Agriculture

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Agriculture

• For the last 10,000 years humans have been
  practicing agriculture, or simply put, farming.
• Farming has allowed us to feed many people and
  have food year round
• Todays farming is very different than it was in
  the past

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Traditional Agriculture

• Traditional, or conventional, agriculture is how
  most of our food is made.
• It is large scale, industrial and designed to
  make the most amount of food with the smallest
  amount of space

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What you think it looks like..
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What it really looks like
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What you think it looks like
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What it really looks like
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Monocultures

• A monoculture is an area of land that only grows
  a large amount of one crop.
• This makes it very easy for pests to destroy the
  crops.
• As a result, pesticides are used.

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Pesticides

• Pesticides damage soil and can run off into the
  surrounding area

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Pesticides

• If a small amount of the pests survives and are
  resistant to the pesticide, then they will
  repopulate and a stronger, more toxic pesticide
  must be used.

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Fertilizers

• Since the soil gets degraded quickly, fertilizers
  must be added to the soil.
• Fertilizer runoff causes eutrophication which
  means too much of a good thing because the
  added nutrients cause algae to flourish and choke
  out aquatic ecosystems

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Where are we?

• What are the
• Strengths
• and
• Weaknesses
• of our current agricultural system?

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Successes

• abundant food supply in the developed world
• fresh fruits and vegetables available year-round
• cheap food
• luxury foods such as coffee, tea, chocolate, and
  spices easily available around the world
• effective food preservation technologies
  (refrigeration, freezing, canning, packaging)
• convenience foods
• mechanization produces high labor efficiency
• improvements in soil conservation
• availability of agricultural inputs for quick
  solutions to production problems

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Problems

• continuing soil loss
• food safety concerns (mad cow disease, food
  poisoning outbreaks, antibiotic resistance,
  toxins and pesticides)
• water pollution, air pollution ( odors), habitat
  loss, water depletion
• continuing hunger and rise of obesity
• failing farms, economic uncertainty and stress
• declining communities
• farm accidents, chronic diseases linked to
  agricultural chemicals
• reliance on fossil fuels, global warming
• farmland loss to development, ugly countryside
• difficulty of starting in farming

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What is Sustainable Agriculture?

• a journey, not a destination
• Iowa Farmer

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Sustainable Agriculture

• an integrated system of plant and animal
  production practicesthat will
• satisfy human food and fiber needs
• enhance environmental quality
• make the most efficient use of
• nonrenewable resources
• sustain economic viability
• enhance quality of life.
• 1990 Farm Bill

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The three-legged stool of sustainability
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Economically sustainable

• Provides a secure living for farm families
• Provides a secure living to other workers in the
  food system
• Provides access to good food for all
  

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Environmentally Sound

• Preserves
• the
• quality of
• soil,
• water,
• and air

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Environmentally Sound

• Cooperates
• with and
• is modeled
• on natural
• systems

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Socially sustainable

• Good for families
• Supports communities
• Fair to all involved

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How to farm sustainably

• Farmers plant many different crops near each
  other so that a pest cant destroy an entire crop
• Waste products are composted and used to replace
  nutrients in the soil.
• Crops are rotated to preserve the nutrients in
  the soil.

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How to farm sustainably

• Animals are treated fairly and given the freedom
  to move.
• Animals are not given unnecessary antibiotics.
• Animals are fed properly

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Conclusion

• Agriculture has accomplished much
• There are still many problems to solve, both old
  and new
• Sustainable agriculture is about trying to solve
  these problems without creating new ones.

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How much is 2 billion bushels?

• Iowas annual corn harvest is usually around 2
  billion bushels. If you loaded semi trucks with 2
  billion bushels and lined them up bumper to
  bumper, how far would they stretch?
• According to the Iowa Department of
  Transportation, a large semi holds around 910
  bushels, and 879 large semis lined up bumper to
  bumper would stretch around 11.5 miles

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Answer

• The line of trucks would stretch 29,206 miles, or
  more than the circumference of the earth (which
  is a little under 25,000 miles). Luckily, most
  grain is transported much more efficiently in
  railroad cars and on barges.