Sustainable Agriculture - Essay Example

Sustainable Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture Introduction Sustainable agriculture tends to be the way forward for the agricultural development. Sustainable agriculture refers to a production of food, agricultural products and fiber using farming techniques essential in protecting the environment, animal welfare, public health and human communities. On a wider scope, it is the act of farming using the principles of ecology, entailing the inter-relationships between the organisms and their environment.

Sustainable agriculture goes hand in hand with food footprint based on ecological footprint. Food footprint refers to measures of environmental impacts on food production. Sustainable agriculture plays a key role in hungers eradication.DiscussionThe trip to global farm in North Fort Myers, FL revealed how sustainable agriculture plays a key role in not only environmental concerns but also plant production. The farm is part of the Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO). The farm gets support from the FGCU.

On a wider scope, ECHO works hand in hand with small-scale farmers to reduce hunger across the world and improve the lives of the small scale farmers.The most surprising thing about ECHO emanated from the fact that being an information hub; it gathers solutions around the world aimed at reducing hunger by a greater margin. The solutions then promote sustainable farming techniques; improve productivity, increases nutritional plants and increased technologies (Fighting World Hunger, n.d). Coming through all these achievements with low-cost expenses proved superb though it did not answer all the questions.

Growing and eating food tends to be one of the most intimate relationships human beings have with the earth. Lack of enough techniques in farming led to low productivity in my maize farm. Agriculture tends to be a success if one puts effort into it. Growing food like any other people would have changed my life positively. Selling of the food products would come as one of the practice to tip in cash. Additionally, going without food would be a past tense. Staying hungry is an experience that no one would like to experience.

It leaves one with an unsettled feeling.Growing a biodiversity of foods is essential in that it enhances food production and at the same time maintains the ecosystem. Moreover, it sustains rural people’s livelihood. Food mainly comes from agricultural lands in the local vicinity and hence the producers travel for approximately fifteen miles to get to the consumer. The food contains a little pesticide residue and mostly comes from whole food.Eating better entails having a balanced diet on the daily basis.

Plant foods tend to provide vital nutrients to human beings. Adding vegetables to every meal proves a crucial role in nutritional enhancement. Implementation of the discussed idea will prove a pivotal point in my meals. Reducing footprint entails using environment-friendly techniques in ensuring that agricultural productivity gets boosted. Additionally, the techniques include using animal and plant waste as manure and recycling water in the farmThe food forest was an initiative of the FGCU student government and gets the support from the School’s administration.

The forest is a physical manifestation of the institutions ambitions and aims in ensuring that there is a sustainable agricultural practice. The forest enhances environmental sustainability and produces organic fruits, vegetables to the campus and its environs (Florida Gulf Coast University, n.d.). However, the food forest faces the challenges of land unproductively, pest and disease infestation and lack of aggressiveness in sale of the products. By putting measures like introduction of pesticides and other disease control methods, uses of manure to boost land productivity and motivation, these obstacles tends to be curbed.

Efficient agricultural methods see to it that there is increased production of the farm. The table below shows the information of the land’s ecological footprintfootprint%food19shelter13mobility26goods6services36Planet earth5.5Food production gets 19% meaning that more needs to be done to ensure a sustainable agricultural production. The result tends to be average meaning that more needs to be done to increase productivity. The planet earth with a 5.5% shows that most of the land is either unutilized or unproductive.

The family needs to consider that sustainable agricultural productions play a key role changing people’s livelihood to the better. Furthermore, changing a lifestyle from purchasing processed foods to dwelling in own agricultural produces provides a long-term solution to food costs. From the above results, the family needs to adopt sustainable agriculture, so as to avoid translocations from one area to the other in search of food and incurring servicing costs.ConclusionSustainable agriculture plays a key role in hungers eradication.

Ensuring sustainable agriculture picks up boosts the levels of agricultural production by a wider margin and at the same time maintains the environment through conservation.ReferencesFighting World Hunger. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.echonet.org/Florida Gulf Coast University. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2015, from http://www.fgcu.edu/UndergraduateStudies/foodforest.html