1. Food and Agriculture

2. MAJOR FOOD SOURCES Chronic hunger/malnutrition vs. Famine
Our Food Systems:
1) Crop lands 2) Range-land & 3) oceanic fisheries
Three crops deliver majority of world’s nutrients:
Corn, Wheat, & Rice = 60% of human caloric intake
Potatoes, barley, oats and rye are staples in cool, moist climates.
Cassava, sweet potatoes, and other roots and tubers are staples in warm wet climates.

3. Vitamin A Deficiency

4. Iodine Deficiency

5. Iron Deficiency

6. USA, AUSTRAILIA, CANADA, NEW ZEALAND largest exporters of grain.
Crops
WHAT ARE WE EATING??
~ 30,000 identified species of plants that are edible
3,000 tried as crops, 150 species cultivated
14 crops species provide most of the world’s food!
USA, AUSTRAILIA, CANADA, NEW ZEALAND largest exporters of grain.
2/3 of the world survives on grains because they cannot afford to purchase meat!

8. INDUSTRIALIZED (High Input) TRADITIONAL (Low-Input)-
G R I C U L T U R A L P R A C T I C E S
INDUSTRIALIZED (High Input)
Industrial Agriculture– large amounts of fossil fuels (energy), water, fertilizers, & pesticides.
Mostly developed nations; 80% of food, 25% of all crop land
Plantation Agriculture (form of Industrialized) – large monoculture plantations who sell crops to developed countries.
Practiced in tropical developing nations; cash crops
TRADITIONAL (Low-Input)-
Traditional Subsistence (low input)– uses human labor and draft animals to produce food for family survival. Practices shifting cultivation & nomadic herding.
44% of worlds people (developing); often tropical areas
Traditional Intensive – increase input of energy to produce food to sustain family and produce a modest income.
small inputs of fertilizers, fossil fuels, & irrigation

9. Industrialized
Traditional

10. Money vs. Sustenance? CASH CROPS
Grown sold or traded in large scale markets
Many provide non-food products
Rubber
Tea
Coffee
Tobacco
Bananas
SUBSISTENCE
Used directly by the farmer or sold locally where the food is used in the community
NO ECONOMIC PRESSURE

11. Green Revolution Process: PROS:
1st Green Revolution – began in 1950’s mostly developed countries
2nd Green Revolution – end of the 60’s mostly developing countries
PROS:
1) Farming more land – GETTING HIGHER YIELDS!
Process:
Monocultures
Selectively bred or genetically engineered to get a
Large inputs of fertilizers, pesticides, & water
High input agriculture uses 8% of world’s oil output!!

12. Genetic Engineering Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s)
Farmers use methods of crossbreeding through artificial selection to develop genetically improved crops & livestock
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s)
Contain DNA possessing genes borrowed from unrelated species.
Can produce crops with pest-resistance and wider tolerance levels.
Opponents fear traits could spread to wild varieties, and increased expense would largely hurt smaller farmers.
70% of all processed foods in NA contain transgenic products.

13. Benefits & Costs of Genetically Modified Foods
There is a growing controversy over the increasing use of genetically altered crops. Is it “Frankenfood”??
BENEFITS
COSTS
Need less fertilizers & water
Introducing new allergens
Resistant to insects and disease
Pesticide resistant genes passed to weed varieties
Need less pesticides
Causing rapid evolution of pests
Grow faster (higher yields)
Freeze resistant
Raising food production prices
Reduce food allergens
Withstand drought
Irreversible genetic & ecological impacts

14. FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES
Food production in US is now large scale agribusiness. 2% US Pop are farmers; 9% of US Pop involved in Agriculture Business
US supplies 17% of the world’s grain with only 0.3% of the world’s farm labor force
Most grain in the US is used to feed livestock
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Industrial Practice
Traditional Practice
10 units of nonrenewable fossil fuels (coal, oil, nat.gas) are needed to put 1 unit of food energy on the table
1 unit of human labor input supply at least 1 unit of food energy on the table (up to 10 units)

15. Interplanting Techniques for Traditional Agriculture
Traditional farmers in developing countries produce 25% of the world’s food
Polyvarietal Cultivation – plot is planted with several varieties of the same crop.
Intercropping – two or more different crops are grown at the same time on a plot (ex. Grains that need excess nitrogen grown with legumes that put nitrogen back into the soil system)
Polyculture – complex form of intercropping where many different plants mature at various times during the year.
Agro-forestry (alley cropping) – crops and trees are planted together (serve as erosion protection/ wind breaks)
More….Crop Rotation Fallow Fields Terrancing/Countour

16. Polyvarietal
Intercropping
Polyculture
Agro-Forestry

17. BENEFITS OF POLYCULTURE
The various plants will use different amounts of nutrients
1) Less need for fertilizers
The soil is covered with crops year round (vegetation decreases erosion)
2) Protection from erosion
Weeds cannot compete with the variety of plants; provides habitat for natural predators of pests
3) Reduces pesticide use
The variety of plants will use various amounts of water and root will grow to different depths
4) Less need for irrigation
Plant diversity can survive bad weather; and crop failure
5) Economic stability

18. SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
Soil Conservation
Managing Topography
Contour Plowing - Plowing across slope to slow flow of water.
Strip Farming - Planting different crops in alternating strips along land contours.
Terracing - Shaping land to create level shelves of earth to hold water and soil.

19. Soil Conservation Providing Ground Cover
Annual row crops cause highest rates of erosion because they leave soil bare for much of the year.
Leave crop residue after harvest.
Plant cover crops after harvest.

20. Soil Conservation Reduced Tillage Minimum Tillage - Chisel plow
Conservation Tillage - Coulter (Disc)
No-Till - Drilling
Often farmers using conservation tillage must depend relatively heavily on pesticides.
Traditional tillage helped control weeds and pests.

21. NUTRITION AND FOOD SUPPLIES
billion people - average daily diet was less than 2,000 calories/person.
billion people - world food supply can provide more than 2,500 calories/person.

22. Chronic Hunger - Undernutrition
About 1 in 6 people in the developing world are considered chronically hungry.
People consume less calories then are needed for healthy metabolitic functions
200 million children impacted each day
Can lead to permanently stunted growth, mental retardation, and other developmental disorders.
Are more susceptible to infectious disease (which kills one and four children in developing countries)
Measles, diarrhea

23. Risk of Inadequate Nutrition

24. MALNUTRITION Two most common nutritional deficiencies:
People who consistently live on grains and lack the protein and other key nutrients.
Two most common nutritional deficiencies:
Marasmus – (Greek meaning to waste away) occurs when the diet is low in both calories and protein
Most victims are children who have mal-nurished mothers who are breast feeding or who do not get enough food after they are weaned.
Kwashiorkor – (W. African dialect meaning displaced child) is a severe protein deficiency occurring in infants and children ages 1-3, whose mothers give birth again and are unable to breast feed both.

25. OVER NUTRITION??
Leading cause of preventable deaths after smoking. Causes heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes.

26. Meat and Milk Meat and Milk distribution highly inequitable.
More developed countries make up 20% of world population, but consume 80% of meat and milk production.
60% of production occurs in lesser developed countries.
90% of grain grown in NA is used to feed livestock.

27. Seafood Seafood is an important protein source.
Since 1989, 13/17 major fisheries have declined or become commercially in-viable.
Between , number and average vessel size of world fishing fleet doubled.
Now have twice the capacity needed to extract total annual sustainable harvest.
Catching $70 billion cost $124 billion.
1/4 animals considered by-catch.
(sea turtles, sharks, dolphins)

28. COMMERCIAL FISHING PRACTICES

29. SALMON FARMING PRACTICES