The
damage modern industrial farming does is not always obvious because people have
short memories. Where there were once forests and prairie with all their complex
web of plants and animals, there are now just huge areas of ploughed earth.
Enormous machines damage the soils and open it to being blown or washed away
by wind and rain. They sow seeds of identical plants which are regularly sprayed
with poisons to kill insects and diseases. They scatter artificial fertilisers.
The machines themselves pollute the air with smoke and fumes while the poisons
and fertilisers soak down into the soil or run off into streams and rivers.
This pollution affects drinking water (so
that in many places it has to be purified before it's fit
to drink) and the animals and plants that live in the rivers and lakes and
even the sea. 
This
type of farming works against Nature. It regards Nature as 'the enemy' to be
poisoned, burnt, cut and smashed. It creates vast areas of 'monoculture desert'
— without any life but the crop.
Soil erosion is a serious problem which is caused by bad farming practices. The best known example was the 1930s Dust Bowl of the Great Plains of North America.
More on soil erosion
Modern
farming is on a collision course with nature. It's now right up there with global
warming in the scale of damage it is doing. That's
bad news for everyone.
Farming problems
-
more
people wanting to eat more meat means new farmland covering an area the size
of the USA will be needed. To achieve that...
-
more
forest and wild grassland will be destroyed, and more animals and plants will
go extinct
-
farm animal diseases like
bird flu will spread to humans with more epidemics likely
What is bird flu?Flu (= influenza) can be a serious illness in both humans and farm animals, including birds like chickens and ducks. Some strains of flu (e.g.H7N9) can quickly infect thousands of animals, particularly in the cramped conditions in factory farms. Two strains of bird flu, H5N1 and, more recently H7N9, can infect humans and are often deadly.
-
pollution
from farming will get much worse. This will be partly from too much fertiliser
and pesticides, but also from farm animal waste
Not
good, is it?
Industrial
farming is spoiling the soil and water it uses. It's seriously
threatening world food supplies because it is the largest single
threat to the earth’s biodiversity:
- ruining
soils
- drying
out precious water supplies
- polluting
water
- destroying
natural forest
To be
fair, this type of farming started with the best of intentions: to feed people
cheaply. It's been very good at doing this in those countries which could afford
it, but that was largely because nobody paid the full
costs caused by the pollution and other damage such farming causes. What's
more, most governments in rich countries like those in Europe and North America
subsidise (give money to) their farmers
to make their products artificially cheaper. This business of 'true costs' is
all very complicated I'm afraid.
For
more on the damage done by factory farming, click the pig image
to visit the GRACE Factory Farm Project.