Agriculture and food is something I believe most of us take for granted at some point in our lives, even if for a short moment. Perhaps not everyone really needs to know that the global food supply comprises mainly of 14 plant species, but everyone should at least take a moment to stop, think, and appreciate where it all comes from and how it all comes together.
Ideally, we should practice long-term sustainability when it comes to agriculture, with an additional focus on improvements and efficiency. A field full of corn is probably the first thing people think of when agriculture is brought up (it’s what I thought of, at least), but a monoculture is not exactly very sustainable. A single crop in a large area homogenizes the environment and leaves it susceptible to disease and pests, which are sometimes dealt with by use of non-environmentally friendly methods like harsh pesticides.
On the other hand, a polyculture should have a healthier effect on the environment around it. Having native species around (not introduced and potentially invasive species!) would help keep the ecosystem in check and raise its resistance and resilience naturally instead of putting so much manual effort into doing the work ourselves.
Food security is the ability for people to have access to a sufficient amount of proper, healthy food, and it is tied to agriculture in that agricultural efficiency is becoming more and more important as the world’s population grows. Food is a basic necessity of our human lives, and efficiency is a clear path to achieving it. As new technology gets developed, more plant foods that we humans rely on for so much of our diet could be much more readily distributed. It doesn’t even have to be a complex idea. If done correctly, methods like drip irrigation instead of a sprinkler system can save on water and create better agricultural success by delivering water right to where it’s needed and with less wasted water in the form of runoff.
Take a quick moment to think about these kinds of things. Living our lives from one busy day to another often means they go by unnoticed.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 