Modern agriculture and fishing | Ecology and Environment | Biology | FuseSchool

CREDITS
Animation & Design: Jean-Pierre.louW (
Narration: Dale Bennette
Script: Bethan parry & Helen Stamp

Intensive farming is beneficial to humans as it increases the availability of food and therefore increases food security. It produces higher yields more efficiently so it can be sold at cheaper prices. However, it is controversial because of its environmental impact and raises questions about animal welfare. So, let’s think about what the advantages and disadvantages of intensive farming are.

So, the advantages would be:
It’s not labour intensive, so less people are needed to work on the land.
Food can be sold cheaply, as it is grown quicker using less resources.
Food can be produced all year round not just in seasons.
A greater variety of food can be produced.
Less land is needed, so less natural habitats are destroyed.

And disadvantages would be:
It uses fertilisers which can cause eutrophication.
It uses pesticides which can accumulate in the food chain and become toxic.It raises questions regarding animal rights.
Systematic treatment of farm animals with antibiotics has increased the amount of antibiotic resistant
bacteria so it is harder to treat humans for these infections.

The efficiency of food production can be improved by restricting energy transfer from food animals to the environment. This means more energy will be available to humans from their food.
One way of doing this is to keep animals indoors so they have limited space for movement so less energy is wasted in moving their muscles. This is controversial, as animal rights suggest that animals should be allowed outdoors with enough space to move around and show their natural behaviour. Limiting the space available to the animals can place them under stress.
Additionally, the small pens or cages cannot be cleaned frequently, which leads to animals standing in their own waste and so increasing their risk of infection.

Pigs are kept in temperature-controlled buildings so they will transfer, or lose, less heat to the
environment. They will use less energy in maintaining a constant body temperature, so more energy will be available to the humans in their food. They are also fed high protein food to increase growth, which is not the natural diet of the pig. Intensive farming of crops involves the use of chemicals called pesticides and fertilisers. Pesticides kill pests, these can include insects that would normally feed on the crop. Fertilisers increase plant growth. However, both of these chemicals can have negative effects on the environment. Pesticides can bioaccumulate in food chains and become toxic to the top predators.

If fertilisers are washed into streams, rivers and lakes they can cause eutrophication which leads to the death of aquatic organisms. So not only are humans overexploiting the land, we also have a negative impact on the sea. In some countries fish are now caught by very large boats called trawlers that take tonnes of fish out of the sea every day, the fish is processed and packaged on the boat ready for sale. These ships can stay at sea for weeks at a time.

Modern fishing techniques have led to overfishing and have had a dramatic impact on aquatic
ecosystems. 90% of the large predatory fish that used to live in the oceans are now gone. So the next time you have a meal, have a think about where your food has come from and how the
processes involved in making it have impacted the environment.

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