Land Use in the Amazon

The Amazon Rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world producing 6% of the world's oxygen. It is a valuable part of our world that needs to be preserved. According to Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies soybean farming takes up 25 million hectares of Brazil. Since the 1950s, global soybean production has increased 15 times over. Soy is an essential product to our 21st century life. Although soy is very essential it consumes lots of space. Using various methods, soybean farming could become space efficient, benefiting the forests and indigenous people that live in them. Soy has a very particular way of growing. It performs best when planted in 50 degree soil and can even grow 8 to 10 more bushels when planted in this degree of soil. Soybean acres can face soybean cyst nematodes (SCN), sudden death syndrome (SDS), brown stem rot, iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC), white mold, and phytophthora, choosing the right seed variety and/or applying an effective pesticide can help to combat issues throughout the growing season. Soybeans grow the best when farmers shorten day length (increasing night length) and warm temperatures control soybean flowering. They grow best in warm and damp climates that you find in the Amazon. Soybeans have six vegetative stages and eight reproductive stages. VE (emergence), VC (cotyledon stage), V1 (first trifoliolate), V2 (second trifoliolate), V3 (third trifoliolate), V(n) (nth trifoliolate), V6 (flowering will start soon). R1 (beginning bloom, first flower), R2 (full bloom, flower in top two nodes), R3 (beginning pod, 3/16-inch pod in top four nodes), R4 (full pod, 3/4-inch pod in top four nodes), R5 (1/8-inch seed in top four nodes), R6 (full-size seed in top four nodes), R7 (beginning maturity, one mature pod), R8 (full maturity, 95 percent of pods on the plant are mature). 45-65 days after planting the soybeans are ready to harvest. It takes about 2 days after planting for the soybeans to germinate. As soy grew more and more popular in the Amazon soy began to replace existing cattle pasture, spurring new deforestation for cattle ranching further into the Amazon. Impacts from soy cultivation also extend beyond deforestation: carbon emissions from deforestation contribute to global climate change. 80% of the soy derived from the Amazon is used for animal feed and the other 20% is used for oil and other uses. Since soy is one of Brazil’s biggest exports the production of soy cannot come to a halt. Instead of continuing to burn the forest to clear for soybean farming there are many methods to efficiently grow soy. Permaculture is a set of design principles centered on whole systems thinking, simulating, or directly utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems. It uses these principles in a growing number of fields from regenerative agriculture, rewilding, and community resilience. It uses the natural layout of the Amazon to make soybean farming eco friendly and space efficient. Permaculture is all about growing in levels. You have your canopy layer all the way down to the cover crop. Soybeans also thrive with less sunlight and the idea of growing in levels ensures high yields. Permaculture was developed in the 1970s by Bill Mollinson and David Holmgren. The system was designed to have a higher degree of inter-linkage. ”Waste” outputs from one part of the system were now being used as inputs for another part. The idea is a closed cycle, where outputs become inputs, requiring no primary inputs and producing no waste products. Permaculture design tends to produce multi-layered and highly interlinked systems, representing natural ecosystems. Forty- eight million metric tons of soy goes to China to feed cattle and pigs. As China has become more developed the desire for meat has increased. Since China has no space for agricultural purposes China cannot grow their own soy. If they could it would reduce the food miles of the soy and consequently decrease its carbon footprint. You may wonder why soy? Well soy has more protein per pound than corn. The price to export soy from the Amazon is high in price because of the trucking industry in South America so soy is a much more substantial crop. Soy is also one of the biggest exports from South America and without this export South America’s economy would be in shambles. The way to make soy a sustainable crop is to increase yields. Monsanto has conducted experiments of increasing the density of soy crops and the yields were the same. If there is a way to increase the yields of soy less deforestation would occur because with higher yields comes less fields. If the soy from the Amazon could go to South America there would be lower demand due to a lower population. As South America continues to develop the desire for meat increases. As that desire increases the need for soy also increases for feed. This would decrease food miles and slow deforestation in the Amazon because the population of South America is drastically lower than China and the soy is not travelling thousands of miles. This would dramatically decrease the carbon footprint of soy from South America. The next issue is where is China going to get soy. China has no agricultural space for the amount of soy needed to feed its country. Because COVID-19 has emptied most buildings in China my idea is to convert some of the buildings that have been emptied into hydroponic soy farms. Soy grows best with darkness so this would allow the soy to thrive. If the space inside is not permitted the next best option is to move the hydroponic farms to the roofs of these buildings. With the soy at the top of buildings along with supplying soy to China it would help with the extreme pollution. My next idea is to create an island of soy. If there is no way on land why not take it into the ocean. The soy would be accessible and close to China so the food miles would lower. With these changes the carbon footprint of soy would lower and solve the issue of deforestation of the Amazon. Localized agriculture is also a very effective solution to this issue. By shortening our food chain we can drastically lower the carbon footprint. Most of the world gets their food from the supermarket. The food sold there goes through a long process. The food goes from the farm to transportation to packing and distribution to the store and then to your plate. This is a long process causing food that is not fresh and enlarging the carbon footprint. Organizations like The Abundant Table in Ventura County, California work on shortening the food chain by growing produce and delivering CSA boxes to people in the community. A CSA box is a monthly subscription to various locally grown seasonal fruits and vegetables ensuring your produce is fresh. While talking to Erynn Smith, a board member of The Abundant Table, she taught me all about localized farming and its benefits on our environment. It not only decreases the carbon footprint but it gets a whole community involved in growing food. We also talked about the dangers of industrial agriculture. It involves lots of dangerous chemicals that can damage the health of workers. In Ventura County most of the workers have health issues including cancer and lung failure. This is because of the chemicals that these workers are inhaling. It causes death at a young age. If we can shorten our food chain and halt industrial agriculture we can save the lives of many. Industrial agriculture also can damage the soil with the pesticides and chemicals that are constantly being sprayed on the plants. This can cause the soil to stop producing nutrients and halt production all together. Industrial agriculture usually involves the growth of one plant. This can pull many nutrients out of the soil and cause it to be ungrowable. Industrial agriculture is not only unsustainable but it harms workers with the pesticides and harmful chemicals sprayed on the plants.