Sustainable vs. Industrial Farming
What’s the Difference?
One consideration in the quest for eating healthy food is supporting local farmers who produce sustainable food. But what is sustainability, and why should we support it?
Sustainable food is produced with conservation and preservation in mind, promoting biodiversity, supporting animal welfare; it’s economically viable, and it’s socially just. And, it tastes better!
SustainableTable.org has a very detailed list at http://www.sustainabletable.org/intro/comparison, and a summary at http://www.gracelinks.org/media/pdf/why_buy_sustainable_ho_20090605.pdf, outlining the differences between sustainable versus industrial farming broken out into sections based on health issues, environmental issues, animal waste issues, water waste issues, soil issues, pesticide issues, antibiotics issues, hormones issues, genetic diversity issues, fossil fuel issues, transportation issues, animal welfare issues, and economic development/community issues.
Phew—that’s a lot of issues!
Some of their examples are shown below to illustrate the differences.
These are just some of the reasons why you should support sustainable farms!
So what can you do to support sustainability?
According to SustainableTable.org, you’ve already completed the first step! Educating yourself is the most important. I recommend reading through their site as it’s a wealth of information.
Next, ask questions. Depending on where you shop, you’ll see foods labeled organic and non-GMO, but you may not see “sustainable”. Asking questions will help you to determine if your food was produced from a sustainable farm. When you buy meat and produce, ask where and how animals were raised, the types of food they were fed, if pesticides were used, etc.—this is an important step in the process.
Finally, learn more, get involved; buy local or direct, and even grown your own. Purchasing local foods or growing your own means less time from the garden or farm to your plate, and reduces fossil fuel waste. Supporting sustainability also means support smaller farms and, in this economy, that’s important!
Educate yourself, and check out these additional resources and articles that discuss both sustainable and industrial farming:
- Sustainability from A to Z – http://cuesa.org/sustainable/a
- Sustainable agriculture – http://ecowatch.org/p/food/sustainable-agriculture-food/page/2
- 10 least green government subsidies – http://ecosalon.com/the-10-least-green-government-subsidies
- Animal treatment – https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4051
- Factory farm pollution – http://ffacoalition.org/overview and http://www.raw.info/the-problem/pollution
- Farm worker conditions – http://www.foodispower.org/factory_farm_workers.php
- Farm worker facts & figures – http://www.ciw-online.org/101.html#facts
- Waste water facts – http://ecowatch.org/2012/factory-farming
- Water pollution – http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/nspills.asp
A special thanks to SustainableTable.org for the sustainable versus conventional/industrial examples, as well as their efforts in promoting sustainability and educating all of us on what we can do to support sustainability!