Section 5: Food Production, Nutrition
and Environmental Effects
• How much has food production increased?
• How serious is undernutrition and
malnutrition?
• How serious of a problem is overnutrition?
• What are the environmental impacts of our
food choices?
• Can China’s population be fed?
Food Production
Tripled between 1950 -1985,
since then it has leveled off
• Africa, former Soviet Union
and China seen biggest drops
World produced enough food to
meet basic needs, but still 1 in
6 do not get enough to meet
nutritional needs
Poverty, inequality, war, famine,
corruption
Human Needs
Large amounts of
macronutrients (protein,
carbs, fats)
Small amounts of
micronutrients (A, C, E,
iron, iodine, calcium)
• Chronic under nutrition:
disease increase, stunted
growth etc.
• Malnutrition: can not get
enough protein mainly
eating corn, rice, wheat
• Huge childhood problem
Malnutrition
UN Estimates:
• 5.5 million each year die
prematurely due to effects of
under nutrition.
• Each day 15,100 people --80% of which are children
• In U.S. estimates are 11 million
do not have access to enough
food
World Food Production
 Malnutrition vs. Under nutrition
 Shortages in developing countries
Fig. 14-16 p. 287
Avg.
male
needs
about
2,500 cal
per day
Over nutrition
Food intake exceeds energy
use and causes body fat
• Too many calories not
enough exercise
• Lower life expectancy,
heart disease, lower
productivity and quality of
life
• In developed countries it is
2nd leading preventable
cause of death after
smoking
Environmental Effects of Food
Production
Biodiversity loss
Soil degradation
Air pollution
See Fig. 14-18 p. 290
Water shortages and erosion
Human health
Enviro
impacts of
food
production
Need to
know these
page 290
How it used to be done
Section 6: Increasing Crop
Production
• What is the gene revolution?
• What is genetically modified food?
• Can we continue to increase food supplies? If
so, how?
Increasing World Crop Production
 Crossbreeding and artificial selection
 Genetic engineering (gene splicing)
 Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
 Continued Green Revolution techniques
 Introducing new foods
 Working more land
Cross Breading and Artificial Selection
• Done for
centuries to
produce
“improved” crops
• Bigger corn and
tomatoes
• Slow process
Genetic Engineering
• Slicing the DNA of one
species into another
• Quicker
• More cost efficient
• Allows insertion of almost
any species
• More than 2/3 of foods in
U.S. have GE ingredients
• Resistant to heat, drought,
pests, salty soil, less
fertilizer………
Genetic Engineering
• Example: Citrus trees
normally take 6 years to
produce fruit yield in only 1
• Rice crops that contain
more protein or more iron
or that can be grown with
far less water
• Focus so far more on needs
of developed countries vs.
developing country needs
($$$)
Study these pros
and cons page
292
Frankenfoods or Savior
• Considerable controversy
over GMOs, GMF, GE
Foods
• What are the unintended
consequences?
• Can these new species be
recalled if there are
problems?
• “Massive uncontrolled
experiment?”
• Critics say move slowly
• Require labeling of GMF
Can We Continue to Produce MORE
• Lack of resources such as
water, fertile soil and
environmental factors may
limit our ability to continue
to yield more crops.
• Can we just spread the
“Green Revolution” around
the world to produce more?
• Will GE uniformity lead to
more vulnerable crops to
pests, diseases, harsh
weather?
Can We Continue to Produce MORE
• Will people be willing to try
new foods? (superfoods)
• Fried ants or toasted butterflies
anyone?
• Is irrigating more land the
answer?
• Is cultivating more land the
answer?
• Can we grow more food in
urban areas?
• Why not just waste less food?
70% currently wasted
Mmmm, bacon!!!
Section 7: Producing More Meat
• How are rangelands used to produce meat?
• Is producing more meat the answer to the
world’s food problems?
• What are the effects of overgrazing?
• How can meat be produced more sustainable?
Rangelands
• Many feel need to
increase meat
production to feed
population
• As incomes rise so
does meat
consumption
Rangelands
Are grasslands in
temperate and tropical
climates that provide
foraging and browsing
areas for animals
• Cattle, Sheep, goats
are on 42% of
rangeland
• Pastures are managed
grasslands
• Renewable resource
Producing More Meat
• Meat products good
source of protein
• Per capita meat
production doubled
since 1950
Feedlots: animals are
fattened for slaughter in
densely populated
confined areas
CAFOs = 43% world beef
Factory Farms
• Cattle, pigs, poultry
• As many as 100,000 cattle,
10,000 hogs shoulder to
shoulder
• What to do with waste?
• Open Lagoons?
• Consume large amount of
grain and fish instead of
feeding on grass
• Antibiotics and steroid use
See page 295 box
Overgrazing
Occurs when too many
animals graze for too long
and exceed the carrying
capacity of the grassland
area
• Kills vegetation
• Reduces grass cover
• Causes erosion
• Compacts soil
• Damages watershed
• Desertification
Overgrazing: Solutions
• Control numbers by
figuring out carrying
capacity
• Move from riparian zones
and locate watering hole
away from sensitive zones
• Move animals around
• Replant overgrazed areas
and/or use fertilizers
Producing More Meat
Kilograms of grain needed per kilogram of body weight
 Feedlots
 Rangelands
 Efficiency
Beef cattle
7
Pigs
4
Chicken
2.2
Fish (catfish
or carp)
2
Fig. 14-22 p. 297
 Improved rangeland management
 Environmental consequences (Connections p. 295)
What is this?
Section 8: More Fish?
• Where do we get our fish and shellfish?
• What are the impacts of over fishing?
• What is aquaculture?
Catching and Raising More Fish
Fisheries
Fishing methods (See Fig. 14-24 p. 299)
Overfishing
Commercial extinction
Aquiculture
Fish farming and ranching
Where do we get fish and shellfish?
Fisheries: concentrations of
aquatic species suitable for
harvesting from a body of
water
• 55% from the ocean
• Fish and shellfish supply 7%
of world’s food
• Mostly from coastal zones
• Primary source of protein
for more than 1 billion
(mostly developing
countries)
Where do we get fish and shellfish?
Aquaculture: using feedlot
management to raise
marine and freshwater fish.
• using cages and nets
• Rivers, lakes and oceans
• China the world’s leader
• 1/3rd of world’s marine fish
harvest is used for animal
feed, fishmeal and oil
Kilograms of grain needed per kilogram of body weight
Beef cattle
7
Pigs
4
Chicken
Fish (catfish
or carp)
2.2
2
Efficiency of converting grain to animal
protein
How are fish harvested?
High Tech Global
Fishing Fleets Roam
World
• Sonar, GPS, spotter
planes, huge nets, long
fishing lines
• Large factory ships
catch, process and
freeze product
How are fish harvested?
Trawling: dragging a funnel
shaped net along bottom of
sea
• Used to catch bottom
dwellers
• Shrimp, cod, flounder,
scallops
• Scrapes up everything on
bottom leaving it bare
• Clear cutting ocean floor
Bycatch thrown back
How are fish harvested?
Purse-Seine Fishing:
Surrounding schools of fish
with boats and a huge net
to capture entire school
• Net drawn in tighter and
tighter
• Tuna, herring, mackerel
• Uses spotter planes often
• Led to huge dolphin kills
How are fish harvested?
Long lining: putting out
lines up to 80 miles long
with thousands of hooks
• Swordfish, tuna, shark,
halibut, cod
• Huge bycatch
• Endanger turtles,
dolphins, whales etc.
How are fish harvested?
Drift netting: using huge nets
to trap fish
• Huge bycatch
• Kill many unwanted
species
• Danger to marine mamals
• Since 1992 UN ban
driftnets over 1.6 miles in
international water
(voluntary compliance)
Over fishing
• Tragedy of Commons
• Not a new problem, but
becoming global and tech
driven
• Commercial Extinction
• Adding to the problem are
development along the coasts,
wetland and estuary pollution,
coral reef and mangrove forest
destruction
• New high demand for “healthy”
fish
Aquaculture
Raising fish and
shellfish for food,
like crops
• World’s fastest
growing food
production
• What do you think
are pros and cons of
this technique?
Section 9-10 : Government Ag
Policy and Sustainable Farming
• How do governments influence agriculture?
• How can the world become more sustainable
with agriculture?
Government Agricultural Policy
Artificially low prices
Subsidies
Elimination of price controls
Food aid
Solutions: Sustainable Agriculture
Low-input agriculture
Organic farming
See Fig. 14-29 p. 302
Profitable
Increasing funding for research in
sustainable techniques
mmm…chicken for dinner