1. Food Production and the Environment10
Food Production and the Environment

2. 10.1 What Is A Food Desert? 23.5 million can’t be wrong

3. What Is Food Security and Why Is It Difficult To Attain?
Food security is the condition under which all or most the people in a population have daily access to enough nutritious food to live active and healthy lives
Poverty is the root cause
½ of the world’s people live on $2.25 a day (50% spent on food)
1/6 of the world’s people live $1.25 a day (70% spent on food)
U.S spend about 7% on food on average

4. Nutritional Requirements
Undernourished
not enough calories
Overnourished
too many calories
Malnourished
missing one or more essential nutrients

5. Industrialized and Traditional Crop Production
Industrialized/high input agriculture: heavy equipment, fossil fuel, commercial fertilizer/pesticides, and money (monoculture: growing one to two crops)
Food supply vulnerable to disease
Traditional/low input agriculture: solar energy and human labor to grow a crop that will feed a family with no surplus (polyculture: growing several crops)
The goal of industrialized food production is to steadily increase each crop’s yield.
Another form of industrialized agriculture is plantation agriculture – focusing on cash crops: bananas, coffee, sugar cane, palm oil.
Polyculture follows the principles of biodiversity and sustainability.

6. Differences Between Industrialized and Organic Agriculture
Figure Some major differences between industrialized agriculture and organic agriculture

7. Industrialized Food Production in US
Since 1960, US has more than doubled the yields of key crops
38% is fed to livestock
China and India are more productive than the United States (if measured by people fed per acre)

8. Organic Agriculture
Organic agriculture: crops grown without the use of synthetic pesticides and inorganic fertilizers, or genetic engineering
Labels
100 % organic - These products contain only organically produced ingredients and processing aids. By law they can display the USDA Organic seal.
Organic - these products contain at least 95% organically produced ingredients.
Made with organic ingredients - packaging must contain at least 70% organic ingredients.
Natural - meaningless
Multiple cropping: increasing crop yield by increasing the number of crops grown per year per field.
Case Study: Industrialized Food Production in the United States: Agribusiness

9. The Green Revolution
Green revolution: higher yields from existing cropland
Plant monocultures of selectively bred crops
Large amounts of water; synthetic fertilizers and pesticides
Multiple cropping
Multiple cropping: increasing crop yield by increasing the number of crops grown per year per field.
Case Study: Industrialized Food Production in the United States: Agribusiness

10. Industrialized Food Production Requires Huge Inputs of Energy
Large inputs of energy are needed to grow, store, process, package, transport, refrigerate, and cook plants and animals
In the U.S., 10 units of fossil fuel energy are needed to produce 1 unit of food energy
Fishing fleets use 12.5 units of energy to produce 1 unit of energy from seafood
Industrialized food production is dependent on fossil fuel, resulting in a net energy loss

11. Artificial Selection vs. Genetically Modified

12. Artificial Selection vs. Genetically Modified

13. GMO’s

14. Tradeoffs of GM Crops and Foods
Figure Use of genetically modified crops and foods has advantages and disadvantages.
Questions: Which two advantages and which two disadvantages do you think are the most important? Why?

15. Feedlots

16. Feedlots

17. Aquaculture
87% of the world’s commercial ocean fisheries are being harvested at full capacity
30% of which are overfished

18. Tradeoffs: Animal Feedlots and Aquaculture
Figure Use of Animal Feedlots and confined animal feeding operations has advantages and disadvantages.
Questions: Which single advantage and which single disadvantage do you think are the most important? Why?
Figure Use of Aquaculture has advantages and disadvantages.

19. Topsoil Erosion Is a Serious Problem in Parts of the World
Topsoil (the fertile top layer of many soils), is a significant natural capital component because it stores water and nutrients needed by plants
Topsoil renewal is one of the earth’s most important ecosystem services
Topsoil nutrients recycle endlessly as long as they are not removed faster than natural processes replace them

20. Natural Capital Degradation: Topsoil Erosion
Figure Natural capital degradation: Topsoil erosion is a serious problem in some parts of the world.
Question: Can you see any geographical pattern associated with the problem?

21. Soil Erosion
The movement of soil from one place to another by nature and by human activity
Flowing water (the largest cause of soil erosion) carries away soil loosened by rainfall
Wind loosens and blows away topsoil particles – from flat land in dry climates
Farming, deforestation, and overgrazing exposes land and hastens soil erosion
Desertification: the process by which the productive potential of topsoil falls by at least 10% because of a combination of prolonged drought and human activities that expose topsoil to erosion – the dust bowl of the 1930s.

22. Harmful Affects of Soil Erosion
Loss of soil fertility through the depletion of plant nutrients in topsoil
Topsoil pollution of surface waters can kill fish and clog reservoirs and lakes
Increased if it contains pesticide residues – biomagnified through food webs
Erosion releases the soil’s carbon content, which alters the carbon cycle, adding to atmospheric levels of CO2
Soil pollution is a global environmental problem. Contamination comes from industrial power plants, motor vehicles, and pesticides. At present, 19% of China’s arable farmland has been contaminated by soil pollution.

23. Desertification 70% of all water used for irrigation.
Can lead to salt in soil
The process when the productive potential of topsoil drops by 10% or more because of drought or human activity

24. Nature Controls the Populations of Most Pests
Natural enemies control the populations of most pest species
This free ecosystem service is an important part of earth’s natural capital
Humans upset the checks and balances of natural pest control when we clear forests and grasslands, plant monoculture crops, and use synthetic chemicals to kill pests
Common types of pesticides: insecticides (for insects), herbicides (for weeds), fungicides (for fungus) and rodenticides (for rats and mice). Biopesticides derived from chemicals made by plants to ward off pests.

25. Tradeoffs of Conventional Chemical Pesticides
Fig Use of synthetic pesticides has advantages and disadvantages.
Questions: Which single advantage and which single disadvantage do you think are the most important? Why?

26. Protective Laws and Treaties
Pesticide usage is regulated by:
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
Unfortunately adequate funding has not been provided for effective management and enforcement of FIFRA
Additional legal problems are called the boomerang effect: When residues of synthetic pesticides banned in one country and exported and used in another; then returned to the exporting country in and/or imported food.

27. Alternatives to Synthetic Pesticide Use
Crop rotation/adjusting planting time starves pests/allows enemies to eat them
Polyculture provides homes for pest’s enemies
Implant genetic resistance
Biological control: use natural enemies
Natural pheromones (insect perfume)
Can lure pests into traps
Can attracted natural enemies into crop fields

28. More Alternatives to Synthetic Pesticide Usage
Integrated pest management (IPM) – use of a coordinated combination of cultivation, biological and chemical tools
IPM can reduce synthetic pesticide costs over 50% without reducing crop yields.
Drawbacks: Is highly individualized – each situation is unique and what works in one case may not work in another. It also takes time.
Advocates support implementing IPM through taxation.

29. 10.5 How Can We Improve Food Security?
Reducing poverty and malnutrition, producing food more sustainably, and relying on locally sourced food will improve food security

30. The Government’s Role in Improving Food Production and Security
Controlling food prices vs. food subsides
Implementing health measures
Aid local, sustainable, organic food production and distribution
Educate farmers
Encourage Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs
People can also sharply cut food waste in order to improve food security.