Farming flaws?

Question

im doing a hydroponic project for school and im doing the pros and cons at the moment

can anyone think of some flaws or problems with current day agriculture?

Answer 1

Look up the book "Hydroponic Food Production" by Howard Resh.  This is probably one of the most comprehensive books on hydroponics written.  The first couple of chapters covers your question throughly.  

If you are going to compare Field Agriculture to Hydroponics you are going to have to clarify a few points.  First, not all hydroponic systems are created equally.  For instance, compare open circuit (use the water once and dump it) to recirculating (use the water over and over) systems.  Both have ups and downs (mostly resource conservation vs. disease control).  Second, when you mention hydroponics, I'm thinking mostly vegetable and small fruit production.   Grain crops just can't compete in hydroponics versus field production.

Let me hit some high-points of hydroponics over field:

1. Field production takes lots of space and requires the best soils.

2. Field ag = soil erosion, pesticide use, and large amounts of fertilizer and irrigation water in some areas.  (There are actually four points there!)

3. Best soils for production are often not near population centers leading to higher transportation costs and lower freshness.  

4. Field production is subject to the elements (frost, drought, cold spells).  

Keep in mind that there are a lot of different hydroponic systems out there and some do a better job of addressing the faults of field production then others.

And keep in mind that hydroponics has its share of faults as well:  

1. Cost of production is often higher.  

2. It takes a lot more technical knowledge to run a greenhouse (higher skilled workers).  

3. Disease control is critical.  

4. Start-up costs are really high.

Answer 2

Farming faces a standard economics problem that when almost anyone can get into a business, profitability is driven down mercilessly.

With large numbers of competing agriculture sellers we tend toward a zero profitability for all but the most efficient and those most favorably located. Farms make money primarily when the totality of farmers produce less than is needed.

The farm community is one of only a few which can not limit its production to a level that optimizes profitability. Even when prices are below cost of production farmers will push for more production hoping to somehow reverse the laws of economics.

The fact that some kinds of agriculture require a lot of land can be described as a fault. but think how it would change the economics if we could all produce an infinity of product with very little land. Requiring a lot of land is the limiting feature that avoids total catastrophe for farmers.

One of the faults of agriculture is that we are not able to produce food without water and sunshine, without plant nutrients. The reason we need land is to provide some or all of those requisites. Going to hydroponics can with extreme care reduce the amount of water required to produce a unit of food. The amount of sunlight available may only be reduced if we supply electrical power to replace ti at high cost.

Regular farming typically provides some of the plant nutrients from the land, or all of them if it is organic farming. (Thus organic farming is called low-input-cost farming).

Farming is not always good land stewardship. Land stewardship efforts often pay off only on a long run that may then only pay off to the guy that buys when the bank forecloses.

Farming is wearing out its people, and shortly those farmers may be telling the consumer to grow their own. It may be more profitable to grow nothing.

Answer 3

YES PRICE FARMERS GET FROM SUPERMARKETS AND OTHER OUT LETS FOR THEIR PRODUCTS

Answer 4

Look up the book "Hydroponic Food Production" by Howard Resh. This is probably one of the most comprehensive books on hydroponics written. The first couple of chapters covers your question throughly.

If you are going to compare Field Agriculture to Hydroponics you are going to have to clarify a few points. First, not all hydroponic systems are created equally. For instance, compare open circuit (use the water once and dump it) to recirculating (use the water over and over) systems. Both have ups and downs (mostly resource conservation vs. disease control). Second, when you mention hydroponics, I'm thinking mostly vegetable and small fruit production.

And keep in mind that hydroponics has its share of faults as well:

1. Cost of production is often higher.

2. It takes a lot more technical knowledge to run a greenhouse (higher skilled workers).

3. Disease control is critical.

4. Start-up costs are really high. Grain crops just can't compete in hydroponics versus field production.

Agriculture is the production of food, feed, fiber and other goods by the systematic growing/harvesting of plants, animals and other life forms. "Agriculture" may commonly refer to the study of the practice of agriculture (also, "agronomy" or "agricultural science").

Agriculture encompasses many subjects, including aquaculture, cultivation, animal husbandry, and horticulture. Each of these subjects can be further partitioned: for example, cultivation includes both organic farming and intensive farming, and animal husbandry includes ranching, herding, and intensive pig farming. Agricultural products include fodder, (starch, sugar, alcohols and resins), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine).

The history of agriculture is a central element of human history, as agricultural progress has been a crucial factor in worldwide socio-economic change. Wealth-building and militaristic specializations rarely seen in hunter-gatherer cultures are commonplace in agricultural and agro-industrial societies—when farmers became capable of producing food beyond the needs of their own families, others in the tribe/village/City-state/nation/empire were freed to devote themselves to projects other than food acquisition. Jared Diamond, among others, has argued that the development of civilization required agriculture.

As of 2006, an estimated 36 percent of the world's workers are employed in agriculture (down from 42% in 1996). However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2006 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.[1] Despite the fact that agriculture employs over one-third of the world's population, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic.

HOPE IT HELPS!

Answer 5

little money in it. Strict rules when using chemicals. strict rules when changing landscape or under going day to day activities such as spreading fertilser (can only be done at certain times of the day) supermarkets give them a raw deal with money. Too much compertition from overseas produce which is cheaper. milk is being imported cos its cheaper anymore?!?!!