Ecobloom reflects on the roles of agriculture on the environment on World Environment Day and how indoor farming can aid the progress of improving and minimizing nature and biodiversity loss.
As the amount of land that needs to be protected and set aside for nature increases as well as the global dietary patterns needing to be shifted towards a more plant heavy diet, controlled environment agriculture and indoor farms are opening up in multiple cities worldwide. On top of this, continuing to feed our increasing population size is unrealistic, should we solely operate on our old and current farming and food production techniques.
One June 5th, we recognize the efforts of World Environment Day, the biggest international day for the environment, led by the United Nations Environment Programme. World Environment Day is a global platform for inspiring positive change, and here in the Ecobloom office and our digital channels, we want to highlight some of the figures that have to do with agriculture on our environment.
Around one-third of the worldās farmland is degraded, about 87% of inland wetlands worldwide have disappeared since 1700 and one-third of commercial fish species are overexploited. Food systems are responsible for 80% of biodiversity loss, and 80% of all agricultural land is for livestock and its feed, while only providing only 20% of calories. Agriculture today accounts for over 70% of the usage of the global water supply, we use over 700 million pounds of pesticides each year (in the U.S. alone), which can contaminate our water and causing serious health risks.
With the help of indoor farming services, we are able to use less of the land for farming, and instead be able to prioritize their conservation, all the while saving 90% of water, growing our food closer to where most of the population lives, in cities. In traditional farming methods, seasons, climate change and varying weather patterns leave farmers with unpredictable yields; and can also cause soil erosion. Although environments are controlled in indoor farms, it is not completely resistant to unpredictable yields and wasted food as discussed on our previous blog on automating indoor farms.
