3 Common Myths About Sustainable Agriculture

Misconception #1: “Genetically modified crops are unsustainable”

Genetically modified (GM) crops are often associated with industrial agriculture and, in extension, its negative environmental impacts. However, GM crops can lower the overall environmental impact of agriculture by increasing crop yields and decreasing the use of high-impact farming practices. For example, GM crops with insect-resistance help farmers reduce their use of chemical pesticides (Source, Source). Instead of suppressing weeds by plowing the soil (a practice called “tilling”), farmers can instead grow GM plants that are herbicide-tolerant and control weeds with targeted herbicide sprays that don’t damage the crop. By not tilling the soil, farmers can cut down on their fuel use, promote a healthier soil environment, and retain more carbon in the soil (Source). GM crops can also help reduce emissions by increasing per-acre yields (Source). Increasing yield on the land we already farm reduces the economic pressure to convert natural ecosystems into farmland. Overall, GM crops are one tool in the sustainable agriculture toolbelt, which can be used in combination with other sustainable practices to make large-scale food production possible with a lower environmental impact. 

Misconception #2: “We need to cut out fertilizers and irrigation to make farming sustainable”

Although the use of fertilizer and irrigation significantly impacts our environment, we cannot reasonably feed a growing population off the same amount of farmland without them. Instead, sustainable agriculture focuses on improving the inputs we use to lower their environmental impact and applying these inputs at the right times and places. For example, modern “enhanced-efficiency fertilizers” (EEFs) control the rate that fertilizer gets released into the soil and inhibits its degradation into greenhouse gasses. By switching from older fertilizers to EEFs, farmers can increase their crop yield by about 8% while significantly reducing their fertilizer waste and emissions (Source). Precision and drip irrigation systems use field data and automation to deliver precise amounts of water to crops at the ideal time and place. Switching to precision irrigation can cut water usage by 20-60% depending on the crop and environment it's grown in (Source, Source). Overall, sustainable agriculture isn’t just about doing the same practices with less input. Instead, it pushes us to improve what we use and apply them with modern technologies to obtain higher yields and utilize resources more efficiently.

Misconception #3: “Growing food sustainably is more expensive”

Some people assume that sustainable agriculture practices are too costly to use. However, many sustainable practices, like crop rotation and biological pest control, improve yields and decrease material costs for the farmer, which makes the final price of their products lower. Crop rotation is a sustainable practice where farmers switch out what they plant in their fields over several growing cycles. This practice improves soil health, increases soil fertility, and reduces soil-borne diseases, which all help increase crop yield without increasing costs (Source, Source). Biological pest control is another sustainable technique which uses living things to control crop pests. For example, the highly damaging cassava mealybug was successfully controlled by introducing its parasite Anagyrus lopezi to cassava farms in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (Source, Source). Push-pull technology (PPT) is another biological control method which grows repellant plants around vulnerable crops to “push” pests towards sacrificial plants that “pull” the pests away from the field. These push/pull plants can be harvested as animal feed, and the practice overall reduces pest pressure without relying on expensive chemical sprays (Source). While many sustainable practices like these help save farmers and consumers money in the long run, they can also have a high barrier to entry due to start-up costs, time constraints, knowledge gaps, and cultural differences. Education, research, and financial resources remain important tools to make these practices more commonplace and easier to implement in the field.