Genetic Diversity and Our Food

The genetic diversity of the foods that we eat can be produced in two ways. The first is known as "Industrial Agriculture," this is a form of modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of crops, which includes a small variety of fruits and vegetables.


Scientist breeding biotechnological crops.

Industrial agriculture emerged in the 20th century and is built up of technoscientific, economic, and political methods. In the process these methods make work of innovation in agricultural machinery and farming methods, genetic technology, the creation of new and more diverse markets for consumption, advancements in altering genetic information, and global trade. These methods are widespread in developed nations and increasingly worldwide.

In fact, most of the meat, dairy, eggs, fruits, and vegetables available in supermarkets are produced using these methods of industrial agriculture. Although industrial farming has proved to be benefit in the amount of food that is produced, it has also had a tremendous impact on the world's water resources and soil quality because of the massive use of chemical pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers. The production of industrial agriculture also lowers the rate of genetic diversity in the agricultural world with the increase of certain crops, like corn that are in high demand from its wide range of uses.

The sceond way that food is produced is known as "Sustainable Agriculture," unlike the methods of industrial agriculture using manufacturing, food produced through sustainable agriculture follows the principles of ecology, which is the study of relationships between organism and their environment or simply planting and waiting for crops to grow, with no artifical/industrial methods or plant foods. In the long term this method of farming has made the most from the use of non-renewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls, sustain the economic viability of farm operations, and has enhanced the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.


Sustainable agriculture farmers in Kenya.

The natural and environmentally friendly methods of sustainable agriculture have shown to be more benefitcial then industrial methods, where in the end you end up ruining the very system the provides us the the food that we need to survive. For example, industrial agriculture brings damage upon natural systems from chemical pestricides that flow into bodies of water depleting oxygen for things like fish and microorganism that depend on it. It also has effects on economic cost with having to pay for repairs to damage to fisheries, surface (land/water) clean up, and results in the loss of worker, farmers, and urral communites that are exposed to the health risks of various toxic chemicals. In the end the SUSTAINABLE agriculture is the most effective and least harmful way of producing the food we need.





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