Describe the differences between subsistence and modern agriculture. What are the major components of the agricultural revolution? What are the environmental costs of each?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Subsistence farmers focus on growing food for a small number of individuals to survive, whereas in modern agriculture, large plots of land are farmed with primarily one type of foodstuff in order to feed massive amounts of people.
The major components of the agricultural revolution are infrastructure, machinery, fertilizers and pesticides, irrigation, and the discovery of high-yield plants. With infrastructure comes buildings and technology, which can have environmental consequences. Similarly, machinery increases efficiency in farming, but it can also add greenhouse emissions to the atmosphere and cause soil compaction and other destruction. Fertilizers and pesticides have also increased production but have environmentally devastating impacts because of resistance, contamination of water, and eutrophication. Irrigation has allowed areas that were previously not farmable to be farmed, but has depleted ground water resources significantly. Finally high-yield plants, like those that are genetically modified, have known and unknown environmental impacts. Possible allergic reactions in food-sensitive individuals and loss of wild species have been speculated upon.