Please get out objectives #1-3 for a stamp and make improvements using a different colored pen. Please read the board!

“The way we eat has changed more in the past 50 years than in the past 10,000 years.”

Monoculture

Remember the lesson of the Inca!

Monoculture

Polyculture

Polyculture

Why corn?

Corn, wheat, soy and rice…60% of human food supply What 3 crops provide most of the world’s food?

Subsidy or Subsidize assistance paid to a business or economic sector Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors to prevent the decline of that industry Crops subsidized in the U.S.: Corn, rice, wheat, milk, soybeans, sugar, tobacco, cotton

Corn Corn Cheap corn = lots of corn! Broken down in lab into lots of chemicals used in food. Subsidies make the unhealthy food cheap.

Reason #3 to protect biodiversity: Agricultural Of 80,000 known edible plants on the planet, we depend on 20 species to provide 90% of global food supply. Corn, rice, soy and wheat are 60% alone!

Remember the lesson of the Inca! Subsidies encourage monoculture. What are the consequences?

Pests and diseases generally are plant- specific. Examples – Boll weevil attacks cotton plants Rust fungus attacks corn Yellow rust fungus attacks wheat

How many of these contribute to CCD? Monoculture: Increased reliance on pesticides Increased reliance on inorganic fertilizer Loss of diversity: ◦Crop varieties ◦Loss of edge habitat with flowering plants

Conventional agriculture relies heavily on petroleum

Weighing in at 1,250 pounds (567 kilograms), Marina Wilson's champion steer Grandview Rebel is ready for auction at a county fair in Maryland. Raising this steer has taken an agricultural investment equal to 283 gallons (1,071 liters) of oil, represented here by the red drums. That includes everything from fertilizers on cornfields to the diesel that runs machinery on the farm. Overall, it takes three- quarters of a gallon of oil to produce a pound of beef

What went into that pea? Garden pea Canned pea

Fossil Fuels in food production Farm equipment: tractor, harvester Irrigation pump – electricity (coal, natural gas) Pesticides – derived from oil fertilizer – derived from natural gas Dry grain for shipping - electricity Transport – field to factory to distribution point to store to home

Deep Economy – Bill McKibben “Between 1910 and 1983, US corn yields grew 346%. Energy consumption for agriculture increased 810%.”

“The average bite of American food has traveled more than 1,500 miles before it reaches your lips, changing hands an average of six times along the way.”

Check for understanding Why is so much corn grown in the US? What three crops account for 60% of our food supply? What are the dangers of monoculture? Why do monocultures require so much pesticide? How is our industrial food system dependent on fossil fuels?