1. Redesigning Agriculture to improve efficiency Olivia Cox CPSP218L Sec. 0201

2. Why Redesigning Agriculture Is Important: Need to feed growing population Lack of land left for farming Water shortages Grain for fuel turns out to cause more harm than good Protein is being produced inefficiently

3. Current Issues In Agriculture: Feeding A Growing Population World pop. = 8 billion. World pop. starving or malnourished = 1 billion (1/8 of the entire pop.!) Reducing population would reduce demand for food Consumption of unhealthy amounts of livestock products (esp. in US) FIX: –Reproductive health care & birth control services –US eat lower on food chain

4. “Eating Well”-Is This What We Are Doing?

5. Current Issues In Agriculture: Lack Of Land Left For Farming Lack of land leads to need to increase productivity Acquisition of vast tracts of farmable land by foreign countries FIX: –Invest $ in helping low-income countries develop their potential for expanding food production, enabling them to export more grain –Raise land productivity by 1.) raising irrigation efficiency 2.) producing larger- yielding hybrid strains

6. Current Issues In Agriculture: Water Shortages Need for more efficient irrigation systems FIX: –Shift from less efficient flood or furrow systems to overhead sprinkelers or drip irrigation –Insitutional shifts—moving the responsibility for managing irrigation systems from govnt agencies to local water users associations

7. Current Issues In Agriculture: Inefficient Protein Production 36% of the world grain harvest is used to produce animal protein World meat consumption increased from 44 million tons in 1950 to 260 million tons in 2007 Cattle: takes roughly 7kg grain to produce a 1kg gain in live weight Pork: over 3kg grain per kg of weight gain Poultry: over 2kg grain per kg weight gain Herbivorous fish (carp, tilapia, & catfish): less than 2kg grain per kg weight gain FIX- Soybeans as a protein source, switching to fish, eating less meat

8. Current Issues In Agriculture: Grain For Fuel Does More Harm Than Good The 104 million tons of grain used to produce ethanol in 2009 in the US is the food supply for 340 million people at average world grain consumption levels FIX: –Could focus on providing better ways of transportation, public trans etc. –Removing incentives for converting food to fuel http://blogs.princeton.edu/chm333/f2006/biomass/ethanol%20cor nheap.jpg

9. What We Are Doing! College of Agriculture & Natural Resources –5 Ag research extension centers –Center for Agricultural & Natural Resource Policy http://www.sustainability.umd.edu/ –National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education: deals with land use

10. Sources Asimov, Isaac, Asimov's New Guide to Science, pp. 152–153, Basic Books, Inc. : 1984. Bhatia, B.M. (1985) Famines in India: A study in Some Aspects of the Economic History of India, Delhi: Konark Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Brown, Lester R. Plan B 4.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Print. Central Intelligence Agency. 2010. Web. 6 Mar. 2010.. Country Reports.org. 2010. Web. 6 Mar. 2010.. "Green Agriculture." Farm Industry News. 2010. Web. 5 Mar. 2010.. "Land Reform (agricultural economics)." Encylcopedia Britannica. 2010. Web. 7 Mar. 2010.. Lonely Planet. 2010. Web. 7 Mar. 2010.. New World Encyclopedia. 2010. Web. 6 Mar. 2010.. "Research Centers." Campus Sustainability: Sustaining Our Terrapin Environment. University of Maryland, 2010. Web. 7 Mar. 2010..