Dear Anita

I love that question you wrote “Are you and the people who teach sustainable management optimistic?”

I feel that most people are optimistic about sustainability because people want to protect the earth they live on and conserve resources for future generations. Sustainable farmers tend to be optimistic about sustainability because they have experienced the Dust Bowl times. In my plants and agroecology class last fall, I learned that industrial agriculture is bad for the environment since it uses lots of synthetic fertilizers, tilling the soil which reduces organic matter, and decreases the health and biodiversity of the soil. During the Dust Bowl, the soils were farmed extensively without adding compost to repair the depleted top soil layer so when the wind blew it caused the soil without cover to blow away and cover homes making people lose lots of their products. Industrial agriculture tilled the soil so much with plows and tractors that the top soil didn’t have very much time to grow (an inch of top soil takes about 500-1000 years to make from the physical weathering with the breakdown of rocks to make soil minerals) so the top soil is being depleted faster than it is replaced and without the soil layer erosion from wind and water can cause soil to move around. Sustainable farmers are optimistic about developing more sustainable farm practices such as cover cropping and reduced tilling. In cover cropping, the farm plot is covered with a crop (buckwheat, chives, spinach, clover have been used) to prevent weed growth and keep the soil loose so they don’t have to till as much with the plow or tractor. The cover crop can be composted returning the carbon to the soil for plants to grow. Furthermore, if farmers grow a food cover crop like spinach or buckwheat they can harvest it to sell on the farmers market along with their other produce. The cover crop does another important thing which is that it covers the soil and prevents it from erosion. Sustainable farmers use natural methods to control pests and bugs like spraying with baking soda and citric acid (found in lemon juice) to clean off bugs and powdery mildew. Since industrial agriculture uses lots of expenses of pesticides and fertilizers (usually after they deplete their top soil so they need to apply fertilizer), it can be expensive for them. Whereas sustainable farmers will use intercropping which is planting crops together that grow well such as planting corn, beans and squash. The squash grows low on the ground and the beans are higher. Beans are legumes so they fix nitrogen and it is an organic way for plants to get nitrogen from the atmosphere for plants. The beans can climb along with the corn rows which grow tall but leave some space for the squash to get just the right amount of sunlight. Another form of intercropping is planting crops to prevent pests from eating plants like planting peppers near the potatoes to reduce potato beetles without use of pesticides. Many farmers use old harvests and plants as compost to return organic matter to the soil and replenish soil nutrients. most synthetic fertilizers contain npk (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). Oftentimes industrial farmers spray too much fertilizer on their plants and then the nitrogen and phosphorus is leached into the ground where when it rains it leads to algal blooms in water bodies known as eutrophication. Eutrophication from fertilizer runoff kills the fish in the oceans since they cannot get adequate oxygen due to the algal blooms. Also, the algal blooms in the oceans result in the red tide people see and that red algae contains a neurotoxin that is harmful for organisms which is why it’s advised not to go swimming in algal blooms polluted waters. Sustainable farmers can get more just as much crop yield as industrial farmers and they do it without degrading the environment.

However, sustainable development on a world scale is very difficult and people aren’t very optimistic about it. Africa still has high infant mortality rates and people living in poverty (sciencedirect). The sustainable development goals of the United Nations is to end poverty, provide economic justice for all like fair wages for women, social justice where no one is marginalized for their race or ethnicity and provide environmental health.

People are interested in electric cars because they are supposedly sustainable but the batteries for the car charging contain lithium which has to be mined and mining often destroys the landscape. Electric cars like the tesla model 3 produce more emissions if a person drives it for less than 20,000 miles because the lithium battery voltage tends to decrease efficiency with more charging. However, above 20,000 miles the tesla model 3 produces less emissions than the gas powered cars (reddit) So there might be reduced carbon emissions and less global warming effects but the lithium battery only lasts four years and then it needs to be recycled. The international panel of climate change in 2014 stated that cars produce 72% global emissions and planes 10%. Electric cars store energy in their batteries (made from rare earths like lithium and nickel) which are mined deep below the earth so they have negative environmental consequences. Unless people can maybe use solar energy or maybe wind energy to power electric cars than maybe with these renewable sources it would be more sustainable. In the EU in 2011, only 5% of the lithium was collected and incinerated than the rest was just thrown into landfills which contributes to more environmental effects.

The population is estimated to grow to nine billion by 2050 and earth’s carrying capacity is about 10 billion so there would need to be more wiser ways to manage resources. Although the rare earths like lithium for cars appear to be adequate supply for the upcoming futures, we might not have enough as the growing population increases.

That’s why sustainable agriculture is important to help provide food for a growing population but if earth exceeds it’s carrying capacity there isn’t a lot of land space for all of us.

Therefore sustainability covers the political, social, environmental and economic aspects of the world. For political, it would be country borders and electing leaders fairly because a nation with strong leaders who protect people’s rights can help with economic growth. Economic growth cannot occur without social progress either, if many people are living in poverty then they don’t have adequate resources to build roads to participate in the trade markets. The UN Peacecorps has been helping with political issues like country borders and helping distribute necessary supplies like clean water and sanitation supplies for people in Ghana to improve their social and political welfare. And the environment is often forgotten when seeking profits but sustainability’s biggest part is the environment we live in. If we don’t have a world then the political, economic and social things wouldn’t work.

So although sustainability is difficult, it is important and provides optimistic value to improve our living on earth.