Climate Farming Practices

Conventional methods of modern agriculture and gardening can create a host of environmental hazards. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, agricultural activity is responsible for 10 percent of atmospheric carbon emissions worldwide, and excess nitrogen runoff from conventional and organic fertilizers — combined with the poor contouring of most farmland — upsets the natural ecosystems in lakes, rivers, and oceans, suffocating fish and other plant life.

These practices strip vital nutrients from topsoil, decreasing both the availability of farmable land and the nutritional quality of the food grown on it. Soil erosion is a progressively worsening situation that the United Nations says could reduce worldwide crop yields by 10 percent over the next 30 years.

Modern agriculture’s single-minded focus on yield leads most traditional and organic farmers to plant vast, singlecrop fields, a practice referred to as “monoculture.” Monoculture farming