Labor scarcity and land abandonment caused by rural labor out-migration have complex effects on land quality and soil erosion, especially in hill-mountain areas that have been substantially transformed by human settlement and maintained with labor-intensive production practices.
Kimball argues that globalization and its associated processes (crowding, poor sanitation, travel and trade, intensive food production practices, and ecologic change) all increase the threat of pathogen emergence.
Indeed, that's just what the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Protection recommended at the conclusion of our two-and-a-half-year study: phase out the most intensive and inhumane production practices, such as cages to confine laying hens, to reduce risks to public health and improve animal well-being.
The practice of intensive production methods and indiscriminate application of agrochemicals also provoked a decrease in plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stress factors.
Intensive production systems and the lack of reliable good agricultural practices in the field are some of the reasons for the worldwide increasing numbers of foodborne illnesses associated to fresh produce (EFSA, 2014; Oilamat and Holley, 2012; Warriner et al., 2009; Beuchat, 2006; Sivapalasingam et al. 2004; Beuchat, 1996).
Although extensive or pasture-based farming methods remain the norm in Africa and some parts of Asia, the trend in Latin America and Asia is to increasingly favor intensive production systems over more sustainable and more animal welfare friendly practices (Nierenberg 2006).
Furthermore, certain aspects of government policy, such as the intensive production of wheat, are exhausting the soil.
What's more, intensive production of animal feed, in particular maize, has resulted in severe soil degradation and water shortages.
The impact of intensive production on disease in broiler chickens reared for meat has also come under scrutiny once more.
Intensive production systems can negatively affect the welfare of goats.
