Food, Soil Conservation

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Food, Soil Conservation Pest Management

• Chapter 13

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Essential Question 1

• What is food security, and does it exist
  worldwide today?

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Food

• Today we produce more than enough food to meet
  the basic nutritional needs of all people
• Food Security
• Every person in a given area has daily access to
  enough nutritious food to have an active, healthy
  life

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Global Food Security

• One in every six people in the developing world
  do not get enough food to eat
• Root Cause Poverty
• Many developing
• countries do not produce
• enough food to feed their
• population are too poor to import enough
• War, corruption, bad weather can also play a
  role

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3 Major Food Challenges

• Poverty
• Producing Distributing enough food to feed our
  growing human population
• Doing this in an environmentally sustainable way

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Food Waste
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Essential Question 3

• How is the worlds food produced?

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Food Systems

• Croplands
• Grains
• Supplies 77 of food, using 11 of land area
• Rangelands/Pastures
• Meat
• Supplies 16 of food, using 29 of land area
• Oceanic Fisheries / Aquaculture
• Supplies 7 of food

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Natural Capital
Croplands
Ecological Services
Economic Services
Help maintain water flow and soil infiltration
Food crops
Provide partial erosion protection
Fiber crops
Can build soil organic matter
Crop genetic resources
Store atmospheric carbon
Jobs
Provide wildlife habitat for some species
Fig. 13-6, p. 276
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What do we eat?

• 14 plant 9 animal species supply 90 of the
  worlds food calories
• Top 3
• Wheat
• Rice
• Corn

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Industrialized Agriculture

• Uses large amounts of energy, water, fertilizers
  pesticides to produce single crops
  (monoculture) livestock
• Agribusiness
• Control of growing, processing, distribution
  sale by large, multinational corporations
• Plantation Agriculture
• Used in tropical developing countries for cash
  crops (bananas, sugarcane, soybeans, cocoa)
• Livestock Feedlots
• Animals kept in densely populated pens fed
  grains to fatten quickly HUGE amounts of waste

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Industrialized Food Production in the United
States

• Industrialized agriculture uses about 17 of all
  commercial energy in the U.S. and food travels an
  average 2,400 km (1,300 miles) from farm to
  plate.
• About 10 units of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy
  are needed to put 1 unit of food energy on the
  table.

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Traditional Agriculture

• Subsistence Agriculture
• Human animal labor used to make enough food to
  support a family
• Intensive Agriculture
• Producing enough food to feed family sell

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Essential Question 5

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of
  using the green revolution to produce food?

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The Green Revolution

• Increasing crop yields without farming more land.
  
• Selectively breed for high yield varieties
• Input fertilizers, pesticides, water
• Multiple cropping
• Tripled world grain production.

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Fertilizers

• Fertilizers can help restore soil nutrients, but
  runoff of inorganic fertilizers can cause water
  pollution.
• Organic fertilizers from plant and animal
  (fresh, manure, or compost) materials.
• Commercial inorganic fertilizers Active
  ingredients contain nitrogen, phosphorous, and
  potassium and other trace nutrients.

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Problems

• Green revolution plants tend to be too costly for
  farmers in developing countries, due to expense
  for fertilizers pesticides
• Without high fertilizer water input, plants are
  not more productive

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Essential Question 6

• What are the harmful environmental effects of
  producing food?

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Environmental Impact of Producing Food

• Modern agriculture has a very large harmful
  environmental impact.
• Major problems
• Too reliant on fossil fuels
• Little recycling of crop/animal waste
• Accelerates soil erosion
• Doesnt preserve genetic variety
• Too reliant on pesticides

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Essential Question 7

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of
  using genetic engineering to produce food?

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The Gene Revolution

• Using genetic engineering to develop improved
  strains of crops livestock
• Benefits
• Quicker cheaper than selective/cross breeding
• Allows traits from different species to be
  combined
• Heat / cold / pest / parasite / herbicide / virus
  / drought / salt / etc resistance
• Increased size / flavor / longevity / yield /
  growth rate

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Golden Rice

• Golden rice is a new genetically engineered
  strain of rice containing beta-carotene.
• Can inexpensively supply vitamin A to
  malnourished.

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Frankenfoods?

• Unpredictable irreversible genetic ecological
  effects
• Speeds resistance in pest species
• Corporation patents on GMO seeds allow companies
  to sue farmers for reusing seeds without paying
  for use
• Monsanto / BASF / Dupont

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Trade-Offs
Genetically Modified Crops and Foods
Projected Disadvantages
Projected Advantages
Irreversible and unpredictable genetic and
ecological effects
Need less fertilizer
Need less water
Harmful toxins in food from possible plant cell
mutations
More resistant to insects, disease, frost, and
drought
New allergens in food
Grow faster
Lower nutrition
Can grow in slightly salty soils
Increased development of pesticide-resistant
insects and plant diseases
Less spoilage
Better flavor
Can create herbicide-resistant weeds
Need less pesticides
Tolerate higher levels of herbicides
Can harm beneficial insects
Higher yields
Lower genetic diversity
Fig. 13-19, p. 287
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What do you think?

• Should the U.S. government require mandatory
  labeling of GMO foods?
• Japan, Europe, South Korea, Canada, Australia
  New Zealand currently require labeling

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Genetic Future

• Loss of a variety of genetically different crop
  and livestock strains might limit raw material
  needed for future green and gene revolutions.
• In the U.S., 97 of the food plant varieties
  available in the 1940 no longer exist in large
  quantities.
• 15 of worlds cattle poultry breeds have
  disappeared in last century

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Alternative Sources of Food

• Winged Bean / Quinoa
• Plants high in protein nutrients

• Insects
• 3-4 times the protein by weight compared with
  beef, chicken, fish eggs
• Much lower environmental impact

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Essential Question 8

• How can we produce more meat, fish and shellfish?

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Producing More Meat

• 1/2 the worlds meat is produced by livestock
  grazing on grass.
• 1/2 produced under factory-like conditions
  (feedlots).
• Densely packed livestock are fed grain or fish
  meal.
• Eating more chicken and farm-raised fish and less
  beef and pork reduces harmful environmental
  impacts of meat production.

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Trade-Offs
Animal Feedlots
Advantages
Disadvantages
Increased meat production
Need large inputs of grain, fish meal, water, and
fossil fuels
Higher profits
Concentrate animal wastes that can pollute water
Less land use
Antibiotics can increase genetic resistance to
microbes in humans
Reduced overgrazing
Reduced soil erosion
Provide ideal conditions for food-borne illness
that can spread to people
Help protect biodiversity
Fig. 13-21, p. 289
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Global Demand

• Demand for meat is growing, especially in
  middle-income developing countries
• Consequences
• Increase demand on grain supply
• Increase demand for water
• 8oz beef 6,600 gallons of water
• Increase demand for fossil fuels
• 1oz beef 33 more energy than 1oz potatoes
• Cows 16 annual methane emissions
• Livestock produces 20x more waste than humans

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Catching and Raising More Fish and Shellfish

• After spectacular increases, the worlds total
  and per capita marine and freshwater fish and
  shellfish catches have leveled off.

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Catching and Raising More Fish and Shellfish

• Government subsidies given to the fishing
  industry are a major cause of overfishing.
• Global fishing industry spends about 25 billion
  per year more than its catch is worth.
• Without subsidies many fishing fleets would have
  to go out of business.
• Tends to promote overfishing by keeping too many
  fishing boats active, however if fishery
  collapses all jobs are lost.

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Essential Question 9

• How do government policies affect food production
  and food security?

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Government Policies Food Production

• Governments use 3 main approaches to provide
  assistance to farmers consumers

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3 Main Government Strategies

• Use price controls to keep food prices
  artificially low so people can afford it
• Consumers happy, hard for farmers to make a
  living
• Give farmers subsidies tax breaks to encourage
  higher food production
• 300 billion globally
• 50 billion in the U.S. annually
• Protects farmers in the event of natural
  disasters / Can lead to surpluses
• Eliminate price controls subsidies and let
  economic market demand determine production
  price
• Could result in higher food prices

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Going Green

• Environmental scientists urge governments to
  reward farmers ranchers who practice
  sustainability
• protect soil
• conserve water
• reforest degraded land
• protect restore wetlands
• conserve wildlife

Currently government subsidies do not encourage
or reward sustainable agricultural practices
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Essential Question 11

• How can we produce food more sustainably?

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Solution Sustainable Agriculture

• Three main ways to reduce hunger and malnutrition
  and the harmful effects of agriculture
• Slow population growth.
• Sharply reduce poverty.
• Develop and phase in systems of more sustainable,
  low input agriculture over the next few decades.

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Solutions
Sustainable Organic Agriculture
More
Less
Soil erosion
High-yield polyculture
Soil salinization
Organic fertilizers
Aquifer depletion
Biological pest control
Overgrazing
Integrated pest management
Overfishing
Loss of biodiversity
Efficient irrigation
Loss of prime cropland
Perennial crops
Crop rotation
Food waste
Water-efficient crops
Subsidies for unsustainable farming and fishing
Soil conservation
Population growth
Subsidies for sustainable farming and fishing
Poverty
Fig. 13-33, p. 302
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Organic Farming

• Results of 22 year study comparing organic and
  conventional farming.

Figure 13-34
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Making the Transition to More Sustainable
Agriculture

• More
• Research
• Demonstration projects
• Government subsidies
• Training
• Can promote more sustainable organic agriculture.

Figure 13-35