There are, consequently, many in our society today who believe that the continued development of industrial agriculture is inevitable and essential to meet world food expectations. But there is a dark side to this picture that we have only recently begun to acknowledge. With its demand for specialization, and subsequent mono-cropping, industrial agriculture has caused unprecedented soil loss. We have now lost over half of our topsoil in the U.S., most of it in the last twenty years. It is estimated that if we continue to erode our topsoil at this rate for another 50 years, declines in crop yield from erosion alone will equal the loss of 23 million acres of cropland.
Industrial agriculture is also very irrigation dependent.
As a result we have been draining our groundwater supplies at a rate exceeding nature's capacity to recharge them. Irrigation is causing groundwater over a 15 million-acre area to decline between 6 inches and 6 feet every year. The remaining water is being polluted with pesticides and chemicals. One out of every five municipal wells in Nebraska is now unfit to drink due to nitrate pollution. With its demand for uniformity industrial agriculture has significantly narrowed the gene pool of agricultural plants and animals.