Economic & Ecologic Benefit

Both in industry and in community sustainable farming is an economic and ecological benefit. While some financial preparation is necessary, money is quickly saved by implementing methods of recycling wastes, conserving resources and preventing loss of energy, water and nutrients for the soil and, therefore the crops (“Making the transition”).

Sustainable agriculture views farming as an ecosystem rather than a factory (Sullivan, 2003). In commercial agriculture, fossil fuels are conserved by implementing no-till methods of planting, therefore using multipurpose machinery, preserving soil aggregates and promoting biodiversity both in and above the soil (“Making the transition,”). In urban cases, fossil fuels are preserved by literally putting the market in your back yard, rendering traveling by vehicle unnecessary.

Erosion is prevented in commercial agriculture with such methods as layering mulch above topsoil; crop rotation; using perennial cover crops during the “off” season; utilizing animal manure as fertilizer and using biological methods of pest control (“Making the transition,”). The untilled land allows for undisturbed insect and microbial life and diverse porosity within the soil for maximum water retention during drought and flood prevention during periods of heavy rain (Ashman & Puri, 2009).

The environmentally conscious methods of sustainable agriculture naturally promote biological diversity throughout the food chain by including flowers, which attract beneficial insects; and trees and shrubbery which add to the necessary gas exchange for healthy crops (Sullivan, 2003).

The Urban Farming Guys have a revolutionary design for urban agriculture. Tame chickens and goats are cared for in their inner cities to supply milk and eggs (The Urban Farming Guys, 2011). Tilapia is bred and fed duck weed grown in baby pools in back yards (The Urban Farming Guys, 2011). Vegetables are grown and fertilized in the same tank that the tilapia are bred, and perhaps most importantly, food scraps are blended and recycled as worm food for nutrient rich soil (The Urban Farming Guys, 2011). There is even a method for extracting methane gas from tilapia waste to heat the greenhouses and convert electricity in generators (The Urban Farming Guys, 2011).

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References:

Ashman, M. R., & Puri, G. (2009). Essential soil science- a clear and concise introduction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Black.
Sullivan , P. (2003). Applying principals of sustainable farming.National Center for Appropriate Technology.
The Urban Farming Guys. (Photographer). (2011). The urban experiment. [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/user/TheUrbanFarmingGuys?blend=1&ob=video-mustangbase
U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Resource Conservation Services. (2000). Making the transition to sustainable agriculture. Watershed Science Institute.
(Image via google images and not the artistic property of Green Goddess)