There are many viable alternatives to industrial farming which are encompassed within ‘sustainable agriculture’. Sustainable agriculture refers to farming that is based on a whole ecosystem approach, investing in a healthy system which works with the environment, animals and people. It can take the form of various practices such as organic, agroecological, biodynamic, and regenerative.
These approaches don’t rely on adding in ‘external inputs’ such as synthetic fertilizer and pesticides. Farmers are less dependent on buying things off-farm. Rather, they use their own farm’s ‘outputs’ such as compost and animal manure as fertiliser. This ‘closed-loop’ system builds soil health, clean water systems and biodiversity rather than depleting them.
Research shows that these approaches can achieve yields in the range of those obtained by chemical-dependent methods. Depending on the circumstances and crop, sustainable yields have been equivalent, slightly greater, or 15 to 20 percent lower than those of chemical agriculture. Given how much research and subsidy funding is put into conventional practices compared to sustainable approaches, the yield differences are relatively small. Imagine what could be possible with greater investments!
Read more about alternatives to pesticides in farming here.