Food, Soil, and Pest Management

1. Food, Soil, and Pest Management Chapter 10

2. Section 10-1 What is food security and why is it difficult to attain?

3. 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

4. Many people suffer from chronic health and malnutrition • 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.

5. Starving children collecting ants in Sudan, Africa

6. 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 do 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 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer.

7. Section 10-2 How is food produced?

8. 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.

9. 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, high-yield grain varieties, and industrialized production of livestock and fish.

10. Industrialized crop production relies on high-input monocultures • Agriculture used to grow crops can be divided roughly into two types: • Industrialized agriculture, or high-input agriculture, uses heavy equipment and large amounts of financial capital, fossil fuel, water, commercial inorganic fertilizers, and pesticides to produce single crops, or monocultures. • Major goal of industrialized agriculture is to increase yield, the amount of food produced per unit of land. • Used on about 25% of the world’s cropland, mostly in more-developed countries, and produces about 80% of the world’s food.

11. Industrialized crop production relies on high-input monocultures • Modern industrialized agriculture violates the three principles of sustainability by relying heavily on fossil fuels, reducing natural and crop biodiversity, and neglecting the conservation and recycling of nutrients in topsoil.

12. Oil palm plantation – once covered with tropical rain forest

13. Traditional agriculture often relies on low-input polycultures • Traditional agriculture provides about 20% of the world’s food crops on about 75% of its cultivated land, mostly in less-developed countries. • Traditional subsistence agriculture supplements energy from the sun with the labor of humans and draft animals to produce enough crops for a farm family’s survival, with little left over to sell or store as a reserve for hard times. • In traditional intensive agriculture, farmers increase their inputs of human and draft-animal labor, animal manure for fertilizer, and water to obtain higher crop yields, some of which can be sold for income.

14. Traditional agriculture often relies on low-input polycultures • Many traditional farmers grow several crops on the same plot simultaneously, a practice known as polyculture. • Crop diversity reduces the chance of losing most or all of the year’s food supply to pests, bad weather, and other misfortunes. • Crops mature at different times, provide food throughout the year, reduce the input of human labor, and keep the soil covered to reduce erosion from wind and water.

15. Traditional agriculture often relies on low-input polycultures • Lessens need for fertilizer and water, because root systems at different depths in the soil capture nutrients and moisture efficiently. • Insecticides and herbicides are rarely needed because multiple habitats are created for natural predators of crop-eating insects, and weeds have trouble competing with the multitude of crop plants. • On average, such low-input polyculture produces higher yields than does high-input monoculture.

16. A closer look at industrialized crop production • Farmers can produce more food by increasing their land or their yields per acre. • Since 1950, about 88% of the increase in global food production has come from using high-input industrialized agriculture to increase yields in a process called the green revolution. • Three steps of the green revolution: • First, develop and plant monocultures of selectively bred or genetically engineered high-yield varieties of key crops such as rice, wheat, and corn.

17. A closer look at industrialized crop production • Second, produce high yields by using large inputs of water and synthetic inorganic fertilizers, and pesticides. • Third, increase the number of crops grown per year on a plot of land through multiple cropping. • The first green revolution used high-input agriculture to dramatically increase crop yields in most of the world’s more-developed countries, especially the United States, between 1950 and 1970.

18. A closer look at industrialized crop production • A second green revolution has been taking place since 1967. Fast-growing dwarf varieties of rice and wheat, specially bred for tropical and subtropical climates, have been introduced into middle-income, less-developed countries such as India, China, and Brazil. • Producing more food on less land has helped to protect some biodiversity by preserving large areas of forests, grasslands, wetlands, and easily eroded mountain terrain that might otherwise be used for farming.

19. A closer look at industrialized crop production • Largely because of the two green revolutions, world grain production tripled between 1961 and 2009. • People directly consume about 48% of the world’s grain production. About 35% is used to feed livestock and indirectly consumed by people who eat meat and meat products. The remaining 17% (mostly corn) is used to make biofuels such as ethanol for cars and other vehicles.

20. Growth in global grain production of wheat, corn, and rice between 1961-2010

21. A closer look at industrialized crop production • In the U.S., industrialized farming has evolved into agribusiness, as a small number of giant multinational corporations increasingly control the growing, processing, distribution, and sale of food in U.S. and global markets. • Since 1950 U.S. industrialized agriculture has more than doubled the yields of key crops such as wheat, corn, and soybeans without cultivating more land. • Americans spend only about 13% of their disposable income on food, compared to the percentages up to 50% that people in China and India and most other less-developed countries have to pay for food.

22. Crossbreeding and genetic engineering produce varieties of crops and livestock • Crossbreeding through artificial selection has been used for centuries by farmers and scientists to develop genetically improved varieties of crops and livestock animals. • Such selective breeding in this first gene revolution has yielded amazing results; ancient ears of corn were about the size of your little finger, and wild tomatoes were once the size of grapes. • Typically, resulting varieties remain useful for only 5–10 years before pests and diseases reduce their efficacy.

23. Crossbreeding and genetic engineering produce varieties of crops and livestock • Modern scientists are creating a second gene revolution by using genetic engineering to develop genetically improved strains of crops and livestock. • Alters an organism’s genetic material through adding, deleting, or changing segments of its DNA to produce desirable traits or to eliminate undesirable ones (gene splicing); resulting organisms are called genetically modified organisms (GMOs) • Developing a new crop variety through gene splicing is faster selective breeding, usually costs less, and allows for the insertion of genes from almost any other organism into crop cells.

24. Crossbreeding and genetic engineering produce varieties of crops and livestock • Currently, at least 70% of the food products on U.S. supermarket shelves contain some form of genetically engineered food or ingredients, but no law requires the labeling of GM products. • Certified organic food, which is labeled as makes no use of genetically modified seeds or ingredients. • Bioengineers plan to develop new GM varieties of crops that are resistant to heat, cold, herbicides, insect pests, parasites, viral diseases, drought, and salty or acidic soil. They also hope to develop crop plants that can grow faster and survive with little or no irrigation and with less fertilizer and pesticides.

25. Meat production has grown steadily • Meat and animal products such as eggs and milk are good sources of high-quality protein and represent the world’s second major food-producing system. • Between 1961 and 2010, world meat production—mostly beef, pork, and poultry—increased more than fivefold and average meat consumption per person more than doubled. • Global meat production is likely to more than double again by 2050 as affluence rises and more middle-income people begin consuming more meat and animal products in rapidly developing countries such as China and India.

26. Fish and shellfish production have increased dramatically • The world’s third major food-producing system consists of fisheries and aquaculture. • Aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing type of food production. • Industrial fishing fleets harvest most of the world’s marine catch of wild fish.

27. Fish and shellfish production have increased dramatically • Fish and shellfish are also produced through aquaculture—the practice of raising marine and freshwater fish in freshwater ponds and rice paddies or in underwater cages in coastal waters or in deeper ocean waters. • Some fishery scientists warn that unless we reduce overfishing and ocean pollution, and slow projected climate change, most of the world’s major commercial ocean fisheries could collapse by 2050.

28. Global seafood production, 1950-2008

29. Industrialized food production requires huge inputs of energy • The industrialization of food production has been made possible by the availability of energy, mostly from nonrenewable oil and natural gas. • Energy is needed to run farm machinery, irrigate crops, and produce synthetic pesticides and synthetic inorganic fertilizers, as well as to process food and transport it long distances within and between countries. • As a result, producing, processing, transporting, and consuming industrialized food result in a large net energy loss.

30. Section 10-3 What environmental problems arise from industrialized food production?

31. Food production’s harmful environmental effects

32. Producing food has major environmental impacts • According to many analysts, agriculture has a greater total harmful environmental impact than any human activity. • These environmental effects may limit future food production and make it unsustainable.

33. Topsoil erosion is a serious problem in parts of the world • Soil erosion is the movement of soil components, especially surface litter and topsoil from one place to another by the actions of wind and water. • Erosion of topsoil has two major harmful effects. • Loss of soil fertility through depletion of plant nutrients in topsoil. • Water pollution in nearby surface waters, where eroded topsoil ends up as sediment. This can kill fish and shellfish and clog irrigation ditches, boat channels, reservoirs, and lakes.

34. Topsoil erosion is a serious problem in parts of the world • By removing vital plant nutrients from topsoil and adding excess plant nutrients to aquatic systems, we degrade the topsoil and pollute the water, and thus alter the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles.

35. Topsoil erosion is a serious problem in some parts of the world

36. Drought and human activities are degrading drylands • Desertification in arid and semiarid parts of the world threatens livestock and crop contributions to the world’s food supply. • Desertification occurs when the productive potential of topsoil falls by 10% or more because of a combination of prolonged drought and human activities that expose topsoil to erosion. • The FAO’s 2007 report on the Status of the World’s Forests estimated that some 70% of world’s arid and semiarid lands used for agriculture are degraded and threatened by desertification.

37. Sand dunes threaten to take over an oasis in West Africa

38. Variation in desertification in arid and semiarid lands, 2007

39. Excessive irrigation has serious consequences • Irrigation boosts productivity of farms; roughly 20% of the world’s cropland that is irrigated produces about 45% of the world’s food. • Most irrigation water is a dilute solution of various salts that are picked up as the water flows over or through soil and rocks. • Repeated annual applications of irrigation water in dry climates lead to the gradual accumulation of salts in the upper soil layers—a soil degradation process called salinization that stunts crop growth, lowers crop yields, and can eventually kill plants and ruin the land.

40. Excessive irrigation has serious consequences • Severe salinization has reduced yields on at least 10% of the world’s irrigated cropland, and almost 25% of irrigated cropland in the United States, especially in western states • Irrigation can cause waterlogging, in which water accumulates underground and gradually raises the water table; at least one-tenth of the world’s irrigated land suffers from waterlogging, and the problem is getting worse. • Excessive irrigation contributes to depletion of groundwater and surface water supplies.

41. Agriculture contributes to air pollution and projected climate change • Agricultural activities create a lot of air pollution. • Account for more than 25% of the human-generated emissions of carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases. In the U.S., food travels an average of 1,000 – 1,500 miles between farm and plate. • Industrialized livestock production alone generates about 18% of the world’s greenhouse gases; cattle and dairy cows release the greenhouse gas methane. • Nitrous oxide, with about 300 times the warming capacity of CO2 per molecule, is released in huge quantities by synthetic inorganic fertilizers as well as by livestock manure.

42. Genetically modified crops and foods have advantages and disadvantages

43. Food and biofuel production systems have caused major losses of biodiversity • Natural biodiversity and some ecological services are threatened when forests are cleared and grasslands are plowed up and replaced with croplands used to produce food or biofuels, such as ethanol. • There is increasing loss of agrobiodiversity, the world’s genetic variety of animal and plant species. • Since 1900 about 75% of the food plant varieties that were available to farmers no longer exist, except perhaps in small amounts in seed banks and in the backyards of a few gardeners. • The world’s genetic “library,” which is critical for increasing food yields, is rapidly shrinking.

44. There is controversy over genetically engineered foods • Controversy has arisen over the use of genetically modified (GM) food and other products of genetic engineering. • Its producers and investors see GM food as a potentially sustainable way to solve world hunger problems and improve human health. • Some critics consider it potentially dangerous “Frankenfood.” • Recognize the potential benefits of GM crops. • Warn that we know too little about the long-term potential harm to human health and ecosystems from the widespread use of such crops.

45. There are limits to expansion of the green revolution • Scientists point out that continuing to increase these inputs eventually produces no additional increase in crop yields. • Since 1978, the amount of irrigated land per person has been declining, due to population growth, wasteful use of irrigation water, soil salinization, and depletion of both aquifers and surface water, and the fact that most of the world’s farmers do not have enough money to irrigate their crops. • We can get more crops per drop of irrigation water by using known methods and technologies to greatly improve the efficiency of irrigation.

46. Industrialized meat production has harmful environmental consequences • Producing meat by using feedlots and other confined animal production facilities increases meat production, reduces overgrazing, and yields higher profits. • Such systems use large amounts of energy (mostly fossil fuels) and water and produce huge amounts of animal waste that sometimes pollute surface water and groundwater and saturate the air with their odors and emitting large quantities of climate-changing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

47. Industrialized meat production has harmful environmental consequences • Meat produced by industrialized agriculture is artificially cheap – harmful environmental and health costs are not included in the prices. • Overgrazing and soil compaction and erosion by livestock have degraded about 20% of the world’s grasslands and pastures. • Rangeland grazing and industrialized livestock production cause about 55% of all topsoil erosion and sediment pollution, and 33% of the water pollution that results from runoff from excessive inputs of synthetic fertilizers.

48. Industrialized meat production has harmful environmental consequences • The use of fossil fuels energy pollutes the air and water, and emits greenhouse gases. • Use of antibiotics is widespread in industrialized livestock production facilities. • 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are added to animal feed to prevent the spread of diseases in crowded feedlots and CAFOs and to make the livestock animals grow faster.

49. Industrialized meat production has harmful environmental consequences • Widespread antibiotic use in livestock is an important factor in the rise of genetic resistance among many disease-causing microbes. • Reduces the effectiveness of some antibiotics used to treat infectious diseases in humans. • Promotes the development of new and aggressive disease organisms that are resistant to all but a very few antibiotics currently available. • Animal waste produced by U.S. meat is roughly 130 times that of its human population.

50. Animal feedlots and confined animal feeding operations have advantages and disadvantages