By Kaitlyn Ersek on Jun 21, 2017 4:09:00 PM
Sustainable agriculture plays a big role in today's farming industry and it's shaping the way the world grows organic, low input or holistic crops.
Check out our SlideShare below for seven key facts you don't already know about sustainable agriculture, or skip the SlideShare and go straight to the bulleted text beneath. If you're reading this blog via email and having difficulty viewing the SlideShare, click here: What You Don't Know About Sustainable Agriculture.
1. Fertilizer production is an energy intensive activity that some estimate consumes 3-to-5% of the world's energy.
2. 40% of today's global population works in agriculture.
3. Organic food accounts for nearly 4% of all food products sold in the U.S.
4. The World Resources Institute reports that we need 70% more food in 2050 than we have today in order to provide for a 9.6 billion-world population.
5. Most produce is picked 4-to-7 days before being placed on supermarket shelves and is shipped an average of 1,500 miles.
6. Fertilizer runoff contributes to dead zones where no-to-little marine life survives. The largest is in the gulf of Mexico and was 6,474 square miles large in 2015.
7. Sustainable agriculture can mean organic, low-input, free range or holisitic in nature.