Topic > Organic Farming and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) as the Future of Food

The total population is expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. The challenge that the world population will face in the future is to ensure food security for all. This means providing nutritious and accessible food to all people. Since agriculture uses much of scarce land and water resources, food production must become more sustainable in the future to preserve the world's resources and ecosystems and ensure high-quality food. Unfortunately, there is no single solution that will solve future problems all at once. A combination of solution approaches is needed, which differ in each locality, place and country. Not all approaches are equally suited to different countries. Focusing on the goal of producing sustainable food, the approach of supporting and consuming only local food from organic farms, in the form of community supported agriculture, will be discussed in more detail below. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The basic concept of community-supported agriculture is the development of a partnership between local farmers and consumers who share the reward but also the risk of the harvest. Such communities already exist around the world. To optimize this concept in my suggested problem-solving approach, supported farmers exclusively run organic farms and produce vegetarian food. The consumer pays a subscription fee before the growing season and in exchange receives a share of the harvest. In other words, during peak season, CSA members receive a weekly delivery of local, seasonal food from nearby organic farms. Outside the growing season, delivery varies depending on the location of the agricultural land. In Germany delivery is usually fortnightly during the low season. Community-supported agriculture benefits both farmers and consumers. The former receive financial support in advance while the latter receive a weekly supply of fresh, healthy and local food. By far the biggest problem with currently most widely used conventional agriculture is the negative impacts on the environment, such as loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, water and air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. , to name just the main implications. The goal of most conventional farming is to get the highest yield possible. Achieving this goal largely contributes to the negative implications on nature mentioned above. Reduced yield in organic farming, resulting in more land needed to produce the same amount, could offset some of the biodiversity benefits of organic farming. Supporting local organic farms as a CSA member also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. At every stage of the food chain, from field to consumer, greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, including farming, farming, transportation, storage and disposal of food. A high amount of greenhouse gases comes from food waste. About a third of the food produced is thrown away. By far the largest contributor to greenhouse gases is fertilizer use and livestock farming. They contribute large amounts of nitrogen and methane to the total amount of greenhouse gases produced. Another part of food production that causes large amounts of greenhouse gases in the form of carbon dioxide is the transportation of food. Long-distance transportation by boat, train or plane is more efficient thanshort transport from supermarket to customer. Small quantities of food are mostly collected by car from the end consumer and these short trips are the least efficient and cause the largest carbon footprint of food in the overall transport contribution. In this case, CSA members can, for example, cause fewer greenhouse gases if they choose an environmentally friendly way to collect food boxes from collection stations. But beyond transportation, supporting local, plant-based and organic food significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to the plant-based diet, no greenhouse gases are released from animal husbandry and farming, meat production and agricultural production to feed livestock. Furthermore, food waste also decreases. A key feature of community-supported agriculture is that harvested fruits and vegetables do not have to be transported long distances from the field to the customer. In other words, there will be no waste due to transportation and storage over long distances. Another advantage in terms of reducing waste is that even fruit and vegetables that do not meet the requirements, such as appearance, shape and size, to be sold in supermarket chains will be consumed. To meet the needs of growing food demand, water and land are crucial for agriculture and food production. 70% of the world's fresh water is used for agriculture alone. For both, agriculture and food production, high-quality water and the availability of water resources are essential. With the rapid increase in population this can no longer be guaranteed. Some countries already face severe water scarcity, and conventional agriculture and livestock play an important role in this problem. Most of the water is used for irrigation. Improper use and inefficient management of water irrigation leads to wasted water and consumption of more water than necessary. Additionally, commercial agriculture causes environmental pollution due to the disposal of animal waste and the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals that leach into water and soil. Organic farming, on the other hand, reduces environmental contamination by avoiding fertilizers and pesticides, which leads to better water and soil quality. With improved soil quality, the water holding capacity of the soil also increases. This means that the water in the soil can be stored for longer and less water is needed for irrigation. The increased capacity also makes the soil more resistant to extreme weather events such as drought, which will be more common in the future due to global warming. The other scarce resource is land. Agriculture already covers 38% of the world's available land surface. Most of it is used for food cultivation and animal husbandry. For meat production, land is used for grazing animals and for agricultural production to feed livestock. One of the greatest future challenges facing the world's population will be to provide enough food for the growing population. Here the question arises whether organic farming can provide enough food for global demand. As mentioned above, more than a single approach is needed to solve this problem. Research has shown that the yield of organic farms is lower than that of commercial farming. However, with the expected increase in drought due to climate change, organic farming becomes more important due to the increased resilience to such extreme weather conditions. Consume only local food from farms.