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Food and Agriculture. PA Standards 4.2.12.C: Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources 4.4.10.B: Agriculture and Society 3.6.12.A: Technology Education “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937).
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PA Standards 4.2.12.C: Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources 4.4.10.B: Agriculture and Society 3.6.12.A: Technology Education “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937) Analyze factors that influence the availability of natural resources. Assess the influence of agriculture science on farming practices (plowing). Analyze and solve a complex production process problem using biotechnologies (e.g., hydroponics, fish farming, crop propagation). Food and Agriculture
Key Questions • What is food security? • How serious are malnutrition and overnutrition? • How has agricultural technology changed over time? • What is the role of soil erosion in agricultural practices? • What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the green revolution to produce food? • What are the environmental effects of producing food? • What are the advantages and disadvantages of using genetic engineering to produce food?
The Big Three • How many plant species have parts that we can eat? • 30,000 plant species with parts that people can eat. • Name the main plant and animal species that you consume. • 14 plant and 9 terrestrial animal species supply an estimated 90% of the world’s food calories. • Grain crops, what are the “Big Three”? • Wheat, Rice, and Corn (Maize) provide more than half of the calories people consume. • Two-thirds of the world’s people survive on primarily rice, wheat, and corn because they cannot afford meat. • More money means they can afford meat, milk, cheese, and other domesticated livestock products. • Fish and Shellfish • Important source of food for about 1 billion people. • Mostly in Asia and in coastal areas of developing countries. • Globally it supplies only 7% of world’s food.
Background • Three Systems provide most of our food: • Croplands (77% food and 11% land) – Grains • Rangelands and Pastures (16% food and 29% land) • Oceanic Fisheries and Aquaculture (7% food) • Since 1960: • Increased food production. • Technological advances: • Increased use of tractors and farm marchinery and high –tech fishing equipment. • Advances in inorganic chemical fertilizers, irrigation, pesticides, high-yield varieties of wheat, rice, and corn, and raising large numbers of cattle, pigs, chickens, and fish in factory-like conditions. • Approximately 216,000 more people to feed each day. • Projected 8.9 billion people in 2050. • Must grow and distribute more food than has been produced since agriculture began about 10,000 years ago.
Nutrition and Agriculture Project • Define food security. • Discuss the problems of malnutrition and overnutrition. • Explain why we need to increase food production? • Describe advances in agricultural machinery and technology in the United States over time. • 1760-1800, 1800-1840, 1840-1880, 1880-1920, 1920-1960, 1960-2000 • Explain examples of agriculture in other parts of the world: • Shifting Cultivation, Plantation Agriculture, Nomadic Herding, and Intensive Traditional Agriculture. • Discuss the two major harmful effects of soil erosion. • Explain how the following can be important tools for sustainable agriculture: • Terrace, contour, strip crop, cover crops, alley cropping, windbreaks, conservation-tillage farming. • Explain the 1985 Food Security Act (Farm Act). • Explain Desertification, Salinization, and Waterlogging of Soils. • Describe the First Green Revolution between 1950 and 1970 and the Second Green Revolution that has been taking place since 1967. • There is natural capital degradation, or major harmful environmental effects of food production. Describe the role of food production in the following environmental problems: • Biodiversity Loss, Soil, Water, Air Pollution, and Human Health. • Address one issue regarding increasing Livestock Production as it relates to agriculture. • Attempt to limit word use to titles and captions only. Use pictures/diagrams to illustrate the content. You will be expected to present, not read, the PowerPoint.
Review Key Questions • What is food security? • How serious are malnutrition and overnutrition? • How has agricultural technology changed over time? • What is the role of soil erosion in agricultural practices? • What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the green revolution to produce food? • What are the environmental effects of producing food? • What are the advantages and disadvantages of using genetic engineering to produce food?
Lab • Discuss Plant Growing Technology • Compare the following types of growth: • Soil • Plant Tissue Culture • Hydroponics
Article Assignment • Read the Urban Farming Article. • Discuss about urban farming.
Core Case Study: Golden Rice -Grains of Hope or an Illusion? • Golden rice is a new genetically engineered strain of rice containing beta-carotene. • Can inexpensively supply vitamin A to malnourished.
Core Case Study: Golden Rice -Grains of Hope or an Illusion? • Critics contend that there are quicker and cheaper ways to supply vitamin A. • Scientist call for more evidence that the beta-carotene will be converted to vitamin A by the body.
FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION • Global food production has stayed ahead of population growth. However: • One of six people in developing countries cannot grow or buy the food they need. • Others cannot meet their basic energy needs (undernutrition / hunger) or protein and key nutrients (malnutrition).
FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION • The root cause of hunger and malnutrition is poverty. • Food security means that every person in a given area has daily access to enough nutritious food to have an active and healthy life. • Need large amounts of macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats). • Need smaller amounts of micronutrients (vitamins such as A,C, and E).
FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION • One in three people has a deficiency of one or more vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin A, iodine (causes goiter - enlargement of thyroid gland), and iron.
War and the Environment • Starving children collecting ants to eat in famine-stricken Sudan, Africa which has been involved in civil war since 1983.
Solutions: Reducing Childhood Deaths from Hunger and Malnutrition • There are several ways to reduce childhood deaths from nutrition-related causes: • Immunize children. • Encourage breast-feeding. • Prevent dehydration from diarrhea. • Prevent blindness from vitamin A deficiency. • Provide family planning. • Increase education for women.
Overnutrition: Eating Too Much • Overnutrition and lack of exercise can lead to reduced life quality, poor health, and premature death. • A 2005 Boston University study found that about 60% of American adults are overweight and 33% are obese (totaling 93%). • Americans spend $42 billion per year trying to lose weight. • $24 billion per year is needed to eliminate world hunger.
FOOD PRODUCTION • Food production from croplands, rangelands, ocean fisheries, and aquaculture has increased dramatically. • Wheat, rice, and corn provide more than half of the world’s consumed calories. • Fish and shellfish are an important source of food for about 1 billion people mostly in Asia and in coastal areas of developing countries.
Industrial Food Production: High Input Monocultures • About 80% of the world’s food supply is produced by industrialized agriculture. • Uses large amounts of fossil fuel energy, water, commercial fertilizers, and pesticides to produce monocultures. • Greenhouses are increasingly being used. • Plantations are being used in tropics for cash crops such as coffee, sugarcane, bananas.
Industrialized agriculture Plantation agriculture Intensive traditional ag. Shifting cultivation Nomadic herding No agriculture
FOOD PRODUCTION • Satellite images of massive and rapid development of greenhouse food production in Spain from 1974 (left) to 2000 (right).
Industrial Food Production: High Input Monocultures • Livestock production in developed countries is industrialized: • Feedlots are used to fatten up cattle before slaughter. • Most pigs and chickens live in densely populated pens or cages. • Most livestock are fed grain grown on cropland. • Systems use a lot of energy and water and produce huge amounts of animal waste.
Natural Capital Croplands Ecological Services Economic Services • Help maintain water flow and soil infiltration • Food crops • Provide partial erosion protection • Fiber crops • Can build soil organic matter • Crop genetic resources • Store atmospheric carbon • Jobs • Provide wildlife habitat for some species
Case Study: Industrialized Food Production in the United States • The U.S. uses industrialized agriculture to produce about 17% of the world’s grain. • Relies on cheap energy to run machinery, process food, produce commercial fertilizer and pesticides. • About 10 units of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy are needed to put 1 unit of food energy on the table.
Case Study: Industrialized Food Production in the United States • Industrialized agriculture uses about 17% of all commercial energy in the U.S. and food travels an average 2,400 kilometers from farm to plate.
Food production 17% of total U.S. commercial energy use 4% 2% 6% 5% Crops Livestock Food processing Food distribution and preparation
Traditional Agriculture: Low Input Polyculture • Many farmers in developing countries use low-input agriculture to grow a variety of crops on each plot of land (interplanting) through: • Polyvarietal cultivation: planting several genetic varieties. • Intercropping: two or more different crops grown at the same time in a plot. • Agroforestry: crops and trees are grown together. • Polyculture: different plants are planted together.
Traditional Agriculture: Low Input Polyculture • Research has shown that, on average, low input polyculture produces higher yields than high-input monoculture.
SOLUTIONS: MOVING TOWARD GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY • People in urban areas could save money by growing more of their food. • Urban gardens provide about 15% of the world’s food supply. • Up to 90% of the world’s food is wasted.
Government Policies and Food Production • Governments use three main approaches to influence food production: • Control prices to keep prices artificially low. • Provide subsidies to keep farmers in business. • Let the marketplace decide rather that implementing price controls.
Solutions: Steps Toward More Sustainable Food Production • We can increase food security by slowing populations growth, sharply reducing poverty, and slowing environmental degradation of the world’s soils and croplands.