Food Production And The Loss Of Biodiversity

The variety and variability amongst environmental systems is the characteristic that enables sustainment in every day life. Commonly known as biological diversity, this distinctive feature encompasses the multitude of both plant and animal species that can be found in distinctive ecosystems across the globe. At the very least, diversity is accountable for the thorough development of all natural systems and warrants their existence. The inclination of biodiversity in our daily lives is what enables us to continue to prosper and feasibly grow and develop in our environment, with each life form and ecosystem having its own intrinsic value (Burns, 2001, pg. 3). Increasingly however, biodiversity has observed a steady decline, being detrimentally impacted by Industrial Expansion, and particularly, the various agricultural practices it entails. With an annual growth rate of 1.8%, three people are added to the Earth every second (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada). This depicts the constant substantial population growth, which creates a deficit in the supply of nourishment annually. Accordingly, agricultural methods such as slash-and-burn, the aid of chemicals, and monocultures have followed as to increase the supply of food to meet the increasing demand. This has created the basis for three harmful characteristics of agricultural expansion: habitat alteration, pollution, and simplification, which all significantly work to deteriorate the biodiversity found across the world. Agricultural techniques of expansion have implicitly created an undesirable loss for society, slowly yet surely eliminating the one advantage the Earth has maintained for centuries- its diversity. The alteration or complete destruction of natural habitats has become an increasingly necessary way of creating accessible areas for agricultural processes. In order to produce ample space for cultivation methods, localized ecosystems are destroyed, alongside all the functions of their diverse