Do the benefits of relying on a few highly productive livestock breeds and crop varieties outweigh the risks of reducing genetic diversity by allowing less productive breeds to become extinct?
- What do the terms "industrial agriculture" and "sustainable agriculture" might mean?
- Are you familiar with any breeds of livestock or varieties of crops grown to produce the food you eat?
- Can the agricultural industry keep up with the rapid growth of the global human population?
To answer the main question, I don't think that reducing the genetic diversity for the sake of relying on the more productive breeds and crops. There may come a day when these "more productive" livestock and crops dramatically decline, and if we don't have a variety of other crops or livestock to rely on, then our sources of food will automatically become very limited. Industrial agriculture and sustainable agriculture both play a part in this.
Industrial agriculture is a (1)modernized form of farming which involves the production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops. This kind of farming is essential to global trades, for political purposes, as well as economic purposes. The final, ready-to-sell products of this kind of farming is found in your local supermarket. What does this have to do with genetic diversity? In industrial farming, (2)there is only one way to do it and there are only a number of crops and livestock that can follow this uniform management, therefore limiting the amount of genetic diversity in both crops and livestock. In such an environment, bugs and other insects that thrive on certain crops find it easier to feed off of the crops grown, and sometimes even the livestock and what not. This leads to the excessive use of pesticides and other chemicals meant to keep them away. Of course, the words "chemical" and "pesticide" don't sound too good when placed beside the word "food." Health concerns are always an issue with industrial farming, and because there are only a few crops and livestock that can be bred on an industrial farm, it makes you question how edible your food really is. To put it simply, industrialized food is just about as natural as Nicki Minaj's booty. But that's another story altogether.
Now this brings me to the next kind of agriculture: sustainable agriculture. What is it?"[...]the term sustainable agriculture means an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term:
- satisfy human food and fiber needs
- enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends
- make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls
- sustain the economic viability of farm operations
- enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole." (National Agriculture Library)
Sustainable agriculture is purely for ecological needs, serving the purpose to feed the people of the world. It makes use of all crops and livestock, meaning there is much more genetic diversity on a sustainable agricultural farm rather than the industrial. This practice involves the natural growth of crops, making them organic products. Chemicals are not used in the process of farming, therefore the health concerns are not as high. Instead, (3)soil steaming, a type of soil treatment, is used as an ecological alternative to chemicals. Not only does it kill pests and insects that threaten the crop, but it also increases soil health.
Of course, it's easy to see why genetic diversity would benefit more than less genetic diversity through the different kinds of agriculture. With this, a bigger question remains, and that is whether or not the agricultural industry as a whole will be able to keep up with the fast growth of the global population. On a sad note, I hate to admit that the possibility of sustainable agriculture keeping up with the growing population is definitely not on par, just because of how long it takes to be able to grow the crop and breed the livestock. I suppose in this aspect, it is easy to see why industrial agriculture would hold more favourable.
However, I stand my ground when I say that more genetic diversity is better than less genetic diversity. Although the rapid growth of the human population would call for more industrialized products, I find that because there is much more diversity and variety in the sustainable products, it can be considered just as fast-growing as the industrialized.
Sources: 1 2 3 4
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