Food, Animals, and the Environment: An Ethical Approach by Christopher Schlottmann & Jeff Sebo

Author:Christopher Schlottmann & Jeff Sebo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2018-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

7 Alternatives to industrial agriculture

7.1 Introduction

This chapter will examine alternatives to the industrial agriculture model, organized around major schools of thought and topics. This includes alternative animal agriculture, local agriculture, organic agriculture, and agriculture without animals (including plant-based agriculture, plant-based meat, and cultured meat). We will present the arguments for and against each system in addition to their animal, environmental, and human impacts. For example, we will discuss methane released by pasture-raised cows, land-use change due to lower productivity, the value of counting food miles, the toxicity in organic pesticides, and the possibility of feeding a rising population through non-industrial methods. The aim will be to more closely analyze both the empirical impacts and the values that underlie each alternative agricultural method. We note that, while we will be discussing these categories separately, they can also overlap. Indeed, a local, organic, free-range farm is in fact one of the most common alternatives to industrial agriculture.

Non-industrial agriculture is a broad category of alternatives to industrial agriculture, including (but not limited to) all forms of agriculture practiced before industrialization. In non-industrial agriculture, land clearing is less mechanized, fertilizer comes from nitrogen-fixing plants, compost, or animal manure, and pesticides are avoided or derived from non-synthetic sources. There are many different forms of non-industrial agriculture, and they are often specific to their local ecosystem. These include regenerative agriculture, permaculture, organic agriculture, carbon farming, bioregional farming, and dry farming. Although these forms vary significantly, many emphasize the importance of building soil nutrients, fertility, function (such as water retention), biomass, and biological communities with a minimum of inputs, especially synthetic inputs.

As with the impacts of industrial agriculture, the impacts of non-industrial agriculture vary depending on the inputs used, the land cleared, the soil tilled, and the output produced. Soil organic matter varies greatly across temperate and tropical climates, and so different practices are appropriate for different climates. This makes it difficult to make general statements about the impacts of alternatives to industrial agriculture without also specifying climate, forms of inputs, and other characteristics.

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