Ch.12 Food, Soil, And Pest Management Alex Wober

Section 12-1) What is Food Security and Why is it difficult to attain? Many People Have Health Problems from Not Getting Enough to Eat- There are people that don’t have access to food. Well, those people are facing food insecurity. Food insecurity is when people are living with chronic malnutrition and poor nutrition. A lot of agricultural experts all agree that the main cause of food insecurity is poverty.

Many People Suffer from Chronic Hunger and Malnutrition- When people cannot grow or buy enough food for them to live off of they are suffering from chronic under nutrition/hunger. A huge percentage of the world’s chronically undernourished children live in low-income, less-developed countries. The worst form of food shortage is famine, which occurs when there is a severe shortage of food in an area and which can result in mass starvation, many deaths, economic chaos, and social disruption.

Many People Have Health Problems from eating too much-Over nutrition occurs when food energy intake exceeds energy use and causes excess body fat. Too many calories, too little exercise, or both can cause over nutrition. People who are underfed and underweight and people who are overfed and overweight face similar health problems: lower life expectancy, greater susceptibility to dis- ease and illness, and lower productivity and life quality

Ch.12-2) How is food produced? Croplands- 77% of the food- 11% land Rangelands, pastures, feedlots- 16% of the food- 29% land Ocean Fisheries, aquaculture- 7% food supply 50,000 plants we can eat- only 14=90% worlds food: corn, wheat, and rice.

Industrialized Agriculture- High Input: heavy equipment, fossil fuels, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, water, and uses large amounts of financial capital. Monoculture=increase yield Plantation Agriculture- Developing countries, cash crops, bananas, increase yield, and decrease biodiversity. Greenhouse- Raise crops in areas not suitable. Large scale need huge input of water and energy. On small scale, increases efficiency of water usage.

Hydroponics- Good in water poor areas water is recycled through system. Traditional Agriculture- Low input, practiced by 2.7 billion people 1/5 worlds crop of ¾ cultivated land, produce enough food for the family, usually polyculture. Traditional subsistence agriculture: Human labor Traditional intensive agriculture- Human labor, draft animal, fertilizer and water, and increase yield enough to sell some crops. Slash and burn agriculture- Burning and clearing small plots in tropical areas, grow variety of crops for a few years, up to 20 crops, and soil gets depleted. Green Revolution : First, monoculture selective breeding genetically alter. Second, large inputs of fertilizer, water, and pesticides. Third, increase crops grown on land per year.

Meat Production- ½ of the worlds meat is produced from livestock feeding in rangelands. The other half, has feedlots and confined animal feeding operations. As income grows the demand for meat grows-increases countries demand for grain to feed animals. Aquaculture- Fishery: concentration of a particular aquatic species suitable for commercial harvest. Worlds fisheries virtually depleted, 52% fully exploited.

Ch.12-3 What environmental problems arise from industrialized food production Food production- Loss of natural land areas, fish kills due to pesticide run off, loss of genetic diversity, and natural predator decline. Erosion of topsoil, salinization, waterlogging, and desertification. Greenhouse gases from: methane cows, fuel use, inorganic fertilizers, air pollution. Salinization- repeated irrigation causes salts to accumulate in the soil.

Waterlogging- Water table increase to root level causing them to rot. Biofuels vs. Food: Takes more energy to make than yields, now there is a net energy balance, energy return on energy investment EROEI, Gasoline EROEI-.84 and Corn Ethanol EROEI- 1.3

High Input vs. Traditional low input High input- net loss: 10 units of energy to 1 unit of food. Traditional Low Input- Net loss: 1 unit of energy to 10 units of food.

Ch.12-4) How can we protect crops from pests more sustainably? Pests- A species that interferes with human welfare, by competing for food, shelter, etc… Polyculture systems harbor natural predators to pests. Pesticides- Any chemical used to kill or control populations of organisms. Insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, and herbicides.

Pesticides: First generation: Nicotine sulfate extract from tobacco as an insecticide. Second generation: DDT-produced in lab Muller, at the time most widely used pesticide, turned out to be hazardous. Persistence- Length of time it stays in the environment is 35 years

The good pesticides- saves lives, increase food supplies, increase profits, and work fast. The bad pesticides- Accelerate resistance, kill natural predators, pollute, harm wildlife, and threaten human health.

Ch.12-5) How can we improve food security? Use Government Policies to Improve Food Security and Production-Control prices to make food affordable, provide subsidies to farmers, Let the marketplace decide-working in New Zealand and Brazil.

Other Government and Private Programs are Increasing Food Security-Immunizing children against childhood diseases, encourage breast- feeding, prevent dehydration in infants and children, provide family planning services, increase education for women.

One-half to one-third of nutrition-related deaths in children can be prevented for $5-10 per year

Ch.12-6) How can we produce food more sustainably? Soil conservation: Contour planting- using contours of land to plow or plant to reduce runoff. Strip Cropping- Planting alternating rows of crops which use different resources. Shift to organic agriculture- Little to no synthetic chemicals, ge seeds, feed additives.

Restore soil fertility: animal manure- adds beneficial bacteria and microbes, nitrogen, soil structure. Green manure- freshly cut vegetables that are plowed into topsoil to increase humus and organic matter. Compost- Produced from the decomp of organic matter (food wastes, paper, wood) in the presence of O 2.

Produce Meat and Fish more sustainably: Polyaquaculture- growing plants and fish, shrimp along side of each other, or any other species together. More sustainable fishing methods- lower trophic level fish. Consume less meat.

3 big ideas More than 1 billion people have health problems because they do not get enough to eat and 1.1 billion people face health problems from eating too much. Modern industrialized agriculture has a greater harmful impact on the environment than any other human activity. More sustainable forms of food production will greatly reduce the harmful environmental impacts of current systems while increasing food security.