World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008 - (Page 26)

Nine-year-old Layi Jiejie herds cows toward the barn near her home in Ga Tuo Village, China. Her family depends on livestock for food and income. What many consider environmentally friendly is simply a re-creation of the natural order of things, most easily implemented on a small scale. Can the best practices of small farms be applied to large-scale farms to make them more environmentally friendly? The FAO report touches on small-farming techniques, like integrated agriculture and integrated pest management, which can be applied to larger operations. The report recommends strategies such as greater efficiency and further intensification of livestock production, strategies that are generally considered hallmarks of industrial farming. However, the prescriptions of intensification and greater efficiency send up warning flags for Paul Mueller, professor of crop science at North Carolina State University. Demment and Mueller said for the most part, the report does not fully address the issue. “[An increase in efficiency] plays right into the industrial model,” Mueller said, “because the justification for industrialization is based on economies of scale and efficiency.” To minimize the damage of industrial farming, he said, “some less intensive system, one that is environmentally friendly, is maybe the direction we should be going in.” Change doesn’t come without a cost. Converting the practices of large-scale farms will be problematic, in large part, because it will raise the prices of meat and animal products at a time when demand is growing. “There’s been a big increase in production and reduction in consumer cost of meat because M eeting in the Middle of industrialization,” Mueller said. “If you changed some production to integrate more with crop production and reduce the factory feedlot approach, then I think there would probably be less production, and the cost would be higher.” “But it would be a much more accurate reflection of true cost,” which is an essential consideration for sustainability. And, he added, people in the developed world “can stand to eat a little less meat.” On the flip side, the FAO report identifies some of the problems facing small farms but does not offer many recommendations to make smaller farms more productive and efficient, like large farms, or to make them a safer and more substantial part of the food supply worldwide. With new data from researchers like Demment, and a closer look at the potential of small farms, it seems that the best practices of both segments of the industry could be useful to reduce the impact of large-scale farming and to encourage the environmentally friendly expansion of small farming. Mueller agreed. “There certainly is the potential to improve practices on large, industrial-scale operations. Also, a decentralized food production system that relies more heavily on mid- and smallsized farms, and scales processing and distribution to a local and regional market, would be beneficial.” Which is more important? “I think we need to do both,” Mueller said. 26 May/June 2008 | WOrlD Ark

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008

World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked & Answered Why Water Matters The Carbon Hoofprint From Farm to Table Healing History Mixed Media Heifer Spirit Heifer Bulletin World Ark Market Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008

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