Integrating Food Production into Nature's Biogeochemical Cycles

Elements such as nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, and sulfur occur in the biosphere in a variety of chemical forms, each subject to biological or spontaneous conversion to other forms. In natural ecosystems such as grasslands and forests, these “cycles” operate very efficiently. The cycling of nitrogen in grassland is used to illustrate the conservative nature of natural systems. Food production, practiced on an extensive basis with minimum inputs and careful management may have minimum disruptive effects on local geochemical cycles, particularly if food is processed and consumed locally. Intensive agriculture, with its large energy inputs, and high yields, accompanied by extreme urbanization and remote food processing, induces major changes in local cycling. The localized effects of food production and processing have become a problem in industrialized countries which too often depend on food production, processing, and waste-treatment systems developed when the degree of intensification was much less than ...