What has been the impact of agriculture on the natural order of the world?
In the 10,000 years since humans adopted the practice of cultivating their food instead of foraging for it, the natural world has been significantly contorted. The First Agricultural Revolution led to humans consuming a disproportionate amount of energy. Today, humans consume around 40% of Earth's primary productivity, in part by our vast production of pants but also by our extensive destruction of forests for agricultural purposes. The impacts of agribusiness on the natural world is staggering. Just look to the practices of hog farms in the United States, who keep conditions so crowded for their hogs that they have to artificially inseminate their sows to prevent the spread of disease. Farmed hogs have also become shockingly genetically uniform, making them more susceptible to disease. This problem is exacerbated by the growing resistance of certain diseases to antibiotics, which are added to the hogs' feed. Apart from the impact on domesticated animals, the energy requirements of our current model of agriculture are so severe that they are changing the climate of the planet. Excessive carbon emissions from livestock warm the planet, acidity the oceans, and raise sea levels. This problem is compounded by the mass deforestation that supplies the land needed for these practices. There is no doubt that human agricultural activity over the last 10,000 years, and most acutely over the last 50, has fundamentally upset nature.
Investigative reporters wanted to expose the conditions within factory farm, but big agro has deep pockets. So, the Iowa state legislature made it illegal for reporters to take jobs at factory farms for journalistic purposes.
Map of South America's Agricultural Output: https://economics.rabobank.com/Global/Publicatie%20afbeeldingen/2015/09%20September/LATAM-H5%20agri/Map-South%20America.png
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