托福写作题目：Modern agriculture methods damage the environment, but providingfood for the growing population around the world is more important thanprotecting the environment.(养活人口重要还是保护环境重要?)托福词汇红宝书

托福写作参考范文：

Modern agriculture methods like the use of pesticides and artificialfertilizers are widely used around the world. Along with such brings forthnegative effects. The most obvious and detrimental impact of modern agriculturemethods is environmental degradation. Many people believe that the environmentalrisks should not be taken into consideration since many people are sufferingfrom the lack of food. I certainly disagree with this.

To begin with, despite the fact that there are people who suffer fromstarvation, the reason is not because of the lack of food. As a matter of fact,tons of grains and corns are wasted every year. If the government and thegeneral public really care about starving people, they should have enoughability and adequate materials to offer help. People suffer just because of badmanagement, worldwide corruption, and terrible indifference. So there is no needto destroy wilderness areas or use environmentally-damaging agricultural methodsto increase productivity. The world nowadays has more food than we need. As longas corruption and bad management are eradicated, the world would see less peoplestarving.

Besides, the statement asserts that providing food for a growing number ofpeople is more urgent than the protection of environment. I find this statementtotally unconvincing. People’s survival depends on the environment. More oftenthan not, whenever the environment gets damaged, the deleterious effects arealways irreversible. In other words, once the environment on which we depend onis disrupted, our lives are placed at risk. Modern agriculture, although itprovides enough food, has contaminated the water and soil. When people eat cropsgrown with polluted water and soil, diseases will break out sooner or later.Genetically modified crops, although their negative effects are not obvious andnot yet confirmed, should also be treated with great care, for it is reportedthat dogs, cats, and other pets become sick after ingesting GM food. If humanbeings are negatively affected by modern agriculture, untold dire consequenceswill arise. People will suffer from diseases and the government will shoulderconsiderable medical bills. Worse, the society may become unstable andinharmonious.

From the above discussion, I can draw the conclusion that there are othermore effective methods to address starvation. No matter how much food weproduce, as long as corruption and wasteful use exist, there will always bestarving people. Besides, a healthy natural environment is a basic requirementof our survival. We cannot increase food production at the expense of ourenvironment, lest we are bound to suffer for our inconsideration andrecklessness.

(实习编辑：袁梅)