It has become relatively commonplace to think of agriculture as outside of the scope of ecology and health care, yet our conventional agricultural system has inordinate consequences on both environmental and human health. Fortunately, there is a steadily increasing awareness that agricultural systems are implicated in many of these societal costs, and that food waste and food access inequities are significant issues that can exacerbate these problems. Despite increasing public awareness of these challenges, the notion that business-as-usual is required to feed a growing population is frequently applied as a justification to proceed with the status quo. In this presentation, we will synthesize the state of knowledge on the ecological, climatic, and human health impacts of the conventional agriculture system. As part of this synthesis, we will identify several scientific studies that highlight the high costs of conventional agricultural systems and use these examples to demonstrate the need for a systems approach to both scientific analyses and related decision-making.
Results/Conclusions
The expansive footprint of industrial-scale, monoculture crop and animal agriculture has been at the heart of a range of modern-day challenges, including but not limited to aquatic dead zones, depleted groundwater supplies, widespread soil erosion, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, contaminated water supplies, farm-worker exposure to toxic chemicals, unhealthy work environments, and diet-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes. The costs of these damaging agricultural systems are often born by the public on multiple fronts. For example, agricultural subsidies are oftentimes an upfront cost, while costs due to water pollution, degraded soils, struggling rural communities, and medical costs, among many others, are paid later. To disrupt this trajectory, a more systems-based approach that synthesizes and communicates the costs and benefits of different agricultural systems at the outset is sorely needed. From this perspective, a more holistic ecological approach to agriculture emerges as a promising foundation for a healthier food system. To date, research on agroecological practices has been woefully underfunded, indicating that this is a field with a great deal of untapped potential and a promising place to seek solutions.