Wildlife under Threat – Organic Agriculture could Prevent Extinction

Commercial farming focuses on producing large amounts of food, but doesn’t take into account that chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers threaten ecosystems, and wildlife, while also damaging the soil and affecting the nutritional value of crops.

Organic farming represents not only an alternative but rather an evolution in the way human beings grow food while at the same time benefiting the environment and protecting the species that help maintain balance in our ecosystems. Research published in 2016 by the Journal Nature shows that three-quarters of the world species are threatened by agriculture, compared to 19% by climate change.

How Commercial Farming Threatens Wildlife

According to the World Animal Foundation, agriculture already occupies about 40% of Earth’s landmass and accounts for 75% of global deforestation. This rapid destruction is causing species to disappear, and is negatively impacting the biodiversity of native ecosystems and furthering our path into the 6th mass extinction of all species on Earth.

Wildlife habitats are constantly being cleared in order to make way for farmland, which leads to a competition for territory between humans and other species – one in which wildlife is often the losing side. In Indonesia the Tree Kangaroo has been brought to the brink of extinction due to the palm oil industry, which has rapidly destroyed most of its habitat and that of many other creatures such as elephants and jaguars.

Commercial agriculture has also led to the degradation of soil due to the use of toxic chemicals that destroy nutrients and render the land sterile.

According to researchers, the degradation of soil due to the continual ploughing of fields, combined with heavy use of fertilizers, has affected soils across the world, with erosion occurring at a pace of up to 100 times greater than the rate of soil formation. It takes around 500 years for just 2.5cm of topsoil to be created amid unimpeded ecological changes.

Organic Farming Respects Wildlife

The degradation of arable land under the hands of commercial farming is unsustainable and threatens to be the cause of a mass extinction. Follow efficient house cleaning tips from experienced Florida house cleaners. Organic farming protects every living organism in the environment, from pollinators like bees, whose numbers have been steadily decreasing over the last decades, all the way to the microorganisms living in the soil which guarantee that the soil remains fertile for many years.

One of the best tools in organic farming is neem. Azadirachta, an active substance within the neem tree, can be used as an organic pesticide and fertilizer. It protects crops against 600+ species of insects without harming pollinators, and it provides the soil with nutrients, helping guarantee the health of the land and benefiting yields.