How the process of obtaining food by humans has impacted biodiversity

How the process of obtaining food by humans has impacted biodiversity

“There is no love sincerer than the love of food” is a quote rightly said by George Bernard Shaw.  Food is necessary for all life forms and the process of obtaining food is a requirement and desire for every living being. From the beginning till now, the food habits of human beings have changed a lot. There was a time when people used to eat the food which they directly obtained from nature. Their diet included the foods which were healthy and consisted of all those essential nutrients which are important for the proper growth and development of body. But today, our food habits have undergone a change to a large extent. Certain factors such as westernisation of the people, comparatively less physical work to do, change in occupations and life style are greatly responsible for today’s situation. Nowadays, the food which we eat lacks certain vital substances. This is not only because of the kind of unhealthy and junk food what we eat these days but even the so-called ‘healthy’ food of today is contaminated with various such sort of chemical compounds which are not desirable in our diet. It is not only the quality of the food which we eat but, the quantity which is required today has also changed and increased considerably. All these changes have a great impact not only on our lives but also on the environment which we live in!

If we’ll flip the pages of history then we will get to know that requirement and greed for obtaining food has very often resulted in creating major past events which have affected not only us but also the whole biodiversity. Starting from the beginning of early civilisations, we find that the humans had wandered in search of food and had settled at the places from where they could have a source of it. The age of enclosures in England in the eighteenth century was also a result of the increased food requirement by the human population which influenced the life of people and changed the landscape of the country. But, as we discussed earlier, that the growing necessity of food has many a time affected the eco system which was sometimes desirable and sometimes not. From the early times, some problems which were attached to this process of obtaining food were felt. For instance, the expansion of agricultural land led to the shrinkage of habitats of the wildlife which is still continuing. Unfortunately, there had been some other disastrous events also and we can trace them even in the history of those countries which are considered as the developed ones today!

During the late eighteenth century, settled agriculture had not developed on any extensive scale in the USA. Forests covered over 800 million acres and grasslands about 600 million acres. This can give us some idea of what the natural vegetation was like at that time. But, by the early twentieth century, this landscape had transformed radically. In order to obtain as much as production they could and in a desire to dominate the world market, the USA population began exploiting their natural resources. Forest timber was cut at a large scale for export, animals were hunted for food and their skin and mountains were indiscriminately mined for gold and minerals. Besides this, they slashed and burnt forests and cleared this land for cultivation and sowed corn and wheat extensively. This activity was largely promoted. During the First World War, the world market boomed and demand for food grains became higher as Russian supplies of wheat were cut off and the USA had to feed Europe. At that time, US President Wilson called upon the farmers to respond to the need of the time saying, “Plant more wheat, wheat will win the war.” In early years, the fertile soil produced good crop but when the soil became impoverished and exhausted in one place, the migrants moved to some other regions. In this way, they obtained large produce but continued to harm the natural environment. But, as we all know that we reap what we sow. Likewise, the USA too had to eventually face the consequences of its actions. In the 1930s, terrifying dust storms began to blow over the southern plains of the country. The rains failed year after year and temperatures soared. The wind blew with ferocious speed. Black blizzards rolled in, which were very often 7,000 to 8,000 feet high. They rose like monstrous waves of muddy water and came day after day, year after year, through the 1930s. People were blinded and choked. Cattles were suffocated to death as their lungs caked with dust and mud. Sand coated the surfaces of rivers and the aquatic life was terribly affected. All the tractors and machines that had ploughed the earth and harvested the food for life were now clogged with dust and adversely affected the biodiversity. All the innocent lives of animals and birds and the nature became a victim of human greed. American dream of becoming a wheat basket turned them into a dust bowl! It was after 1930s, they realised that they had to respect the ecological conditions of each region in order to sustain their living and the different life forms. This episode of obtaining more and more food impacted the biodiversity adversely. Along with mankind, natural vegetation and wildlife of America faced these consequences.

 Even in a developing country like India, we can trace such examples which have affected our biological diversity. During the colonial rule, ‘enrichment plantation’ was undertaken and the peasants were compelled to cultivate only the commercially valuable crops like indigo, opium, etc. Such crops impacted the land, changed the chemical composition of soil and the soil gradually became infertile. This had a direct impact on the lives of the micro-organisms and the animals which lived inside the soil. The condition of the agricultural sector was very pitiable as a country where 57% of its land was used for cultivation could not even manage to fulfil the food requirements of its citizens. After independence of India, many initiatives were taken up to improve the condition of the agricultural sector of our country. Many different species of cattle animals and poultry birds from different regions and countries were cross-bred so as to get more economically beneficial and high yielding species of animals. It proved to be a successful project as it not only helped the farmers to obtain more produce which supplemented their income but also diversified the species of animals and birds. Several other solutions were also searched out for and were implemented. One such solution which came up was ‘The Green Revolution’ in mid-twentieth century. The land was intensively cultivated with the use of modern methods which replaced the traditional farming practices. It resulted in increasing the food security of the nation as the produce increased many folds. This major episode in the Indian history brought great impacts on the biodiversity of the country. New species of plants were introduced and new varieties of seeds were used by the farmers for growing their crops. They started using genetically modified and High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds as they were more immune to the changes in the environment and produced more grains. But, on the other hand, these changes led to many ecological problems too. A very large sum was invested in the sowing and growing of these crops which meant that no crop failure was desirable which could be caused by the pests and untimely or no rain. Use of these new varieties of seeds which were made with the help of modern technology required a large amount of water in the presence of water crisis. This requirement was fulfilled by irrigating the fields. Use of fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides and pesticides also gained necessity in order to have healthy crops. As their use increased, they started creating many problems like the use of such chemicals compounds led to the change in the chemical composition of the soil which adversely affected the life of the bacteria, micro-organisms and the animals to whom soil provided shelter. Moreover, when these chemicals got mixed up with the water and reach the rivers then they pollute river water too and cause severe harm to the aquatic life. Many different species of fish died as a result of it.

With the passage of time, the chemical properties of the vegetables and fruits which are grown in such soils are also changing. Animals, plants, insects, small microbes and all other life forms are threatened by this change which is occurring.

So, from these two instances we can conclude that each time when human beings try to dominate nature to fulfil their greed or needs, they cause harm to it and ultimately create problems for themselves and other living forms on this earth. Every time this development, in a way or the other, takes place on the expense of the change and degradation of the environment and biological diversity.

Biodiversity is not just about ecosystems or organisms. It’s also a resource that all living organisms on this earth need for their existence. It is what makes our earth different and so beautiful than other planets. Hence, its protection is a necessity for all of us. It is very sad to know that many a times, we humans forget the value of this biological diversity and our activities tend to impact them. We must always keep this in mind that this diversity is our earth’s beauty and we should never ever degrade it. We, the human beings, have to learn from our past events that if we will try to go beyond the certain limit for satisfying our desires then we will have to pay very hard for it. Any region of this world, whether a developed nation or the one which is still striving to be one, will get affected by the consequences. Therefore, we can conclude that our goal should be that we have to make advancement and take progressive steps but not at the cost of these natural resources and so, there is a dire need for sustainable development to be undertaken.

Food requirements by the growing population is a demand which cannot be ignored and needs to be satisfied and we have to find out such measures which will perform the same but will not cause any severe harm to our environment. Those measures which prove to be very successful today but may cause adverse consequences tomorrow should not be promoted at all. One such solution which emerges today is ‘Organic Farming’, which does not involves the use of those chemicals and other such substances which will affect the different forms of life and can yet, fulfil our today’s demands.

In a discussion with one of my friend in my village, what I came to know was the opinion of his family about the organic farming. This process is about eliminating the use of chemical compounds from farming. According to him, it is not that easy like the spraying of fertilizers and other chemicals in the field is but costs less to them. The benefits of organic farming were revealed to them when last time their crop produce was more healthier than the earlier ones. It is not only the story of any one or two families but of all those farmers who have opted for these agricultural practices have got such positive desirable results which have not disturbed the eco system. If such practices are not undertaken then history may repeat itself and mankind will have to face some consequences which it has never even dreamt of!

In these activities, plant and animal life also come to a threat. Besides human beings, even those living beings have to suffer who have played no role at all in bringing out these results. This ecosystem is an inter-linkage among all the living beings. Every single change brought by any one life form tends to bring a change in the life of other organisms and we humans being the superior-most species have the absolute control to either destroy or sustain our natural biological diversity. Even if a single species is disturbed, the whole eco system will get affected adversely as it will disturb the food chains and ultimately other life forms will also start depleting due to lack of food resources for them. Hence, it is very important not to exploit the wildlife and natural vegetation just for our comfort since the different ways to prevent this are present. Our land resources are limited and the demands for food are increasing year after year and hence, we need to search out for some more solutions also in order to protect these natural resources while walking on the path of advancement and development. Sustainable development is the need of hour!