1. 2/17 Bellringer: Conventional Agriculture
What is agriculture?
What is the #1 crop produced in the U.S.?
What are the positive results of large scale agriculture?
What are the negative impacts of industrial agriculture.

2. Conventional Agriculture

3. The History of Agriculture
Agriculture is the raising of crops and livestock for food or for other products that are useful to humans.
Began over 10,000 years ago
This period was called the Agricultural Revolution
Prior to humans were primarily hunter-gatherers
Agriculture allowed human population to grow at unprecedented rates
Where did agriculture start?

4. Origins of Agriculture
Farming was first used in the Middle East, in a region running from present-day Turkey to Iraq and Israel, called the Fertile Crescent.
Barley and wild wheat were abundant and flood river plains were used.

5. Spread of Agriculture

6. Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course (1:05-6:45)

7. Agricultural Revolution
Plants we grow and eat (domesticated) today are descended from wild plants
Teosinte: ancestor of modern corn
Farmers collected seeds from plants that exhibited the qualities they desired
Seeds were planted and harvested again and again
Do you think our crops always looked like they do now?
Te-o-sin-tee
Evolution of Corn
Teosinte vs. Zea Mays

8. Sustainable Agriculture
Agriculture Models
Subsistence agriculture: growing food for consumption by farmer’s family
Commercial (modern) agriculture: growing food for sale off the farm, heavy use of machinery, fossil fuels, and technology
Modern Agriculture
Large acreage
Monoculture
Extensive use of fertilizers
Extensive use of pesticides
Irrigation
Subsidies to overproduce
Selection of cash crops following subsidies
Crop selection for animal feed
Sustainable Agriculture
Small acreage
Crop rotation
Co-planting
Fallow fields
Regionally-appropriate crops
Locally eaten and sold

9. Agricultural Revolution
Destruction of habitats
Grasslands, forests, and wetlands were replaced with farmland
Replacement of forest
Soil loss
Floods
Water shortages
In order to get more land for growing crops, many other ecosystems were destroyed

10. Farmland Drainage
Over a period of 200 years, the lower 48 states lost an estimated 53 percent of their original wetlands.

11. Agribusiness
Agribusiness is a term that encompasses all the businesses involved in agricultural food production, including farming, contract farming, seed supply, agrichemicals, farm machinery, distribution, processing, marketing, and retail sales.
One of the largest and most diverse industries in the US. Estimated 2012 revenue = $2.4 trillion
Major industry stakeholders
Monsanto, Cargill, ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), etc.
What do we mean by agribusiness?
Mosanto, Cargill-seeds
ADM-herbicides and seeds

12. U.S. Crop Production
U.S. farmers produce roughly $100 billion worth of crops and about $100 billion worth of livestock each year. (EPA 2012)
In 2010, 335 million acres of land were used for crop production. (Census 2012)
USDA Land Use Survey in 2002, 442 million acres (20%) were used for crop land
587 million acres (26%) were used for grassland pasture and range land. If you combine crop and rangeland, that’s nearly ½ of the United States!

13. Harvested Area (million acres)
U.S. Crop Production
Major agricultural crops produced in the United States in 2000 (excluding root crops, citrus, vegetable, etc).
Crop
Harvested Area (million acres)
Cash Receipts from
Sales ($ billion)
Corn (grain)
72.7
15.1
Soybeans
12.5
Hay
59.9
3.4
Wheat
53.0
5.5
Cotton
13.1
4.6
Sorghum (grain)
7.7
0.82
Rice
3.0
1.2

14. Farmers in the U.S.
In 1935, the number of farms in the United States was 6.8 million. In 2007, the number of farmers was down to 2.2 million.
The need for human labor has also declined as evidenced by the increase in agricultural labor efficiency over the the past century.
Average age of farmers is 54 years old in Average age of farmers is 57 years old in Average age of farmers is increasing.

15. Earl Butz and Subsidies
Earl Butz was the head of the Department of Agriculture in the 1970’s.
His major change was that he promoted bigger farms and encouraged “get big or get out.”
He was responsible for creating direct payments to grow corn = subsidies.

16. Corn (Zea mays)
Corn is the most heavily subsidized crop by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Corn is the major source of food in the American diet
Almost everything Americans eat contains corn: high fructose corn syrup, corn-fed meat, and corn-based processed foods are the staples of the modern diet.
One bushel of industrial corn requires ¼ to 1/3 gallons of oil for production (Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma)
= 50 gallons of oil/acre of corn

17. Issues with Conventional Agriculture

18. Monocultures
Growing a single crop or plant species over a wide area for many years.
ex. lawns, corn fields, tree farms
Widely used in industrial agriculture for large crop yields with little labor input.
However, they can lead to quicker spread of disease or use more soil nutrients.

19. Livestock, Dairy, & Poultry
Domesticated animals raised for product output or slaughtered for consumption.
Animal products account for over half of the value of U.S. agricultural products, often exceeding $100 billion per year. (USDA 2012)
Issues include overcrowding to maximize profit in large-scale operations, disease spread in monocultures, use of antibiotics, excessive waste output, and treatment.

20. Dairy Cows
Trace amounts of hormones, blood, and pus can be found in milk from industrial processes

21. Poultry Farms
Chickens are often “debeaked” to prevent damage and cannibalism at crowded farms

22. Energy Inputs vs. Outputs
Kilocalories of fossil fuel input per kilocalorie of protein output
Feed lot beef
Pigs
Broiler Chicken
Free range beef
Sheep
Vegetables

23. Fish Farms
Issues include over crowding (does not occur in the wild) - can cause disease, stress, and pollution, and local habitat destruction
Dead or diseased fish are often ground up and fed to live fish
Sea lice

24. Slash and Burn
Agricultural technique which involves cutting and burning of forests to create fields
commonly used practice in the Amazon
Typically used in subsistence farming since it needs little technology or tools

25. Environmental Impacts of Agriculture
High use of fossil fuels and pesticides
Air pollution
Pressures on non-renewable resources
Untreated animal wastes and agricultural chemicals
Water pollution
Harms fisheries
Insects, weeds, and disease- causing organisms developing resistance to pesticides
Contaminate food supply

26. Pesticide Application Abundance

27. Pesticides Residue on Produce
Highest Lowest
Apples Asparagus
Bell peppers Avocados
Celery Bananas
Cherries Broccoli
Imported grapes Cauliflower
Nectarines Corn (sweet corn)
Peaches Kiwi
Peas Mangos
Potatoes Onions
Red Raspberries Papayas
Spinach Pineapple
Strawberries Peas (sweet)
Released 10/21/2003 by EWG
BRAND NEW REPORT based on results of more than 100,000 tests for pesticides on produce collected by USDA and FDA between 1992 and 2001.
High rankings given to:
highest and average amount of pesticide found in produce
ranking of severity of pesticides found by effect
number of different pesticides found in individual sample and produce type
Highlights that washing and peeling WILL NOT HELP. While it may help reduce pesticide residues, tests took this into account. Washing does not eliminate pesticides, and peeling may help, but reduces nutritive value. Many pesticides are taken up into produce itself, so best option is to eat a varied diet, wash all produce, choose organic in those produce that are most “risky” and help to encourage reduction in pesticide use overall…

28. Environmental Impacts of Agriculture
Land degradation
Decreases future ability of land to support crops or livestock
Habitat fragmentation
Breakup of large areas of habitat into small, isolated patches
Cultivating marginal lands
Irrigating dry land
Cultivating land prone to erosion

29. Genetic Engineering
Manipulation of genes by taking specific gene from a cell of one species and placing it into the cell of an unrelated species
Corn has been genetically modified in more than one way. Bt-corn is a type of GM corn that is genetically designed to be lethal to insects as they try to eat it.
85 percent of the soybean crops grown in the United States are genetically modified. The number one reason for the DNA modification is herbicide tolerance.
Tomatoes are mainly genetically modified to make them last longer. Because tomatoes rot fairly quickly, crops might go bad before the process of harvesting, processing and shipping is finished.
Papayas are genetically modified to fight a particular virus that can infect and kill crops quickly.

30. Solutions to Large Scale Agriculture

31. Your Assignment: On a separate sheet of paper:
Draw (with labels) an IDEAL Sustainable Farm that doesn’t have all the problems that Conventional Farming does.

32. Modern Agriculture
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