Current Agricultural Practices
One-Pager Score Card
Points
Title and symbolic border represents theme of
content.
Two quotes that represent the content.
/2
Three graphics tied to the quotes and/or the
information as a whole.
Five key vocabulary words
/6
Two questions and answers
/2
Main Idea
/3
Total
/20
/2
/5
Green Revolution
Subsidies
Mechanization
Irrigation
Fertilizers
Monocropping
Pesticides
Genetic Revolution
Feeding the World
Subsidies
Green Revolution
A Closer look at Pesticides
Genetic Revolution
Sustainable practices
Subsidies
• Why do we need food?
• Energy
• The Irony: we use energy to make food =
energy subsidy. energy input/calorie food
• Good: lots of food, Bad: deficits of energy
• Why so many?
• Fossil fuels, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation,
and travel to you.
Green revolution
• Norman Borlaug (1914-2009)
11 post-it notes
1.Mechanization
2. Irrigation
3. Monocropping
4. CAFO’s
5. Inorganic
Fertilizers
6. Organic Fertilizers
Monocropping
• Single species or variety grown.
Pros
• Lots of food
• Cheaper food
• Able to use big
machines
• Easier to apply
fertilizer and
pesticides
Cons
• Soil erosion (nothing
to hold the soil down:
DUST BOWL)= loss of
top soil =
desertification
• Vulnerable to pests
• Using mechanization ,
fertilizers etc..
What about our Proteins?
High-Density Animal Farming: CAFO’s (Concentrated
animal feeding operations)
Advantages
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More product
Easier to produce
Cheaper
More money
Disadvantages
• Concentrations of pollution
problems such as foul smells from
fed lots
• Contaminations to drinking water
by nitrates in animal wastes (also
effects vegetables)
• Increase in the spread of
diseases.
• Increase pressure on the world’s
grain supply to feed the animals
• Increase inputs of energy from
fossil fuels
Mechanization
• Use of machines: irrigation, tractors, fertilizers
etc.
Pros
• Lots of food
• Cheaper food (large upfront cost)
Cons
• Necessitates 1 crop agriculture
• Only benefits larger farmers
• Fossil fuels (energy subsidies)
Synthetic (aka inorganic) Fertilizers
Pros
•
•
•
•
Lots of food
Easy application
Targeted nutrients
Easily absorbed
Cons
• Uses a lot of fossil
fuels in production
• More likely to be
carried away by runoff
• Does not add organic
material to the soil
that is lost during
production and
harvesting.
Organic Fertilizers
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Pros
Not as easily taken
away by runoff
Adds to the value of
the soil
No fossil fuels used in
production
Not synthetic/natural
processes occur
Cons
• Takes longer to be
adsorbed by plants
• Not as easy to apply
• Not as easy to target
specific nutrient
needs
• Idea of poop
Irrigation
Pros
Cons
• Lots of food
• Depletes ground
• Cheaper food (large
water
upfront cost)
• Promotes salt water
• Able to farm land that intrusion
was previously
• Soil degradation by
unusable.
water logging and
salinization
• Fossil fuels (energy
subsidies)
Types of Irrigation
4. Furrow (65% efficent- oldest, easiest,
cheapest)
– 3. Flood: More disruptive but 80% efficent
– 2. Spray irrigation: more expensive- 75-95%
– 1. Drip: over 95% efficent (reduces weed
growth
– 1. Hydroponic: uses 95% less water (water
can be reused) more expensive.
2. Salinization
and
Waterlogging
• Repeated
irrigation can
reduce crop
yields by
causing salt
buildup in the
soil and
waterlogging of
crop plants.
Figure 13-13
Global Outlook: Soil Erosion
• Soil is eroding faster than it is forming on more
than one-third of the world’s cropland.
Figure 13-10
EXTRA CREDIT DUE
Tuesday
ALL IN ONE EMAIL!!! If you want to
insure I get them all.
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Certified organic label
Non-GMO label
Country of origin
Sustainable fishing
BPA Free
Sustainable farming/practices label.
Free-range
You must have one of each before you can duplicate.
(Worth 1 point each on your test)
Pesticides
We will be answering 4 Questions
today…
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What are the types of pesticides?
What are the advantages of pesticides?
What are the disadvantages of pesticides?
What is the ideal pesticide?
Pesticides
• What are the types of pesticides?
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Insecticides
Herbicides
Fungicides
Rodenticides
Broad spectrum (DDT)
Endocrine Inhibitors
Narrow spectrum (selective): Roundup
Persistent
nonpersistent
What are the advantages to
pesticides?
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•
•
•
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Easy to apply
Quick working
In most cases works with a single application
Targeted (in most cases)
Prevents crop damage = greater yield= less
land used for agriculture
Disadvantages?
• Kills unintended organisms (bees)
• Persistent = bioaccumulation (Rachel Carson,
Silent Spring)
• Resistance (just like bacteria and antibiotics)=
pesticide treadmill
• Enters waterways through runoff
• Toxicity (LD50 and ED50) ** See hand out***
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Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipbc-6IvMQI
Banned in 1972 in the US and 2001 worldwide.
Loss of biodiversity (bald eagles, bees, thinned egg shells of birds, reptiles and some
amphibians)
Human Effects: LD50 of 113 mg/kg (in rats) : ~300 ; caffeine (depends on the sex and
age) btw: Nicotine 50 mg/kg
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breast & other cancers (Still arguments about this one)
male infertility
miscarriages & low birth weight
developmental delay
Endocrine disruptors
nervous system & liver damage
What we are still seeing after over 40 years of banning it: Its persistent!!
– Food supplies: USDA found DDT breakdown products in 60% of heavy cream samples, 42% of kale
greens, 28% of carrots and lower percentages of many other foods.
– Body burden: DDT breakdown products were found in the blood of 99% of the people tested by
CDC.
– Health impacts: Girls exposed to DDT before puberty are 5 times more likely to develop breast
cancer in middle age, according to the President’s Cancer Panel.
Ideal Pesticides
• IPM (Integrated pest management)
– In short: Use of pesticides is the last resort,
farmers must carefully monitor crops and
infestations must be caught early.
– Other methods include: crop rotation,
intercropping, agroforestry, use of natural
predators (salt cedar at I20 , lady bugs kill aphids,
scales, and mites, wasps to kill certain kinds of
caterpillars)
GMO’s
•
http://www.google.com/search?q=examples+of+genetically+modified+organisms&safe=active&rlz=1C1WLXB_enU
S559US563&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=nws&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=zjhUta4DcSikQeGrICABQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=667&dpr=1#q=genetically+mod
• How does this work?
• Some examples:
– Golden Rice: added vitamin A producing gene=
reduce blindness
– Pharmaceuticals: grown in plants, animals or
bacteria
– Roundup ready soybeans
– Salmon: grow to maturity in half the time
A. Define GMO.
B. Briefly discuss you opinion on, “Should the
government require labeling of GMO’s?” Give
two reasons to support your answer.
C. Lets take this to the next level. Should the US
follow Europe and ban GMO use and import?
Give two reasons to support your answer.
FOOD LABELS
• http://www.gcbl.org/live/food/healthydiet/what-do-food-labels-really-mean
Who’s to blame?
• Ignorance (us)
• Government Policies
– Farm Bill
• http://www.farmbillfacts.org/rallying-for-action-toward-thenext-farm-bill
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=158
91678
– Subsidies (keeps food prices artificially low)
• http://www.pbs.org/teachers/access-analyze-acteconomy/curriculum/sugar-supply/the-cultivation-ofagricultural-subsidies#instant-expert
More Sustainable Methods
1. Small scale farming
2. Shifting agriculture (Includes slash and burn)
3. Sustainable agriculture: intercropping, crop rotation,
agroforestry, contour plowing/planting
4. No-Till agriculture
5. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
6. Organic Agriculture: use natural systems, keep as
much organic matter in soil as possible, no synthetic
fertilizers and pesticides
7. To reduce fertilizer run-off (used prescribe amounts
and plant legumes and other nitrogen fixing plants)
The other side of the story
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMqYYXs
wono
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsEbvwM
ipJI