Charlotte Haselroither

Overuse of agricultural resources is impacting the environment in a negative way, this is causing soil to degrade, quality of livestock to decrease and the overproduction of fresh food to be wasted. 

The soil is degrading because of the overproduction of fruits and vegetables, you as a consumer have contributed to this by buying out of season vegetables as well as wasting fresh food when it doesn't get bought. This states that farmers are providing for the consumers' wants and not their needs. With unnecessary production ruining the soil for consumer demands, expert farmers state that if we only grew seasonal vegetables we would easily have enough supply for the country and even to export to countries in need. This also means that the soil has less nutrients taken out of it making it easier to grow fruits and vegetables. All of this information I have provided supports the fact that overuse of agricultural resources is bad for the environment.

Do you want to be eating infected and diseased meat? Well in the current state of farming livestock quality has declined due to the demand by consumers. This has led to farmers having to find a solution to keep up with demand which they came to the decision of feeding the livestock fat filled grain and giving them hormones  to speed up there growth and development to be mature enough to then send to be slaughtered for different cuts of meat. Due to the sped up process of the growth of the livestock it's causing them to get sick but farmers don't have enough resources to cure and stop them from getting sick forcing them to sell the meat the lower quality then the consumer is familiar with. This is another reason why overuse of agricultural resources is having a bad effect on the environment. 

Due to the overproduction of fresh fruits and vegetables, 70 percent of the fresh produce is wasted; this equates to over 7.6 million tones in Australia each year and 312kg per household. That means you are throwing your money in the bin when you could be using it on other things like bills or even your own interests. Farmers are struggling enough as it is trying to provide for consumers, when they are told that most of the money they earn and hard work is being put in the bin they are angry especially when there are solutions to help improve waste management in fresh produce. This is my final point on why the overuse of agricultural resources is affecting the environment in a bad way. 

Overall the soil is degrading, livestock quality is declining and fresh produce is being wasted because overuse of our agricultural resources are having a negative impact on the environment. I hope this makes you think about ways that you can improve your impact on the environment.