Organic Farming vs Factory Farming

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Recommended: Agriculture and industrialization

Many consumers and farmers have discovered that living in an industrialized culture where the focus has become faster, bigger, and cheaper is not the best way to produce our food. Obsessed with productivity, the agriculture industry is reaping the negative consequences of creating an unsustainable environment for food production. Time and time again, the media captures stories regarding deadly bacterial contamination and dangerous pesticide contamination causing illness and death in our communities. The environment is also damaged and contaminated. This devastating trend, due to irresponsible farming practices as a result of the industrialization of the food industry, has become all too common. Returning to organic farming, which our grandparents referred to as farming, and reclaiming our food is not only our choice, it is our right.

Conventional farming practices are responsible for many negative health and environmental issues. One of the main issues is the creation of monocultures in the farming environment. Specifically growing the same species of plants or animals in mass quantities without variation every season is not natural. Monocultures do not exist in nature (Pollan 67). Nature practices diversity and for good reason. In nature and organic farming, if there is a threat to one species, there are others to balance the decrease in the threatened species. Conventional farmers and the modern food industry argue that planting the same crop year after year is convenient and profitable because it cuts down on the different types of farm equipment necessary in production, and initially, in the types of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers needed. However, in this unnatural environment, tremendous amounts of pest...

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Goodall, Jane, Gary McAvoy, and Gail Hudson. Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating. New

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Kluger, Jeffrey. “What's So Great About Organic Food?” Time. 176.9 (2010): 30-40. Online. Internet.

19 Nov. 2013. Available: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.purdue.edu/ehost/detail

Parnes, Robin Brett. “How Organic Food Works.” Online. Internet. 20 Nov. 2013. Available:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/organic-food4.htm

Perry, Luddene, and Schultz, Dan. A Field Guide to Buying Organic. New York: Bantam Books, 2005.

Robbins, Ocean. “Is Organic Really Better?” (2013). Online. Internet. 20 Nov. 2013. Available:

http://www,foodrevolution.org/blog/is-organic-better/

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