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108-511: PNGON is composed of 21 member organizations with goals covering a wide range of environmental issues such as defending land against misuse, sustainable agriculture , water conservation , rural issues, sustainable development , protection of cultural heritage , health and sanitation , biodiversity protection, human rights and community participation. PNGON's General Assembly consists of all of its members. The Coordinating Committee consists of seven members who are elected every two years by

216-478: A barrier to improving the lives of poor people around the world. Humans and human culture itself are highly adaptable things that have overcome issues that seemed incomprehensible at the time before. It is not to say that carrying capacity is not something that should be considered and thought about, but it should be taken with some skepticism when presented as a concretely evidenced proof of something. Many biologists, ecologists, and social scientists have disposed of

324-446: A billion tonnes of southern Africa's soil are being lost to erosion annually, which if continued will result in halving of crop yields within thirty to fifty years. Improper soil management is threatening the ability to grow sufficient food. Intensive agriculture reduces the carbon level in soil, impairing soil structure, crop growth and ecosystem functioning, and accelerating climate change . Modification of agricultural practices

432-621: A certain way. This was encapsulated by Paul Ehrlich and James Holdren's (1972) IPAT equation: environmental impact (I) = population (P) x affluence (A) x the technologies used to accommodate human demands (T). IPAT has found spectacular confirmation in recent decades within climate science, where the Kaya identity for explaining changes in CO 2 emissions is essentially IPAT with two technology factors broken out for ease of use. This suggests to technological optimists that new technological discoveries (or

540-443: A challenge for farmers who care about competition and profitability. There must also be an incentive for farmers to change their methods of agriculture. The use of public policy, advertisements, and laws that make sustainable agriculture mandatory or desirable can be utilized to overcome these social barriers. Environmental barriers prevent the ability to protect and conserve the natural ecosystem. Examples of these barriers include

648-459: A drastic increase in the efficiency of material and energy use. To make that transition, long- and short-term goals will need to be balanced enhancing equity and quality of life. The barriers to sustainable agriculture can be broken down and understood through three different dimensions. These three dimensions are seen as the core pillars to sustainability : social, environmental, and economic pillars. The social pillar addresses issues related to

756-516: A few different processes in the past before finally being applied to population limits in the 1950s. The notion of carrying capacity for humans is covered by the notion of sustainable population . An early detailed examination of global limits was published in the 1972 book Limits to Growth , which has prompted follow-up commentary and analysis, including much criticism. A 2012 review in Nature by 22 international researchers expressed concerns that

864-584: A large role in whether sustainable practices will be adopted. The human and material capital required to shift to sustainable methods of agriculture requires training of the workforce and making investments in new technology and products, which comes at a high cost. In addition to this, farmers practicing conventional agriculture can mass produce their crops, and therefore maximize their profitability. This would be difficult to do in sustainable agriculture which encourages low production capacity. The author James Howard Kunstler claims almost all modern technology

972-534: A limited supply. This allows the irrigation of crops without decreasing natural fresh water sources. While desalination can be a tool to provide water to areas that need it to sustain agriculture, it requires money and resources. Regions of China have been considering large scale desalination in order to increase access to water, but the current cost of the desalination process makes it impractical. Women working in sustainable agriculture come from numerous backgrounds, ranging from academia to labour. From 1978-2007, in

1080-424: A more complex model of how humans interact with their ecosystem needs to be used to understand them. Between 1900 and 2020, Earth's human population increased from 1.6 billion to 7.8 billion (a 390% increase). These successes greatly increased human resource demands, generating significant environmental degradation . The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) of 2005 was a massive, collaborative effort to assess

1188-495: A pasture. In order to market ones' meat products as 'biodynamic' , a lower Großvieheinheit of 1 to 1.5 (2.0) GV/ha is mandated, with some farms having an operating structure using only 0.5 to 0.8 GV/ha. The Food and Agriculture Organization has introduced three international units to measure carrying capacity: FAO Livestock Units for North America, FAO Livestock Units for sub-Saharan Africa, and Tropical Livestock Units. Another rougher and less precise method of determining

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1296-413: A population uses resources and generates wastes, with a focus on five main areas: carbon emissions (or carbon footprint ), land devoted to direct settlement, timber and paper use, food and fiber use, and seafood consumption. It converts these into per capita or total hectares used. On the supply side, national or global biocapacity represents the productivity of ecological assets in a particular nation or

1404-458: A quarter of the Earth's ice-free land area is subject to human-induced degradation (medium confidence). Soil erosion from agricultural fields is estimated to be currently 10 to 20 times (no tillage) to more than 100 times (conventional tillage) higher than the soil formation rate (medium confidence)." Almost half of the land on earth is covered with dry land, which is susceptible to degradation. Over

1512-513: A resource. In land-use planning and management, considering the impacts of land-use changes on factors such as soil erosion can support long-term agricultural sustainability, as shown by a study of Wadi Ziqlab, a dry area in the Middle East where farmers graze livestock and grow olives, vegetables, and grains. Looking back over the 20th century shows that for people in poverty, following environmentally sound land practices has not always been

1620-564: A result of fossil fuel resources being depleted. It may therefore decrease global food security unless action is taken to 'decouple' fossil fuel energy from food production, with a move towards 'energy-smart' agricultural systems including renewable energy . The use of solar powered irrigation in Pakistan is said to be a closed system for agricultural water irrigation. The environmental cost of transportation could be avoided if people use local products. In some areas sufficient rainfall

1728-635: A significant portion live off the food they grow themselves , and it will be profitable because the yield of their main produce will remain stable. Not all regions are suitable for agriculture. The technological advancement of the past few decades has allowed agriculture to develop in some of these regions. For example, Nepal has built greenhouses to deal with its high altitude and mountainous regions. Greenhouses allow for greater crop production and also use less water since they are closed systems. Desalination techniques can turn salt water into fresh water which allows greater access to water for areas with

1836-429: A species would live in, and carrying capacity, the most animals which could be in the field) and Errington defining 'carrying capacity' as the number of animals above which predation would become 'heavy' (this definition has largely been rejected, including by Errington himself). The important and popular 1953 textbook on ecology by Eugene Odum , Fundamentals of Ecology , popularised the term in its modern meaning as

1944-485: A specific system's carrying capacity involves a limiting factor ; this may be available supplies of food or water , nesting areas, space, or the amount of waste that can be absorbed without degrading the environment and decreasing carrying capacity. Carrying capacity is a commonly used concept for biologists when trying to better understand biological populations and the factors which affect them. When addressing biological populations, carrying capacity can be seen as

2052-432: A stable dynamic equilibrium, taking into account extinction and colonization rates. In population biology , logistic growth assumes that population size fluctuates above and below an equilibrium value. Numerous authors have questioned the usefulness of the term when applied to actual wild populations. Although useful in theory and in laboratory experiments, carrying capacity as a method of measuring population limits in

2160-409: A substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth. The second of the four main findings is: The changes that have been made to ecosystems have contributed to substantial net gains in human well-being and economic development, but these gains have been achieved at growing costs in the form of the degradation of many ecosystem services, increased risks of nonlinear changes, and

2268-437: A viable option due to many complex and challenging life circumstances. Currently, increased land degradation in developing countries may be connected with rural poverty among smallholder farmers when forced into unsustainable agricultural practices out of necessity. Converting big parts of the land surface to agriculture has severe environmental and health consequences. For example, it leads to rise in zoonotic disease (like

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2376-491: Is a common stocking rate, in intensive agriculture , when grazing is supplemented with extra fodder , rates can be 5 to 10 GV/ha. In Europe average stocking rates vary depending on the country, in 2000 the Netherlands and Belgium had a very high rate of 3.82 GV/ha and 3.19 GV/ha respectively, surrounding countries have rates of around 1 to 1.5 GV/ha, and more southern European countries have lower rates, with Spain having

2484-633: Is a cow ('dam'), steer or ox ('bullock' in Australia), and if it weaning , pregnant or 'wet' (i.e. lactating ). In other parts of the world different units are used for calculating carrying capacities. In the United Kingdom the paddock is measured in LU, livestock units, although different schemes exist for this. New Zealand uses either LU, EE (ewe equivalents) or SU (stock units). In the US and Canada

2592-543: Is a function of how people live and the technology at their disposal. The two great economic revolutions that marked human history up to 1900—the agricultural and industrial revolutions—greatly increased the Earth's human carrying capacity, allowing human population to grow from 5 to 10 million people in 10,000 BCE to 1.5 billion in 1900. The immense technological improvements of the past 100 years—in applied chemistry, physics, computing, genetic engineering, and more—have further increased Earth's human carrying capacity, at least in

2700-445: Is a non-renewable resource and it is being depleted by mining for agricultural use: peak phosphorus will occur within the next few hundred years, or perhaps earlier. Potassium is a macronutrient very important for plant development and is commonly sought in fertilizers. This nutrient is essential for agriculture because it improves water retention, nutrient value, yield, taste, color, texture and disease resistance of crops. It

2808-420: Is a recognized method of carbon sequestration as soil can act as an effective carbon sink . Soil management techniques include no-till farming , keyline design and windbreaks to reduce wind erosion, reincorporation of organic matter into the soil, reducing soil salinization , and preventing water run-off. As the global population increases and demand for food increases, there is pressure on land as

2916-598: Is also a rapidly growing barrier, one that farmers have little control over, which can be seen through place-based barriers. These place-based barriers include factors such as weather conditions, topography , and soil quality which can cause losses in production, resulting in the reluctance to switch from conventional practices. Many environmental benefits are also not visible or immediately evident. Significant changes such as lower rates of soil and nutrient loss, improved soil structure , and higher levels of beneficial microorganisms take time. In conventional agriculture ,

3024-573: Is arbitrary. This is due to choosing what to consider (e.g., whether or not to include plants that are not available every year), how to classify what is considered (e.g., classifying edible plants that are not usually eaten as food resources or not), and determining if caloric values or nutritional values are privileged. Additional layers to this for humans are their cultural differences in taste (e.g., some consume flying termites) and individual choices on what to invest their labor into (e.g., fishing vs. farming), both of which vary over time. This leads to

3132-414: Is available for crop growth, but many other areas require irrigation . For irrigation systems to be sustainable, they require proper management (to avoid salinization ) and must not use more water from their source than is naturally replenishable. Otherwise, the water source effectively becomes a non-renewable resource . Improvements in water well drilling technology and submersible pumps , combined with

3240-496: Is bad and that there cannot be sustainability unless agriculture is done in ancient traditional ways. Efforts toward more sustainable agriculture are supported in the sustainability community, however, these are often viewed only as incremental steps and not as an end. One promising method of encouraging sustainable agriculture is through local farming and community gardens . Incorporating local produce and agricultural education into schools, communities, and institutions can promote

3348-491: Is enough to hinder afforestation in a natural area. Because different species have different ecological niches , with horses for example grazing short grass, cattle longer grass, and goats or deer preferring to browse shrubs, niche differentiation allows a terrain to have slightly higher carrying capacity for a mixed group of species, than it would if there were only one species involved. Some niche market schemes mandate lower stocking rates than can maximally be grazed on

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3456-518: Is found in the soil in both inorganic and organic forms and makes up approximately 0.05% of soil biomass. Phosphorus fertilizers are the main input of inorganic phosphorus in agricultural soils and approximately 70%–80% of phosphorus in cultivated soils is inorganic. Long-term use of phosphate-containing chemical fertilizers causes eutrophication and deplete soil microbial life, so people have looked to other sources. Phosphorus fertilizers are manufactured from rock phosphate . However, rock phosphate

3564-556: Is important to develop flexible business processes and farming practices. Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint , playing a significant role in causing climate change ( food systems are responsible for one third of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions ), water scarcity , water pollution , land degradation , deforestation and other processes; it is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes. Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow

3672-506: Is likely to occur. Ecological Footprint accounting measures the demands people make on nature and compares them to available supplies, for both individual countries and the world as a whole. Developed originally by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees , it has been refined and applied in a variety of contexts over the years by Global Footprint Network (GFN). On the demand side, the Ecological Footprint measures how fast

3780-501: Is maintained in a stable condition. Not only sheep are calculated in DSEs, the carrying capacity for other livestock is also calculated using this measure. A 200 kg weaned calf of a British style breed gaining 0.25 kg/day is 5.5DSE, but if the same weight of the same type of calf were gaining 0.75 kg/day, it would be measured at 8DSE. Cattle are not all the same, their DSEs can vary depending on breed, growth rates, weights, if it

3888-431: Is not sustainable agriculture. An example of a case in which a global view may be warranted is the application of fertilizer or manure , which can improve the productivity of a farm but can pollute nearby rivers and coastal waters ( eutrophication ). The other extreme can also be undesirable, as the problem of low crop yields due to exhaustion of nutrients in the soil has been related to rainforest destruction. In Asia,

3996-526: Is often used in the cultivation of grains, fruits, vegetables, rice, wheat, millets, sugar, corn, soybeans, palm oil and coffee. Potassium chloride (KCl) represents the most widely source of K used in agriculture, accounting for 90% of all potassium produced for agricultural use.   The use of KCl leads to high concentrations of chloride (Clˉ) in soil harming its health due to the increase in soil salinity, imbalance in nutrient availability and this ion's biocidal effect for soil organisms. In consequences

4104-409: Is readily defined as forever, that is, agricultural environments that are designed to promote endless regeneration". It balances the need for resource conservation with the needs of farmers pursuing their livelihood . It is considered to be reconciliation ecology , accommodating biodiversity within human landscapes. Oftentimes, the execution of sustainable practices within farming comes through

4212-420: Is that ecosystems are not constant and change over time, therefore changing the resources available. Research has shown that sometimes the presence of human populations can increase local biodiversity , demonstrating that human habitation does not always lead to deforestation and decreased biodiversity. Another issue to consider when applying carrying capacity, especially to humans, is that measuring food resources

4320-463: Is the ability to feed ever-growing populations across the world. The growing popularity of sustainable agriculture is connected to the wide-reaching fear that the planet's carrying capacity (or planetary boundaries ), in terms of the ability to feed humanity, has been reached or even exceeded. There are several key principles associated with sustainability in agriculture: It "considers long-term as well as short-term economics because sustainability

4428-453: Is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat , water , and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the environment 's maximal load, which in population ecology corresponds to the population equilibrium, when the number of deaths in a population equals the number of births (as well as immigration and emigration). Carrying capacity of

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4536-497: The Coronavirus disease 2019 ) due to the degradation of natural buffers between humans and animals, reducing biodiversity and creating larger groups of genetically similar animals. Land is a finite resource on Earth. Although expansion of agricultural land can decrease biodiversity and contribute to deforestation , the picture is complex; for instance, a study examining the introduction of sheep by Norse settlers (Vikings) to

4644-455: The Economics of Land Degradation Initiative which seek to establish an economic cost-benefit analysis on the practice of sustainable land management and sustainable agriculture. Triple bottom line frameworks include social and environmental alongside a financial bottom line. A sustainable future can be feasible if growth in material consumption and population is slowed down and if there is

4752-531: The German Kapazitätsgrenze (capacity limit). This equation is a modification of the original Verhulst model: In this equation, the carrying capacity K , N ∗ {\displaystyle N^{*}} , is When the Verhulst model is plotted into a graph, the population change over time takes the form of a sigmoid curve , reaching its highest level at K . This is

4860-638: The Great Depression and World War II , so that in one point of time 40% of the vegetables of the USA was produced in this way. The practice became more popular again in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic . This method permits to grow food in a relatively sustainable way and at the same time can make it easier for poor people to obtain food. Costs, such as environmental problems, not covered in traditional accounting systems (which take into account only

4968-482: The United States , the number of women farm operators has tripled. In 2007, women operated 14 percent of farms, compared to five percent in 1978. Much of the growth is due to women farming outside of the "male dominated field of conventional agriculture". The practice of growing food in the backyard of houses, schools, etc., by families or by communities became widespread in the US at the time of World War I ,

5076-451: The flooding of the Nile , the long-term use of biochar , and use of crop and livestock landraces that are adapted to less than ideal conditions such as pests, drought, or lack of nutrients. Crops that require high levels of soil nutrients can be cultivated in a more sustainable manner with appropriate fertilizer management practices. Phosphate is a primary component in fertilizer . It is

5184-412: The logistic growth curve and it is calculated with: where The logistic growth curve depicts how population growth rate and carrying capacity are inter-connected. As illustrated in the logistic growth curve model, when the population size is small, the population increases exponentially. However, as population size nears carrying capacity, the growth decreases and reaches zero at K . What determines

5292-415: The loss of biodiversity and increased soil erosion. In modern agriculture, energy is used in on-farm mechanisation, food processing, storage, and transportation processes. It has therefore been found that energy prices are closely linked to food prices . Oil is also used as an input in agricultural chemicals . The International Energy Agency projects higher prices of non-renewable energy resources as

5400-591: The Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C). The term "sustainable agriculture" was defined in 1977 by the USDA as an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term: Yet the idea of having a sustainable relationship with the land has been prevalent in indigenous communities for centuries before the term was formally added to

5508-539: The Earth may be "approaching a state shift" in which the biosphere may become less hospitable to human life and in which human carrying capacity may diminish. This concern that humanity may be passing beyond "tipping points" for safe use of the biosphere has increased in subsequent years. Recent estimates of Earth's carrying capacity run between two billion and four billion people, depending on how optimistic researchers are about international cooperation to solve collective action problems. In terms of population dynamics ,

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5616-625: The Faroe Islands of the North Atlantic concluded that, over time, the fine partitioning of land plots contributed more to soil erosion and degradation than grazing itself. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that in coming decades, cropland will continue to be lost to industrial and urban development , along with reclamation of wetlands, and conversion of forest to cultivation, resulting in

5724-880: The General Assembly. PNGON is an umbrella organization for Palestinian environmental organizations operating in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. PNGON focuses on protection of the Palestinian environment within the context of Israeli military occupation. Therefore, environmental efforts are coordinated with social justice campaigns and also integrate social, economic and cultural rights to effect environmental protection and defense. PNGON seeks to raise international awareness, build capacity for environmental advocacy and mobilizes communities to engage in sustainable development. PNGON also encourages cooperation with other developing societies. The Member Organizations of

5832-603: The MSY, populations dynamics imply that the total population will eventually decrease to zero. The actual carrying capacity of the environment may fluctuate in the real world, which means that practically, MSY may actually vary from year to year (annual sustainable yields and maximum average yield attempt to take this into account). Other similar concepts are optimum sustainable yield and maximum economic yield ; these are both harvest rates below MSY. These calculations are used to determine fishing quotas . Human carrying capacity

5940-509: The PNGON network are: Sustainable agriculture Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services . There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture. When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems , it

6048-422: The adoption of technology and environmentally-focused appropriate technology . Practices that can cause long-term damage to soil include excessive tilling of the soil (leading to erosion ) and irrigation without adequate drainage (leading to salinization ). The most important factors for a farming site are climate , soil, nutrients and water resources . Of the four, water and soil conservation are

6156-624: The atmosphere. If a region’s biocapacity exceeds its Ecological Footprint, it has a biocapacity reserve. According to the GFN's calculations, humanity has been using resources and generating wastes in excess of sustainability since approximately 1970: currently humanity use Earth's resources at approximately 170% of capacity. This implies that humanity is well over Earth's human carrying capacity for our current levels of affluence and technology use. According to Global Footprint Network: In 2024, [Earth Overshoot Day] fell on August 1. Earth Overshoot Day marks

6264-666: The average annual flow of rivers from rainfall, flows from outside a country, the percentage of water coming from outside a country, and gross water withdrawal. It is estimated that agricultural practices consume 69% of the world's fresh water. Sustainable agriculture attempts to solve multiple problems with one broad solution. The goal of sustainable agricultural practices is to decrease environmental degradation due to farming while increasing crop–and thus food–output. There are many varying strategies attempting to use sustainable farming practices in order to increase rural economic development within small-scale farming communities. Two of

6372-486: The barriers preventing sustainable agricultural practices. Social barriers to sustainable agriculture include cultural shifts, the need for collaboration, incentives, and new legislation. The move from conventional to sustainable agriculture will require significant behavioural changes from both farmers and consumers. Cooperation and collaboration between farmers is necessary to successfully transition to sustainable practices with minimal complications. This can be seen as

6480-600: The benefits are easily visible with no weeds, pests, etc..., but the long term costs to the soil and surrounding ecosystems are hidden and "externalized". Conventional agricultural practices since the evolution of technology have caused significant damage to the environment through biodiversity loss , disrupted ecosystems, poor water quality, among other harms. The economic obstacles to implementing sustainable agricultural practices include low financial return/profitability, lack of financial incentives, and negligible capital investments. Financial incentives and circumstances play

6588-426: The biological limits of a natural system related to population size in the 1950s. Neo-Malthusians and eugenicists popularised the use of the words to describe the number of people the Earth can support in the 1950s, although American biostatisticians Raymond Pearl and Lowell Reed had already applied it in these terms to human populations in the 1920s. Hadwen and Palmer (1923) defined carrying capacity as

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6696-430: The carrying capacity of a paddock is simply by looking objectively at the condition of the herd. In Australia, the national standardized system for rating livestock conditions is done by body condition scoring (BCS). An animal in a very poor condition is scored with a BCS of 0, and an animal which is extremely healthy is scored at 5: animals may be scored between these two numbers in increments of 0.25. At least 25 animals of

6804-432: The condition of the pasture. In fisheries , carrying capacity is used in the formulae to calculate sustainable yields for fisheries management . The maximum sustainable yield (MSY) is defined as "the highest average catch that can be continuously taken from an exploited population (=stock) under average environmental conditions". MSY was originally calculated as half of the carrying capacity, but has been refined over

6912-622: The conditions in which societies are born into, growing in, and learning from. It deals with shifting away from traditional practices of agricultural and moving into new sustainable practices that will create better societies and conditions. The environmental pillar addresses climate change and focuses on agricultural practices that protect the environment for future generations. The economic pillar discovers ways in which sustainable agriculture can be practiced while fostering economic growth and stability, with minimal disruptions to livelihoods. All three pillars must be addressed to determine and overcome

7020-459: The consumption of freshly grown produce which will drive consumer demand. Some foresee a true sustainable steady state economy that may be very different from today's: greatly reduced energy usage, minimal ecological footprint , fewer consumer packaged goods , local purchasing with short food supply chains , little processed foods , more home and community gardens , etc. Carrying capacity The carrying capacity of an environment

7128-443: The date when humanity has exhausted nature’s budget for the year. For the rest of the year, we are maintaining our ecological deficit by drawing down local resource stocks and accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We are operating in overshoot. The concept of ‘ ecological overshoot ’ can be seen as equivalent to exceeding human carrying capacity. According to the most recent calculations from Global Footprint Network, most of

7236-600: The density of stock that could be grazed for a definite period without damage to the range. It was first used in the context of wildlife management by the American Aldo Leopold in 1933, and a year later by the American Paul Lester Errington , a wetlands specialist. They used the term in different ways, Leopold largely in the sense of grazing animals (differentiating between a 'saturation level', an intrinsic level of density

7344-413: The deployment of existing ones) could continue to increase Earth's human carrying capacity, as it has in the past. Yet technology has unexpected side effects, as we have seen with stratospheric ozone depletion, excessive nitrogen deposition in the world's rivers and bays, and global climate change. This suggests that 8 billion people may be sustainable for a few generations, but not over the long term, and

7452-854: The development of drip irrigation and low-pressure pivots, have made it possible to regularly achieve high crop yields in areas where reliance on rainfall alone had previously made successful agriculture unpredictable. However, this progress has come at a price. In many areas, such as the Ogallala Aquifer , the water is being used faster than it can be replenished. According to the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, several steps must be taken to develop drought-resistant farming systems even in "normal" years with average rainfall. These measures include both policy and management actions: Indicators for sustainable water resource development include

7560-494: The development of plants and soil organisms is affected, putting at risk soil biodiversity and agricultural productivity. A sustainable option for replacing KCl are chloride-free fertilizers, its use should take into account plants' nutrition needs, and the promotion of soil health. Land degradation is becoming a severe global problem. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change : "About

7668-432: The direct costs of production incurred by the farmer) are known as externalities . Netting studied sustainability and intensive agriculture in smallholder systems through history. There are several studies incorporating externalities such as ecosystem services, biodiversity, land degradation, and sustainable land management in economic analysis. These include The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study and

7776-652: The early 2000s stating that when people in their communities are not factored into the agricultural process that serious harm is done. The social scientist Charles Kellogg has stated that, "In a final effort, exploited people pass their suffering to the land." Sustainable agriculture mean the ability to permanently and continuously "feed its constituent populations". There are a lot of opportunities that can increase farmers' profits, improve communities, and continue sustainable practices. For example, in Uganda , Genetically Modified Organisms were originally illegal. However, with

7884-461: The environment implies that the resources extraction is not above the rate of regeneration of the resources and the wastes generated are within the assimilating capacity of the environment. The effect of carrying capacity on population dynamics is modelled with a logistic function . Carrying capacity is applied to the maximum population an environment can support in ecology , agriculture and fisheries . The term carrying capacity has been applied to

7992-560: The environment is less useful as it sometimes oversimplifies the interactions between species. It is important for farmers to calculate the carrying capacity of their land so they can establish a sustainable stocking rate . For example, calculating the carrying capacity of a paddock in Australia is done in Dry Sheep Equivalents (DSEs). A single DSE is 50 kg Merino wether , dry ewe or non-pregnant ewe, which

8100-457: The environment. Possible sources of nitrates that would, in principle, be available indefinitely, include: The last option was proposed in the 1970s, but is only gradually becoming feasible. Sustainable options for replacing other nutrient inputs such as phosphorus and potassium are more limited. Other options include long-term crop rotations , returning to natural cycles that annually flood cultivated lands (returning lost nutrients) such as

8208-454: The equilibrium value of the logistic model of population growth. The specific reason why a population stops growing is known as a limiting or regulating factor . The difference between the birth rate and the death rate is the natural increase . If the population of a given organism is below the carrying capacity of a given environment, this environment could support a positive natural increase; should it find itself above that threshold

8316-498: The exacerbation of poverty for some groups of people. These problems, unless addressed, will substantially diminish the benefits that future generations obtain from ecosystems. According to the MEA, these unprecedented environmental changes threaten to reduce the Earth's long-term human carrying capacity. “The degradation of ecosystem services could grow significantly worse during the first half of this [21st] century,” they write, serving as

8424-416: The huge dead zones at the mouths of many of world's great rivers, are a function of the scale of contemporary agriculture and the many other demands 8 billion people make on the planet. Scientists now speak of humanity exceeding or threatening to exceed 9 planetary boundaries for safe use of the biosphere. Humanity's unprecedented ecological impacts threaten to degrade the ecosystem services that people and

8532-531: The land or resources that are available. Nonetheless, it is possible to not be pessimistic as technological, social, and institutional adaptions could be accelerated, especially in a time of need, to solve problems, or in this case, increase carrying capacity. There are also of course resources on this Earth that are limited that most certainly will run out if overused or used without proper oversight/checks and balances. If things are left without remaining checked then overconsumption and exploitation of land and resources

8640-495: The lexicon. A common consensus is that sustainable farming is the most realistic way to feed growing populations. In order to successfully feed the population of the planet, farming practices must consider future costs–to both the environment and the communities they fuel.   The risk of not being able to provide enough resources for everyone led to the adoption of technology within the sustainability field to increase farm productivity. The ideal end result of this advancement

8748-400: The lowest rate of 0.44 GV/ha. This system can also be applied to natural areas. Grazing megaherbivores at roughly 1 GV/ha is considered sustainable in central European grasslands, although this varies widely depending on many factors. In ecology it is theoretically (i.e. cyclic succession , patch dynamics , Megaherbivorenhypothese ) taken that a grazing pressure of 0.3 GV/ha by wildlife

8856-505: The most amenable to human intervention. When farmers grow and harvest crops, they remove some nutrients from the soil. Without replenishment, the land suffers from nutrient depletion and becomes either unusable or suffers from reduced yields . Sustainable agriculture depends on replenishing the soil while minimizing the use or need of non-renewable resources, such as natural gas or mineral ores. A farm that can "produce perpetually", yet has negative effects on environmental quality elsewhere

8964-412: The most popular and opposing strategies within the modern discourse are allowing unrestricted markets to determine food production and deeming food a human right . Neither of these approaches have been proven to work without fail. A promising proposal to rural poverty reduction within agricultural communities is sustainable economic growth; the most important aspect of this policy is to regularly include

9072-713: The need to determine whether or not to include all food resources or only those the population considered will consume. Carrying capacity measurements over large areas also assumes homogeneity in the resources available but this does not account for how resources and access to them can greatly vary within regions and populations. They also assume that the populations in the region only rely on that region’s resources even though humans exchange resources with others from other regions and there are few, if any, isolated populations. Variations in standards of living which directly impact resource consumption are also not taken into account. These issues show that while there are limits to resources,

9180-1121: The planetary boundaries framework defines “a safe operating space for humanity based on the intrinsic biophysical processes that regulate the stability of the Earth system.” Human civilization has evolved in the relative stability of the Holocene epoch; crossing planetary boundaries for safe levels of atmospheric carbon, ocean acidity, or one of the other stated boundaries could send the global ecosystem spiraling into novel conditions that are less hospitable to life—possibly reducing global human carrying capacity. This framework, developed in an article published in 2009 in Nature and then updated in two articles published in 2015 in Science and in 2018 in PNAS ,  identifies nine stressors of planetary support systems that need to stay within critical limits to preserve stable and safe biospheric conditions (see figure below). Climate change and biodiversity loss are seen as especially crucial, since on their own, they could push

9288-552: The poorest farmers in the economy-wide development through the stabilization of small-scale agricultural economies. In 2007, the United Nations reported on " Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa", stating that using sustainable agriculture could be a tool in reaching global food security without expanding land usage and reducing environmental impacts . There has been evidence provided by developing nations from

9396-435: The population at its maximum recruitment . However, annual fishing can be seen as a modification of r in the equation -i.e. the environment has been modified, which means that the population size at equilibrium with annual fishing is slightly below what K would be without it. Note that mathematically and in practical terms, MSY is problematic. If mistakes are made and even a tiny amount of fish are harvested each year above

9504-424: The population typically decreases. Thus, the carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals of a species that an environment can support in long run. Population size decreases above carrying capacity due to a range of factors depending on the species concerned, but can include insufficient space , food supply , or sunlight . The carrying capacity of an environment varies for different species. In

9612-467: The production of crops or livestock without causing damage to human or natural systems. It involves preventing adverse effects on soil, water, biodiversity, and surrounding or downstream resources, as well as to those working or living on the farm or in neighboring areas. Elements of sustainable agriculture can include permaculture , agroforestry , mixed farming , multiple cropping , and crop rotation . Developing sustainable food systems contributes to

9720-510: The region’s biocapacity, that region runs a biocapacity deficit. Its demand for the goods and services that its land and seas can provide—fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, wood, cotton for clothing, and carbon dioxide absorption—exceeds what the region’s ecosystems can regenerate. In more popular communications, this is called “an ecological deficit.” A region in ecological deficit meets demand by importing, liquidating its own ecological assets (such as overfishing), and/or emitting carbon dioxide into

9828-422: The rest of life depend on—potentially decreasing Earth's human carrying capacity. The signs that we have crossed this threshold are increasing.   The fact that degrading Earth's essential services is obviously possible, and happening in some cases, suggests that 8 billion people may be above Earth's human carrying capacity. But human carrying capacity is always a function of a certain number of people living

9936-402: The same type must be scored to provide a statistically representative number, and scoring must take place monthly -if the average falls, this may be due to a stocking rate above the paddock's carrying capacity or too little fodder. This method is less direct for determining stocking rates than looking at the pasture itself, because the changes in the condition of the stock may lag behind changes in

10044-475: The second most important nutrient for plants after nitrogen, and is often a limiting factor. It is important for sustainable agriculture as it can improve soil fertility and crop yields. Phosphorus is involved in all major metabolic processes including photosynthesis, energy transfer, signal transduction, macromolecular biosynthesis, and respiration. It is needed for root ramification and strength and seed formation, and can increase disease resistance. Phosphorus

10152-554: The short term. Without the Haber-Bosch process for fixing nitrogen, modern agriculture could not support 8 billion people. Without the Green Revolution of the 1950s and 60s, famine might have culled large numbers of people in poorer countries during the last three decades of the twentieth century. Recent technological successes, however, have come at grave environmental costs. Climate change , ocean acidification, and

10260-399: The specific amount of land needed for sustainable farming is about 12.5 acres which include land for animal fodder, cereal production as a cash crop, and other food crops. In some cases, a small unit of aquaculture is included (AARI-1996). Nitrates are used widely in farming as fertilizer. Unfortunately, a major environmental problem associated with agriculture is the leaching of nitrates into

10368-421: The standard ecological algebra as illustrated in the simplified Verhulst model of population dynamics , carrying capacity is represented by the constant K : where Thus, the equation relates the growth rate of the population N to the current population size, incorporating the effect of the two constant parameters r and K . (Note that decrease is negative growth.) The choice of the letter K came from

10476-408: The state of Earth's ecosystems, involving more than 1,300 experts worldwide. Their first two of four main findings were the following. The first finding is: Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber, and fuel. This has resulted in

10584-658: The stress of banana crisis in Uganda, where Banana Bacterial Wilt had the potential to wipe out 90% of yield, they decided to explore GMOs as a possible solution. The government issued the National Biotechnology and Biosafety bill, which will allow scientists that are part of the National Banana Research Program to start experimenting with genetically modified organisms. This effort has the potential to help local communities because

10692-678: The sustainability of the human population. For example, one of the best ways to mitigate climate change is to create sustainable food systems based on sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture provides a potential solution to enable agricultural systems to feed a growing population within the changing environmental conditions. Besides sustainable farming practices, dietary shifts to sustainable diets are an intertwined way to substantially reduce environmental impacts. Numerous sustainability standards and certification systems exist, including organic certification , Rainforest Alliance , Fair Trade , UTZ Certified , GlobalGAP , Bird Friendly, and

10800-455: The term 'carrying capacity' was not explicitly used in 1838 by the Belgian mathematician Pierre François Verhulst when he first published his equations based on research on modelling population growth. The origins of the term "carrying capacity" are uncertain, with sources variously stating that it was originally used "in the context of international shipping " in the 1840s, or that it

10908-479: The term altogether due to the generalizations that are made that gloss over the complexity of interactions that take place on the micro and macro level. Carrying capacity in a human environment is subject to change at any time due to the highly adaptable nature of human society and culture. If resources, time, and energy are put into an issue, there very well may be a solution that exposes itself. This also should not be used as an excuse to overexploit or take advantage of

11016-462: The term ‘carrying capacity’ implies a population that is sustainable indefinitely. It is possible, too, that efforts to anticipate and manage the impacts of powerful new technologies, or to divide up the efforts needed to keep global ecological impacts within sustainable bounds among more than 200 nations all pursuing their own self-interest, may prove too complicated to achieve over the long haul. One issue with applying carrying capacity to any species

11124-469: The traditional system uses animal units (AU). A French/Swiss unit is Unité de Gros Bétail (UGB). In some European countries such as Switzerland the pasture ( alm or alp ) is traditionally measured in Stoß , with one Stoß equaling four Füße (feet). A more modern European system is Großvieheinheit (GV or GVE), corresponding to 500 kg in liveweight of cattle. In extensive agriculture 2 GV/ha

11232-420: The use of pesticides and the effects of climate change. Pesticides are widely used to combat pests that can devastate production and plays a significant role in keeping food prices and production costs low. To move toward sustainable agriculture, farmers are encouraged to utilize green pesticides, which cause less harm to both human health and habitats, but would entail a higher production cost. Climate change

11340-425: The world as a whole; this includes “cropland, grazing land, forest land, fishing grounds, and built-up land.” Again the various metrics to capture biocapacity are translated into the single term of hectares of available land. As Global Footprint Network (GFN) states: Each city, state or nation’s Ecological Footprint can be compared to its biocapacity, or that of the world. If a population’s Ecological Footprint exceeds

11448-571: The world's residents live in countries in ecological overshoot (see the map on the right). This includes countries with dense populations (such as China, India, and the Philippines), countries with high per capita consumption and resource use (France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia), and countries with both high per capita consumption and large numbers of people (Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States). According to its developers,

11556-445: The years, now being seen as roughly 30% of the population, depending on the species or population. Because the population of a species which is brought below its carrying capacity due to fishing will find itself in the exponential phase of growth, as seen in the Verhulst model, the harvesting of an amount of fish at or below MSY is a surplus yield which can be sustainably harvested without reducing population size at equilibrium, keeping

11664-575: Was first used during 19th-century laboratory experiments with micro-organisms. A 2008 review finds the first use of the term in English was an 1845 report by the US Secretary of State to the US Senate . It then became a term used generally in biology in the 1870s, being most developed in wildlife and livestock management in the early 1900s. It had become a staple term in ecology used to define

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