picture from http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/05/prince-charles-sustainable-agriculture-farming
Recently I have heard a lot about Prince Charles and his keynote address on sustainable agriculture. Although I knew a bit about sustainable agriculture from some of my classes I did a little research on exactly what it is. It turns out I am not the only one confused, everywhere I looked had a slightly different definition and most even said that it was a hard to find. By looking at a lot of definitions I have concluded that sustainable agriculture is both a philosophy and an agricultural system. It is the practice of farming with the best interest of both the environment and consumers. Sustainable agriculture should not be confused with organic or natural farming practices, although they share a lot of the same ideals there are slight variations. Sustainable farming still allows the use of fertilizers and pesticides, although it reduces the use of these to ensure that there is still adequate land and resources to feed the worlds growing population in the future.
In his address prince Charles suggested that sustainable farming and agricultural processes were the only way to feed the worlds growing populations. He made a very important point when he said that the key to sustainable is small local farmers using sustainable practices.
I see this very much in my area because it is mostly small farmers. When running a smaller family farm farmers have to be very conscious of their land. If farmers were to mistreat their land by overworking it, using to many chemicals, or over watering it they would not be able to farm on it for very long. In this way Price Charles is correct assuming that most small farmers are really stewards of the land. They ensure proper practices are used so that they can continue to farm and feed the public in the future
No comments:
Post a Comment