kincella Are you trying to say that farmers do not spray...

kincella

Are you trying to say that farmers do not spray pesticides and fungus killing chemicals or spread fertilizers to help their crops grow and cut down millions of acres of trees and bush ummmm deforestation?

What about the Great Barrier Reef?

It is noted that 80% of the land adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef is farmland that supports agricultural production, intensive cropping of sugar cane, and major beef cattle grazing. (GBR, 2007) These types of agriculture and cattle production pose large threats to the Great Barrier Reef close by. Fertilizers are highly used with agriculture and contain high amounts of phosphorous and nitrates. Farmers use nitrogen fertilizers frequently because it is an essential nutrient for crop and animal production, both found on the area near the coral reefs. If the farmers over feed or fertilize with the N fertilizers, it can be lost to ground water and surface water. (Nitrogen Management, 2007) The same is true for the macronutrient fertilizers used such as NPK. This is a fertilizer made up of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, which is also used by numerous farmers on their crops. The same issue of runoff occurs if farmers apply too much. Overall when these fertilizers and the nutrients used, the runoff and leaching that occurs posses a large threat to the coral ecosystem.

Run Off
An example of the dangerous harm the farmers have caused the Great Barrier Reef from runoff are those located in Queensland Australia. There is very compelling evidence that farming is harming the Great Barrier Reef. The Queensland farms have been damaging the reefs because of increased run-off of agricultural sediments, nutrients and chemicals.

Sedimentation/Deforestation
Sedimentation is another large impact on the Great Barrier Reefs that harms its fragile ecosystem. The sediments that flow out from rivers and large amounts of erosion carry with it many of the pollutants and fertilizers from the farms inland from the reefs. There are various levels of sedimentation and how it can affect the coral communities when run-off occurs.

My point is, there are negative impacts to pretty much everything we as a human society we do in the world we have created.

Can we stop farming? Of course not.
Can we stop cutting down vast amounts of acreage to run cattle and grow crops?
Can we stop using coal and gas? Not at this point in time but I guess we could if we stopped turning lights on using mobile phones, computers, watching TV, driving our cars, sleeping in beds, using a toothbrush ect... ect... ect...

I am not taking sides here just saying each industry needs the other and neither can say they don't have negative impacts.