Modern agriculture has allowed the development of all other economic systems.
The higher yield of crops and livestock has freed farm workers, making possible the manufacturing revolution of the twentieth century and subsequently, the development of tertiary and computerization. The abundance
of food and the low value of agricultural products, in relative terms, has freed resources for the production and consumption of goods so-called "consumer".
Since modern agriculture is dependent almost exclusively on oil, this situation could change abruptly when oil production reached its peak, maximum crude oil production of good quality followed by decreasing trend.
Already today we see the first signs of the increase in the price of some food and we are still not certain that oil production has begun its decline!
But let us see why modern farming is so tied to the price oil and in the future because it will not be able to maintain the same levels of production even if the stable price of oil.
The mechanical revolution of agriculture in the first half of the twentieth century was followed by the chemical revolution through the use of inorganic nitrogen fertilizers, synthesized by petrochemical processes.
These revolutions have launched agricultural yields and at the same time sharply reduced the number of employees in the sector.
Consider, for example, a farmer in the mid-nineteenth century produced enough food to feed four people for seventy-eight today!
A small farmer producing an average of 10 calories for every calorie expenditure mentre oggi un moderno agricoltore statunitense può arrivare a 6000 calorie per ogni caloria di lavoro umano, ma qual'è il rovescio della medaglia?
Se ricalcoliamo la quantità di energia spesa tenendo conto di quella impiegata per la forza motrice e per la produzione di pesticidi e concimi azotati, allora il rapporto s’inverte drasticamente passando da una caloria spesa per produrne 10 a ....
10 calorie per produrne una !!!!
Questa situazione è tutt’altro che una posizione di equilibrio, anzi a causa dell’intensificazione delle pratiche agricole, la base del terreno si è impoverita ed erosa e per sostenere le rese è necessario utilizzare quantità crescenti di fertilizzanti sintetici.
The intensive monoculture has allowed economies of scale, increasing productivity, but also required increasing amounts of pesticides.
These pesticides deplete biological diversity and pollute groundwater.
The disappearance of microscopic bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa, as well as worms and arthropods caused by pesticides, accelerates the process of erosion and soil depletion.
The result is an endless race to a higher energy input to maintain high crop yields by land poorer.
It is estimated that in the decades after World War II, the total energy input increased by 70%, but food production has grown by only 30%.
At this point we are left with only one road, the return to organic farming and traditional!
But the way in this direction will not be easy or immediate as the agricultural land treated with pesticides and chemical fertilizers can take more than a decade to return to natural fertility. The agricultural land
treated without chemical fertilizers produce only between 5 and 20% of what it produces today. Without
petrochemicals, which means a drop in productivity by 80 / 95%.
is why we can no longer afford to wait until the oil reaches such high prices to justify a massive conversion to organic / traditional.
We must now recover from those lands that have been treated for too long, we have to give back to the ground all that we have taken, and with interest!
If these choices will not be implemented from now, when oil and all its derivatives have reached unsustainable prices, we risk that the economic crisis that will result will lead to the abandonment of agriculture trade.
soils without chemical fertilizers, will soon become a barren land exposed to erosion!
The higher yield of crops and livestock has freed farm workers, making possible the manufacturing revolution of the twentieth century and subsequently, the development of tertiary and computerization. The abundance
of food and the low value of agricultural products, in relative terms, has freed resources for the production and consumption of goods so-called "consumer".
Since modern agriculture is dependent almost exclusively on oil, this situation could change abruptly when oil production reached its peak, maximum crude oil production of good quality followed by decreasing trend.
Already today we see the first signs of the increase in the price of some food and we are still not certain that oil production has begun its decline!
But let us see why modern farming is so tied to the price oil and in the future because it will not be able to maintain the same levels of production even if the stable price of oil.
The mechanical revolution of agriculture in the first half of the twentieth century was followed by the chemical revolution through the use of inorganic nitrogen fertilizers, synthesized by petrochemical processes.
These revolutions have launched agricultural yields and at the same time sharply reduced the number of employees in the sector.
Consider, for example, a farmer in the mid-nineteenth century produced enough food to feed four people for seventy-eight today!
A small farmer producing an average of 10 calories for every calorie expenditure mentre oggi un moderno agricoltore statunitense può arrivare a 6000 calorie per ogni caloria di lavoro umano, ma qual'è il rovescio della medaglia?
Se ricalcoliamo la quantità di energia spesa tenendo conto di quella impiegata per la forza motrice e per la produzione di pesticidi e concimi azotati, allora il rapporto s’inverte drasticamente passando da una caloria spesa per produrne 10 a ....
10 calorie per produrne una !!!!
Questa situazione è tutt’altro che una posizione di equilibrio, anzi a causa dell’intensificazione delle pratiche agricole, la base del terreno si è impoverita ed erosa e per sostenere le rese è necessario utilizzare quantità crescenti di fertilizzanti sintetici.
The intensive monoculture has allowed economies of scale, increasing productivity, but also required increasing amounts of pesticides.
These pesticides deplete biological diversity and pollute groundwater.
The disappearance of microscopic bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa, as well as worms and arthropods caused by pesticides, accelerates the process of erosion and soil depletion.
The result is an endless race to a higher energy input to maintain high crop yields by land poorer.
It is estimated that in the decades after World War II, the total energy input increased by 70%, but food production has grown by only 30%.
At this point we are left with only one road, the return to organic farming and traditional!
But the way in this direction will not be easy or immediate as the agricultural land treated with pesticides and chemical fertilizers can take more than a decade to return to natural fertility. The agricultural land
treated without chemical fertilizers produce only between 5 and 20% of what it produces today. Without
petrochemicals, which means a drop in productivity by 80 / 95%.
is why we can no longer afford to wait until the oil reaches such high prices to justify a massive conversion to organic / traditional.
We must now recover from those lands that have been treated for too long, we have to give back to the ground all that we have taken, and with interest!
If these choices will not be implemented from now, when oil and all its derivatives have reached unsustainable prices, we risk that the economic crisis that will result will lead to the abandonment of agriculture trade.
soils without chemical fertilizers, will soon become a barren land exposed to erosion!
Paul Cozza
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