What are the advantages and disadvantages of using modern farming methods?

Answer 1

Advantages

- large equipment gets work done much faster

-new technology advances in farming make it more efficient

-farms can become massive because with bigger equipment, more work is done.

-less workers needed.

-fertilizers and pesticides can greatly improve crop quality and volume.

Disadvantages

-expensive equipment can set farmers back millions of dollars for modern harvesters and tractors

-fuel consumption is very high, large farm equipment is terrible on diesel.

-the welfare of animals on large farms is decreases, chickens and cows on many modern farms never leave the barn.

Answer 2

Advantages:

• Simpler system for growing one species of crop or one species of animal
• Larger equipment covers more area, therefore should get work done faster
• More advanced technology makes production more efficient and less labour-intensive
• Larger farms create more area to grow more crops to get more money to pay for more machinery (or try to reduce debt in having to get more modernized machinery)
• Less manual labour required because system is more mechanized
• Advances in fertilizers and pesticides generate greater expected yields and reduce weed issues

Disadvantages:

• Damage to the soil has been increasing (salinity issues, compaction issues, erosion from wind and water, loss of organic matter, loss of soil microbial activity, capping of the soil, severe runoff of nutrients, etc.)
• Ignorance that the landscape is not of a single particular soil type, one microclimate, or a single, large ecosystem suited for monoculture
• Weeds are becoming more herbicide-resistant
• Decrease in heritage seeds available to grow more than just one species of wheat or corn
• Simpler system leads to simpler thinking, when Nature is anything but simple or singular.
• Less things to manage for will actually create more problems (see above with herbicide-resistant weeds and soil problems in particular)
• Larger farms pushing to grow more crops means more wildlife habitat is destroyed, creating less opportunities for wildlife and animals to find a place to forage, nest, court/breed, or sleep without threatened with death from large machinery, or displaced and being forced to move elsewhere.
• Expensive equipment and the "need for more land" pushes farmers further and further into debt; money made from crops is more commonly a net loss rather than a net profit.
• More money spent on more fuel and more herbicides and more fertilizers to grow more crops also pushes farmers further into debt.
• Debt-ridden farmers are much more stressed and more prone to mental disorders or states of depression. Generally, farmers are not exactly happy when they have to worry about the income they need and the weather they both fear and depend on. A major hail storm can wipe out a significant portion of a farmer's income.
• Animal welfare concerns on large modern farms can and has become a contentious issue, with more evidence, despite industry claims to the contrary, of abuse and neglect to livestock basic needs and/or five freedoms, including space to move around, and even the chance to be out performing natural behaviours in as natural environment as what is humanly made possible.
• Smaller farmers are feeling pressures that they often cannot withstand as the larger farms can, with certain rules and regulations put in place that are designed to protect large farms, but push out the small farm.
• More mechanization of farm machinery means more technicians needed versus mechanics. In other words, if a piece of machinery breaks down, a farmer with mechanical knowledge and experience is no longer able to fix that machinery on his own; instead, he has to call out a technician to diagnose and fix the problem for him.
• Simpler systems make a system much more fragile (or less resilient) to sudden, drastic changes such as crop disease, pest epidemics, drought, flooding, etc.
• Water infiltration has become an enormous problem, creating man-made "droughts" and requiring more input costs to put in more irrigation systems, even in areas that have high rainfall!
• Larger farms means less agricultural communities, forcing more people into cities and creating rural ghost-towns that may be torn down and turned into cropland.
• Arguably, modern agriculture fosters a greater disconnect to agriculture in and of itself. Agriculture has become more "agribusiness" rather than agriculture.

There are more disadvantages out there (and possibly advantages), but these are what come to mind and are the most prevalent in today's world.

Answer 3

This is the advantage