Publish at May 11 2020 Updated May 03 2022
Intensive agriculture developed during the second half of the 20th century and is still widely used today. Yet more and more voices are being heard for a return to more traditional techniques, even polemical ones. State of play!
According to Encyclopedia Britanica [1], intensive agriculture is, in agricultural economics, a system of cultivation that uses a large amount of labor and capital in relation to the surface area of the land.
Although its detractors are many, advocates of intensive agriculture make these arguments:
As time goes by, we gradually realize that this type of agriculture ends up having more disadvantages than advantages.
Even though it is animal husbandry, it is part of intensive food production techniques. Everyone has seen on Youtube or on television reports or the cruelty to animals raises the heart. As a result, more and more people are turning to a vegetarian diet. They are relatively numerous depending on the food consumption they allow themselves: Vegan, lacto-ovo vegetarian, lacto-vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, frutarian, pescetarian, crudivore [2].
Tree felling, sludge control and burning techniques, and clearing of forest areas to make way for agriculture have led to massive deforestation and soil erosion. Natural habitats, biological diversity, and wildlife have been greatly affected.
Intensive agriculture is also implicated in the production of greenhouse gases. Fertilizer use, heated greenhouses, and extensive mechanization are the causes. [3]
Chemical pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, etc. are the basis of this type of agriculture.
Insecticides and pesticides also kill beneficial insects that contribute to the loss of biodiversity.
The use of chemical fertilizers and herbicides contaminates the water table, wildlife habitats, and water bodies such as estuaries, rivers,lakes and even seas.
Fertilizers, in particular, are the main cause of eutrophication [4] in most of the world's water bodies such as seas, lakes and rivers.
With intensive agriculture primarily focused on mass production of food products, production strategies neglect the need for quality and nutritious food products.
Various individuals or organizations are advocating for a return to more traditional or even organic agriculture.
The big question being whether humanity can afford to return to traditional or organic agricultural production.
According to a study [5] cited by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and widely picked up by organic advocates, in some areas this type of farming would do even better by conventional, and thus intensive, farming since it has become the norm.
This study ,scientists tell us, was able to refute these claims:
"Two objections are usually made against the claim that organic farming can feed everyone. Opponents of organic farming, proclaim that it provides only low yields and that there is not enough organic fertilizer to provide substantial yields."
"A team of research scientists led by Catherine Badgley of the University of Michigan Ann Harbor, USA, has now refuted these widely held, but false, ideas about organic farming. Organic agriculture produces yields that are roughly comparable to conventional agriculture in developed countries, on the one hand, and much higher yields in developing countries, on the other; on the other hand, more than sufficient amounts of nitrogen can be provided by symbiotic fixation in the soil by simply employing green manures
The research team compared the yields obtained from organic and conventional agriculture (including low-intensity food production) across 293 examples; they estimated the average yield ratio (organic or conventional) of different categories of food production in various developed and developing countries. " [6]
At the producer level, initiatives are multiplying and we are even witnessing a return of the draft horse in small farms as shown by this project financed on the csocio-financing platform Miimosa [7].
Search engines and thus Google give us interesting indications.
Google trends gives us as indications the number of searches made on a phrase. We can see that both biodynamics and lunar calendar are increasingly searched expressions with a regular upward trend.
Without getting into the controversy over biodynamics, which some people call a cult given the history of its creator, Rudolf Steiner, here's what it's all about.
The biodynamics is different from organic farming. While it may share basic elements or goals. Biodynamics considers that it is not possible to produce quality food in a land that is not healthy, reason to take care of it.
Biodynamic agriculture is first and foremost a sustainable agriculture. Although some practices may seem strange, this practice convinces more and more.
According to biodynamic agriculture, the soil must be worked but in such a way as to leave no trace, the land must no longer be cultivated according to our calendar and more precisely the seasons or even our desires but according to the lunar calendar.
The lunar calendar [8] is a calendar that takes into account the various phases of the moon during the month. It is a "lunation" that lasts between 28 and 30 days. This tool is a means of calculating the time that would be useful to the gardener for planting his seedlings or treating diseases.
As you will certainly have understood from the use of this type of calendar, biodynamics is based on an approach that some consider to be unscientific.
Building a vegetable garden is often a hobby that allows its practitioners to recharge their batteries. More and more, schools are setting up [9] composts and educational vegetable gardens. It's very interesting to teach that to students. They can understand certain cycles and elements of biology.
It can also make for interesting experiments for children to show, for example, how effective or ineffective the lunar calendar is.
[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/intensive-agriculture
[2] https://www.vegetarien.eu/
[3] https://www.wwf.fr/champs-daction/alimentation/agriculture-durable
[4] https://www.cpepesc.org/L-EUTROPHISATION-des-rivieres-par.html
[5] http://www.i-sis.org.uk/organicagriculturefeedtheworld.php
[6] https://isias.lautre.net/spip.php?article148&lang=fr
[7] https://www.miimosa.com/be/projects/la-marque-en-moins-le-bio-pour-tous?l=fr
[8] https://www.horticulteur.net/calendrier-lunaire/
[9] https://cursus.edu/12771/comment-mettre-en-place-un-compostage-dans-une-ecole
Bio-Dynamic Agriculture Movement - https://www.bio-dynamie.org/biodynamie/presentation/
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