| How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture Leo Horrigan, Robert S. Lawrence, and Polly Walker Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Abstract
The industrial agriculture system consumes fossil fuel, water, and topsoil at unsustainable rates. It contributes to numerous forms of environmental degradation, including air and water pollution, soil depletion, diminishing biodiversity, and fish die-offs. Meat production contributes disproportionately to these problems, in part because feeding grain to livestock to produce meat--instead of feeding it directly to humans--involves a large energy loss, making animal agriculture more resource intensive than other forms of food production. The proliferation of factory-style animal agriculture creates environmental and public health concerns, including pollution from the high concentration of animal wastes and the extensive use of antibiotics, which may compromise their effectiveness in medical use. At the consumption end, animal fat is implicated in many of the chronic degenerative diseases that afflict industrial and newly industrializing societies, particularly cardiovascular disease and some cancers. In terms of human health, both affluent and poor countries could benefit from policies that more equitably distribute high-protein foods. The pesticides used heavily in industrial agriculture are associated with elevated cancer risks for workers and consumers and are coming under greater scrutiny for their links to endocrine disruption and reproductive dysfunction. In this article we outline the environmental and human health problems associated with current food production practices and discuss how these systems could be made more sustainable. Key words: diet, environment, health, industrial agriculture, sustainability, sustainable agriculture. Environ Health Perspect 110:445-456 (2002) . [Online 20 March 2002] http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2002/110p445-456horrigan/ abstract.html Address correspondence to L. Horrigan, Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Room 8503, Baltimore, MD 21205 USA. Telephone: (410) 502-7575. Fax: (410) 502-7579. E-mail: lhorriga@jhsph.edu We appreciate the helpful suggestions made by reviewers J.J. Boland, B. Halweil, D.R. Keeney, and M. Taylor. C. Davis provided invaluable research assistance, and M. Frazier helped produce the graphics. H. Lerner provided a generous grant to support research for this article. Received 20 February 2001 ; accepted 26 September 2001.
The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |
