Environment Science SS2 20142015 Lecture 5 food soil

Lecture Food & Soil Outline Food security & food production Environmental problems from food production Improved food security & sustainable food production Many people suffer from chronic health and malnutrition • Food security means having daily access to enough nutritious food to live an active and healthy life • One of every six people in less-developed countries is not getting enough to eat, facing food insecurity—living with chronic hunger and poor nutrition, which threatens their ability to lead healthy and productive lives – The root cause of food insecurity is poverty – Other obstacles to food security are political upheaval, war, corruption, and bad weather, including prolonged drought, flooding, and heat waves Many people suffer from chronic health and malnutrition • To maintain good health and resist disease, individuals need fairly large amounts of macronutrients, such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats, and smaller amounts of micronutrients—vitamins and minerals • People who cannot grow or buy enough food to meet their basic energy needs suffer from chronic undernutrition, or hunger • Many suffer from chronic malnutrition—a deficiency of protein and other key nutrients, which weakens them, makes them more vulnerable to disease, and hinders the normal development of children Starving children collecting ants in Sudan, Africa Many people not get enough vitamins and minerals • Deficiency of one or more vitamins and minerals, usually vitamin A, iron, and iodine • Some 250,000–500,000 children younger than age go blind each year from a lack of vitamin A, and within a year, more than half of them die • Lack of iron causes anemia which causes fatigue, makes infection more likely, and increases a woman’s chances of dying from hemorrhage in childbirth • 1/5 people in the world suffers from iron deficiency Many people not get enough vitamins and minerals • Chronic lack of iodine can cause stunted growth, mental retardation, and goiter • Almost one-third of the world’s people not get enough iodine in their food and water • According to the FAO and the WHO, eliminating this serious health problem would cost the equivalent of only 2–3 cents per year for every person in the world Many people have health problems from eating too much • Overnutrition occurs when food energy intake exceeds energy use, causing excess body fat • Face similar health problems as those under: lower life expectancy, greater susceptibility to disease and illness, and lower productivity and life quality • Globally about 925 million people have health problems because they not get enough to eat, and about 1.1 billion people face health problems from eating too much • About 68% of American adults are overweight and half of those people are obese • Obesity plays a role in four of the top ten causes of death in the United States—heart disease, stroke, Type diabetes, and some forms of cancer Food production has increased dramatically • About 10,000 years ago, humans began to shift from hunting for and gathering their food to growing it and raising animals for food and labor • Today, three systems supply most of our food – Croplands produce mostly grains – Rangelands, pastures, and feedlots produce meat – Fisheries and aquaculture provide us with seafood • About 66% of the world’s people survive primarily by eating rice, wheat, and corn – Only a few species of mammals and fish provide most of the world’s meat and seafood Food production has increased dramatically • Since 1960, there has been an increase in global food production from all three of the major food production systems because of technological advances – Tractors, farm machinery and high-tech fishing equipment – Irrigation – Inorganic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, highyield grain varieties, and industrialized production of livestock and fish Shift to more sustainable food production • Industrialized agriculture produces large amounts of food at reasonable prices, but is unsustainable because it: – Relies heavily on fossil fuels – Reduces biodiversity and agrobiodiversity – Reduces the recycling of plant nutrients back to topsoil More sustainable, low-input food production has a number of major components Shift to more sustainable food production • More sustainable, low-input agriculture has a number of major components – Organic farming • Sharply reduces the harmful environmental effects of industrialized farming and our exposure to pesticides • Encourages more humane treatment of animals used for food and is a more economically just system for farm workers and farmers • Requires more human labor than industrial farming • Yields can be lower but farmers not have to pay for expensive synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers; typically get higher prices for their crops Major advantages of organic farming over conventional Shift to more sustainable food production – Organic polyculture • A diversity of organic crops is grown on the same plot • Use polyculture to grow perennial crops—crops that grow back year after year on their own • Helps to conserve and replenish topsoil, requires and wastes less water, and reduces the need for fertilizers and pesticides • Reduces the air and water pollution associated with conventional industrialized agriculture – Shift from using imported fossil fuel to relying more on solar energy for food production Shift to more sustainable food production • Five major strategies to help farmers and consumers make the transition to more sustainable agriculture: Greatly increase research on more sustainable organic farming and perennial polyculture, and on improving human nutrition Establish education and training programs in more sustainable agriculture for students, farmers, and government agricultural officials Set up an international fund to give farmers in poor countries access to various types of more sustainable agriculture Shift to more sustainable food production Replace government subsidies for environmentally harmful forms of industrialized agriculture with subsidies that encourage more sustainable agriculture Mount a massive program to educate consumers about the true environmental and health costs of the food they buy This would help them understand why the current system is unsustainable, and it would help build political support for including the harmful costs of food production in the market prices of food Ways you can eat more sustainably Integrated pest management is a component of more sustainable agriculture • Many pest control experts and farmers believe the best way to control crop pests is a carefully designed integrated pest management (IPM) program • Farmers develop a carefully designed control program that uses a combination of cultivation, biological, and chemical tools and techniques • The overall aim of IPM is to reduce crop damage to an economically tolerable level • Farmers first use biological methods (natural predators, parasites, and disease organisms) and cultivation controls (such as rotating crops, altering planting time, and using large machines to vacuum up harmful bugs) Integrated pest management is a component of more sustainable agriculture • They apply small amounts of insecticides—mostly based on those naturally produced by plants—only when insect or weed populations reach a threshold where the potential cost of pest damage to crops outweighs the cost of applying the pesticide • Broad-spectrum, long-lived pesticides are not used, and different chemicals are used alternately to slow the development of genetic resistance and to avoid killing predators of pest species • A well-designed IPM program can reduce synthetic pesticide use and pest control costs by 50–65%, without reducing crop yields and food quality Integrated pest management is a component of more sustainable agriculture • IPM can also reduce inputs of fertilizer and irrigation water, and slow the development of genetic resistance, because pests are attacked less often and with lower doses of pesticides • Disadvantages of IPM: – It requires expert knowledge about each pest situation and takes more time than does using conventional pesticides – Methods developed for a crop in one area might not apply to areas with even slightly different growing conditions Integrated pest management is a component of more sustainable agriculture – Initial costs may be higher, although long-term costs typically are lower than those of using conventional pesticides – Widespread use of IPM is hindered in the United States and a number of other countries by government subsidies for using synthetic chemical pesticides, as well as by opposition from pesticide manufacturers, and a shortage of IPM experts • The USDA could promote IPM three ways: – First, add a 2% sales tax on synthetic pesticides and use the revenue to fund IPM research and education Integrated pest management is a component of more sustainable agriculture – Second, set up a federally supported IPM demonstration project on at least one farm in every county in the United States – Third, train USDA field personnel and county farm agents in IPM so they can help farmers use this alternative – Because these measures would reduce its profits, the pesticide industry has vigorously, and successfully, opposed them Three big ideas • About 925 million people have health problems because they not get enough to eat and 1.1 billion people face health problems from eating too much • Modern industrialized agriculture has a greater harmful impact on the environment than any other human activity • More sustainable forms of food production will greatly reduce the harmful environmental impacts of industrialized food production systems while likely increasing food security BACKGROUND READING 86 ...Outline Food security & food production Environmental problems from food production Improved food security & sustainable food production Many people suffer from chronic health and malnutrition • Food. .. Outline Food production’s harmful environmental effects Producing food has major environmental impacts • Spectacular increases in the world’s food production since 1 950 The bad news is the harmful environmental... fisheries could collapse by 2 050 Global seafood production, 1 950 -2008 Industrialized food production requires huge inputs of energy • The industrialization of food production has been made possible