Like water, food is an important resource for maintaining the world's population. In the modern day, many farms that provide us with food separate crops and livestock, and are divided into distinct monocultures. Although the aforementioned system see high crop yields, it runs counter to natural ecosystems and causes the soil quality to deteoriate. I value having a significant diversity of food being accessible to anyone and everyone. However, at the same time, intensive monoculture can significantly degrade the very environment that makes such agriculture possible. Thus, I also value agricultural practices that are comparatively more sustainable than traditional agriculture.
I envision a world where we can construct farms that act as harmonious systems that does not segregate plants and animals but incorporates them into the same ecosystem. We already have historical techniques that can help reach this goal such as aquaponics. Taking aquaponics alone, if we had the technology to be able to implement it on a large scale, fish farms and crop farms could potentially merged into one, reducing the negative ecological consequences that these farms could bring individually, while reducing maintenance costs given the self-maintaining nature of the mutualistic relationship between the species in the system.
Although polycultures and other similar forms of agriculture are made difficult by the government and the economy favoring monocultures, we may be able to see increased prevalence of farms that emulate natural ecosystems in the future. In order to make this change possible, further research need to be done towards this endeavour. In addition, some initial experimental farms incorporating multiple elements into one system need to be set up. If these farms can produce an abundance of products at a low cost, then perhaps they will be considered to be a viable alternative to traditional farming, allowing the practice of diversifying agricultural products to become more mainstream.
An image of an aquaponics system incorporating both aquatic organisms and crops. Image by Ryan Griffis on Wikimedia Commons. Image retrieved on October 13, 2023 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aquaponics_at_Growing_Power,_Milwaukee.jpg