Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Traditional Farming Pollutes the Environment

Present Farming Methods Are Not Environmentally or Economically Sustainable
We believe that recirculating farms and in particular aquaponics is the future of global food production.  We cannot continue to sustain the cost of carbon and nitrogen pollution that results from the unbridled use of commercial fertilizer and the cost of transporting food long distances.  We need to grow the food where it is being consumed.  This video on non point source pollution shows how fertilizer indiscriminately spread on farms, lawns, and gardens enters the water system and pollutes the environment.


Nonpoint Source Pollution
Public Service Announcement about nonpoint source pollution


Farm Based Pollution from nitrogen fertilizers are causing significant changes in our water and food production processes.  The Green revolution and the "better living through chemistry (and chemicals) is a classic example of applying technology without thinking through the potential consequences, as the following excerpt from an article by  The American Chemical Society clearly demonstrates.

American Chemical Society
DENVER, Aug. 28, 2011 - Billions of people owe their lives to nitrogen fertilizers - a pillar of the fabled Green Revolution in agriculture that averted global famine in the 20th century - but few are aware that nitrogen pollution from fertilizers and other sources has become a major environmental problem that threatens human health and welfare in multiple ways, a scientist said here today.


Aquaponics Needs to Become a Larger Part of our Food Production System
“It's been said that nitrogen pollution is the biggest environmental disaster that nobody has heard of,” Alan Townsend, Ph.D., observed at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held here this week. Townsend, an authority on how human activity has changed the natural cycling of nitrogen to create a friend-turned-foe dilemma, called for greater public awareness of nitrogen pollution and concerted global action to control it. ... "

The Family Fish Farms Network's solution eliminates all commercial fertilizer, while using natural processes to both dramatically increase food production and simultaneously limit the adverse environmental effects of modern agribiz.  Aquaponics and recirculating farm methods must become a larger part of the global food production strategy.