Health Hotline Magazine | April 2022

Conventional Farming, Human, & Environmental Health

What’s the Connection?

by Lindsay Wilson

When we think of our planet’s top polluters, most of us think of the fossil fuel industry. And we are not wrong. But did you know that conventional agriculture is number three on the list of the most polluting industries? (It falls just behind energy and transportation.) A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that conventional agriculture is responsible for 12 percent of air pollution-related deaths each year. It is also the single largest contributor to health and economic damages from ground level emissions of ammonia, emitted from synthetic fertilizer used on conventional farms and manure produced on CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). Speaking of CAFOs, these industrialized feeding operations are directly responsible for more than seven percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from manure alone. Overall, conventional agriculture is responsible for 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with the majority of emissions coming from the cultivation of crops like corn, soy, rice, and wheat. Conventional agriculture is bad for the environment, and our health The way we produce our food is not sustainable. In a quest for greater productivity, we have come to rely on large-scale, high- intensity monocultures, in which huge areas of land are dedicated to producing a single crop or livestock species, requiring massive amounts of synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Each year, the U.S. uses more than one billion pounds of pesticides and tens of millions of pounds of synthetic fertilizers, with commodity crops like corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat accounting for most of their use. Animals raised in CAFOs produce between 2,800 tons and 1.6 million tons of manure a year, depending on the type and number of animals. It has been estimated that each year, livestock animals in CAFOs create between 3 and 20 times more manure than all of the people in the U.S.—with no sewage treatment required. This way of producing food is polluting our water, air, and soil and ultimately, our health. More than 90 percent of the U.S. population has detectable levels of pesticides in their bodies and most of the exposure comes from food and drinking water. Cumulative and chronic pesticide exposure has been linked to numerous health problems, including

developmental disorders, cancer, reproductive and endocrine problems, neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory conditions. Water quality is also highly a ected by agricultural runo of water from farm fields. Runo from fields washes pesticides and fertilizers into lakes, rivers, and streams, impacting drinking water for nearby residents. The University of California at Davis Center for Watershed Sciences studied the link between agriculture and groundwater and found that “agricultural fertilizers and animal wastes are by far the largest regional sources of nitrate in groundwater, contributing 96 percent of the nitrate loading to groundwater in these agricultural regions.” Dead zones and algae blooms resulting from agricultural runo are an ever-growing problem as well. An algae overgrowth can choke out aquatic life and make water unsafe for swimming and drinking. Further, algae blooms emit large amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, which scientists say can accelerate global methane emissions up to 90 percent over the next century. Conventional agriculture also takes a major toll on the soil. Monocrops of corn, soy, wheat, oats, etc. that require heavy tilling, multiple harvests each year, and the heavy use of chemicals deplete valuable soil nutrients and microbes, requiring farmers to use ever increasing amounts of chemical fertilizers to stimulate plant growth. The heavy use of pesticides further depletes important soil microorganisms. A recent United Nations study found that one-third of the Earth’s fertile soil is being “acutely degraded.” The biggest factor? Conventional agriculture. Soil degradation leads to erosion and eventually desertification, threatening food production. Degraded soil also releases carbon into the atmosphere, making it a major contributor to climate change.

Conventional agriculture is responsible for 12% of air pollution- re ated deaths each year

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