A Definition of Modern Farming Techniques

In the past few years the way we eat and live our lives has become a extremely important topic, there has been massive scares with such things such as CJD and issues with factory farming. However there are so many terms thrown around about farming now a days it is hard to keep up with what it all means.Before the 1950's, "farming" was largely applied to all agricultural activity whether it was practised on a prairie or a peasant scale. However, since then, various new terms have evolved and it may be useful to clarify, as much as possible, what is understood by them.

1. Traditional farming

This is the type of farming carried out throughout the world for millennia past. It is characterised by self-sufficiency, age-old traditions of husbandry and natural methods of fertilizing (e.g. recycling animal and vegetable waste) weed and pest control. On the whole, early, traditional farming was environmentally friendly and sustainable but there were periods when mistakes were made and over-use and deforestation resulted. Some desertification, as in the Sahara, the Middle East, Peru and the US are examples of such early environmental disasters.

2. Modern farming

Modern farming, as we know it, began to develop, particularly in the West, from the 1920's. It is typified by a more intensive use of land and buildings, mechanisation and the use of artificial chemical fertilizers and weed and pest control. Labour was increasingly being replaced by machines and chemicals. Specialisation in crops and animals became the norm and a reliance built up on bought-in chemical and processed inputs. This was farming becoming industrialised and large companies developed to stimulate and supply its needs.

3. Factory farming

In the last half of the 20th Century certain areas of modern farming have become even more intensive and farm animals are now being mass-produced in industrial conditions. The most extreme example would be poultry where in some units millions of birds are kept in small, individual cages. Pigs are probably the next most intensively produced farm animal with units of hundreds of thousands (and in the US, millions) housed in factory-like buildings. Beef and other farm animals are also produced in large feed lots and in slatted-floor housing. High-protein rations (including until recently, meat and bone meal) artificial hormones and antibiotics are fed to improve productivity.

4.Biotech farming

This controversial type of farming has developed mainly in the last 20 years. The technology is designed to increase agricultural productivity by genetically engineering or manipulating (GM ) genes in plants sometimes by adding animal genes. GM crops have been developed to be resistant to specific herbicides and pests. In one case seed was designed so that it could not germinate the following year. Although millions of acres are grown it seems as if the AgBiotech industry is in trouble. Governments are insisting on labelling or in some cases even banning GM foods, farmers are angry as productivity and profit targets have not been met and public and scientific distrust of the technology is growing.

5. Sustainable farming

This is a term that needs some standardising. Organic and sustainable are often used interchangeably. Yet organic can be unsustainable in certain circumstances, and sustainable need not be organic. Sustainable farming as described by Prof. Pretty *seems to be emerging as the standard explanation of the term. In many respects, as he describes it, it is similar to organic farming. Sustainable agriculture encourages the recycling of natural wastes as manures and encourages appropriate technology, such as surface cultivation, rather than deep ploughing. It is different from organic farming in that it doesn't exclude artificial fertilisers and chemicals but attempts instead to optimise their use. Recent reports show that thousands of communities and millions of acres are now involved and are showing dramatic increases in productivity combined with increasing soil fertility and an improved environment. * Prof.Jules Pretty is Director of the Centre for Environment and Society at the Univ. of Essex. A world expert on sustainable agriculture he is the author of a world-wide report launched in Jan '01.

6. Biointensive Farming

Biointensive gardening, sometimes called mini-farming is a combination of Irish lazy-bed, 19th C. French raised-bed, and Chinese traditional methods of farming. It claims enormous outputs from a very small area - enough to feed a family from a few hundred square feet - whilst building uo the soi.More about this method developed by American, John Jeavon, based on the work of English gardener, Alan Chadwick at; www.growbiointensive.org

7. Vegan organic farming

www.veganvillage.co.uk Promotes vegan organic farming.. "Can't feed two populations, animals and people…" they argue. Vegans criticise extensive, organic, animal husbandry systems as, "disastrous" and "irresponsible". It takes, they say, 85% of UK farmland to feed the one billion animals slaughtered there each year.

8. Biodynamic farming

Basically the same as organic farming but with a more esoteric and philosophical base. Part of the anthroposophic teaching of Austrian, Rudolf Steiner, it purports to help the health-giving forces of nature with special methods and preparations. Steiner admirably emphasised the absurdity of agricultural economics being determined by people who have never farmed. www.biodynamics.com

9. Organic farming

Organic farming developed in modern times as a response to what was perceived to be the polluting of our food supply by modern and factory farming methods and the ensuing degradation of the environment with chemical and other by-products of the industry.