Maria Voss Voss 1 Mrs. Flowers 8 October 2013 Arguing A Position Paper World Benefits When Buying Local Global warming, pollution, and dwindling fossil fuels will always be the conservational problems if nobody starts to buy local grown foods. Katherine Spriggs, author of the essay, “On Buying Local,” explains how having a large variety of foods at all times of the year is not worth the negative effects in the communities and their economies (Spriggs 92). As a community, many environmental challenges are being faced; Buying local will help bring advantages to not only the environment, but also the small towns and the …show more content…
However, agriculture is the central issue. While pesticides are being used to keep crops alive, a benefit to farmers, the natural ecosystem is not exactly experiencing the same effect; the ecosystem is being destroyed. An effective way agriculturists can improve on decreasing the amount of pesticides is to use continuous production, where it is reusing the fields, without wasting and hurting them. Another important environmental issue is the waste of energy and fuel used when transporting crops across the country. Semi trucks consume a large amount of fuel and give off a large amount of pollutants when driving long distances. Spriggs includes that interstate trucking is expensive both financially and ecologically (Spriggs 97). Buying locally would eliminate the waste of energy and fuel from driving city to city. The food is also handled more when having to be transported across the states. The less hands we have on our food, the cleaner it is. Besides the environmental factors, another point would be that small farms benefit greatly when consumers buy locally grown foods. Small, locally owned farms Voss 3 usually are more reliable and consumers are willing to pay a larger sum of money for the goods. The produce is usually fresher and comes from a smaller line of handling compared to that from larger farms. Small farmers focus their farming techniques on being sustainable, which includes reducing the use of
Sure, industrial food is cheaper and easier to make, but smaller farms who make most of the food humans eat, do not get a lot of money, meaning people will go broke and lose their jobs. "we are a family owned business." Sandhya Dirks, the author of The Economic Impact of Killing 'Pink Slime' says. To further Dirks idea, their are more people who work on small, local farms, than large, industrial farms. MIchael Pollan, the author of Omivores Dilemma, says, " " If the American farmer is more productive than even before, how come so many farmers are going broke." IN other words- people who work on small local farms, who work so much hard than industrial farmers, who spend their days slaving away in a field, make less then the industrial farmers, who work
Subsequently, there is always two sides to every coin. The bad side of conventional farming methods used by corporate farmers that result in the shipping of foods long distances to major grocery stores. Big farm operations require energy at many points - petrochemicals and energy are
1 Farmers may not totally understand the product value. They may not easily accept new product that they have never heard about.
In either case, I think this stresses the need for people to be more sustainable by purchasing organically and locally grown food.
As Jennifer Maiser explains in Source A, a study found that eating locally does in fact improve the economic value of that area. An organization in London conducted a study that proved the practice of a locavore doubled their income, and kept money from leaving the community to be spent elsewhere. Highlighted in Source E, Pallavi Gogoi stated, “Small farmers will be able to get up to 75% of their organic certification costs reimbursed...and obtain crop insurance,” which shows that it is very beneficial
Local sustainable farming has many attributes, but one of the most important is to preserve the quality of the environment. Even though farming is not a new concept, many people do not know what it is or how it works, yet most of them think that food just comes from supermarkets. The current industrial agriculture system have improved the yields of production by growing monocrops such as corn and soy, which in turn is leading the land to erosion. It has also implemented the use of new technologies, mechanization, chemical products, and government policies (Ingels, Campbell 1.) However, it has had significant costs. Land deterioration, water contamination, and human health problems related to diet are some of them. As the industrial farms, sustainable farms also have high yield of production. As shown in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” Polyface, a local sustainable farm located in virginia, produces in a season: 30,000 dozen eggs, 10,000 broilers, 800 stewing hens, 25,000 Lbs of beef, 25,000 lbs of pork, 1,000 turkeys, and 500 rabbits (14). Opposite to Industrial farming, local sustainable agriculture is helping the land recover thanks to the implementation of multicropping and the use of
If we all took the time to do the easy research to buy local and support our community, we can visualize a healthy community both economically and physically. Less traffic and allergies and more fresh produce! According to greenupgrader.com one of the top reasons to buy local is because small local businesses are the largest employers nationally. Plus the more jobs you have in your local community the less people are going to have to commute which means more time and less traffic and pollution. Another benefit of buying local is Competition and
When it comes to factory farming it may be cheaper, but sustainable farming practices have their advantages. When it comes to our society it can make communities proud of where their food comes from and be healthier for the local community. “Pasture-based agriculture has the potential to enhance social sustainability as well, providing an alternative to large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—which have been the focus of many community disputes and have been associated with health problems and decreased property values for residential neighbors.”(Conner & Oppenheim, 2008) There are also some advantages when it comes to economics. “Grazing dairy operations generally require less investment, earn greater returns, and achieve higher net income per cow and per cwt (Conner et al., 2006). Reliance on grass-based feed may also help farmers better manage risk in grain supply and potential price volatility as increasing amounts of field crops are used in bio-fuel production.” (Conner & Oppenheim, 2008) It may take time, but small to medium sustainable farms would be possible and could have economic growth for the local communities.
This large supply allows for cheaper pricing than local farms are able to provide. Efficiently supplying food to larger cities, Factory Farms prevent food shortages from occurring (Benefitsof.org, “Benefits of Factory Farming”). By the same token, these farms manage an abundance of crops and animals on a small amount of land in order to avoid wasting money on useless acreage . However, these benefits unfortunately can result in negative effects on the environment.
Large factories require large tractors and plows to grow, care for, and harvest crops. One field needs a tractor, cultivator, a rotator, manure spreaders, sprayers, and more. Each piece of equipment emits smoke and carbon dioxide, which pollutes our air. Additionally, produce from large farms are sent to factories to be packaged and/or canned. Factories are terrible for the environment because they emit smoke and hazardous chemicals. Even more important, a majority of large farms use pesticides. Though pesticides kill harmful bugs, they can also harm people and cause defects. Pesticides can cause more harm than good. So growing your own food can help the environment
One of the most exciting and promising food trends currently sweeping the nation is local food. Local food is grown locally, shipped to local markets, and sold to people no more than 25-50 miles from its origin. This trend is making big waves in the food world and it has many people asking: is local food worth all the hype?
On the other hand facilities gives a fast solution with low risks, farmers can make a lot of food from their farms and be
Farming (1) would you be willing to pay more for your food if it were to cost more using more sustainable agricultural methods?Yes, I would indeed be willing to pay more for my food if it was produced using sustainable agriculturalmethods. Meaning we would have this food in the future and we wouldn’t be using pesticides and fertilizers as they effect human health and they aren't sustainable in the long run. We can plant crops like clover or hairy vetch when soil would usually be bare to help prevent erosion of the soil. These crops also replenish soil nutrients and keep weeds in check which then prevents the use of herbicides and fertilizers. Planting a variety of crops can also have many benefits, including healthier soil and improved pest control, and that is very important on a farm. Traditional plowing prepares fields for planting and also prevents weed problems, but can cause a lot of soil loss. No plowing or reduced plowing methods, which involve inserting seeds directly into undisturbed soil, can reduce erosion and improve soil health. We don’t need to use fertilizers if we put crops like clover or hairy vetch with other crops as the do the same thing as fertilizers but in a natural way. They also don’t interfere with water ways and cause algae blooms like fertilizers do. We can also put livestock in with our crops as they will fertilise crops in a more natural way like they would in nature. Pesticides can be found in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water
Within some recent years, the number of family farms in the United States have decreased. From the United States of Agriculture, “the number of U.S. farms fell sharply until the early 1970’s after peaking at 6.8 million in 1935. By 2002, about 2.1 million farms remained.” (USDA, 2013) On the positive side, there are many benefits deriving from family farm food producers; one being the health benefits. Foods that are produced on family farms are generally produced without the use of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and other unsafe additives. This makes meat and produce the healthier choice. Another benefit to family farms is the environmental health. One example, livestock are raised less intensively by family farmers. This creates a better crop rotation, and in turn, is considered more environmentally sound and humane way to produce meat. Though there are many benefits that come with family farms, there are also various challenges to face. On being the human labor. Working the land is quite difficult especially if you don’t have the type of equipment to do so with. With this being said, family farming is also very expensive. Since growing high quality products can be quite pricey, some farmers are forced to cut whatever expensive are not completely necessary to
Pesticides are used to protect crops from being eaten by insects, the pesticide work as a repellent. Scientist now know that pesticides can cripple a species over time. Certain pesticides are designed to kill the insects that eat the plant, this is creating a lack of biological diversity in ecosystems. For example, Bee population has been declining for some time now. Without Bees, there would be no pollination of plants, potentially crippling entire ecosystems. Fertilizers contain nitrogen, runoff carries this element to