Theenvironmental impact ofagriculture is the effect that different farming practices have on the ecosystems around them, and how those effects can be traced back to those practices.[1] The environmental impact ofagriculture varies widely based on practices employed by farmers and by the scale of practice. Farming communities that try to reduce environmental impacts through modifying their practices will adoptsustainable agriculture practices. The negative impact of agriculture is an old issue that remains a concern even as experts design innovative means to reduce destruction and enhance eco-efficiency.[2] Animal agriculture practicestend to be more environmentally destructive than agricultural practices focused on fruits, vegetables and other biomass. The emissions of ammonia from cattle waste continue to raise concerns over environmental pollution.[3]
When evaluating environmental impact, experts use two types of indicators: "means-based", which is based on the farmer's production methods, and "effect-based", which is the impact that farming methods have on the farming system or on emissions to the environment. An example of a means-based indicator would be the quality of groundwater, which is affected by the amount of nitrogen applied to the soil. An indicator reflecting the loss of nitrate to groundwater would be effect-based.[4] The means-based evaluation looks at farmers' practices of agriculture, and the effect-based evaluation considers the actual effects of the agricultural system. For example, the means-based analysis might look at pesticides and fertilization methods that farmers are using, and effect-based analysis would consider how much CO2 is being emitted or what the nitrogen content of the soil is.[4]
The environmental impact of agriculture involves impacts on a variety of different factors: thesoil, water, the air, animal and soil variety, people, plants, and the food itself. Agriculture contributes to a number larger of environmental issues that causeenvironmental degradation including:climate change,deforestation,biodiversity loss,[5]dead zones,genetic engineering,irrigation problems,pollutants,soil degradation, andwaste.[6] Because of agriculture's importance to global social and environmental systems, the international community has committed to increasing sustainability of food production as part ofSustainable Development Goal 2: “End hunger, achievefood security and improvednutrition and promotesustainable agriculture".[7] TheUnited Nations Environment Programme's 2021 "Making Peace with Nature" report highlighted agriculture as both a driver and an industry under threat fromenvironmental degradation.[8]
Theenvironmental impacts of animal agriculture vary because of the wide variety ofagricultural practices employed around the world. Despite this, all agricultural practices have been found to have a variety of effects on the environment to some extent. Animal agriculture, in particularmeat production, can causepollution,greenhouse gas emissions,biodiversity loss, disease, and significantconsumption of land, food, and water. Meat is obtained through a variety of methods, includingorganic farming,free-range farming,intensive livestock production, andsubsistence agriculture. The livestock sector also includes wool,egg and dairy production, the livestock used fortillage, andfish farming.
Animal agriculture is a significant contributor togreenhouse gas emissions. Cows, sheep, and otherruminants digest their food byenteric fermentation, and theirburps are the main source ofmethane emissions fromland use, land-use change, and forestry. Together with methane andnitrous oxide frommanure, this makes livestock the main source of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.[9][10][11][12] A significant reduction in meat consumption is essential to mitigate climate change, especially as the human population increases by a projected 2.3 billion by the middle of the century.[13][14].svg)
Theenvironmental impact of irrigation relates to the changes in quantity and quality ofsoil andwater as a result ofirrigation and the subsequent effects on natural and social conditions inriver basins and downstream of anirrigation scheme. The effects stem from the alteredhydrological conditions caused by the installation and operation of the irrigation scheme.
Amongst some of these problems is the depletion of undergroundaquifers throughoverdrafting. Soil can be over-irrigated due to poordistribution uniformity ormanagementwastes water, chemicals, and may lead towater pollution. Over-irrigation can cause deep drainage from rising water tables that can lead to problems of irrigationsalinity requiringwatertable control by some form ofsubsurface land drainage. However, if the soil is under-irrigated, it gives poorsoil salinity control, which leads to increasedsoil salinity with the consequent buildup of toxicsalts on the soil surface in areas with highevaporation. This requires eitherleaching to remove these salts or a method ofdrainage to carry the salts away. Irrigation withsaline orhigh-sodium water may damage soil structure owing to the formation ofalkaline soil.
Theenvironmental effects of pesticides describe the broad series of consequences of usingpesticides. The unintended consequences of pesticides is one of the main drivers of the negative impact of modern industrial agriculture on the environment. Pesticides, because they are toxic chemicals meant to killpest species, can affect non-targetspecies, such asplants, animals and humans. Over 98% of sprayedinsecticides and 95% ofherbicides reach a destination other than their target species, because they are sprayed or spread across entire agricultural fields.[15] Otheragrochemicals, such asfertilizers, can also have negative effects on the environment.
The negative effects of pesticides are not just in the area of application.Runoff andpesticide drift can carry pesticides into distant aquatic environments or other fields, grazing areas, human settlements and undeveloped areas. Other problems emerge from poor production, transport, storage and disposal practices.[16] Over time, repeat application of pesticides increasespest resistance, while its effects on other species can facilitate the pest's resurgence.[17] Alternatives to heavy use of pesticides, such asintegrated pest management, andsustainable agriculture techniques such aspolyculture mitigate these consequences, without the harmful toxic chemical application.
Environmental modelling indicates that globally over 60% of global agricultural land (~24.5 million km²) is "at risk of pesticide pollution by more than one active ingredient", and that over 30% is at "high risk" of which a third are in high-biodiversity regions.[18][19] Each pesticide or pesticide class comes with a specific set of environmental concerns. Such undesirable effects have led many pesticides to be banned, while regulations have limited and/or reduced the use of others. The global spread of pesticide use, including the use of older/obsolete pesticides that have been banned in some jurisdictions, has increased overall.[20][21]
Plasticulture is the practice of usingplastic materials inagricultural applications. The plastic materials themselves are often and broadly referred to as "ag plastics". Plasticulture ag plastics include soilfumigation film, irrigationdrip tape/tubing, plastic plant packagingcord,nursery pots andbales, but the term is most often used to describe all kinds of plastic plant/soil coverings. Such coverings range fromplastic mulch film, row coverings, high and low tunnels (polytunnels), to plasticgreenhouses.
Plastic used in agriculture was expected to include 6.7 million tons of plastic in 2019 or 2% of global plastic production.[22] Plastic used in agriculture is hard to recycle because of contamination by agricultural chemicals and soil.[22] Moreover, plastic degradation intomicroplastics is damaging to soil health, microorganisms and beneficial organisms like earthworms.[22][23] Current science is not clear if there are negative impacts on food or once food grown in plasticulture is eaten by humans.[22] Because of these impacts, some governments, like the European Union under theCircular Economy Action Plan, are beginning to regulate its use andplastic waste produced on farms.
Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are large: the agriculture, forestry and land use sectors contribute between 13% and 21% of globalgreenhouse gas emissions.[25]Direct greenhouse gas emissions include those fromrice andlivestock farming.[26]Indirect emissions from the conversion of non-agricultural land such asforests into agricultural land are also very important.[27][28] With regards to direct emissions,nitrous oxide andmethane makeup over half of total greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.[29] A 2023 review emphasizes that emissions from agricultural soils are shaped by factors such as soil type, climate, and management practices. It also highlights several mitigation strategies, including conservation tillage, precision agriculture, improved water use, and the application of biochar, that can reduce emissions and enhance soil carbon storage.[30]
Furthermore, there is alsofossil fuel consumption for transport andfertilizer production. For example, themanufacture and use ofnitrogen fertilizer contributes around 5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.[31]Livestock farming is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.[32]
Farm animals' digestive systems can be put into two categories:monogastric andruminant. Ruminant cattle for beef and dairy rank high in greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison, monogastric, or pigs and poultry-related foods, are lower. The consumption of the monogastric types may yield less emissions. Monogastric animals have a higher feed-conversion efficiency and also do not produce as much methane.[33] Non-ruminant livestock, such as poultry, emit much less greenhouse gas.[34]
There are many strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture (this is one of the goals ofclimate-smart agriculture). Mitigation measures in the food system can be divided into four categories. These are demand-side changes, ecosystem protections, mitigation on farms, and mitigation insupply chains. On the demand side, limitingfood waste is an effective way to reduce food emissions. Changes to a diet less reliant on animal products such asplant-based diets are also effective.[35]: XXV This could includemilk substitutes andmeat alternatives. Several methods are also under investigation to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farming. These include genetic selection,[36][37] introduction ofmethanotrophic bacteria into the rumen,[38][39] vaccines, feeds,[40] diet modification and grazing management.[41][42][43]Deforestation is clearing the Earth's forests on a large scale worldwide and resulting in many land damages. One of the causes of deforestation is clearing land for pasture or crops. According to British environmentalistNorman Myers, 5% of deforestation is due tocattle ranching, 19% due to over-heavylogging, 22% due to the growing sector ofpalm oil plantations, and 54% due toslash-and-burn farming.[44]
Deforestation causes the loss of habitat for millions of species, and is also a driver of climate change. Trees act as acarbon sink: that is, they absorb carbon dioxide, an unwanted greenhouse gas, out of the atmosphere. Removing trees releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and leaves behind fewer trees to absorb the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the air. In this way, deforestation exacerbates climate change. When trees are removed from forests, the soils tend to dry out because there is no longer shade, and there are not enough trees to assist in thewater cycle by returning water vapor back to the environment. With no trees, landscapes that were once forests can potentially become barren deserts. The tree's roots also help to hold the soil together, so when they are removed,mudslides can also occur. The removal of trees also causes extreme fluctuations in temperature.[45]
In 2000 the United NationsFood and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) found that "the role of population dynamics in a local setting may vary from decisive to negligible," and that deforestation can result from "a combination ofpopulation pressure and stagnating economic, social and technological conditions."[46]
Agricultural pollution refers tobiotic andabiotic byproducts offarming practices that result incontamination or degradation of the environment and surrounding ecosystems, and/or cause injury to humans and their economic interests. The pollution may come from a variety of sources, ranging frompoint source water pollution (from a single discharge point) to more diffuse, landscape-level causes, also known asnon-point source pollution andair pollution. Once in the environment these pollutants can have both direct effects in surrounding ecosystems, i.e. killing local wildlife or contaminating drinking water, and downstream effects such asdead zones caused by agricultural runoff is concentrated in large water bodies.
Management practices, or ignorance of them, play a crucial role in the amount and impact of these pollutants. Management techniques range from animal management and housing to the spread ofpesticides andfertilizers in global agricultural practices,which can have major environmental impacts. Bad management practices include poorly managed animal feeding operations,overgrazing, plowing, fertilizer, and improper, excessive, or badly timed use of pesticides.
Pollutants from agriculturegreatly affect water quality and can be found in lakes, rivers,wetlands, estuaries, andgroundwater. Pollutants from farming include sediments, nutrients, pathogens, pesticides, metals, and salts.[47]Animal agriculture has an outsized impact on pollutants that enter the environment. Bacteria and pathogens in manure can make their way into streams and groundwater if grazing, storing manure in lagoons and applying manure to fields is not properly managed.[48] Air pollution caused by agriculture throughland use changes and animal agriculture practices have an outsizedimpact on climate change. Addressing these concerns was a central part of the IPCCSpecial Report on Climate Change and Land[49] as well as in the 2024 UNEP Actions on Air Quality report.[50] Mitigation of agricultural pollution is a key component in the development of asustainable food system.[51][52][53]
Soil degradation is the decline insoil quality that can be a result of many factors, especially from agriculture. Soils hold the majority of the world's biodiversity, and healthy soils are essential for food production and adequate water supply.[54] Common attributes of soil degradation can be salting, waterlogging, compaction, pesticide contamination, a decline in soil structure quality, loss of fertility, changes in soil acidity, alkalinity, salinity, anderosion. Soil erosion is the wearing away of topsoil by water, wind, or farming activities.[55] Topsoil is very fertile, which makes it valuable to farmers growing crops.[55] Soil degradation also has a huge impact on biological degradation, which affects the microbial community of the soil and can alter nutrient cycling, pest and disease control, and chemical transformation properties of the soil.[56]
Large scale farming can cause large amounts ofsoil erosion. 25 to 40 percent of eroded soil ends up in water sources. Soil that carries pesticides and fertilizers pollutes the bodies of water it enters.[57] In theUnited States andEurope especially, large-scale agriculture has grown and small-scale-agriculture has shrunk due to financial arrangements such as contract farming. Bigger farms tend to favour monocultures, overuse water resources, and acceleratedeforestation andsoil quality decline. A study from 2020 by theInternational Land Coalition, together withOxfam and World Inequality Lab, found that 1% of land owners manage 70% of the world's farmland. The highest discrepancy can be found inLatin America, where the poorest 50% own just 1% of the land. Small landowners, as individuals or families, tend to be more cautious in land use compared to large landowners. As of 2020, however, the proportion of small landowners has been decreasing since the 1980s. Currently, the largest share of smallholdings can be found inAsia andAfrica.[58]
Tillage erosion is a form ofsoil erosion occurring in cultivated fields due to the movement of soil bytillage.[59][60] There is growing evidence that tillage erosion is a major soil erosion process in agricultural lands, surpassing water and wind erosion in many fields all around the world, especially on sloping and hilly lands.[61][62][63] A signature spatial pattern of soil erosion shown in many water erosion handbooks and pamphlets, the eroded hilltops, is actually caused by tillage erosion as water erosion mainly causes soil losses in the midslope and lowerslope segments of a slope, not the hilltops.[64][59][61] Tillage erosion results in soil degradation, which can lead to significant reduction incrop yield and, therefore, economic losses for the farm.[65][66]
Plasticulture is the use ofplastic mulch in agriculture. Farmers use plastic sheets as mulch to cover 50-70% of the soil and allow them to use drip irrigation systems to have better control oversoil nutrients andmoisture. Rain is not required in this system, and farms that use plasticulture are built to encourage the fastest runoff of rain. The use ofpesticides with plasticulture allows pesticides to be transported easier in thesurface runoff towards wetlands or tidal creeks. The runoff from pesticides and chemicals in the plastic can cause serious deformations and death in shellfish as the runoff carries the chemicals toward the oceans.[67]
In addition to the increased runoff that results from plasticulture, there is also the problem of the increased amount of waste from the plastic mulch itself. The use of plastic mulch for vegetables, strawberries, and other row and orchard crops exceeds 110 million pounds annually in the United States. Most plastic ends up in the landfill, although there are other disposal options such as disking mulches into the soil, on-site burying, on-site storage, reuse, recycling, and incineration. The incineration and recycling options are complicated by the variety of the types of plastics that are used and by the geographic dispersal of the plastics. Plastics also contain stabilizers and dyes as well as heavy metals, which limits the number of products that can be recycled. Research is continually being conducted on creating biodegradable orphotodegradable mulches. While there has been a minor success with this, there is also the problem of how long the plastic takes to degrade, as many biodegradable products take a long time to break down.[68]
The environmental impact of agriculture can vary depending on the region as well as the type of agriculture production method that is being used. Listed below are some specific environmental issues in various different regions around the world.
Sustainable agriculture is the idea that agriculture should occur in a way such that production can be continued to produce necessary products without infringing on the ability for future generations to do the same.
The exponential population increase in recent decades has increased the practice of agriculturalland conversion to meet the demand for food which in turn has increased the effects on the environment. The global population is still increasing and will eventually stabilize, as some critics doubt that food production, due to lower yields from global warming, can support the global population.
Agriculture can have negative effects on biodiversity as well.[5]Organic farming is a multifacetedsustainable agriculture set of practices that can have a lower impact on the environment at a small scale. However, in most cases organic farming results in lower yields in terms of production per unit area.[69] Therefore, widespread adoption of organic agriculture will require additional land to be cleared and water resources extracted to meet the same level of production. A European meta-analysis found that organic farms tended to have highersoil organic matter content and lower nutrient losses (nitrogen leaching,nitrous oxide emissions, and ammonia emissions) per unit of field area but higher ammonia emissions, nitrogen leaching and nitrous oxide emissions per product unit.[70] It is believed by many that conventional farming systems cause less rich biodiversity than organic systems.Organic farming has shown to have on average 30% higher species richness than conventional farming. Organic systems on average also have 50% more organisms.[71] However thes results do not account for possibleloss of biodiversity due to decreased yields because more land is needed.[72]
Regenerative agriculture is aconservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses ontopsoilregeneration, increasingbiodiversity,[73] improving thewater cycle,[74] enhancingecosystem services, supportingbiosequestration,[75] increasingresilience to climate change, and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil.
Regenerative agriculture is not a specific practice. It combines a variety ofsustainable agriculture techniques.[76] Practices include maximal recycling of farm waste and addingcomposted material from non-farm sources.[77][78][79][80] Regenerative agriculture on small farms and gardens is based onpermaculture,agroecology,agroforestry,restoration ecology,keyline design, andholistic management. Large farms are also increasingly adopting regenerative techniques, using "no-till" and/or "reduced till" practices.
Assoil health improves, input requirements may decrease, and crop yields may increase as soils are more resilient toextreme weather and harbor fewer pests andpathogens.[81]
Regenerative agriculture claims tomitigate climate change throughcarbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere and sequestration. Carbon sequestration is gaining popularity in agriculture from individuals as well as groups.[82] However such claims have also been subject to criticism by scientists.[83]
Conservation tillage is an alternative tillage method for farming which is more sustainable for the soil and surrounding ecosystem.[84] This is done by allowing the residue of the previous harvest's crops to remain in the soil before tilling for the next crop. Conservation tillage has shown to improve many things such as soil moisture retention, and reduce erosion. Some disadvantages are the fact that more expensive equipment is needed for this process, more pesticides will need to be used, and the positive effects take a long time to be visible.[84] The barriers of instantiating a conservation tillage policy are that farmers are reluctant to change their methods, and would protest a more expensive, and time-consuming method of tillage than the conventional one they are used to.[85]
Biological control or biocontrol is a method ofcontrolling pests, whether pest animals such asinsects andmites,weeds, orpathogens affecting animals orplants byusing other organisms.[86] It relies onpredation,parasitism,herbivory, or other natural mechanisms, but typically also involves an active human management role. It can be an important component ofintegrated pest management (IPM) programs.
There are three basic strategies for biological control: classical (importation), where a natural enemy of a pest is introduced in the hope of achieving control; inductive (augmentation), in which a large population of natural enemies are administered for quick pest control; and inoculative (conservation), in which measures are taken to maintain natural enemies through regular reestablishment.[87]
Natural enemies of insects play an important part in limiting the densities of potential pests. Biological control agents such as these includepredators,parasitoids,pathogens, andcompetitors. Biological control agents of plant diseases are most often referred to as antagonists. Biological control agents of weeds include seed predators,herbivores, and plant pathogens.
Biological control can have side-effects onbiodiversity through attacks on non-target species by any of the above mechanisms, especially when a species is introduced without a thorough understanding of the possible consequences.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)The non-peer-reviewed estimates from the Savory Institute are strikingly higher – and, for all the reasons discussed earlier (Section 3.4.3), unrealistic.
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