Chapter 13 Food Resources

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Chapter 13Food Resources
Food supply and infrastructure Dust Bowl Green
RevolutionLow input vs. high input
(conventional) farming How we get our food 1.
Farmland 2. Rangeland 3. Harvesting fish
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FactsFood Supply and Distribution

• Humans require 2,000 to 2500 calories a day
• Wheat and rice supply half calorie intake
• worldwide
• 90 grain grown in U.S is for animal feed!
• Developing countries are more eating meat

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Undernutrition and Malnutrition1 in every 6
Undernourishment- lack of sufficient calories
Resulting in stunted growth, mental retardation,
susceptible to disease Malnourishment- long-term
lack of specific component of food Marasmus
waste away emaciation (lack calories
protein) Kwashiorkor displaced child After
age 1-3 yrs. Weaned given grain lack protein
results in neurological failure Chronic hunger
enough food to live (but not satisfactory
life)
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gt 1/3 population
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Developed countries spend less on food
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Arable Farmland
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Countries Receiving Food Aide
Ethiopia (19 percent), Pakistan (10 percent),
Kenya (7 percent), the Sudan (5 percent),
Mozambique (4 percent), Somalia (4 percent),
Afghanistan (3 percent) DRC (3 percent).
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Food Aide

• Is Food aide the answer to food shortages?
• Infrastructure
• Develop local markets?
• Increase local production?

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What we eat

• 14 crops- wheat, maize, rice, potatoes, sweet
  potatoes, manioc, sugarcane, sugar beets, common
  beans, soybeans, barley sorghum, peanuts

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The Dust Bowl

• Dirty Thirties- period of severe drought and
  dust storms
• Lack conservation practices to prevent erosion-
  plowing up down slope
• Deep plowing of virgin topsoil in grasslands
• Affected 100 million acres in Texas and Oklahoma,
  New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas
• Millions of acres of farmland became useless
• Many traveled to California, farm to farm picking
  fruit at starvation wages.

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• Plowing during Dust Bowl Era

• Modern Plowing

Clearing field Plowing up/down slope
Contour plowing
Modern Plowing
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Conservation Service created in 1938 to help
farmers save soil by preventing erosion
Cover crop of summer rye grass Adds N Prevents
erosion Adds organic matter
Crop rotation Decrease pesticide Decrease
fertilizer use
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Conservation Practices
Integrated pest management

• Decrease pesticide use
• By surveying field for pests
• Spray pesticide only when necessary
• Use beneficial pets

No-till farming Plant new seeds in stubble of
last years crop

• Reduce plowing trips across field
• Reduce use fossil fuel
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions

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Conservation Practicesfor Irrigation
Drip irrigation

• Less water use
• Water goes to plant not runoff

• More water use
• More water runoff
• More evaporation

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The Green Revolution

• Todays style of agriculture began after WWII,
  Green Revolution
• Overcoming lands limiting factors
• High yields , on smaller acreages, mechanization,
  hybrids, pesticides, synthetic fertilizer
• Monocultures
• Increase in fossil fuel use

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Todays agriculture

• Industrialized (high input)- 25 of cropland
  mostly practiced in developed countries
• Large amounts of
• Fertilizers
• Water
• Fossil fuels
• Pesticides

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Modern agriculture is not energy efficient10
units fossil fuel per 1 unit food energy
Storage and prep Commercial food
service Retail Packaging Processing Transportati
on Production
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Fossil fuel needed in industrialized meat
production
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Sustainable AgricultureLow input or organiclt1
of worlds cropland

• Increases
• Polyculture
• Organic fertilizers
• Integrated pest management
• Irrigation efficiency
• Crop rotation
• Soil conservation

• Decreases
• Soil Erosion
• Soil salinization
• Overgrazing
• Loss of biodiversity
• Aquifer depletion
• CO2 emissions

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Microlivestock