many people, when they hear the word "agriculture," think of its relationship with environmental destruction and climate change?
In fact, modern agriculture has a high environmental impact. It is an area that contributes to environmental destruction, such as the loss of tropical rainforests, desertification, and the disappearance of lakes and marshes, and is also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Why does agriculture, which nurtures and is nurtured by greenery, lead to environmental destruction and climate change? Here, we will explain the mechanism and unravel the dilemma facing modern agriculture, including livestock and dairy farming.
Cabbage field in the morning sun (Photo: Artur Synenko / Shutterstock.com)
Factors of climate change: "greenhouse gas emissions" from agriculture
Climate change is a threat to humanity. in the German city of Bonn in November 2017,23rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23)In the "Paris Agreement", Fiji assumed the chairmanship and proceeded to make concrete rules to implement the "Paris Agreement" that was enacted in 2015. At this point in timeRatified by 173 countries and regions worldwideThe Paris Agreement, which has been ratified by more than 100 countries in the world, is a major step in the process of climate change mitigation, but the large number of countries that have ratified the agreement and the speedy process of its issuance indicate a sense of urgency about the "threat" of climate change.
There is some data that we would like you to look at regarding the cause of such "threats".Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)According to the "Mere Old Man", 231 TP3T of the greenhouse gases (*1) that contribute to climate change are emitted from agriculture. Also,Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)In 2011, 171 TP3T of GHGs came from agriculture, and 71 TP3T to 141 TP3T came from other land uses.More than 530 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalenthas been discharged, with an increasing trend from 230 million tons in 1961.
Data from the IPCC Fifth Report (2014) and World Bank data (Carbon dioxide (CO2) , , Methane (CH4), ,Dinitrogen monoxide (N2O)(based on the
Why is "agriculture" linked to climate change?
Why is agriculture, including dairy and livestock farming, one-fifth of the contributors to climate change? It is easier to understand this by dividing it into two categories: "development for agriculture, dairy and livestock industries" and "activities of agriculture, dairy and livestock industries themselves". Let us explain the mechanism of each with examples.
Development to conduct "agriculture, dairy and livestock operations."
Looking at agriculture from this perspective, the first relationship between agriculture and environmental destruction is deforestation for the creation of farmland. The mountains are cut down and the land is cleared to create farmland and pastureland. In this process, many forests are cut down, leading to climate change.
Excessive slash-and-burn is also a major challenge. Tropical rainforest areas receive a lot of rainfall, which washes away the soil on the ground surface and causes a shortage of nutrients. However, since agriculture uses the topsoil layer, it is necessary to solve this nutrient deficiency. This is why "slash and burn" is used, whereby forests are burned to provide farmland with sunlight and to produce ash that contains nitrogen and carbon, which are nutrients. While this method of agriculture itself makes sense, the excessive use of this method, which exceeds the rate at which forests regenerate, is causing serious environmental damage. In Indonesia, for example, excessive slash-and-burn is taking place in many areas to develop oil palm plantations,They also cause wildfires that burn down forests.The following is a list of the most common problems with the
The effects of these agricultural and other developments are evident in the rainforests of the Amazon and Congo river basins, known as the "two lungs of the earth." In the world.Equivalent to 14 soccer fields (10 ha) per minuteThe latest satellite survey shows that about 1.8 times as much forest is lost each year due to human activities such as agriculture, timber harvesting, and urban development as in Hokkaido. At this rate,The world's tropical rainforests will disappear in 100 years.Calculation.
FAO dataBased on the following table.
This excessive deforestation and land development has been driven by the rapidIncrease in world populationThe world's population, which surpassed 7 billion in 2011, now stands at 7.6 billion. The production of food, the source of life, will have to increase as the number of people it must support increases. Such demand is driving excessive land development.
But that is not the only reason.Meat consumption continues to increase.Another important background point that cannot be overlooked is that meat production requires a large amount of grains such as soybeans and corn as feed. Meat production requires large amounts of soybeans, corn, and other grains as feed, as well as vast areas of land (pastureland) for grazing cattle, pigs, and other livestock. In addition, the transportation of such feed crops and large amounts of water resources are necessary, and (as will be discussed later) the production process emits a large amount of greenhouse gases. The "tasty meat" produced using vast amounts of land, feed, and resources, and emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases, is a very inefficient food.
Dairy cows grazing on grass (Photo: Syda Productions / Shutterstock.com)
"Activities in the agricultural, dairy, and livestock industries themselves."
Although it may be difficult to imagine, agricultural production activities themselves can actually be environmentally destructive, and greenhouse gases are also generated from these processes. For example, in mechanized agriculture, fossil fuels are consumed to operate machinery at every stage, from tilling the land to harvesting the crops. In addition, in the accelerated cultivation using plastic greenhouses, heating and cooling may be required day and night, which consumes energy. Such energy consumption results in agricultural production while releasing greenhouse gases.
In addition, dairy and livestock farming and rice cultivation produce methane gas, which has a higher greenhouse effect than CO Rice cultivation is one of the methane gases caused by human activities.Emission sources accounting for approx. 10%It is. Oxygen is not easily supplied to the soil, and methanogenic bacteria in the soil that prefer such an environment produce methane gas. The methane gas produced is released into the atmosphere through the roots and stems of rice plants, making it difficult to recover. And from the area of dairy and livestock farming, 7.1 gigatons of CO2-equivalent is released every year due to anthropogenic activities.14.51 TP3T of greenhouse gasesare being emitted. Of these emissions, 44% are in the form of methane gas, which is a significant climate change factor, with specific sources such as livestock respiration, burping, and energy consumption for heating and cooling.
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FAO data Based on the following table.
Other overgrazing practices, such as overgrazing by goats that uproot and eat the grass, will result in the loss of greenery at a breakneck pace. In addition, excessive irrigated agriculture in arid areas will consume soil nutrients that are hard to supply, leading to further land degradation. Furthermore, excessive use of irrigation water causes the minerals deep in the soil to be sucked up to the surface by capillary action, depositing salt on the ground surface (salt damage). Once salt damage has occurred, the land becomes barren and loses its greenery. As the land is degraded in this way, the topsoil layer is exposed to the wind and rain, and the soil is exposed to theThe Organic (carbon-containing compounds) Cycle."does not work. As a result, greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere.
The "dilemma" facing modern agriculture
Thus, modern agriculture faces the dilemma that the more it develops and produces, the more it creates causes for climate change and extreme weather, leading to a crisis in the survival of agriculture itself. Furthermore, the economic system in which modern agriculture is situated is full of contradictions, not only in terms of climate change, but also in terms of correcting poverty disparities.
Agricultural machinery at work in a vast expanse of farmland (Photo: Holnsteiner /Pixabay)
Undernourished populations around the world are unable to find "food",815 million (about 111 TP3T of the world's population)The amount of food produced in the United States is as much as 1,000,000,000,000 tons. On the other hand, large volumes of crops produced by large-scale, mechanized agricultural practices are often grown as commodity crops for export, and such crops are transported out of the production area using fossil fuel energy and consumed for meat and biofuel production.
In other words, food produced by people with (in many cases) low incomes for little wages is deliberately transported using energy and used for meat and fuel production, thereby increasing the threat of climate change, putting food production itself in jeopardy, and driving the producers into poverty and hunger, while some humans enjoy an abundant diet. The threat of climate change is growing, putting food production itself in jeopardy, and driving the people who produce it into poverty and hunger. Perhaps the agricultural production that is sustainable for both the earth and humankind is not mass production through large-scale mechanization, as is the case today,Self-sufficient local forms of productionIt may be.
On the other hand, at least at our individual level, we need to change the way we procure food and the way we think about food. Where does the food in front of us come from? How much crops, water, fertilizer, and fuel are used to produce it? And how is it possible to obtain food at such a low price when it was produced in a distant place? It is interesting to try to imagine the "origin" of each of the foodstuffs in the supermarket.
In exchange for our "abundance in the present moment," we continue to leave our children a bill in many forms, from climate change to the structure of inequality.
[Footnote]
*1: There are several types of "greenhouse gases. The well-known carbon dioxide (CO2) is precisely one of the greenhouse gases, and methane (CH4) and dinitrogen monoxide (N2O) are alsoKnown as a greenhouse gasand is closely related to agriculture.
Writer: Yosuke Tomino
Graphics: Yosuke Tomino
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