The Effects Of Conventional Agricultural Farms On Agriculture

Anyone can have the globe on their dinner plate. Literally speaking, carbon dioxide (CO2), greenhouse gases, and fossil fuel emissions play a role in imported food as does climate change. Conventional agricultural farms are known for being one of the biggest contributors to climate change. Federal policies and subsidies can aid farmers in the fight against altering the climate. Subsidies first allowed cheap commodity crops to flourish during Nixon’s presidency and while they allow farmers to grow, use, and sell cheap produce today, the machinery and transport of it has otherwise been and is destructive to the climate. The amount of fossil fuels and pollution emitted by crop, meat, and fish farms pose as a climatic risk and can be reduced†¦show more content†¦The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must consign a farm protocol that requires organic soil to be used in croplands which will help eliminate problematic soils caused from CO2 emissions from cultivated farml ands. Everette Burdick, a chemist and former USDA researcher for five years, studied how climate change affects soil in Coral Gables. Burdick states, â€Å"Cultivation of land has been the main CO2 emission source with plant growth and production being jeopardized by changes in the distribution of rainfall†¦this degradation of drylands results in soil exhaustion and erosion. It diminishes soil productivity, and negatively impacts areas not directly affected by its symptoms, by causing floods, soil salinization, and silting of rivers, streams and reservoirs† (1). Continental lands, which include farms, tend to create a buildup in salt production, which is the process of desertification, if the crop soil is affected by rainfall shortages which are affected by CO2 emissions on the climate. In this case, it is possible for the crop to undergo cryptobiosis, a form of de-oxygenation which occurs when soil becomes dehydrated, which then makes the crop ‘dead’ from lack of sustenance. Burdick affirms that, â€Å"The emission limitation