Intensive Farming - Disadvantages

Disadvantages

Intensive farming, however, alters the environment in many ways.

• Forests are destroyed to create large open fields and this could lead to soil erosion. Intensive farming affects the natural habitats of wild animals.
• Use of fertilizers can alter the biology of rivers and lakes. Some environmentalists attribute the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico as being encouraged by nitrogen fertilization of the algae bloom.
• Pesticides sprayed on crops not only destroy pests and contaminate the crops but also kill beneficial insects. Eventually, these chemicals are passed on to the human beings when they consume the agricultural produce.
• Is often not sustainable if not properly managed—may result in desertification, or land that is so poisonous and eroded that nothing else will grow there.
• Requires large amounts of energy input to produce, transport, and apply chemical fertilizers/pesticides
• The chemicals used may leave the field as runoff eventually ending up in rivers and lakes or may drain into groundwater aquifers.