Food, Soil, and Pest Management ..

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Food, Soil, and Pest Management
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Core Case Study Is Organic Agriculture the
Answer?

• Organic agriculture as a component of sustainable
  agriculture
• Certified organic farming
• Less than 1 of world cropland
• 0.1 of U.S. cropland
• 6-18 in many European countries

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Core Case Study Is Organic Agriculture the
Answer?

• Many environmental advantages over conventional
  farming
• Requires more human labor
• Organic food costs 10-75 more than
  conventionally grown food
• Cheaper than conventionally grown food when
  environmental costs are included

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Industrialized Agriculture
In the United States, a label of 100 percent
organic means that a product is raised only by
organic methods and contains all organic
ingredients. Products labeled organic must
contain at least 95 organic ingredients. And
products labeled made with organic ingredients
must contain at least 70 organic ingredients but
cannot display the USDA Organic seal on their
packages
Uses synthetic inorganic fertilizers and sewage
sludge to supply plant nutrients Makes use of
synthetic chemical pesticides
Uses conventional and genetically modified
seeds Depends on nonrenewable fossil
fuels (mostly oil and natural gas)
Produces significant air and water pollution and
greenhouse gases Is globally export-oriented Use
s antibiotics and growth hormones to produce meat
and meat products
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Organic Agriculture
In the United States, a label of 100 percent
organic means that a product is raised only by
organic methods and contains all organic
ingredients. Products labeled organic must
contain at least 95 organic ingredients. And
products labeled made with organic ingredients
must contain at least 70 organic ingredients but
cannot display the USDA Organic seal on their
packages
Emphasizes prevention of soil erosion and the use
of organic fertilizers such as animal manure and
compost, but no sewage sludge to help replace
lost plant nutrients
Employs crop rotation and biological pest control
Uses no genetically modified seeds
Makes greater use of renewable energy such as
solar and wind power for generating electricity
Produces less air and water pollution and
greenhouse gases
Is regionally and locally oriented
Uses no antibiotics or growth hormones to produce
meat and meat products
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What Is Food Security and Why Is It So Difficult
to Attain?

• Many of the poor have health problems from not
  getting enough food, while many people in
  affluent countries suffer health problems from
  eating too much.
• The greatest obstacles to providing enough food
  for everyone are poverty, political upheaval,
  corruption, war, and the harmful environmental
  effects of food production.

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Poor Lack Sufficient Food

• Enough food for all but in developing countries
  1/6 do not get enough to eat
• Poverty Food insecurity
• Chronic hunger
• Poor nutrition
• Food security

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Nutrition

• Macronutrients and micronutrients
• Chronic undernutrition
• Malnutrition
• Low-protein, high-carbohydrate diet
• Physical and mental health problems
• 6 million children die each year
• Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
• UN estimates 24 billion to eliminate problem

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War and HungerChronic Undernutrition

• Children in Sudan
• Conflicts around the world escalate
• The effects of malnutrition

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Chronic Malnutrition

• Goiter in Bangladesh
• Iodine insufficiency
• Also insufficiency in Vitamin A and Iron
• 1 in 3 people
• 250,000-500,000 children lack vitamin A and go
  blind, half die

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Overnutrition

• Too many calories, too little exercise, or both
• Similar overall health outlook as undernourished
• 1.6 billion people eat too much
• 66 of American adults overweight, 34 obese
• Heart disease and stroke
• Type II diabetes and some cancers
• 58 billion spent/yr trying to lose weight

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How Is Food Produced?

• We have used high-input industrialized
  agriculture and lower-input traditional methods
  to greatly increase supplies of food.

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Where We Get Food

• Major sources
• Croplands
• Rangelands, pastures, and feedlots
• Fisheries and aquaculture

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Where We Get Food

• Since 1960 tremendous increase in food supply
• Better farm machinery
• High-tech fishing fleets
• Irrigation
• Pesticides and fertilizers
• High-yield varieties

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Only a Few Species Feed the World

• Food specialization in small number of crops
  makes us vulnerable
• 14 plant species provide 90 of world food
  calories
• 47 of world food calories comes from rice,
  wheat, and corn

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Industrialized Agriculture

• High-input agriculture monocultures
• Large amounts of
• Heavy equipment
• Financial capital
• Fossil fuels
• Water
• Commercial inorganic fertilizers
• Pesticides
• Much food produced for global consumption

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dustrial-agriculture.jpg
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Industrialized Agriculture

• Plantation agriculture primarily in tropics
• Bananas
• Sugarcane
• Coffee
• Vegetables
• Exported primarily to developed countries

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Traditional Agriculture

• 2.7 billion people in developing countries
• Traditional subsistence agriculture
• Traditional intensive agriculture
• Monoculture
• Polyculture

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tos/15-lesthos10-450.jpg
http//www.pbs.org/newshour/images/environment/j
http//www.andrewaitchison.com/pm/images/lores/myr
epository/Organic
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http//www.worldagroforestry.org/sensingsoil/image
s/LakeVictoria/images/
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Science Focus Soil is the Base of Life on Land

• Soil composed of
• Eroded rock
• Mineral nutrients
• Decaying organic matter (humus)
• Water
• Air
• Organisms

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Science Focus Soil is the Base of Life on Land

• Soil is a key component of earths natural
  capital
• Soil profile
• O Horizon
• A horizon
• B horizon
• C horizon

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Climate and Soils
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Soil and Organisms

• Groups of Organisms Present in Soils
• Microorganisms (millions/g of soil)
• Bacteria 1-100
• Fungi 0.1-1
• Algae 0.01-0.1
• Protozoa 0.01-.1
• Animals (millions per hectare) of Total Animal
  Mass
• Earthworms 1.8 75.1
• Millipedes 1.8 10.6
• Centipedes 0.8 1.8
• Mites and springtails 44.1 0.4

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Green Revolution

• Three-step green revolution
• Selectively bred monocultures
• High yields through high inputs fertilizer,
  pesticides, and water
• Multiple cropping
• Second green revolution fast-growing dwarf
  varieties of wheat and rice
• 1950-1996 world grain production tripled

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Dr. Norman E. Borlaug (1914-2009)

• Nobel Peace Prize winner (1970)
• Congressional Gold Medal Winner
• recipient of over 50 honorary Doctorate Degrees
• kept starvation at bay for millions of people in
  third world countries
• Develop high-yield, low-pesticide dwarf wheat
• Funded by World Bank and Ford Foundation
• Gregg Easterbrook wrote of Borlaug "Though barely
  known in the country of his birth, elsewhere in
  the world Norman Borlaug is widely considered to
  be among the leading Americans of our age.

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Controversy

• Borlaug argued, high-yield farming will preserve
  Africa's wild habitats, which are now being
  depleted by slash-and-burn subsistence
  agriculture. Opponents argue that inorganic
  fertilizers and controlled irrigation will bring
  a new environmental stress to the one continent
  where the chemical-based approach to food
  production has yet to catch on.

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• World wide grain production and per capita grain
  production 1961- 2007, Though grain production
  tripled, per capita only increased 31 from
  1961-1985 and has leveled off since then

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Case Study Industrialized Food Production in the
U.S.

• Industrialized farming agribusiness
• Increasing number of giant multinational
  corporations
• 10 U.S. income spent on food
• Subsidized through taxes
• Prices kept artificially low
• The diversion of food crops to the production of
  biofuels and speculative behavior in commodity
  markets are responsible for almost half of the
  increase in the prices of major food crops in
  20062007 and the ensuing riots in several
  developing nations particularly Egypt, Morocco
  and Yemen (http//carnegieendowment.org)
• In some countries, food prices have increased
  30-60/yr

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Case Study Brazil The Worlds Emerging Food
Superpower

• Ample sun, water, and arable land
• EMBRAPA government agricultural research
  corporation
• 2-3 crops per year in tropical savanna
• Lack of transportation impeding further growth as
  food exporter

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Production of New Crop Varieties

• Traditional
• Crossbreeding
• Artificial selection
• Slow process
• Genetic engineering
• Genetic engineering
• gt75 of U.S. supermarket food genetically
  engineered

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Commodity Handling
Consumer Products
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GM Foods

• In 2006, 252 million acres of transgenic crops
  were planted in 22 countries by 10.3 million
  farmers.
• United States (53), Argentina (17), Brazil
  (11), Canada (6), India (4), China (3),
  Paraguay (2) and South Africa (1)
• The majority of these crops were herbicide- and
  insect-resistant soybeans, corn, cotton, canola,
  and alfalfa.

http//www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome
/elsi/gmfood.shtml
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Benefits of GM Foods

• Enhanced taste and quality
• Reduced maturation time
• Increased nutrients, yields, and stress tolerance
  
• Improved resistance to disease, pests, and
  herbicides
• New products and growing techniques

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Plant Transformation DNA Delivery
microprojectile bombardment biolistics or gene
gun
tiny DNA-coated particles are shot into plant
cells versatile method complex DNA integration
patterns tandem arrays of fragmented molecules
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GMOs Genetically Modified Organisms
Broadly defined any microbe, plant, or animal
developed through breeding and
selection Narrowly defined organisms produced
by gene transfer techniques
Current examples of GMO Crops

• insect-resistant crops
• cotton
• potato
• corn

• herbicide-resistant crops
• soybean
• corn
• canola (rapeseed)
• many others

GMO Crops on the Horizon
Corn, soy, canola with improved
nutritional qualities for animal
feed Crops with specialty starches and oils for
industrial processes
Nutraceuticals Golden Rice Vaccines in
plants Improved yields and stress tolerance
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Meat Production

• Meat and dairy products are good sources of
  protein
• Past 60 years meat production up five-fold
• Will double again by 2050
• Half of meat from grazing livestock, other half
  from feedlots

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http//healthyurbankitchen.com
http//www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive
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Fish and Shellfish Production Have Increased
Dramatically

• Aquaculture 46 of fish/shellfish production in
  2006
• Ponds
• Underwater cages
• China produces 70 of worlds farmed fish

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Globally, some 75 per cent of wild marine fish
are now said to be either fully-exploited or
overfished, according to the United Nations' Food
and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO)
Aquaculture provides almost half of all the fish
consumed In the West In Asia - it is mostly
carnivorous fish that are farmed. The growth of
aquaculture has slowed as stocks of small fish
used to feed larger fish are overfished.
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What Environmental Problems Arise from Food
Production?

• Future food production may be limited by soil
  erosion and degradation, desertification, water
  and air pollution, climate change from greenhouse
  gas emissions, and loss of biodiversity.

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Degradation

• Natural capital degradation major harmful
  environmental effects of food production
• According to a 2008 study by the U.N. Food and
  Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 20 of
  the worlds cropland (65 in Africa) has been
  degraded to some degree by soil erosion, salt
  buildup, and chemical pollution.
• This threatens the food supply for about a
  quarter of the worlds population who are trying
  to eke out a living on such degraded land.

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Soil Erosion

• Flowing water
• Wind
• Soil fertility declines
• Water pollution occurs
• Some natural
• Much due to human activity

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The Dust Bowl
http//www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard
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Erosion
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Drought and Human Activities

• Desertification
• Combination of prolonged draught and human
  activities
• 70 of worlds drylands used for agriculture
• Will be exacerbated by climate change

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Desertification
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Effects of Irrigation

• Leaves behind salts in topsoil
• Salinization
• Affects 10 of global croplands
• Waterlogging
• Attempts to leach salts deeper but raises water
  table
• Affects 10 of global croplands

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Alkaline Crusts
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Limits to Expanding Green Revolutions

• High-inputs too expensive for subsistence farmers
• Water not available for increasing population
• Irrigated land per capita dropping
• Significant expansion of cropland unlikely for
  economic and ecological reasons

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Industrialized Food Production Requires Huge
Energy Inputs

• Mostly nonrenewable oil
• Run machinery
• Irrigation
• Produce pesticides
• Process foods
• Transport foods
• In U.S., food travels an average of 1,300 miles
  from farm to plate
• Uses more energy to produce than provides
• In 1940 2.4 units to 1
• Today 10 units to 1 for ocean fisheries 12.5 to 1

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Controversies over Genetically Engineered Foods

• Domination of world food production by a few
  companies
• Increasing dependence on industrialized nations
  by developing countries
• Biopiracy, or foreign exploitation of natural
  resources
• Patents on GMF varieties
• Potential human health impacts, including
  allergens, transfer of antibiotic resistance
  markers, unknown effects
• Potential environmental impacts, including
  unintended transfer of transgenes through
  cross-pollination, unknown effects on other
  organisms (e.g., soil microbes), and loss of
  flora and fauna biodiversity

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Food and Biofuel Production Lead to Major Losses
of Biodiversity

• Forests cleared
• Grasslands plowed
• Loss of agrobiodiversity
• Since 1900, lost 75 of genetic diversity of
  crops
• Losing the genetic library of food diversity

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Food and Biofuel Production

• Efficiency and costs associated with converting a
  range of crops into energy shows more energy is
  required for this process than they actually
  produce as fuel.
• The research finds a negative energy return
• 46 percent for corn ethanol
• 50 percent for switchgrass
• 63 percent for soybean biodiesel
• 58 percent for rapeseed.
• 8 percent palm oil

Pimentel D et al. Food versus biofuels
environmental and economic costs. Human Ecology
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Industrial Meat Production Consequences

• Uses large amounts of fossil fuels
• Wastes can pollute water
• Uses of antibiotics, pesticides
• Overgrazing
• Soil compaction
• Methane release (16) greenhouse gas

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http//planetforlife.com/
Cows and termites produce methane. Agriculture,
especially rice growing, produces methane. Coal
mining and oil wells produce methane. The amount
of methane in the atmosphere has increased only
slowly since 2000 although methane continues to
enter the atmosphere at the same rate. No one has
put forth a convincing explanation for this. 
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Aquaculture Problems

• Can produce half of worlds seafood by 2025
• Fish meal and fish oil as feed
• Depletes wild fish populations
• Inefficient (3kg to produce 1kg of salmon and
  201 for tuna)
• Can concentrate toxins such as PCBs
• Produce large amounts of waste

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How Can We Protect Cropsfrom Pests More
Sustainably?

• We can sharply cut pesticide use without
  decreasing crop yields by using a mix of
  cultivation techniques, biological pest controls,
  and small amounts of selected chemical pesticides
  as a last resort (integrated pest management).

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Natures Pest Control

• Polycultures pests controlled by natural
  enemies
• Monocultures and land clearing
• Loss of natural enemies
• Require pesticides

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Increasing Pesticide Use

• Up 50-fold since 1950
• Broad-spectrum agents
• Selective agents
• Persistence
• Biomagnification some pesticides magnified in
  food chains and webs

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Advantages of Modern Pesticides

• Save human lives
• Increase food supplies
• Increase profits for farmers
• Work fast
• Low health risks when used properly
• Newer pesticides safer and more effective

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Disadvantages of Modern Pesticides

• Pests become genetically resistant
• Some insecticides kill natural enemies
• May pollute environment
• Harmful to wildlife
• Threaten human health
• Use has not reduced U.S. crop losses

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Laws Regulate Pesticides

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide
  Act (FIFRA)
• United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
  (ATSDR)
• Congressional legislation
• Laws and agency actions criticized

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http//www.epa.gov/opp00001/pestsales/01pestsales/
market_estimates2001.pdf
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http//www.epa.gov/opp00001/pestsales/01pestsales/
market_estimates2001.pdf
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Pesticides

• Organochloride compounds decrease antibody
  production, placing a person at risk for
  infection DDT is a organochloride insecticide
  that persists and bioaccumulates in the
  environment,
• Organophosphorous exposure may result in
  headache, anxiety, chest tightness, seizures,
  loss of consciousness, abnormal heart beat, and
  liver dysfunction (malathion) seem to enhance the
  immune response
• Herbicides such as 2,4,5-T, 2,4,-D, and the
  classic contaminant, 2,3,7,8 TCDD (dioxin) are
  toxic to both animals and humans (1,4).
• Liver problems and nerve damage may result from
  chronic herbicide exposure
• http//www.atsdr.cdc.gov/training/toxmanual/

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http//www.epa.gov/opp00001/pestsales/01pestsales/
market_estimates2001.pdf
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Individuals Matter Rachel Carson

• Biologist for US Fish Wildlife Service
• DDT effects on birds
• 1962 Silent Spring makes connection between
  pesticides and threats to species and ecosystems

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Science Focus Ecological Surprises

• Dieldrin killed malaria mosquitoes, but also
  other insects
• Poison moved up food chain
• Lizards and then cats died
• Rats flourished
• Operation Cat Drop on Borneo
• Villagers roofs collapsed from caterpillars
  natural insect predators eliminated

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Alternatives to Pesticides

• Fool the pest-crop rotation
• Provide homes for pest enemies
• Implant genetic resistance
• Natural enemies
• Pheromones to trap pests or attract predators
• Hormones to disrupt life cycle

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Integrated Pest Management

• Evaluate a crop and its pests as part of
  ecological system
• Design a program with
• Cultivation techniques
• Biological controls
• Chemical tools and techniques
• Can reduce costs and pesticide use without
  lowering crop yields
• Indonesia 1986 banned 57 of 66 pesticides
  1987-1992 pesticide used dropped 65 rice
  production increased 15

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How Can We Improve Food Security?

• We can improve food security by
• creating programs to reduce poverty and chronic
  malnutrition,
• relying more on locally grown food, and
• cutting waste.

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How Can We Improve Food Security?

• A study by a former U.S. FDA economist estimates
  the total economic impact of foodborne illness
  across the nation to be 152 billion/yr
• Based on medical costs (physician services,
  pharmaceuticals, and hospital costs) and losses
  to quality of life (lost life expectancy, pain
  and suffering, and functional disability)
• The 10 states with the highest costs per case
  are HI, FL, CT, PA, SC, DC, MS, NY, MA and NJ.
• Approximately 76 million new cases of
  food-related illness  resulting in 5,000 deaths
  and 325,000 hospitalizations 

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How Can We Improve Food Security?

• USDA is charged with overseeing the safety of
  meat, poultry and egg products.
• The FDA polices seafood, dairy products, fruits
  and vegetables and most food beverage
  processing plants
• About 80 percent of the nation's food supply
• The FDA watches over 150,000 food facilities,
  more than one million restaurants and other
  retail food establishments, more than two million
  farms, as well as millions of tons of imported
  goods.
• State and local agencies share in conducting food
  plant inspections, surveillance and
  investigations of outbreaks

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How Can We Improve Food Security?

• The U.S. House of Representatives passed its
  food-safety bill (H.R. 2749) July 2009
• The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education,
  Labor Pensions unanimously (16-0) approved the
  FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) in Nov
  2009.
• S. 510 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act place
  on calendar in Dec. 2009
• Despite bipartisan support- it has stalled in the
  Senate- Debate was closed on Sept. 29, 2010

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Use Government Policies to Improve Food
Production and Security

• Control food prices
• Helps consumers
• Hurts farmers
• Provide subsidies to farmers
• Price supports, tax breaks to encourage food
  production
• Can harm farmers in other countries who dont get
  subsidies
• Some analysts call for ending all subsidies

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Reducing Childhood Deaths

• 510 annual per child would prevent half of
  nutrition-related deaths
• Strategies
• Immunization
• Breast-feeding
• Prevent dehydration from diarrhea
• Vitamin A
• Family planning
• Health education for women

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How Can We Produce Food More Sustainably?

• More sustainable food production involves
• reducing overgrazing and overfishing,
• irrigating more efficiently,
• using integrated pest management,
• promoting agrobiodiversity, and
• providing government subsidies only for more
  sustainable agriculture, fishing, and
  aquaculture.

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Reduce Soil Erosion

• Terracing
• Contour plowing
• Strip cropping
• Alley cropping
• Windbreaks

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Agricultural Soil Erosion
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Contour strip croping of hay and corn
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Bench Terraces
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Field windbreak protecting a corn crop in North
Dakota
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Reduce Soil Erosion

• Shelterbelts
• Conservation-tillage farming
• No-till farming
• Minimum-tillage farming
• Retire erosion hotspots

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Calkins sweep plow designed to provide 90
stubble on soil as mulch to reduce wind erosion
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Government Intervention

• Governments influence food production
• Control prices
• Provide subsidies
• Let the marketplace decide
• Reduce hunger, malnutrition, and environmental
  degradation
• Slow population growth
• Sharply reduce poverty
• Develop sustainable low-input agriculture

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Case Study Soil Erosion in the United States

• Dust Bowl in the 1930s
• 1935 Soil Erosion Act
• Natural Resources Conservation Service
• Helps farmers and ranchers conserve soil
• One-third topsoil gone
• Much of the rest degraded
• Farmers paid to leave farmland fallow

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Restoring Soil Fertility

• Organic fertilizers
• Animal manure
• Green manure
• Compost
• Crop rotation uses legumes to restore nutrients
• Inorganic fertilizers pollution problems

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http//www.agnet.org/images/news
Masao-Pinamanculan-Lumbocan, Philippines
http//www.skyscrapercity.com
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Sustainable Meat Production

• Shift to eating herbivorous fish or poultry
• Eat less meat
• Vegetarian

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Efficiency of converting grain into animal
protein. (Data in kilograms of grain per kilogram
of body weight added.) (Data from U.S.
Department of Agriculture)
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Major components of more sustainable,
low-throughput agriculture based mostly on
mimicking and working with nature
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Shift to More Sustainable Agriculture

• Organic farming
• Perennial crops
• Polyculture
• Renewable energy, not fossil fuels

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Six Strategies for Sustainable Agriculture

• Increase research on sustainable agriculture
• Set up demonstration projects
• International fund to help poor farmers
• Establish training programs
• Subsidies only for sustainable agriculture
• Education program for consumers

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Environmental benefits of organic farming over
conventional farming, based on 22 years of
research comparing these two systems at the
Rodale Institute in Kutztown, Pennsylvania (USA).
(Data from Paul Mader, David Dubois, and David
Pimentel)
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Science Focus The Land Institute, KS

• Co-founded by Wes Jackson, geneticists
• Ecological approach to agriculture
• Polycultures of perennial crops
• Live for years without replanting
• Better adapted to soil and climate conditions
• Less soil erosion and water pollution
• Increases sustainability

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LAND INSTITUTE

• Comparison of annual wheat root vs. perennial
  tall grass prairie root

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Three Big Ideas 1

• About 925 million people have health problems
  because they do not get enough to eat and 1.6
  billion people face health problems from eating
  too much.

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2

• Modern industrialized agriculture has a greater
  harmful impact on the environment than any other
  human activity.

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3

• More sustainable forms of food production will
  greatly reduce the harmful environmental impacts
  of current systems while increasing food security
  and national security for all countries.