ORGANIC VS CONVENTIONAL COTTON
Organic cotton is grown in subtropical countries like Turkey, USA and China from non-genetically modified plants, which is said to be used without the use of any synthetic agricultural chemicals like fertilizers or pesticides. Organic cotton farming promotes and enhances biodiversity and biological cycles.
Organic cotton has the following advantages:
Protecting surface and groundwater quality.
Reduced risk in insect and disease control by replacing insecticide with the manipulation of ecosystems
Long-term prevention of pests through beneficial habitat planting.
Conservation of biodiversity.
Eliminates the use of toxic chemicals used in cotton.
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Yet its disadvantages include:
Causes a decline in soil productivity which can be due to wind and water erosion of exposed topsoil ; water holding capacity or biological activity.
The environmental effect of conventional cotton farming:
If you have a mono crop, it’s prone to attacks by disease, and pest. That dramatically increases the need for pesticides, or medication to be used. Such chemicals are making our drinking water toxic, and causing serious problems in the oceans.
The effect on the economy:
Market competition is limited and therefore famers have minimum control over farm prices, they continue to receive smaller portions from consumers.
Economic pressures have lead to a loss of farms which contributes to the disintegration of rural communities and localised marketing systems. This makes it challenging for potential farmers to enter the business today.
The effect on one’s health:
Potential health hazards are tied to sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal production, and pesticide and nitrate contamination of water and food. Farm workers are poisoned in fields, toxic residues are found on foods, and certain human and animal diseases have developed resistance to currently used
2.21 PESTICIDES Manahan (19..) discusses pesticides as water pollutants. DDT was introduced after World War II which accelerated pesticide use. Manahan (19..) states that by the mid-1990s agricultural use of pesticides was over 300 million kg per year and millions more kg of pesticides were used in non-agricultural applications. Manahan: Insecticides such as diazinon, carbaryl and chlorpyifos are most commonly found in water.
Out of everything that changed agriculture, the increasing economic difficulty was arguably the most powerful. With so many farms, the amount of produce rose while the prices of produce fell, in some cases, like with Cotton, prices fell over ⅛ of the original price (Doc A). Because of the extremely low prices, as low as 10 cents in some places, some farmers did not make enough to survive and promptly went out of business. Even with groups like the the Farmer's Alliance defending smaller farmers by pooling together resources and money in
The farmers felt that they were paying more and more to take loans and borrow money, to buy farming necessities and to sell their crops. The prices that had for the crops was degrading dramatically.
Despite farmers trying their best to maintain the agricultural economy, the crisis of banks directly affected their progress as paper money value deflated and also affected employment
Water Pollution in San Joaquin Valley San Joaquin Valley is a place that stretches from 7 different counties such as Stanislaus to Kern county. San Joaquin Valley is known for their agriculture land since the late 19th century, which feeds most of the United States with the vegetables and fruits that are grown in the valley. The rich life of life in agricultural fields rely on the water supply that the valley contains such as groundwater and water on shore. Throughout the past decades, the water quality in San Joaquin Valley becomes to decrease from clean water to polluted water.
In addition, the small family farmers no longer have the support of its
Many citizens found that the policy was an insurance to make the price of money rise. By doing so, farmers found themselves to be on the negative side, unable to benefit from this sudden increase in money. Farmers were one of the few groups that were affected greatly by the Monetary Policy, as they were the ones who lived in an area where money was limited. When government officials helped big industries become profitable “and agriculture less so, banks became increasingly hesitant to lend money to farmers. When they did, it was at a higher rate of interest, making it even more difficult [for farmers] to profit.”
Populists faced many problems in the economy, these problems affected the farmers financially and economically. Consequently,
Most farmers struggled to make a living due to key issues. There was often a high tax on railroads which had cut a large profit from the farmers. The farmers had no other option other than the railroad since the farmers were often very far off westward in the Great Plains, while the market with a large population was still in eastern cities like New York. Likewise farmers had to pay a middle man in the East to sell their commodities in the East, because the poor farmers were unable to travel all the way to the East to sell their products then come back to start farming for the next year. Surprisingly, farmers were often detrimental to themselves due to
Abbie Okon 3/23/18 Grade 7 1. Key Terms 1. The economic depression of the 1780s affected farmers because they had trouble paying their taxes, resulting in the government seizing their land. 2. The judicial branch dealing with trials and upholding the Constitution.
Which the farmers were not making any expense, so they grew more crops than before, and that made things worse. In which it led farmers into a big debt and problems. One of them was the tariff policies during the Gilded Age. Farmers were the victims and were forced to buy manufactured goods to be protected by tariff legislation. But what they produce was not protective and more competitive markets soon to rise of over supplies and foreign competition.
The industrialization of America led to lots of new technology for farming being developed, which further drove farmers into debt. New plows and tools were created and although they made farming significantly easier, they were also very expensive. Farmers were forced to buy these tools by their landlords and they struggled to find cheaper ways to compete with larger farms. Unlike farmers earlier in the century, these farmers did not grow many crops, even for sustenance. Instead, they grew only a couple cash crops, which could bring a lot of money, but also could bring in none if there was a drought or other problem.
Pesticides likewise are utilized to execute life forms that can result in infections. Most pesticides contain chemicals that can be destructive to
being used in the traditional foods, but not in organics, but then those chemicals used in the traditional foods are said to be safe for human health. People are beginning to realize as the demand for food has increased with the population growth, so has the use of chemicals fertilizers antibiotics and hormones by farmers and livestock growers. The consumption of produce and meat, grown with the use of these means has led to the increase more diseases and cancers. People are beginning to believe that the only way to have a healthy
Introduction: “Sustainable agriculture is the efficient production of safe high quality agricultural products, in a way that protects and improves the natural environment the social and economic conditions of farmers their employees and local communities and safe guard the health and welfare of all farmed species“ There are three main principles of sustainable agriculture, the three principles are: 1. Economic sustainability 2. Environmental sustainability 3. Social sustainability With the human population continuing to rise, it is vital that the agricultural industry becomes more sustainable to meet the needs of the growing population. One of the impacts of this growing population is an increase in land usage for settlement purposes.