Industrial farming is a product of economy. In our society oil is cheap and labor is expensive, and our farming techniques reflect that.

As far as alternatives go, an instructive example is post-USSR Cuba. Before 1991 they were a satellite-state which sold sugar at above market prices to the USSR and in exchange received oil and farm machinery. After the collapse they had to, essentially overnight, switch over to subsistence farming. They use low-input techniques by necessity due to the high price of fossil fuels.

In almost every Cuban town there is a microbiologist who will examine the soil from your plot and recommend biological or chemical amendments. Open spaces in Havana are populated with [collectively-run] urban gardens. They're the first country applying permaculture techniques on a large scale.

Permaculture can actually be more productive per acre than industrial agriculture, but it requires more (and more educated) labor to do so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture