Environmental Sustainability Issues in Philippine

Agriculture
Volume: 2

Issue: 1&2

Author: Nicomedes D. Briones

Abstract:
Farming and fishing are major sources of livelihood in rural households in the Philippines. Farming
systems in the country are complex, multi-faceted, and geared to promote efficient production and a
steady source of income. However, these have also wrought unwanted consequences on the
environment, notably soil erosion, water pollution, groundwater depletion, loss of natural habitats, and loss
of biological diversity. Farming systems are affected by exogenous environmental factors; in turn, the
farming systems also affect agricultural production resource bases. Initiatives from various sectors to
mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of farming systems and to protect the agricultural production
bases are in place in terms of policies, programs, and action projects.

Five Major Challenges Facing North

American Agriculture

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April 18, 2012 | Noelle Swan

Over the next 40 years, world population is expected to swell to 9

billion people. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that in

that time global food production will need to increase by 70 percent in order to prevent
massive famine. Simultaneously, producers must learn to cope with changes in climate,
intensification of floods and droughts, depletion of resources, and dramatic political
shifts. Meeting the coming demand for food will mean addressing these large
challenges head on.
The following five challenges to the future of agriculture and food security exist on
almost every continent in one form or another: constraints on resources from fossil fuel
to water to phosphorus; land management problems resulting from tillage to
monoculture to improper grazing practices; food waste from spoilage to produce culled
by retailers; demographic changes; and government policy. This article focuses on the
impact that these challenges have upon North America.
The agricultural systems of the United States, Canada, and Mexico are interconnected through the
North American Free Trade Agreement. Although the economic and political landscape of Mexico
differs a great deal from Canada and the U.S., all three countries face similar agricultural challenges,
from the high resource costs related to industrial agriculture; to degraded farmland; to excessive
food waste coupled with food insecurity; to an increasingly urbanized public that is disconnected
from farming; to the role of big business in food.
Resource Depletion: The Costs of Industrial Agriculture
From mechanized feedlots to automatic irrigation systems to agricultural machinery, North American
agriculture has become increasingly industrialized, placing ever-greater demands on fossil fuel,
water and topsoil resources. Petroleum not only fuels trucks and mechanized farm equipment, but
also serves as a base for synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, tying the cost of growing food
increasingly closer to the price of oil. We have an industrial agricultural system thats totally
dependent on the assumption that cheap fossil fuels will last forever, says sustainable food and
farming professor, John Gerber of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Thats not a useful
assumption anymore. Many believe that the world has already passed peak oil, the point where
the volume of oil reserves reaches its highest point and begins to decline. Gerber sees potential for
reducing fossil fuel consumption in the integration of crop and livestock agriculture.

According to the US Geological Society, the amount of ground water drawn for use
in irrigation has tripled since the 1950s. While water resources are not permanently
finite, they do have limits. CLIMATE MODELS ALSO SUGGEST THAT RAINFALL MAY
BECOME LESS PREDICTABLE AND DEPENDABLE. Professor Nicholas Jordan of the
University of Minnesota believes the foremost challenge facing all agricultural
systems is the ability to achieve some level of resilience to intensified bursts of
rains followed by extensive periods of drought.
Agricultural production places additional stress on water supply by polluting water bodies with
chemical runoff. The EPA cites agricultural runoff as the leading cause of pollution of lakes and
rivers. Professor Jordan adds that making sure that farmers make good use of nitrogen and other
agricultural additives before they leave the farm would not only reduce pollution of water and

ecosystems, but also help to cut down on fossil fuel consumption. He says that planting cover crops
like legumes, which scavenge nitrogen, prevents the nitrogen from leaching into the groundwater
while storing it for later use by future crops.
Farmers dependence on nitrogen supplements stems in part from the erosion of topsoil. While
topsoil loss has decreased 43% from the period 1982 2007, the USDA reports that 1.73 billion
tons of topsoil are still lost each year. Soil is eroding much faster than it can be replenished
taking with it the lands fertility and nutrients that nourish both plants and those who eat them, wrote
Leo Horrigan, et. al., researchers at the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health in their 2002 article published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental
Health Perspectives. Horrigan and his colleagues charge that agriculture is one of the leading
causes of desertification, citing poor agricultural practices such as overcultivation, overgrazing, and
overuse of water While in the past we have been able to expand agricultural croplands in order to
meet increased demand for food, viable land for expansion is rapidly running out. According to the
online database of country-specific facts and statistics, Index Mundi, the amount of arable land in
North America has declined from 1.1 hectares per person in 1961 to 0.61 hectares per person in
2009. Changing land management approaches may be the only way forward.
Land Management: Degrading and Undervaluing Farmland
Throughout much of North America, especially in the United States, land management techniques
have been draining the soil of nutritional value. Monoculture, the practice of continually planting the
same solitary crop on one plot of farmland, removes nutrients from the soil that must be replenished
with additional fertilizers. Many corn, soybean, and wheat farmers have switched to rotating crops
from year to year to replenish the soil naturally. A USDA study of cover crops in sustainable
agriculture found that interspersing cover crops in the field can prevent weed propagation and
promote predator insects to naturally manage pests. At the end of the growing season, the cover
crops can be worked into the soil, becoming added organic matter that increases water-holding
before breaking down and replenishing the soil.
Livestock management is another major contributor to the degradation of farmable land. According
to the 2009 textbook, Environmental Science by Daniel D. Chiras, continual overgrazing
eliminates hardy grasses, creates dry soil conditions, and promotes the growth of weedy shrubs,
such as sagebrush. Jim Howell, co-founder of The Savory Institute believes that the key to reversing
desertificationand ultimately increasing food productionlies in holistic grazing practices. The
Savory Institute promotes a managed grazing system developed by Alan Savory in Zimbabwe that
involves keeping cattle in one location for just one weekjust long enough to enrich a swath of
future farmland with a carpet of dung. While the concept may seem simple, the practice involves
extensive planning to allow grasslands to replenish before returning livestock to graze again. Howell
believes that land and cattle management holds tremendous potential for intensifying food
production.
Food Waste: Compromising Food Security

The United Nations estimates that one-third of the worlds food goes to waste, either during
agricultural production, post-harvest handling and storage, processing, distribution, or consumption.
In North America, a large percentage of this loss comes from consumers wasting food. Consumers
accustomed to an abundance of food often purchase more than they actually eat, tossing spoiled
food out at the end of every week. As the old saying goes, peoples eyes are often bigger than their
stomachs, and they pile up their plates at family style and buffet meals, throwing away whatever
remains when they feel full. According to a 2011 UN study conducted for the International Congress,
on average, each individual in North America wastes between 200-250 pounds of food per year.
Additionally, North American consumer expectations that fruits and vegetable should be pristine and
without blemish means that supermarkets and restaurants are forced to reject produce that is edible
yet aesthetically imperfect due to an unusual shape, size or color. Further demand for extensive
selection causes supermarkets to purchase an excess of produce, driving prices up and increasing
potential for spoilage.
Despite this seeming excess of food, hunger remains a significant problem throughout North
America. The Canadian Community Health Survey of 2007-2008 reported nearly one million food
insecure Canadian households. In the United States, 17 million households experienced food
insecurity in 2010 according the USDA. Mexicos National Evaluation Council on Social
Development (CONEVAL) estimated in a 2008 study that 49 million Mexicans experienced some
form of food insecurity.
Excessive food waste threatens to compromise every effort to increase food production. According to
the EPA, Americans generated 34 million tons of food waste in 2010. One million tons of that was
recovered and recycled. The remainder was thrown away. Food that is currently sent to rot in
landfills where it decomposes and releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere could be better
distributed to bridge the gap between those with excess and the hungry. Food that spoils can be reintegrated into the food chain as compost. Howell of The Savoy Institute says that he would like to
see food waste be diverted to hogs. Right now we waste massive amounts of food in cities. All that
used to be fed to hogs, but it became economically viable to feed them grain. He says that returning
slop feeding would enable us to continue to produce hogs in a way that they would no longer
compete with humans for food sources.
Addressing the massive problem of food waste calls for a tremendous shift in mentality that favors
conservation over convenience, a reversal of the trends of the last 50 years.
Demographic Changes: A Disconnected Public
In North American, the last 50 years have brought a major cultural shift that has removed consumers
further and further away from their food sources. U.S. Census data from 2010 showed around 80%
of Americans living in urban areas. The Mexican Household Survey conducted by Harvard School of
Public Health found that in the last forty years, the number of Mexicans living in urban areas rose
from 51 percent to 74 percent. According the Canadian Geographic, two-thirds of the entire
population of Canada lives in one of eight urban environments. Swelling cities and their surrounding

suburbs form an ever-thickening barrier between farming communities and consumers. If you ask
the majority of young children where food comes from they will say, from the grocery store.
Entire neighborhoods, known as food deserts, have no fresh produce for sale. In many low-income
urban areas fast food restaurants and convenience stores have become the only accessible sources
of food. These so-called food deserts are most common in racially segregated urban areas where
low-income neighborhoods are relatively isolated from the rest of the city. The USDA estimates that
over 20 million Americans live in so-called food deserts.
As urban areas grow, farmers receive increasing pressures from encroaching developers and
communities to sell their land, says Jack Rabin of Rutgers University. The result is a phenomenon
known as impermanence syndrome where urban fringe farming is squeezed out of existence. As he
explains on the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station website, the land has become so
valuable to developers that many farmers cannot afford not to sell, and would be farmers cannot
find affordable land.
Further, Rabin suggests a largely disconnected public translates to intolerant neighbors. Residents
of newly developed suburban communities are unaccustomed to the smells and sounds of farming
life. In New Jersey, he has seen an increase in land-use disputes between farmer and non-farming
neighbors. He estimates that these conflicts cost New Jersey farmers on average $25,000 per year,
becoming one more incentive for farmers to leave agriculture.
Political Issues: The Business of Food
While consumer habit has a profound effect on food, government policy bears just as heavily on the
industry. Agriculture is a multi-billion dollar industry with powerful lobbyists. Monsanto recently
launched a successful $2 million dollar campaign to push their genetically modified alfalfa through
USDA approval. In the United States, big money has a big say in what happens in agriculture.
In Mexico, the North American Free Trade Agreement has had an outsized impact on farmers and
played a major role in battering the agriculture sector in the country. According to a McLatchy
Article, the two decades old trade agreement has been blamed for the loss of 2 million farm jobs in
Mexico resulting from a flood of U.S. corn imports, combined with subsidies that favor agribusiness.
The trade agreement was supposed to boost development in Mexico, creating enough jobs to stem
the flow of workers crossing over the border in search of work. Instead, the free trade agreement has
enabled foreign countries to export food tariff-free, pricing Mexican farmers out of the market.
Meanwhile in the United States, this past fall, untold amounts of food remained rotting on the vine
due to a shortage of migrant workers. Recent tightening on immigration policy has drastically cut
down on the nations imported workforce at a time when very few Americans have any connection to
farming let alone a desire to work on one.
Addressing existing food insecurity and preparing to feed a growing population will require careful
consideration of each of these complex challenges at the local, regional, and international level.

Water, Food, and Agriculture

Agriculture uses approximately 70% of the worlds freshwater supply. Agricultural water use
is under growing pressure as demands for water increase; competition among cities,
farmers, and the environment grows; and as concerns grow over large-scale overdraft of
groundwater and water contamination from agricultural runoff. New threats include the
challenges of climate change, which is likely to alter both water availability and agricultural
water demands.
Increasing water productivity in food production
In the twentieth century, the primary objective of water policies was to simply make more
new water available for human use. In this traditional paradigm, the best measure of
success was total water delivered or used. Yet, total water use is now understood to be a
poor indicator of the value or productivity of water, and a poor indicator of true efficiency.
New thinking suggests that greater emphasis is needed on the goods and services provided
by that water use, e.g., water-use efficiency and productivity. The Pacific Institute has
produced a series of studies that address improving the water productivity of agriculture,

including: Sustaining California Agriculture in an Uncertain Future; Water-Use Efficiency and

Productivity: Rethinking the Basin Approach; and Potential Water Savings Associated with
Agricultural Water Efficiency Improvements: A Case Study of California.

Work on the considerable untapped potential to save water in the face of the California
drought highlights Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency in California, and a fact
sheet and infographic illustrate The Multiple Benefits of Water Efficiency for California
Agriculture.
Highlighting successful agricultural water management practices
Many farmers have already adopted innovative water management strategies. The Institute
seeks out those individuals, organizations, and institutions that are interested in
collaboration, shared learning, and the identification and testing of innovation. As part of this
effort, we identify and evaluate farm water success stories, and present case
studies and videos that share these practices. In addition, the Pacific Institute has
partnered with the California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply to develop an interactive
database of sustainable agricultural water management practices
at www.agwaterstewards.org. The database is searchable by region, crop type, and
irrigation technique to help farmers find context-appropriate solutions.
The

Farm Water Steward Award was established to recognize leaders and innovators in water stewardship across the California agricultural community. Madera County almond

grower Tom Rogers is the 2014 recipient of the Farm Water Steward Award for his leadership in smart irrigation scheduling. The award was jointly presented by the Pacific Institute, Community Alliance with
Family Farmers (CAFF), and Ag Innovations Network. Read more.

Adapting to climate change and extreme events

The agricultural sector is particularly vulnerable to climate change because it is directly tied
to land and water resources. Even modest changes in temperature and precipitation
patterns, the length of growing seasons, or the frequency of extreme events will have large
consequences for many farmers. The Pacific Institute has conducted a number of studies on
the impact of drought on California, including its agricultural sector. In addition, the Institute
is working on how to help farmers understand and plan for climate impacts at the local level.
Building new partnerships for knowledge and good governance
Strong partnerships are key. The Institute works with others to build knowledge and effective
strategies for policy by actively participating in a number of stakeholder-driven processes,
including the Agricultural Water Management Council, California Roundtable on Water and
Food Supply, and the California Department of Water Resources Agricultural Stakeholder
Committee.
Over the next three decades, threats to water and food security will grow as the global
population continues to climb, dietary preferences change, and the climate becomes more
variable. The Pacific Institute conducts research and works with innovative agricultural
partners to identify ways to ensure clean water and sufficient food for current and future
generations.