Sustainable Food Production: Agriculture, Livestock, and Fishing

Sustainable Food Production

Agriculture

Traditional or Subsistence Agriculture

Produces crops to feed the family farmer, with surplus for sale or storage in good harvest years.

Extensive Agriculture

Cultivates plants in large tracts of land using minimal machinery. Low crop yields are often improved by techniques like crop rotation and fallow.

Intensive Agriculture

Produces large quantities of a single crop, requiring significant energy input (solar or fossil fuels), water, fertilizers, and pesticides.

Organic Agriculture

Promotes agricultural production based on natural mechanisms, using organic fertilizers assimilated by soil microorganisms to maintain natural balance.

Negative Impacts of Agriculture

  • Impacts on forests (deforestation)
  • Impacts on air (burning, pollution, odors)
  • Impacts on food webs (fertilizers and pesticides, bioaccumulation)
  • Impacts on biodiversity (reduced genetic and species diversity)
  • Impacts on water bodies and soil (pollution, salinization, erosion)
  • Impacts on the human environment (GMO crops)

Livestock

Subsistence Farming

Raises a few animals for personal consumption, characteristic of some rural areas and less developed countries.

Extensive Livestock

Breeds flocks that forage in extensive rangelands, resulting in high production but poor economic performance.

Intensive Livestock Production

Produces large quantities of a single livestock type, requiring additional energy use. Practiced in developed countries using housing techniques, machinery, and feed. Often breeds exotic species for consistent product quality.

Negative Impacts of Livestock

  • Impacts on vegetation cover (grazing)
  • Impacts on soil and water (eutrophication, spills)
  • Impacts on the atmosphere (methane emissions)
  • Impact on animals (cruelty in some extensive farming)
  • Impacts on human health (drugs and odors)
  • Impacts on the economy (displacement of traditional farming)

Fishing

Subsistence Fishing

Captures small numbers of fish and marine animals from the coast, small boats, or by swimming with a harpoon.

Coastal Fisheries

Uses fishing vessels near the coast with techniques like trawls, nets, and longlines. Productivity has declined due to declining fish stocks.

Industrial Fishing

Operates offshore with large ships, catching and processing tons of fish along migratory routes.

Fishing Systems

  • Longlines: Baited hooks on long cables.
  • Drift nets: Vertical nets that trap fish.
  • Trawls: Bag-shaped nets dragged by boats.
  • Purse seines: Nets used to encircle schools of fish.

Negative Impacts of Fishing

  • Impacts on wildlife and biodiversity (bycatch, overfishing)
  • Impacts on politics and economics (competition for fishing grounds)