Philosophy of Agriculture
Philosophy of Agriculture
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What is a philosophy of agriculture? Identify and explain some of the important differences between an industrial philosophy of agriculture and an agrarian philosophy of agriculture. Which of these is best able to address the environmental and ethical challenges that our conventional agricultural system poses? Please use the 2 references I attached, please make sure to CITE your work, PLEASE follow instructions that I will attach. Also, including the 2 references I attached, Please also use this reference: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/2011/07/18/mythbusting-101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/ So in total 3 references. PLEASE HAVE A CLEAR AND PRECISE THESIS
Organic agriculture and the global food supply
Catherine Badgley1, Jeremy Moghtader2,3, Eileen Quintero2, Emily Zakem4, M. Jahi Chappell5, Katia Aviles-Vazquez2, Andrea Samulon2 and Ivette Perfecto2*
1Museum of Palaeontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
2School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA.
3Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
4School of Art and Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
5Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Abstract
The principal objections to the proposition that organic agriculture can contribute significantly to the global food supply are low yields and insufficient quantities of organically acceptable fertilizers. We evaluated the universality of both claims. For the first claim, we compared yields of organic versus conventional or low-intensive food production for a global dataset of 293 examples and estimated the average yield ratio (organic: non-organic) of different food categories for the developed and the developing world. For most food categories, the average yield ratio was slightly <1.0 for studies in the developed world and >1.0 for studies in the developing world. With the average yield ratios, we modeled the global food supply that could be grown organically on the current agricultural land base. Model estimates indicate that organic methods could produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without increasing the agricultural land base. We also evaluated the amount of nitrogen potentially available from fixation by leguminous cover crops used as fertilizer. Data from temperate and tropical agroecosystems suggest that leguminous cover crops could fix enough nitrogen to replace the amount of synthetic fertilizer currently in use. These results indicate that organic agriculture has the potential to contribute quite substantially to the global food supply, while reducing the detrimental environmental impacts of conventional agriculture. Evaluation and review of this paper have raised important issues about crop rotations under organic versus conventional agriculture and the reliability of grey-literature sources. An ongoing dialogue on these subjects can be found in the Forum editorial of this issue.