The farms nowadays are not at all eco-friendly as the methods used nowadays include burning of lot of fuel etc. An example for such a machine is the itachi which is a huge machine used on farms which uses a lot of energy etc. it might help the farmers a lot but it is not at all eco friendly.When it come to industrial farming practices, though, it is hard to have a discussion and keep a level head. I am talking about the huge multi thousand acre mono-culture farms, not the farms run by smaller business people.
Every part of our food supply chain needs to be judged not just by how low the cost in dollars is, but by how high the hidden costs are to consumer health, farmer health, societal health, animal health, and the health of the earth. Many make the argument that today our food supply is healthier and more varied than it has ever been. On the surface this can appear to be true, but scratch a little deeper and things look a bit different. As just one example on a grand scale, look at what farm runoff is doing to thousands of square mile of ocean in the Gulf of Mexico. Farm runoff, especially from big agri-businesses, is affecting the health of people, animals, water, and land all over the world.
I would not be surprised if the recent salmonella contamination of the water supply in Alamosa, Colorado was the result of farm or feedlot runoff into the ground water. Maybe not, I suppose it could have entered the system in many different ways. But, when farm runoff reaches the water supply as it inevitably does, the danger is not just from bacteria. Other chemicals like antibiotics, hormones, herbicides, and pesticides are contamination worries also.
Modern industrial scaled agriculture can be a difficult thing to evaluate. Some factory farms and feed lots are horrible places. Others do their best to be responsible in their farming methods. I agree that any argument against modern farming methods has to be countered