• 15.1
– Nutrition and malnutrition
– Food Production
– The Green Revolution
• 15.2
– Traditional vs Modern agriculture
– Sustainability - Soil conservation
& pesticide use
– Genetic engineering
• 15.3
– Aquaculture
– Livestock

• By 2050 farmers must feed ~9 billion people…50% more than are fed today!
– Famine : widespread starvation b/c of shortage of food; often related to prolonged drought
• Nutrition: energy from food
– Calories= 1 kilocalorie (1,ooo calories)
How does the NA diet compare with the African diet?
– Malnutrition: not enough calories are consumed and/or insufficient variety to meet the body’s needs; usually related to:
– Poverty & Income: Africa, Asia, S.America (less than $1 a day) ex: only eating corn or rice
– GOAL: abolish poverty and famine

• Diet: type and amount of food eaten
– Balancedprotein {amino acids} , fats , carbs , minerals , vitamins

• A measure of the quantity of food (yield) produced in a given area of land with limited inputs of energy and resources
– Efficiency - Produce the highest yield (amount of food) with the least negative impact
– More energy, water and land are used to produce a
Calorie from animals than from plants
•Remember the energy pyramid (10% law)
– Meat often provides more nutrients/gram…however, not 10 times more!
What are the hidden impacts/costs of growing food?

We are producing more grain than ever but there is less to go around…why?

• New varieties with higher yields
– Mexico 1950-1970 (wheat 8-fold) & India (rice doubled)
– Subsistence farmers – those who grow what they need with just a bit more to sell:
•Need $ for chemicals and water for new varieties
•Machinery – not useful on tiny farms
•Therefore often remain in or close to poverty

• Paid to farmers and agribusiness to supplement income, manage supply of commodities, influence cost and supply of commodities
– Corn, wheat, grain, oats, barley, cotton, milk, rice, peanuts, sugar, tobacco, oilseeds, soybeans
– “From 1995-2009 the largest and wealthiest top 10 percent of farm program recipients received 74 percent of all farm subsidies with an average total payment over 15 years of $445,127 per recipient
– hardly a safety net for small struggling farmers. The bottom 80 percent of farmers received an average total payment of just $8,682 per recipient.”
-http://farm.ewg.org/summary.php
Led to industrialization of food…FOOD, Inc.
Why are the bad foods so cheap?

Steps Past Present
Plow/dig nutrients
Fertilize
Water
Control pests and weeds
Harvest
– to mix Farmer, animal, hand tools
Organic – manure, compost
Machinery with fossil fuels
Synthetics with fossil fuels
Flows through fields in ditches
Overhead sprinklers or drip
Chemicals By hand, hoe, and natural predators
Farmers Machinery with fossil fuels
How can we balance efficiency with stewardship?

• Agriculture has changed dramatically, especially since the end of World War II.
– new technologies , mechanization , increased chemical use , specialization and government policies that favored maximizing production .
– allowed fewer farmers with reduced labor demands to produce the majority of the food and fiber in the U.S. at lower cost
• Although these changes have had many positive effects and reduced many risks in farming, there have also been significant costs:
–topsoil depletion , –groundwater contamination from fertilizer
–genetic engineering and loss of species variety
–Chemicals, chemicals, chemicals – you are what you eat!
–the decline of family farms, –increasing costs of production,
–neglect of living and working conditions for farm laborers,
–disintegration of economic and social conditions in rural communities.

• Fertile Soil – supports healthy plants
– Topsoil – contains the most organic matter
– More rock the deeper you go
• Soil Conservation –reducing erosion
– Terracing -levels
– Contour plowing – follow land shape
– No-till farming – new crops with old
– Composting – enriches soil by adding organic matter: manure, grass clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps
• Salinization – naturally salty soil creates salty irrigation water where rainfall is low; big problem in southern CA

• How do we achieve sustainability?
– Goals—
• environmental health - soil, water, energy
• economic profitability – for farm owners and laborers
• social and economic equity – poverty, animal care and stewardship: maintaining or enhancing vital resources for future generations
– Agriculture-
• crop variety avoids soil depletion,
• Biological pest and weed control,
• Sustainable use of water
– Livestock-
• Selection, nutrition, health, grazing, confinement issues
Demand drives supply…what choices can you make with your food $$$?

What About Pests ? – you don’t want it and causes economic damage
• Pests destroy a lot of crops…13% in US and 33% worldwide!
Slugs
Stink Bugs
Aphids
Cabbage Looper Moth Caterpillar

What About Pests ? – any organism that grows where you don’t want it and causes economic damage
Wild plants have:
• Variety
• Natural enemies
• Evolved defenses
Pesticides:
• Harmful to beneficial plants and insects and people, too!
• Pests develop resistance
• Pollute water and soil
• Bioaccumulation

Pesticide Industry Ramps Up Lobbying in Bid to Pare EPA Rules
February 24, 2011
By ANNE C. MULKERN of Greenwire
The pesticide industry is applying extra doses of lobbying in an effort to eradicate federal requirements it considers harmful.
CropLife America - the trade group for Dow
Chemical Co., DuPont, Monsanto Co. and other pesticide makers aims to influence dozens of measures , from safe food and drinking water rules to toxic chemical regulations and antiterrorism laws. The organization in the last three months of
2010 significantly ramped up persuasion efforts. CropLife
America in that period spent nearly $751,000 on lobbying, a 58 percent increase from a year earlier .
"In the first two years of the Obama administration … they were going to push for more precautionary oversight of chemicals ."
Environmentalists said CropLife America is moving to eliminate regulations that are needed to protect human health and wildlife and could have more success with the current Congress.
"They seem to have quite a bit of influence with
EPA," Miller said. "The EPA has been really careful to not do anything that would really step on the toes of the pesticide industry."

changing DNA in one organism by combining it with genes from another
Ex: genes from bacteria able to resist an insect corn
Arguments for GMOs:
•Increases yield
•Just like crossbreeding but more efficient
•Desirable traits – resistance, add. nutrients, fresher longer
Concerns:
•Foods are not labeled
•Not fully tested
•Can invade wild species
•Mixing plant/animal genes

Food From Water
North Atlantic Cod
Overharvesting resulted in depletion of fish stocks
Aquaculture – raising fish or shellfish on farms in water or ranches (temporary); circulated water brings O
2 in, waste out
Issues: excessive waste degrades water and wetlands; disease

What concerns should we have if this trend continues?
Livestock is important even in cultures where they aren’t part of the diet:
•Milk
•Dung for fuel
•Fertilizer
•Work
List 5 issues with livestock as food from Food Inc.