Is Reexamining the Roots of Agriculture Needed?

The world’s population is increasing, while areas for productive farming and water supplies are diminishing or already utilized. Thus, intensification of existing systems and new systems (ocean or factory based) are needed. However, what existing farming system can intensify without harming the environment or increasing cost of production? Perhaps the oldest systems may need to be revisited. Early land-based farming systems in Asia and Native North America relied on polycultures and integrated systems. Chemical use for pests and fertilizer was not needed, provided by natural pest inhibitions and recycling. Western systems that followed in North American used slash (clear) and burn and plowing virgin land for short term productivity. 

Once soil fertility was exhausted, farms moved on to new sites, and eventually chemical additions were needed in the form of fertilizers and pesticides. Polluting runoff and unintended targets, including humans, resulted. But family-run farms were small and to a degree integrated. Monocultures, often involving international agribusinesses, became the norm by replacing labor with machinery, and by engineering systems and cultured species for maximum production.