sustainability of agriculuture

7/28/2019 Sustainability of Agriculuture

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NINE MILM a n ag e m e n t C o n s u l t i

Sustainability of AgricultureImpacts of the Industrialization Process

Copyright 2013. All Rights Reserved. The Nine Mile Management Consulting Group

April 2013

www.ninemileco.com


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e Mile Management Consulting Group Apri

Sustainability of Agriculture

Within the industrialization process of land, considerations for its health and integrity must be

taken into account before there can be any productivity or sustainability leveraged out of it. Factorscurrently threatening the integrity of land, and contributing to human health and demand for agricultural

products surround soil and food quality: is the soil abundant in rich nutrients, enough to amplify the

quality of the resultant food products? Are the products adequate and reliable? In other words, are the

methods being used to protect food quality adding to their excellence or harm? The following definition of

soil quality can impact the demand that investors possess when searching to purchase healthy plots of

farmland. As the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) has written on the topic of soil quality (Page 6,

Managing Soil Quality, Challenges in Modern Agriculture, B.T. Christensen):

Soil quality is the capacity of a specific kind of soil to function, within natural or managed

ecosystem boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air

quality, and support human health and habitation.

Therefore, the question of whether land can sustain itself under the long-term pressures of

environmental changes or biological threats such as global warming or chemical contamination can

therefore render the demand of land obsolete. In other words, three critical factors are currently influencing

the concerns of investors when they are purchasing land for reasons surrounding soil quality, and they are:

Biological Productivity The Environment Human Health

Biological productivity encompasses capabilities that segments of land possess in order to

determine their stability and efficiency during stress events, such as global warming, or other

environmental changes, where the land is able to sustain its agricultural integrity in response to outside

disturbances. Robustness, which is the resilience of a system in response to a perturbation or threat, can

refer to the ecological sustainability of land. In other words, productivity is a combination of what the land

produces in its current state, in addition to its ecological stability and resilience over time. This accurately

defines the meaning of sustainability as it relates to the concept of biological productivity. (Page 7,

Managing Soil Quality, Challenges in Modern Agriculture, B.T. Christensen).

With regard to the environment, soil function and structural form are crucial when examining theenvironmental resilience and performance of land over time. Soil PH, total C and N, mineralizable N, Olsen

P, bulk density and macroporosity, are some of the applied tests in order to measure risk and the presence

of danger thresholds within all soil environments. Risks and danger thresholds include: production

volumes, plant nutrient retention, health and safety for animal and human consumption, soil and plant

resistance against pathogens, pesticides, and chemical contaminants. (Page 11, Managing Soil Quality,

Challenges in Modern Agriculture, B.T. Christensen).


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Lastly, human health is measured in direct relation to soil fertility and soil health, and the

frameworks for evaluating soil quality. Scoring algorithms that measure nutrient cycling, water infiltration

and retention, contamination levels, waste management, and sanitization strategies are all vital and

important since soil quality is a critical function of agricultural sustainability, and can impact the demandfor present as well as future financial investment. In Ontario, the risk of finding sustainable techniques is

clear, particularly with the impending threat of global warming and climate change, and last summers

unseasonably warm temperatures causing draught. (Milla Petkovic, Metronews). This will ultimately impact

future investment opportunities since health and environmental quality constraints reflect a risky and

unsustainable set of variables.

In addition to soil quality, sustainable agriculture can be measured using a broad class of

environmental, financial, and education variables, observable in Figure 1.1. (Gerard DSouza, Page 160,

Factors Affecting the Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices).

Figure 1.1 Definition of Variables Used in the Sustainable Agriculture Adoption Model

Dependent Variable Description

ADOPTER/NON-ADOPTER 1 if the producer adopts package of sustainableagriculture techniques; 0 if a non-adopter orconventional producer.

AGE 1 if the producer is over 55 years old; 0 otherwise.EDUCATION 1 if the producer has more than a high school

education; 0 otherwise.GROUNDWATER 1 if the producer is aware that ground water

contamination presently exists on the farm; 0otherwise.

EMPLOYMENT 1 if the producer works more than 200 days off the

farm; 0 otherwise.SALES 1 if farm sales exceeds $10,000; 0 otherwise.GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS 1 if the producer participates in government farm

programs; 0 otherwise.LABOR 1 if the producer uses hired labor; 0 otherwise.DEBT/ASSET 1 ifthe producers farm-related debt/asset ratio

exceeds 10 percent; 0 otherwise.

Figure 1.1.demonstrates the influence each relevant variable possesses within the complex value

chain in order to determine the flexibility, performance, and sustainability of all decisions, strategies, and

results. It uncovers important relationships between each relevant variable, including: impact of debt,

contamination, labor, sales, groundwater and education, as they directly correspond with present andfuture financial performance. (Page 161, Sustainable Agricultural Practices, Dsouza).

To conclude, the impacts of global warming, along with increasing levels of hazardous metal

deposits and lethal soil contamination, have caused agriculture and the impurity of food quality to increase

at an extraordinary rate. According to J.V. Lagerwerff, in an article entitled Contamination of vegetation

with cadmium, nickel, lead, and zinc, the above-mentioned metals [especially cadmium] are routinely

applied to soils and crops . (J.V. Lagerwerf, Contamination of Vegetation with cadmium, nickel, lead, and


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zinc, page 583). The results are frightening when you consider that cardiovascular disease has been related

to both inhaled and ingested doses of these metals. Therefore, agricultural performance must be examined

in direct alignment with sustainability, and the degree to which the human resources impact the

environmental ones.

With our latest and most innovative models, Nine Mile Management Consulting can provide a

robust, flexible, and agile solution for your company. Our solutions have been used across the globe for

such companies as: GE, Barclays, and Citibank.

(J.V. Lagerwerf, Contamination of Vegetation with cadmium, nickel, lead, and zinc, page 583)(Managing Soil Quality, Challenges in Modern Agriculture, B.T. Christensen, Page 7).

sustainability of agriculuture

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