Towards a Sustainable Future Chapter 10

1
Towards a Sustainable Future Chapter 10

• The Production and Distribution of Food

2
Prior to Industrial Revolution

• Agriculture crops
• Maintained
• Crop rotation
• Planting wide variety of crops
• Prairie hay pastures
• Amuranth
• Etc.
• Returning animal wastes to soil

3
Major Patterns of Food Production Past 40 Years
and Next 40 Years?

• Bringing additional land into cultivation
• Industrial Revolution
• Fertilizers
• Chemical pesticides
• Irrigation
• Machinery
• U.S. Corn Yield Fig. 3

4
Chemical Pesticides

• Not effective for long term control
• Do not tend to break down easily in environment
• Some pests become resistant

5
Major Patterns of Food Production Past 40 Years
and Next 40 Years?

• Substituting new genetic varieties
• Rotating crops
• Growing many different kinds of crops
• Recycling animal wastes
• Grain over animal production

6
The Green Revolution

• Introduced high yield staple grains
• Temporarily closed the gap between food
  production and need in some countries.
• Heavy reliance on irrigation and fertilizers.
• Negative impact on small farmers and culturally
  specific crops.
• Norman Borlaug received Nobel Peace Prize in 1970
• Development of dwarf hybrid wheat plant
• Produced high yield of wheat in warm weather
• Feed the world

7
Subsistence Farming

• Labor intensive
• Technologically based
• Use of marginal lands
• Clearing of tropical rainforests
• Environmental degradation

8
Consequences of Animal Farming

• Loss of 70 of grain crops in U.S.
• Overgrazing
• Mismanagement of animal manure
• Methane may contribute to greenhouse effect
• Most widespread source of water pollution
• Source of 3 of greenhouse gases
• Sustainable on rural farms and with pastoral
  herding

9
Per Capita Food and Grain Production
10
Increasing Food Production

• Most important foodstuff in world is grains
• Eat lower on the food chain
• Convert cash crops/animal feed to basic food
  production
• Eat less
• Increase crop yields
• Help people in need produce their own food
• Produce more food more profitabily

11
Increasing Food Production

• Convert animal farms to grain farms
• 70 of grain grown for domestic animals
• Grain most important food in world
• Livestock give off methane
• Anaerobic decay of manure
• Develop alternative foods
• Convert pet food to human food
• The promise of biotechnology

12
Genetic Engineering

• Crossbreeds of genetically different plants
• Incorporation of desired traits into crop lines
  and animals
• Cloning of domestic animals

http//www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GEFood.asp
13
Examples of Genetic Engineering

• Not affordable in all countries
• Not considered safe by all consumers
• Major player in the future of agriculture
• Might keep food production in pace with
  population growth

14
Food Suppliers

• Family personal and family food security
• Country self-sufficiency in food and nutrition
• Globe sustainable food and nutrition for all
  countries.

15
Food Guide
16
Hunger, Malnutrition and Famine

• 20 of the people on earth suffer from the
  effects of hunger and malnutrition
• Children are most at risk
• The root cause of hunger is poverty
• It is more likely that a pet cat will be fed than
  an undernourished child

17
Causes of Famine

• Civil Wars
• Drought (FEWS)
• Government Incompetence

18
Food Aid

• Is a disincentive for poor countries to improve
  their own productivity
• Undercut nations ag economy and lead to greater
  food dependency
• Disrupts local economy
• Contributes to ecological deterioration

Give a man a fish you have fed him for today.
Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a
lifetime." --Old Chinese Saying
19
Sustainable Agricultural Systems

• Patterned after natural ecosystems