1. Agriculture: Feast and Famine- Past, Present, and Future
Chapter 10
Agriculture:
Feast and Famine-
Past, Present, and Future

2. 10,900,000 Malnourished Today 925,000,000 Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks
Catastrophic Events
Number of Deaths
Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks
2,981
Hiroshima & Nagasaki
199,000
U.S. Civil War
620,000
Rwandan Genocide (Hutu/Tutsi)
800,000-1,000,000
Irish Potato Famine
1,000,000
Korean War
1,500,000
Vietnam War
2,060,000
Jewish Holocaust (only Jewish deaths)
6,000,000
Hunger-Related Child Mortality (annual)
10,900,000
Atlantic Slave Trade
16,000,000
World War I
37,000,000
World War II
62,000,000
Black Death (Bubonic Plague)
200,000,000
Malnourished Today
925,000,000

3. Global Hunger Exists

4. Global croplands cover
4 billion acres

5. Global pasture cover
7.4 billion acres

6. Croplands and pasture lands

7. Agriculture is life…
…but also transformative
There is nothing that we do that transforms the world more than agriculture
And there is nothing that we do that is more crucial to our survival!

8. More than 40% of earth’s land has been already cleared for agriculture

9. Land use
Agriculture uses 60 times more land than urban and suburban areas combined.

10. Irrigation is the biggest use of water on the planet.
Water use
Irrigation is the biggest use of water on the planet.
27 billion acres of land have one inch of water on crops every day

11. % of Population Without Reasonable Access to Safe Drinking Water

12. More than five million people, most of them children, die every year from illnesses caused by drinking poor quality water.
Over 1.4 billion people currently live in river basins where the use of water exceeds minimum recharge levels, leading to the desiccation of rivers and depletion of groundwater.
By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.

13. Fertilizer use
Potassium
Nitrogen
Iron
Magnesium

14. Desertification Hazard
Fig : The most severe desertification hazards are in northern Africa, central Australia, and the southwestern parts of Africa, Asia, North America, and South America.

15. The Sahel
Fig : The Sahel, which is south of the Sahara, frequently faces drought and food shortages, as does the Horn of Africa.

16. World Climate Regions
Fig. 10-5b: Simplified map of the main world climate regions (see also Fig. 2.2).

17. Climate change Agriculture is the biggest contributor
It generates 30% of greenhouse gas emissions
More than the emissions from all the electricity and industry
More than emission from all the world’s planes, trains and cars

18. How do we feed the planet without destroying it?
Population growth +
Meat consumption +
Dairy consumption +
Energy costs +
Bio-energy production =
_____________________________
STRESS on natural resources
How do we feed the planet without destroying it?

19. 2x 3x

20. Can get to the next century… …without cultivating more land?

21. Cropland Distribution

22. The future
Farming more land may sound logical but should not be the answer:
Higher inputs (water, fertilizers)
More fragile ecosystems
Bigger carbon footprint …

23. We should try to farm more efficiently the land we already use.
The future
Food security needs + environmental security needs
Trade off between growing food and have a healthy environment.
We should try to farm more efficiently the land we already use.

24. What are the answers? Local food Organic farming
Incentives for farmers
More effective irrigation systems
Better soil management practices
More water efficient plant varieties
Water recycling
Precision agriculture
(GMOs)
Smarter diets