Food and Agriculture

Food and Agriculture Chapter 9 Tara Condren & Brian Corset (woops! Briana Corso)

Food & Nutrition • Increase in food supplies corresponding to increase in human numbers • Past 40 years • Population growth : 1.7% • World Food Production: 2.2%

Not Enough FOOD?! • 1960: 60% of residents in developing countries were considered chronically undernourished • Not even 2,200 kcal per day (average)! • If today’s food supply was equitably distributed  2,800 kcal per person per day • United States: too much food?! • Farmers PAID $$$$$ to NOT grow crops!

HUNGER • 852 million people – NOT ENOUGH FOOD • 95% chronically undernourished- developing countries • Transition Countries • Bad weather • Poor management • Social crises • Even in rich countries! FALLING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

Poverty • #1 threat to food security (ability to obtain food daily) • Poorest Countries: hunger affects almost EVERYONE • Other countries: specific communities/families struggle . • How the family works: • Males – largest share & most nutritious food • Women & children- poorest diet (they need it the most!) • 6 million children under 5 die every year from hunger & malnutrition

The Future • Robert Fogel (Nobel Prize-winning economist): • Reducing hunger  $120 billion in economic growth • 700 million people’s lives would improve • 2003 UN World Food Summit • Reducing number of chronically undernourished from 850 million 400 million by 2015 • WE ARE OFF TRACK! • 47 countries- number of chronically underfed people has INCREASED • Need to recognize the role of women! • 50-70% of the farming • LAND, CREDIT, EDUCATION, ACCESS to MARKETS Family nutrition

FAMINES • Large-scale food shortages, massive starvation, social disruption, and economic chaos • Mass migrations of the starving to refugee camps (food & medical aid) • 2005: 60 million people in 36 countries needed emergency food aid • 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami • Politics • Economics • Bad Weather • Insect Outbreaks (ex/ the Locusts) • Natural Disasters Crop failures & food shortages

The RIGHT food! • We need proteins, vitamins, & certain trace minerals • Its not all about the calories! • Malnourishment- nutritional imbalance caused by a lack of specific dietary components or an inability to absorb or utilize essential nutrients

That’s not healthy! • Poor people cannot afford the essentials! • FAO: nearly 3 billion (HALF THE WORLD’S POPULATION suffer from vitamin, mineral, or protein deficiencies • Illness & Death OCCUR! • Reduced mental capacity, developmental abnormalities, & stunted growth

Mommy was right! • Anemia • Most common nutritional problem in the world (2 billion people) • Eat more red meat, eggs, legumes & green veggies! • Iodine Deficiency • Iodine: Synthesis of thyroxin (endocrine hormone that regulates metabolism & brain development • Causes goiter, stunted growth, and reduced mental ability • Iodine added to salt in developed countries

Goiter: swelling of thyroid gland at the base of the neck • OFTEN CAUSED BY IODINE DEFICIENCY

There are Vitamins and Minerals in every bite! • NOT in starchy foods!!!! • Maize (corn), polished rice, and manioc (tapioca)- much of the poor people’s diet • 100-140 million children affected by vitamin A deficiencies • 350,000 go blind every year • Folic acid (yes in those dark, green veggies) are VITAL for early fetal development • Neurological problems • Microencephaly (small head) • Anencephaly (lacking a brain)

Protein Protein Protein! • Essential to growth & development • Kwashiorkor- a young child is displaced– and deprived of nutritious breast milk– when a new baby is born • Young children eat cheap starchy food- lack protein • Reddish-orange hair, puffy, discolored skin, bloated belly • Marasmus • Diet low in calories & protein • Thin, shriveled: like a tiny, old, starving person

Let’s talk about obesity! • Rich Countries: 1/3 more calories than needed & too little exercise • 62% of all adult Americans are overweight • 1/3 of adults are obese (seriously overweight: body mass greater than 30 kg/m2) • Raises your risk of hypertension, diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, respiratory problems, and cancers • 300,000 die per year in the USA from obesity-related illnesses • 1st time in history- MORE overweight people THAN underweight!

Trans Fat is not recommended • People will have proper nutrition if they combine this food pyramid with regular, moderate exercise

The cream of the crop! • Wheat, rice, & corn (maize) • 60% of calories consumed by humans come from wheat & rice • Potatoes, barley, oats, & rye – staples in mountainous regions & high latitudes • Fruits, Vegetables, and Vegetable Oils • High levels of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and complex carbohydrates

Beef & Milk • Protein-rich foods! (Meat & Dairy) • Rise in meat consumption in developing countries • Increased soybean production in Brazil: fueled the growth in meat consumption • North American livestock: • Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs): diet rich in grain, oil & protein- fattens animals quickly & produces meat preferred by many consumers • 680 million metric tons of cereals- livestock feed each year

Beef & Milk...continued... • Social & Environmental concerns • Local air & water pollution • 500 million metric tons of manure annually • Contaminates groundwater supplies • Respiratory Illnesses • Animal Wastes (ex/hog farms) stored in lagoons • If they leak/rupture poison local surface water • Deoxygenates the water, kills millions of fish, can create a “dead zone” • 25 million pounds of antibiotics fed to animals in US

Bubba Gump • 140 million metric tons of seafood eaten every year • ¾ of world’s edible ocean fish, crustaceans, & mollusks species- IN DECLINE! • 4 million boats harvesting wild fish exceed sales by $50 billion • Aquaculture (growing aquatic species in net pens or tanks) • ¼ of the world’s seafood • Polyculture systems help reduce aquaculture problems • Ex/ China: ponds & rice paddies to raise fish

FARM POLICY • Rich Countries: pay about $350 billion to their farmers • U.S. Farm Bill: $180 billion in payments over the next ten years for American farmers • Corn, wheat, cotton, rice & soybeans • Milk, sugar, and peanuts • Subsidies: maintain “family farms” • 10% of all farms received 70% of all support • Agricultural Subsidies • Encourage surpluses • American farmers : sell products 20% below actual cost of production • World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled American farm subsidies illegal!

SURPRISE! Case Study Time! • A Soybean Revolution • South America: The Cerrado (savanna BoliviaParaguay) • Inexpensive land, new crop varieties, government policies • Red-iron rich soils: ACIDIC & poor in nutrients • Humid climate  insects & plant diseases; OH MY! • Lime & Phosphorus- 4x the previous yield of soybeans, maize, cotton & others • 60 million acres planted with soy! • Brazil: Producing soy for less than half the cost in the U.S. • China: consuming more soy (1/3 of total global soy shipments) • Forest Destruction Crisis • 70% of all arable land is owned by less than 3% of the population • 74 year old- Sister Dorothy Sang shot by gunmen hired by rancher! • Resented her advocacy for native people, workers, and environmental protection

Soil: A renewable source • Has a terrible reputation! • SOIL- complex mixture of weathered mineral materials from rocks, partially decomposed organic molecules, and a host of living organisms • Over 15,000 different types of soils in the U.S. • Parent material, time, topography, climate & organisms on soil formation

It’s a mixture! • Soil: • Half mineral; the rest: plant & animal residue, air, water & living organism • Particle size affects the soil! • Ex/ heavy VS light soil • Heavy: high clay content • Light: mostly sand or silt • Sandy loam: best cultivating soil! • Majority of organic material in soil: • Humus: sticky, brow, insoluble residue from partially decomposed bodies of dead plants & animals • Develops the structure of soil

Living Organisms’ Importance • Create structure, fertility, & tilth! • Soil organism: close to surface • Thousands of species & billions of individual organisms • 1 gram of soil: hundreds of millions of microscopic cells • What smells so good?! • Actinomycetes- bacteria that grow in fungus like strands & give us the antibiotics streptomycin & tetracyclines • Micorrhizal Symbiosis • Roots & fungi

Crazy Animals! Animals be wildin! Mind the Worms!

Soils are Layered • Most soils are stratified into horizontal layers called soil horizons • They reveal much about the history and usefulness of the soil • Soil profile • The thickness, color, texture, and composition of each horizon are used to classify the soil • The soil surface is covered with a layer of leaf litter, crop residues, or other decomposed organic material • This is known as the O horizon • Topsoil • Below the O horizon • Composed of mineral particles mixed with organic material • Regolith • It is beneath the subsoil • Made of weathered rock fragments with very little organic material

Soils are classified according to their structure and composition: In the United States, soils are classified into 12 soil orders: • Mollisols and alfisols • Spodosols • Oxisols and ultisols • Aridosols • Andisols • Vertisols • Histosols • Entisols and inceptisols • Gelisols

WAYS WE USE AND ABUSE SOIL • Only about 12.5% of the earth’s land area is currently in agricultural production • Parts of the world lack suitable soil, topography, water, or climate to sustain our levels of productivity • The cropland available for agriculture is shrinking • 1970-global average of 0.38 ha per person • 2002-0.21 ha per person • 2030-0.16 ha per person • Asia-30 years from now-0.09 ha per person • The largest increases in cropland over the last 30 years occurred in South America and Oceania where forests and grazing lands are rapidly being converted to farms

Land degradation reduces agricultural potential • The International Soil Reference and Information Centre in the Netherlands estimates that every year 3 million ha of cropland are ruined by erosion, 4 million ha are turned into deserts, and 8 million ha are converted to nonagricultural uses such as homes and highways • We generally consider the land degraded when the soil is impoverished or eroded, water runs off or is contaminated more than is normal, vegetation is diminished, biomass production is decreased, or wildlife diversity diminishes • Water and wind erosion provide the motive force for the vast majority of all soil degradation, worldwide

Soil erosion is widespread • Erosion is an important natural process, resulting in the redistribution of the products of geologic weathering, and is part of both soil formation and soil loss • Erosion is a disaster only when it occurs in the wrong place at the wrong time • The total annual soil loss from croplands is thought to be 25 billion metric tons • About twice that much soil is lost from rangelands, forests, and urban construction sites each year

Wind and water are the main agents that move soil • A thin layer taken off the land surface is called sheet erosion • Rill erosion-the process when little rivulets of running water gather together and cut small channels in the soil • Most soil loss on agricultural land is sheet or rill erosion • Summer dust storms in the Sahara Desert of North Africa carry about 1 billion tons of soil in massive airborne dust plumes over the Atlantic and Mediterranean every year • Some of the highest erosion rates in the world occur in the United States and Canada • Intensive farming practices are largely responsible for this situation • Row crops, such as corn and soybean, leave soil exposed for much of the growing season • Continuous monoculture cropping can increase soil loss tenfold over other farming patterns • Soil study in Iowa showed that a three-year rotation of corn, wheat, and clover lost an average of only 6 metric tons per hectare

Deserts are spreading around the world • According to the United Nations, about one-third of the earth’s surface and the livelihoods of at least one billion people are threatened by desertification • Contributes to food insecurity, famine, and poverty • Rangelands and pastures, which generally are too dry for cultivation, are highly susceptible to desertification • 80% of the world’s grasslands are suffering from overgrazing and soil degradation, and three-quarters of that area has undergone some degree of desertification • China is trying to fight the spread of deserts with an ambitious ecological restoration program • Since 1985, more than 40 billion trees have been planted over an area the size of Germany

OTHER AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES All plants need water to grow • Agriculture accounts for the largest single share of global water use • About two-thirds of all fresh water withdrawn from rivers, lakes, and groundwater supplies is used for irrigation • Farmers often tend to over-irrigate because water prices are relatively low and because they lack the technology to meter water and distribute just the amount needed • In the United States and Canada, many farmers are adopting water-saving technologies such as drip irrigation or downward-facing sprinklers • Excessive use not only wastes water; it often results in water-logging • Waterlogged soil is saturated with water, and plant roots die from lack of oxygen • Salinization occurs particularly when soils in dry climates are irrigated with saline water

Plants need fertilizer • In addition to water, sunshine, and carbon dioxide, plants need small amounts of inorganic nutrients for growth • The major elements required by most plants are nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur • Farmers may over fertilize because they are unaware of the specific nutrient content of their soils or the needs of their crops • What are some alternative ways to fertilize crops? • Manure and green manure (crops grown specifically to add nutrients to the soil) are important natural sources of soil nutrients • Interplanting or rotating beans or some other leguminous crop with such crops as corn and wheat are traditional ways of increasing nitrogen availability

Farming consumes energy • Farming as it is generally practiced in the industrialized countries is highly energy-intensive • Fossil fuels supply almost all of this energy • After crops leave the farm, additional energy is used in food processing, distribution, storage, and cooking • It has been estimated that the average food item in the American diet travels 2,000 km between the farm that grew it and the person who consumes it • Altogether the food system in the United States consumes about 16% of the total energy we use • Farmers could assist in moving to a renewable energy future by growing energy crops that can be converted into biofuels • Encouraged construction of corn- or soy-based ethanol factories • Mixing ethanol with gasoline helps reduce air pollution

NEW CROPS AND GENETIC ENGINEERING • Many new or unconventional varieties might be valuable human food supplies, especially in areas where conventional crops are limited by climate, soil, pests, or other problems • Winged bean • A perennial plant that grows in hot climates • Edible, resistant to diseases, and enriches the soil • Tricale • A hybrid between wheat and rye that grows in light, sandy, infertile soil

The “green revolution” produced dramatic increases in crop yields • A century ago, when all corn in the United States was open-pollinated, average yields were about 25 bushels per acre • In 1999, average yields from hybrid maize were around 130 bushels per acre • Most of this gain was accomplished by conventional plant breeding • Geneticists laboriously hand-pollinating plants, moving selected genes from one variety to another • Starting about 50 years ago, agricultural research stations began to breed tropical wheat and rice varieties that would provide food for growing populations in developing countries • It is one of the main reasons that world food supplies have more than kept pace with the growing human population over the past few decades • Poor farmers who can’t afford the expensive seed, fertilizer, and water required to become part of this movement, usually are left out of the green revolution • May be driven out of farming altogether

Genetic engineering uses molecular techniques to produce new crop varieties • Genetic engineering • Involves removing genetic material from one organism and splicing it into the chromosomes of another • Has the potential to greatly increase both the quantity and quality of our food supply • It is now possible to build entirely new genes, and even new organisms • GMOs (genetically modified organisms • Research is now underway to improve yields and create crops that resist drought, frost, or diseases

Genetic Engineering Continued • Other strains are being developed to tolerate salty, waterlogged, or low-nutrient soils • All of these could be important for reducing hunger in developing countries • Plants that produce their own pesticides might reduce the need for toxic chemicals • Attempts to remove specific toxins or allergens from crops also could make our food safer • Crops such as bananas and potatoes have been altered to contain oral vaccines that can be grown in developing countries where refrigeration and sterile needles are unavailable • It may soon be possible to create animals with human cell-recognition factors that could serve as organ donors • Opponents-could create a host of problems, some of which we can’t even imagine • GMO’s might escape and become pests or they might interbreed with wild relatives • This technology may be available only to the richest countries or the wealthiest corporations, making family farms uncompetitive and driving developing countries even further into poverty • About 82% of all soybeans, 71% of the cotton, and one-quarter of all corn grown in the United States are GMOs

Most GMOs have been engineered for pest resistance or weed control • Biotechnologists recently have created plants with genes for endogenous insecticides • Allows farmers to reduce insecticide spraying • Arizona cotton farmers report reducing their use of chemical insecticides by 75%

Is genetic engineering safe? • In 2002, while millions of its people faced famine, Zambia’s government refused to accept thousands of tons of genetically modified corn from the United States, claiming that it might be unsafe for human consumption • Most European nations have bans on genetically engineered crops • The first genetically modified animal designed to be eaten by humans is an Atlantic salmon containing extra growth hormone genes from an oceanic pout • Greatest worry: the ecological effects if the fish escape from captivity • People argue that the government should be more careful when it comes to genetically engineered animals

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE • Sustainable agriculture • Regenerative farming, or agroecology, all of which aim to produce food and fiber on a sustainable basis and repair the damage caused by destructive practices

Soil conservation is essential • Soil is a renewable resource that can be replenished and renewed indefinitely • There is evidence that American soil conservation programs are having a positive effect • Water runoff can be reduced by leaving grass strips in waterways and by contour plowing • Plowing across the hill rather than up and down • Strip farming • Planting of different kinds of crops in alternating strips along the land contours • When one crop is harvested, the other is still present to protect the soil and keep water from running straight downhill • Terracing • Involves shaping the land to create level shelves of earth to hold water and soil • This is an expensive procedure, requiring either much hand labor or expensive machinery

Soil Conversion Continued • Providing Ground Cover • Annual row crops such as corn or beans generally cause the highest erosion rates because they leave soil bare for much of the year • Cover crops • Mulch • Reduced Tillage • Finding that less plowing and cultivation often makes for better water management, preserves soil, saves energy, and increases crop yields • There are several major reduced tillage systems • Minimum till involves reducing the number of times a farmer disturbs the soil by plowing, cultivating, etc • Often involves a disc or chisel plow rather than a traditional moldboard plow • No-till planting is accomplished by drilling seeds into the ground directly through mulch and ground cover

Soil Cover and Soil Erosion

Low-input agriculture can be good for farmers and their farms • Some farmers are going back to a more natural, agroecological farming style • Antibiotics are used only to fight diseases • Low-input farms typically don't turn out the quantity of meat or milk that their intensive agriculture neighbors do, but their production costs are lower, and they get higher prices for their crops

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Food and Agriculture