Why is Sustainable Farming beneficial?

While we can talk about the fact Sustainable Farming is so helpful, it is crucial to understand why. There must be multiple reasons as to why local farming is more beneficial than transporting foods from around the world. Here are some of the main reasons why Sustainable Foods would be more helpful, according to the Sustainable Food Laboratory:

1. Food production uses huge amounts of chemicals, fossil fuels, and water. By constantly transporting foods, we are putting all of these necessities at high risk for depletion. Chemicals are not only harmful to the atmosphere, but also to our bodies; by eliminating them in our food we can use them for things that are much more important. Water, as we know, is a resource that can also deplete very quickly. While majority of the Earth is surrounded by water, not much of it is actually drinkable. Fossil Fuels, could instead be used for sustainable energy instead of towards our foods.

2. Falling crop prices put stress on farms and farmers. Farms sustain and depend on their crops selling for certain prices throughout the year. If a crop price decreases, the farmer was depending on that sale, so if consumers stop purchasing crops, the farm will most likely run out of business or be forced to sell to a bigger company who does not rely so much on the money. This is awful! We should be supporting our local farms and farmers, and by purchasing their crops at places like the Saturday Market to enhance their business, not force them to close down. Due to this stress, millions of farmers and farm workers live in poverty.

3. Fisheries are being pushed to the point of collapse- people are wanting fish at such large quantities that we are running out of them! This is not only bad for local fisheries and communities, but it is also terrible on a global level. If the world runs out of fish, we can't just create them out of thin air... these are real problems that need to be addressed.

In an attempt to fix these three problems, Sustainable Food Laboratory is a collaboration of nonprofit businesses which will provide solutions to our nation's crises so that healthy and sustainable foods will become the norm.