Food and Soil Resources

Key Concepts  Farming and other methods of producing food  Increasing food production  Soil degradation  Increasing sustainability

How Is Food Produced?  Food sources  Wheat, corn, and rice  Fish, beef, pork, and chicken

Mold Board Plow Used to Breakup Natural Vegetation

Moldboard Plow For a farmer to be able to plant different crops on his land, it is first necessary to eliminate the natural vegetation. This is initially accomplished through the use of a moldboard plow.

Moldboard Plow The moldboard plow has one or more metal shares which cut into the ground, and overturn the surface vegetation. This action exposes the underlying layer of soil humus, and begins the decomposition of the overturned plant material. Moldboard plows are inherently required on unbroken land, for without one, a farmer would not be able to plant a viable crop on his land.

Moldboard Plow The competition from the undesired natural vegetation would starve the crop for necessary nutrients, and as a result the yield of the farmer's crop would be drastically reduced.

Moldboard Plow The plowing process oftentimes occurs twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. While spring plowing is accomplished to break up the soil for spring planting, fall plowing is usually done to destroy plant diseases and insects that use the previous year's crop as their sustenance.

Disk Harrow

After a field has been plowed, it still needs to be smoothed out and leveled before it can be planted. With two gangs of individual round disks, a disk harrow chops the sod furrows into smaller pieces. This further damages the original vegetation's root system, and begins to level the field for planting. Depending on the type of sod and plant root system, it may take several passes by a disk harrow before a field is smooth and level enough to be planted.

Grain Drill

Once a field has been adequately leveled, and the sod has been broken into small enough pieces (or the rocks have been removed if the case may be), it is ready to be planted by the farmer.

Grain Drill The type of implement that a farmer uses to plant the field depends directly on the type of crop he is going to plant. If the farmer has decided that he wishes to plant a grain of some sort on his land, the implement that he would choose is the grain drill.

Grain Drill A grain drill has a series of individual round disk openers which carve out a small trench for the grain seed to be dropped into. As the wheels rotate, seed is augured from the seed hopper, through the seed tubes, and into the small trench. Round trace chains or spike-toothed drags follow the disk openers, fill in the small trenches, and bury the seed in the soil.

Modern Disk Harrow

Major Types of Agriculture  Industrialized agriculture  Traditional subsistence agriculture  Plantation  Traditional intensive agriculture

Montana Rangeland

North Dakota Farmland

Canola Field, North Dakota

North Dakota Farm

North Dakota Farmer

Sunflowers

Grain Elevator – Kearney, Nebraska

Grain Elevator – Limon Colorado

Budweiser Granary, North Dakota

Grain Elevators, North Dakota

Montana Grain Elevators

Hay Field, Montana

North Dakota Farm and Wind Turbine

Montana Hay Stacks

Montana Cattle and Water Hole

World Food Production Industrialized agriculture Shifting cultivation Plantation agriculture Nomadic herding Intensive traditional agriculture No agriculture

Green Revolution Techniques  High-input monoculture  Selectively bred or genetically-engineered crops  High inputs of fertilizer  Extensive use of pesticides  High inputs of water  Multiple cropping

Green Revolutions First green revolution (developed countries) First green revolution (developed countries) Second green revolution (developing countries) Second green revolution (developing countries) Major International agricultural research centers and seed banks Major International agricultural research centers and seed banks

Traditional Techniques  Interplanting  Polyvarietal cultivation  Intercropping  Agroforestry (alley cropping)  Polyculture

Soil Erosion  Wind  Water  People  Wind  Water  People

Areas of serious concern Areas of some concern Stable or non-vegetative areas Global Soil Erosion

Soil Erosion in the US  Dust Bowl: 1930s  Reductions in erosion since 1987  1985 Food Security Act  Dust Bowl: 1930s  Reductions in erosion since 1987  1985 Food Security Act

Worm Castings: Organic Matter

Soil Profile

Colorado Kansas Dust Bowl Oklahoma New Mexico Texas MEXICO

Stratford, Texas 1935

Wind Blown Dust

Madagascar Soil Erosion From Deforestation

Mississippi River Delta

Rain Drop on Bare Soil

Soil Erosion After a Forest Fire

Desertification  Overgrazing  Deforestation  Erosion  Salinization  Soil Compaction  Natural Climate Change  Overgrazing  Deforestation  Erosion  Salinization  Soil Compaction  Natural Climate Change

Consequences Causes Worsening drought Famine Economic losses Lower living standards Environmental refugees Overgrazing Deforestation Erosion Salinization Soil compaction Natural climate change Desertification

World Desertification Moderate Severe Very Severe

Soil Degradation on Irrigated Land  Salinization  Waterlogging Evaporation Transpiration Evaporation Waterlogging Less permeable clay layer

Reducing and Cleaning Up Salinization  Reduce irrigation  Switch to salt-tolerant crops  Flush soils  Not growing crops for 2-5 years  Install underground drainage  Reduce irrigation  Switch to salt-tolerant crops  Flush soils  Not growing crops for 2-5 years  Install underground drainage

Reduce irrigation Switch to salt- tolerant crops (such as barley, cotton, sugar beet) Prevention Flushing soil (expensive and wastes water) Not growing crops for 2-5 years Installing under- ground drainage systems (expensive) Cleanup Solutions Soil Salinization

Soil Conservation  Conventional-tillage  Conservation tillage  Terracing  Windbreaks  Land Classification  Contour farming  Strip and alley cropping

Strip Plowing

(a) Terracing

Strip Plowing

Terracing in Bali

Terracing in Nepal

Shelter Belts

Approximate Reduction of Wind Velocity by a Single-Row Shelterbelt

Terrace and Contour Plowing in Iowa

(b) Contour planting and strip cropping

(c) Alley cropping

(d) Windbreaks

Soil Restoration  Organic fertilizer  Commercial inorganic fertilizer  Animal manure  Green manure  Compost  Crop rotation

World Food Production  Now leveling off  Shortages in developing countries

2,000 1,500 1, Grain production (millions of tons) Total World Grain Production Year

Per capita grain production (kilograms per person) World Grain Production per Capita 200 Year

Nutrition Issues  Undernutrition  Malnutrition  Overnutrition

Calories per day per person 3,700 3,500 3,300 3,100 2,900 2,700 2,500 2,300 2, Year Developed countries World Developing countries

Environmental Effects of Food Production  Biodiversity loss  Soil degradation  Air pollution  Water shortages and erosion  Human health

Biodiversity Loss Loss and degradation of habitat from clearing grasslands and forests and draining wetland Fish kills from pesticide runoff Killing of wild predators to protect livestock Loss of genetic diversity from replacing thousands of wild crop strains with a few monoculture strains Soil Erosion Loss of fertility Salinization Waterlogging Desertification

Air Pollution Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil Fuel issue Other air pollutants from fossil fuel use Pollution from pesticide sprays Water Water waste Aquifer depletion Increased runoff and flooding from land cleared to grow crops Sediment pollution from erosion Fish kills from pesticide runoff Surface and groundwater pollution from pesticides and fertilizers Over fertilization of lakes and slow-moving rivers from runoff of nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers, livestock wastes, and food processing wastes

Human Health Nitrates in drinking water Pesticide residues in drinking water, food, and air Contamination of drinking and swimming water with disease organisms from livestock wastes Bacterial contamination of meat

Increasing World Crop Production  Crossbreeding and artificial selection  Genetic engineering (gene splicing)  Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)  Continued Green Revolution techniques  Introducing new foods  Working more land

Producing More Meat  Feedlots  Rangelands  Improved rangeland management  Efficiency  Environmental consequences Kilograms of grain needed per kilogram of body weight Beef cattle 7 7 Pigs 4 4 Chicken 2.2 Fish (catfish or carp) Fish (catfish or carp) 2 2

Catching and Raising More Fish  Fisheries  Fishing methods  Overfishing  Commercial extinction  Aquiculture  Fish farming and ranching

Spotter airplane Fish farming in cage Trawler fishing Purse-seine fishing sonar trawl flap trawl lines trawl bag Long line fishing lines with hooks Drift-net fishing fish caught by gills floatbuoy fish school Fishing Methods

Demersal (mostly bottom dwelling) Hake Haddock Cod Pelagic (surface dwelling) CrustaceansMollusks SardineAnchovy Herring Mackerel Tuna Krill Shrimp Lobster Crab OysterClam Octopus Squid FishShellfish

Catch (millions of metric tons) Year Total World Fish Catch

Per capita catch (kilograms per person) Year World Fish Catch Per Person

Year Harvest (thousands of metric tons) Abundance (kilograms/tow) Abundance Harvest 10

Highly efficient High yield in small volume of water Increased yields through cross- breeding and genetic engineering Can reduce over- harvesting of conventional fisheries Little use of fuel Profit not tied to price of oil High profits Advantages Large inputs of land, feed, And water needed Produces large and concentrated outputs of waste Destroys mangrove forests Increased grain production needed to feed some species Fish can be killed by pesticide runoff from nearby cropland Dense populations vulnerable to disease Tanks too contaminated to use after about 5 years Disadvantages Trade-Offs Aquaculture

Reduce use of fishmeal as a feed to reduce depletion of other fish Improve pollution management of aquaculture wastes Reduce escape of aquaculture species into the wild Restrict location of fish farms to reduce loss of mangrove forests and other threatened areas Farm some aquaculture species (such as salmon and cobia) in deeply submerged cages to protect them from wave action and predators and allow dilution of wastes into the ocean Set up a system for certifying sustainable forms of aquaculture Solutions More Sustainable Aquaculture

Government Agricultural Policy  Artificially low prices  Subsidies  Elimination of price controls  Food aid

Sustainable Agriculture  Low-input agriculture  Organic farming  Profitable  Increasing funding for research in sustainable techniques

High-yield polyculture Organic fertilizers Biological pest control Integrated pest management Irrigation efficiency Perennial crops Crop rotation Use of more water- efficient crops Soil conservation Subsidies for more sustainable farming and fishing Increase Soil erosion Soil salinization Aquifer depletion Overgrazing Overfishing Loss of biodiversity Loss of prime cropland Food waste Subsidies for unsustainable farming and fishing Population growth Poverty Decrease Solutions Sustainable Agriculture

Waste less food Reduce or eliminate meat consumption Feed pets balanced grain foods instead of meat Use organic farming to grow some of your food Buy organic food Compost your food wastes What Can You Do? Sustainable Agriculture