Reed Traynor
Geology
Professor Hilton
November 16, 2015

Agricultural Environmental Impacts
With modern advances in technology and medicine the world’s population is at an all time high. With the spike in the human population, modern technology is trying to catch up in order to efficiently feed all of those people, while also struggling with trying to reduce the environmental footprint that it may leave behind. The earth can simply not sustain the human population if the birth rate continues to be this large. In order to keep up with today’s food demand, land is being cleared in order to raise cattle or grow crops to provide food for the worlds growing population. With the increase in agricultural also comes with it a series of environmental problems that end up hurting the earth as well as ourselves in the process.
Although agriculture can help provide much needed food for the world population, the fact is that the earth cannot healthily sustain and produce this much food without some extreme environmental consequences. Agriculture both directly affects the local wildlife as well as damages ecosystems. About 70% of the earth’s freshwater withdrawals are in fact due to crop irrigation. Withdrawing this much freshwater can majorly impact the ecosystem as well as the local human population with no better example of this then Aral Sea area in Russia. Not only does agriculture effect common animals but also effects endangered and threatened species, approximately 53% of the species on the threatened list are directly and negatively affected by agriculture. Agricultural effects these animals directly by clearing out large tracts of land, as well as using many different chemicals in order to control pests and in order to maximize crop production.
Agricultural not only effects the wildlife but it also effects the atmosphere currently between 24% and 10% less of the earths carbon is stored in the plants and soils simply due to the fact that there is not as much plants as there used to be. Plants use the carbon for their own benefit and oxygen is recycled back into the atmosphere as a bi-product. To add to the fact that farms play a huge role in clearing out land and therefore clearing out plants and other foliage, it is predicted that approximately 30%-35% of the earth’s greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the agricultural industry. To sum this up the agricultural industry is both hindering the amount of carbon the earth can hold by clearing out plants, while at the same time being one of the top contributors to releasing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. This will indefinitely affect the climate in the very near future in a negative way, which will not only effect us and the wildlife but also the farmers which will have to adapt to the changing climate.
Although both agricultural and the environment are in a somewhat state of conflict there are ways in which we can address these problems and try to resolve them. A start would be implementing national regulations that restrict the amount of fertilizers and chemicals used as well as restrict the amount of water. This would both conserve water while limiting the amount of harmful chemicals other plants and animals are exposed to. Another implement that can be used is giving tax incentives to farmers that use environmentally friendly practices towards the environment. These few changes would both help stop climate change, maximize water usage, and limit the amount of chemicals in our environment. Implementing more enviormentaly friendly agricultural practices now will ensure a healthier environment for later.

Works cited
Tanentzap, Andrew J., et al. "Resolving Conflicts Between Agriculture And The Natural Environment." Plos Biology 13.9 (2015): 1-13. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.