Food and Agriculture
Food and Agriculture
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PA Standards
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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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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).
Key Questions
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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
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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”?
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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.
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Wheat, Rice, and Corn (Maize) provide more than half of the calories
people consume.
Background
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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:
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Increased use of tractors and farm marchinery and high –tech fishing
equipment.
Advances in inorganic chemical fertilizers, irrigation, pesticides, highyield 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.
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1760-1800, 1800-1840, 1840-1880, 1880-1920, 1920-1960, 1960-2000
Explain examples of agriculture in other parts of the world:
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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:
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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:
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Biodiversity Loss, Soil, Water, Air Pollution, and Human Health.
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Address one issue regarding increasing Livestock Production as it relates to
agriculture.
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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
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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
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Discuss Plant Growing Technology
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Compare the following types of growth:
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Soil
Plant Tissue Culture
Hydroponics
Article Assignment
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Read the Urban Farming Article.
Discuss about urban farming.
Core Case Study: Golden Rice -Grains
of Hope or an Illusion?
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Golden rice is a new
genetically
engineered strain of
rice containing betacarotene.
Can inexpensively
supply vitamin A to
malnourished.
Core Case Study: Golden Rice -Grains
of Hope or an Illusion?
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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
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Global food production has stayed ahead of
population growth. However:
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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There are several ways to reduce childhood
deaths from nutrition-related causes:
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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About 80% of the world’s food supply is
produced by industrialized agriculture.
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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
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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
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Livestock production in developed countries
is industrialized:
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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
• Store atmospheric carbon
• Provide wildlife habitat for some species
• Crop genetic resources
• Jobs
Case Study: Industrialized Food
Production in the United States
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The U.S. uses industrialized agriculture to
produce about 17% of the world’s grain.
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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
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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
4%
Crops
2%
Livestock
6%
Food
processing
5%
Food distribution
and preparation
17%
of total U.S.
commercial
energy use
Traditional Agriculture: Low Input
Polyculture
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Many farmers in developing countries use lowinput agriculture to grow a variety of crops on
each plot of land (interplanting) through:
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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
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Research has
shown that, on
average, low input
polyculture produces
higher yields than
high-input
monoculture.
SOLUTIONS: MOVING TOWARD
GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY
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People in urban areas
could save money by
growing more of their
food.
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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
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Governments use three main approaches to
influence food production:
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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
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We can increase food security by slowing
populations growth, sharply reducing poverty,
and slowing environmental degradation of the
world’s soils and croplands.