Sustainability as a Term That Has Widely Been Used in Most Aspects of Life - Essay Example

Sustainability Apparently, sustainability is a term that has widely been used in most aspects of life in reference to the concept been analyzed. According to business and academics, sustainability denotes encouragement of conservation of resource, and reduction of waste although, it has been argued that similar behavior is highly likely capable of giving human beings the chance to restore and sustain a harmonious relationship with other life on Earth (Lichtfouse 20). In this regard, human being do not seek sustainability in agriculture but rather activeness creativity and productivity on Earth. Consequently, agriculture has been documented as one of the most crucial mode of economic life that continuously sustains life across the globe. According to Baldwin (23), before the evolution of agriculture, the ancient man depended on hunting and gathering, and as a result he was able to feed around 4 million people who were present at the time. Today, it is believed that agriculture has fed over 6,000 million people. In addition, the evolution has generated more cereals as compared to the past four decades. In light of this, there has been increase in input of fertilizers, water and pesticides, new crop strains with inclusion of other essential technologies that are related to the Green Revolution (Tilman et al 672). Moreover, expert in agricultural sector argue that by 2050, the population estimate will have gone up by 50 % thus, increasing the level of food demand across the globe by almost a similar percentage. As a result, there will be increase per capita income, and dietary shift in regard to high meat proportion. Of importance to note is that, doubling the production of food and sustaining its production is the most challenging factor to deal with. Sustainability and Net benefits According to Lichtfouse (21), practicing agriculture becomes the main determinant of food production and the extent in which global environment stands at, in terms of usable and non usable land. It is estimated that half of the usable land has been put in pastoral and intensive agriculture. As such, the practice is generally argued to cause loss in natural ecosystem, detrimental amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus to terrestrial ecosystems at rates that are likely to increase three times especially when past agricultural practices are incorporated. Scholars against sustainability in agriculture argue that some of the practices that are used in meeting the present and future societal needs in terms of food and fibre for ecosystem are not justified. Instead, they articulate that, there must be accounting of the cost and benefits of alternative methods of agriculture in regard to policy, ethics, and action. Moreover, any development in agricultural sustainability must be accompanied by advancement in use of energy, manufacturing , transportation and other economic sectors that are directly related to environmental impacts (International Development Research Centre (Canada) 152). Ecosystem Services National Research Council (U.S.) (15), argue that the ecosystem is believed to provide a variety of products that are crucial to the life of human beings. For instance, there is presence of food, fuel and materials that might be to provide shelter. Additionally, forest and grasslands are necessary in ensuring that fertile soils is regenerated, plants and animal waste is easily degraded for the purpose of sustaining good production among other benefits. None the less, some scholars still demonstrate high level of satisfaction pertaining to ecosystem because they argue that application of fertilizers, pesticides and other non organic substances affect the impact of ecosystem particularly when toxins increase in the soil posing health dangers such as reducing the quality level of soil. Thus, the quality of products that emanate from such practice is severely affected. Food production and environmental costs It is for undoubted reason that agriculture has the capacity to meet the needs of over 8 million people, and in turn reduce the number of people who go hungry. Never the less, sustainability must be achieved in regard to high yields and the use of agricultural practices that correlate with the environmental impacts. Of importance to note it that, there must be strategies of ensuring that agriculture produces high returns under minimal costs (Tilman et al 672). Increasing yields According to Baldwin (25), the increment of yields in the agricultural sector is only applicable to farms that are existing because most the unusable land might be experiencing challenges that may not sustain the availability of food to the growing population across the world. For instance, Korea, Japan and Italy have been documented as some of the countries that have highest levels of yields of rice due to the fact that they were the first adopters of the Green Revolution. Equally, stagnant yield potential is one of the major factors that lead sustainability in agriculture. Increasing nutrients use efficiency Tilman et al (675), argue that for any increment in yields, it is imperative to consider the use of industrial fertilizers especially those that contain nutrients necessary for improving the quality of soil thus increasing yields. In fact, scholars have argued that the use of synthetic fertilizers has greatly contributed to high food production in the past few decades. For instance, the use of nitrogen fertilizer for production of maize in most parts of the world has continually increased yields to around 36 % for the past 21 years. Of importance to note is that nitrogen becomes efficient when given to plants at the appropriate time. Conversely, excessive use of nitrogen and other related nutrients result to destruction of the ecosystem such as destroying creatures that are found on soil and water. Increasing water –use efficiency Basically, it is argued that almost forty percentage of the usable land constitutes of irrigation land. As such, it has been argued that food production through irrigation play a huge role in sustaining the expected amount of production in terms of food in relation to the target population. In addition, technologies such as drip and pivot irrigation have been documented as been efficient in the water use, and the reduction of salinization thus increasing yields (Baldwin 25). Implementation of sustainability practices National Research Council (U.S.) (16) articulated that the implementation of sustainability practice is mainly facilitated by farmers who are expected to use the acquired knowledge and technologies that are aimed at ensuring that high yields are achieved with minimum cost. This includes making scientific sound decisions pertaining to agricultural production and making provisions on the right incentives that are of benefit to the society. It is argued that in next 50 years, agricultural practices will have brought about a huge impact in food production. Moreover, continuous technological advances and economic forces have led to agricultural subsidies particularly in the United States, European Union and Japan. Thus, sustainable agriculture must be based on balance flows between food and ecosystem for millions of people across the world. Conversely, International Development Research Centre (Canada) 154, argue that sustainability particularly on agriculture have argued most of the methods used in this field contribute to the destruction of the ecosystem, which pause much danger to living organisms rather than been advantageous. In essence, they argue that the notion of sustainability revolves around the impact of human life in both short and medium terms. Additionally, they argue that while tending to create sustainability through the use of short term goals, they end up destroying even the medium based terms. In relation to short term experiences, there is relief of environmental pressures and create a sense of plenty. On the other hand, the medium term plays the role of ensuring that there is increased population in reference to maintained balance between procreation and scarcity of resources. In another dimension, these scholars argue that once human beings become active, creative and productive then there are possibilities of consuming and polluting the environment more. Thus, human beings must respect and dwell on Earth responsibly and not for the sake of sustainability. Works Cited: Baldwin, Cheryl. Sustainability in the Food Industry. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.2012.Print. International Development Research Centre (Canada).Participatory Research and Development for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management: A Sourcebook Volume 1: Understanding Participatory Research and Development.CIP- UPWARD.2005.Print. Lichtfouse, Eric et al. Sustainable Agriculture. Dordrecht; New York: Springer.2011.Print. National Research Council (U.S.) Toward sustainable agricultural systems in the 21st century. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.2010.Print. Tilman, David et al. Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices. Nature, 418 (2002):671-677. Read More