c



³~

 is the human enterprise by which natural ecosystems are transformed into ones

devoted to the production of food, fiber, and, increasingly, fuel.´1 (Holbrook, 2007, P. 1) One of

the first things English settlers on the Atlantic Coast tried to do was to find products they could

sell back in Britain. They harvested from the forests, they bought furs from the Indians, but in

Virginia they quickly discovered a crop they could export in great demand: tobacco. It became

the first money crop for the settlers setting a pattern for American agriculture.

Until World War I, most wheat, cereals, cotton, and livestock products came from

Western settlements and Russia was the main exporter of wheat into Western Europe, the Soviet

Revolution interrupted all Russian exports. After World War II, food shortages again prompted

Western Europe to became self sufficient and later they began exporting their own crops. In the

US, farming communities were slowly in the decline in favor of factories and farm towns turned

into urban societies. Wild foods were in less demand except for the occasional hunting or fishing

trip as modern conveniences like vacuum sealed jars and frozen vegetables entered the mix and

modernized farm equipment reduced the demand. The efficiency of large scale farming

eventually brought cheaper food prices and growing it yourself took more labor and money than

buying it at the grocery store. Today it is difficult to tell how many farms are in the US. In 1974

the Department of Agriculture defined a farm by the volume of sales, not acreage. Producing

goods that amount to $1000.00 qualifies as a farm. In 1999 a few more stipulations were added, a

horse farm with five or more horses and farms producing maple syrup or short woody crops were

added regardless of what they were earning. Of the 285 million people living in this country, less

than one percent claim farming as an occupation, another one percent live on farms. There are

about two million farms, way down from the peak in 1935 of about 6.8 million. 2 Ninety percent

are family owned while only three percent are corporate according to a 1997 census. Only
 





46,000 farms accounted for fifty percent of agricultural sales, down from 62,000 in 1992. With

such variation and decline, a group of Purdue University agricultural economist answered the

question: ³How large would a crop and livestock operation have to be to be considered

economically viable for the long term?´ They said, ³~
 



 



 










 




 
 



 


(Ess, 2009, P.11)

Agriculture is the only business tightly matched with population, even when population

quadrupled in just over one hundred years there was still enough food to feed the entire

population because of advances in technology. Yet, food production must continue to increase

with the population AND add as little stress as possible to the current environment. The last two

decades we have learned a great deal about our relationship with the environment and the impact

we have on it. Nineteenth century American farmers considered nature to be the enemy as they

fought to survive against the elements, disease, and pests. The land became a product of human

consumption as farmers converted marshes, forests, and prairies into fields since most land is not

suitable for agriculture. Now we know the environment determines what can be cultivated. Each

organism has an ideal habitat that depends on a complex set of conditions. Three key factors are

soil, water and energy.4 Land, water, and energy resources required to support the current level

of food production are so enormous, it is a major factor impacting the earth¶s ecosystems.

Temperature, landscape, climate, soil quality, and available technologies, including

scientific research on plant and animal genetics determine how much of the earth¶s surface can

be used for agriculture. As technology gets better, the zone for agriculture can expand. By

developing a simple horse collar, Chinese farmers were able to use livestock to pull plows and

farm in heavier soils than they could till by hand. Today staple foods like wheat, potatoes, corn
 [





and rice can be produced with added nutrients. Other influencing factors include land ownership,

population, and environmental regulations.

To help plan land-use, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)

developed Agro-Ecological Zoning showing how well agriculture might do based on the climate,

soil, and landscape. It estimates that more than three quarters of Earth¶s land is not suited for

raising crops without irrigation. What¶s left has some land and/or climate limits (leaving a total

of about three and a half percent).

In the United States, the European Union, and Japan, productivity is higher than demand

so land is being preserved; instead concentrated farming with less land is used. In developing

countries, just the opposite is happening. Both are a cause for concern; one has serious

environmental impacts, and the other is a major cause of deforestation altering ecosystems

providing services like carbon or floodwaters management.

Drought is the biggest draw back on productivity because plants need an enormous

amount of water.
One third or sixteen percent of all harvests come from irrigated areas. Every

year, humans divert about five times the annual flow of the Mississippi River from the global

water cycle for crops. Without irrigation, countries like Egypt would be very limited and grain in

China, India, and the Great Plains of the United States would fall sharply.

Nitrogen, which plants obtain from the soil, is another critical resource. Natural levels of

nitrogen availability often limit crop yields. In 1908 German chemist Fritz Haber developed a

process for combining nitrogen and hydrogen gases at high temperatures to produce ammonia,

which can be processed further into nitrate. The process was made during World War I and

World War II to make nitric acid for munitions. It also launched the fertilizer industry. After
 è





World War II, it was used widely to boost crop productivity in regions where farmers could

afford it. Today the amount of nitrogen gas used in the production of synthetic fertilizers is

about the same amount occurring in biological nitrogen fixation and lightning compared to fossil

fuel combustion which only releases about five percent of the carbon exchange that occurs

naturally. Pest control also changed during WW II with synthetic pesticides replacing salt, sulfur,

and arsenic. Rachel Carlson first realized the dangers. We have since learned that numbers of

natural herbivore predation is greatly reduced with pesticides, causing pest population to grow at

much faster rates. Farmer field schools in Indonesia taught farmers to decrease pesticides by

millions of dollars in the 1990¶s and they still saw an increase in rice production by using natural

predation instead.

Energy use, especially in raising livestock on grain with traditional methods are

extremely intensive and may continue to climb with the price of oil. Fattening one steer on corn

to market weight can consume the equivalent of 35 gallons of oil. Bio-fuels are being considered

as a way to reduce reliance on imported oil and can be used in most engines with a few

adjustments. Ethanol is made from corn and ferments easily. It is sold mainly in the corn-belt and

has helped drive up corn prices but has little impact reducing greenhouse gases due to fertilizer

use. There is research on making ethanol from the cell walls of fast-growing plants like switch-

grass, willow and poplar trees, as well as corn stalks that contain more energy. This cellulosic

ethanol could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to eighty five percent compared to

gasoline. A fermentation process has yet to be discovered but it is expected to be in production

by 2012. If it becomes an industry, it could create new markets for energy crops that require

fewer chemicals than corn and can be raised on land not used for food crops but it might also

reduce biodiversity changing more land into managed ecosystems.5

 D





By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Being

conservative, estimates predict the population will increase by about 3 billion people. To feed

those people, about 20% more land than the size of Brazil will be needed using traditional

farming practices. At present, throughout the world, over eighty percent of the land that is

suitable for raising crops is not available for farming. And even if it were, fifteen percent of that

land has been wasted due to poor management. What can be done to avoid major food shortages?

Vertical farms using indoor hothouse production constructed many stories high, could be located

in the middle of the busiest urban centers. If successful, they will bring urban renewal,

sustainable produce with year-round crop production, and eventually allow ecosystems used for

traditional farming to recover.

The list of advantages continues: crops would not be subject to drought, floods, disease,

or pests; no pesticides or fertilizers are used, there is no run off, black-water is recycled, vertical

farming returns energy by composting non edible parts of plants and fish, no tractors, plows or

shipping thus reducing fossil fuel use drastically, converts abandoned urban property into food

production facilities, it could also improve economic conditions and reduce conflict over land

and water resources. Vertical farming uses ninety percent less water.

In conclusion, it took humans ten thousand years to learn how to grow most of the crops

we now take for granted. Along the way, we ruined most of the land we worked, often giving up

lush, natural ecosystems and the vital services they provide. Within that same time frame, we

evolved into an urban species; sixty percent of the population lives in high rise cities. The

majority of people are protected against the elements, yet our food-bearing plants may or may

not have a good harvest depending on the weather. As the climate becomes more fickle, so will

our harvest. Planning for a future of sustainability just might include a whole new tradition.6
 r





Notes

1. Holbrook, N.M. (2007). The Habitable Planet: Agriculture-Unit 7. Washington, DC:

space Annenberg Media.

2. Conklin, P.K. (2008). A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of

spaceAmerican Agriculture since 1929. Lexington, KY: University Press of

spaceKentucky.

3. Ess, D.R. (2009). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ag 101: Demographics,

**** Economics, and Crop Production. Retrieved from

spacehttp://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/demographics.html

4. Federico, G. (2008). Feeding the World: An Economic History of Agriculture, 1800-

**** 2000 (Princeton Economic History of the Western World). Princeton, NJ:

*****Princeton University Press.

5. Holbrook, N.M. (2007). The Habitable Planet: A Systems Approach to

*****Environmental Science. Washington, DC: Annenberg Media, Harvard

*****University Press. Retrieved from http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/

6. Despommier, D. (2009). The Vertical Farm Project-Agriculture for the 21st Century

*****and Beyond. New York, NY: Thomas Dunne Books. Retrieved from

*****http://www.verticalfarm.com/