“Intensive” is rarely used in a positive context for farming. People tend to associate it with low animal welfare, pollution and faceless corporations.

But there are lots of different ways to farm intensively, and it is worth asking what sort of inputs are being referred to…Organic crops are often used as an opposite example to “intensive” farms. They use fewer pesticides and so are less intensive in that respect. However, organic farming tends to have more intensive fuel and machinery use to mechanically break up weeds without herbicides, or extra human labour to control weeds manually.

Intensive farming is often used as shorthand for high-yield farming – that is, farming that produces more food per hectare. Land efficiency in food production is generally viewed positively. High yielding farm systems, with low pollution, soil loss and so on per tonne of produce, are arguably the main way we can feed the world with the least environmental damage.

The alternative to intensive high-yield farming is extensive low-yield farming, which ironically requires much more land. Land which could instead be used for reforestation, wetlands, solar or wind farms, housing or parks. - Emma Garnett, Five misused food and farming terms, from natural to intensive – and what they really mean, 2023.

Garnett’s take on intensive farming is supported by the evidence. For example, here’s what one meta-analysis found:

“A meta-analysis of life cycle assessments that includes 742 agricultural systems and over 90 unique foods produced primarily in high-input systems shows that, per unit of food, organic systems require more land, cause more eutrophication*, use less energy, but emit similar greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) as conventional systems; that grass-fed beef requires more land and emits similar GHG emissions as grain-feed beef; and that low-input aquaculture and non-trawling fisheries have much lower GHG emissions than trawling fisheries…. increases in agricultural input use efficiency would offer larger environmental benefits than would switches from conventional agricultural systems to alternatives such as organic agriculture or grass-fed beef.” Clark & Tilman, 2017

It’s true that organic farms typically support more biodiversity on the land being farmed than conventionally farmed intensive agriculture. However, it is also true that cultivated land, whether organically or conventionally farmed, is worse for biodiversity than wild habitat, so the less land farmed, the better. Plus, intensive farms can do lots of stuff to increase biodiversity on their land**, including:

  • Minimal tillage. Many of our best crop pollinators live underground for most of the year, sometimes at the base of the very plants they pollinate. To protect them, farmers should turn over soil only where they need to.

  • Targeted Insecticides. If farmers use insecticides, choose ingredients targeted to specific species and the least harmful formulations.

  • Precision Methods and Technology. Precision application of fertilizers and insecticides will eventually pay for the initial investment through increased yields, with the added bonus of protecting pollinators.

  • Conservation Cover. Permanent vegetative cover of native grasses, legumes, milkweed and other pollinator-friendly plants, which insures flowers are in bloom for as long as possible to provide nectar and pollen throughout the growing season.

  • Contour Buffer Strips. Strips of vegetation that run along a contour of a farmed field. This provides another place to ensure availability of valuable nectar and pollen plants for pollinators.

  • Filter Strips. Strips of vegetation next to water bodies, designed to filter sediment and nutrient runoff, protect water ecosystems and can include plants for pollinators.

Although agricultural intensification has coincided in some places with increased deforestation, coincidence is not causation. For example, Brazil’s deforestation has been driven by the expansion of pasture and feed crops for livestock, not intensive farming. In contrast, agricultural intensification in North America and Europe is directly linked to reforestation of previously farmed lands.

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* Eutrophication is a general term describing a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water, resulting in an increased growth of microorganisms that may deplete the water of oxygen. Wikipedia

** This list is from a previous post, Conventional versus Organic Agriculture: A False Choice

References:

Clark, Michael, and David Tilman. "Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice." Environmental Research Letters 12, no. 6 (2017): 064016. June 2017 DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/aa6cd5

Five misused food and farming terms, from natural to intensive – and what they really mean by Emma Garnett/The Conversation. April 5, 2023 (The five misused terms are: local, intensive, industrial, grass-fed, and natural.)

Pretty, J., & Bharucha, Z. P. (2015). Integrated Pest Management for Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture in Asia and Africa. Insects, 6(1), 152–182. doi: 10.3390/insects6010152