Agriculture, the Fast Food
Nation(s), and Genetically
Modified Organisms
BIOL 2041
Outline
• Fast Food
– Fries
– Big Macs
– Chicken Nuggets
• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)
– Risks and benefits
– Types
– New Areas
BIOL 2041
Fast Food Nation
• The Jungle - Upton Sinclair
(1906)
• Super Size Me
• Fast Food Nation by Eric
Schlosser
– More money on fast food than
higher education
• How has fast food changed
agriculture??
BIOL 2041
French Fries
• The potato: a brief history
• Became popular in the 1920s in NA
• Important to the early success of
McDonalds
• Potato and NA/European diet
• $0.30 -> $$6.00 (Profit!!!!)
• Of $1.50 worth of fries, $0.02 goes to
farmer->corporate farms
BIOL 2041
Impact
• Fast food needs
– Uniformity “One world, one taste”
– Constant supply
• Increased productivity (Idaho)
– Tonnage of potatoes (doubled)
– Yield/acre (increased 30%)
– Increased inputs, I.e. mechanization, fertilizer,
irrigation, pesticides
– Need for larger farms and less farmers
BIOL 2041
Big Macs and you
• Cattle
– Soil compaction
– Overgrazing
– Erosion
– Loss of biodiversity
– BSE?
BIOL 2041
Big Macs and you
• Feedlots,
– Aesthetics
– Runoff
• slaughter houses and meatpacking
– Then: A respectable, well-paying union job
– Enter the “disassembly line”
– Now: A job for illegal, illiterate, immigrants
• Very dangerous
BIOL 2041
The Chicken Nugget
• History
• Health – very poor choice
• “Bulk agricultural commodity into a
manufactured, value-added product”
• Business
– Ensure constant supply
– Tyson Foods
• Chickens
BIOL 2041
Genetically Modified Organisms
Food supply
– 15 crop species and 8 livestock species =
90% of world’s food supply
• Artificial Selection
• What is a GMO?
– Reduced breeding cycles
– New and improved agricultural varieties
BIOL 2041
Pest control
• Insect control
– Bacillus thruringiensis (Bt)
– Gene for Bt toxin introduced to plants
– Benefits: Decreased pesticide use
– Costs: Resistance?
BIOL 2041
Weed control and herbicide
resistance
• 275 million kg of herbicide/year in US
• Damage crops and increase
pests/pathogens
• Herbicide resistant crops
– Heavy use of herbicide
– Less use: the timing must be right
– Rapid break down of pesticide
• Transfer genes to wild species = super
weed
BIOL 2041
New areas
• Pest control
– 2000 plants have insecticidal properties
– 700 substances in bacteria and fungi have
fungicidal properties
– What about super bugs??
• Disease resistance (less fungicides)
• Vaccines for livestock
• Drought resistance
– 5 million l of water for 1 ha of corn
BIOL 2041
New Areas (cont)
•
•
•
•
•
Salt tolerance
Nitrogen fixation in crops
Perennial grain crops
Improve recycling of toxic wastes
Improved palatability of fruits
BIOL 2041
Questionable areas
• Bovine Growth Hormone
• Native organisms
• Crops to weeds?
BIOL 2041
GMO,ethics, and the real world
•
•
•
•
GMOs are very expensive
Yields are no better than existing varieties
Banned in Europe
Patenting life?
– The Monsanto case
• Is it playing God?
• Alternatives: Integrated Pest
Management!!
BIOL 2041