Current Agricultural Practices

1. Current Agricultural Practices

5. Green revolution • Norman Borlaug (1914-2009)

6. Subsidies • Why do we need food? • Energy • The Irony: we use energy to make food = energy subsidy. energy input/calorie food • Good: lots of food, Bad: deficits of energy • Why so many? • Fossil fuels, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, and travel to you.

8. You need: • Your spiral • Foldable • To be in your groups • A staple sheet of paper

9. 6 post-it notes 1.Mechanization 2. Irrigation 3. Monocropping 4. CAFO’s 5. Inorganic Fertilizers 6. Organic Fertilizers

10. Mechanization • Use of machines: irrigation, tractors, fertilizers etc.

11. Irrigation

12. 2. Salinization and Waterlogging • Repeated irrigation can reduce crop yields by causing salt buildup in the soil and waterlogging of crop plants. Figure 13-13

13. Don’t Forget EXTRA CREDIT DUE THURSDAY An certified organic label and 1 label from regular food.

14. Synthetic Fertilizers

15. Organic Fertilizers

16. Monocropping • Single species or variety grown.

17. Global Outlook: Soil Erosion • Soil is eroding faster than it is forming on more than one-third of the world’s cropland. Figure 13-10

18. What about our Proteins?High-Density Animal Farming: CAFO’s (Concentrated animal feeding operations) Advantages Disadvantages Concentrations of pollution problems such as foul smells from fed lots Contaminations to drinking water by nitrates in animal wastes (also effects vegetables) Increase in the spread of diseases. Increase pressure on the world’s grain supply to feed the animals Increase inputs of energy from fossil fuels • More product • Easier to produce • Cheaper • More money

19. Pesticides

20. We will be answering 4 Questions today… • What are the types of pesticides? • What are the advantages of pesticides? • What are the disadvantages of pesticides? • What is the ideal pesticide?

21. Pesticides • What are the types of pesticides? • Insecticides • Herbicides • Fungicides • Rodenticides • Broad spectrum (DDT) • Narrow spectrum (selective): Roundup • Persistent • nonpersistent

22. What are the advantages to pesticides? • Easy to apply • Quick working • In most cases works with a single application • Targeted (in most cases) • Prevents crop damage = greater yield= less land used for agriculture

23. Disadvantages? • Kills unintended organisms (bees) • Persistent = bioaccumulation (Rachel Carson, Silent Spring) • Resistance (just like bacteria and antibiotics)= pesticide treadmill • Enters waterways through runoff • Toxicity (LD50 and ED50) ** See hand out***

25. You need: • Your foldable • 1 post-it note (From yesterday if you got one) • Big paper • Be in your groups YES WE ARE WATCHING FOOD INC TODAY!!

26. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipbc-6IvMQI • Banned in 1972 in the US and 2001 worldwide. • Loss of biodiversity (bald eagles, bees, thinned egg shells of birds, reptiles and some amphibians) • Human Effects: LD50 of 113 mg/kg (in rats) : ~300 ; caffeine (depends on the sex and age) btw: Nicotine 50 mg/kg • breast & other cancers (Still arguments about this one) • male infertility • miscarriages & low birth weight • developmental delay • nervous system & liver damage • What we are still seeing after over 40 years of banning it: Its persistent!! • Food supplies: USDA found DDT breakdown products in 60% of heavy cream samples, 42% of kale greens, 28% of carrots and lower percentages of many other foods. • Body burden: DDT breakdown products were found in the blood of 99% of the people tested by CDC. • Health impacts: Girls exposed to DDT before puberty are 5 times more likely to develop breast cancer in middle age, according to the President’s Cancer Panel.

27. Ideal Pesticides • IPM (Integrated pest management) • In short: Use of pesticides is the last resort, farmers must carefully monitor crops and infestations must be caught early. • Other methods include: crop rotation, intercropping, agroforestry, use of natural predators (salt cedar at I20 , lady bugs kill aphids, scales, and mites, wasps to kill certain kinds of caterpillars)

28. GMO’s • http://www.google.com/search?q=examples+of+genetically+modified+organisms&safe=active&rlz=1C1WLXB_enUS559US563&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=nws&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=-zjhUta4DcSikQeGrICABQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=667&dpr=1#q=genetically+mod • How does this work? • Some examples: • Golden Rice: added vitamin A producing gene= reduce blindness • Pharmaceuticals: grown in plants, animals or bacteria • Roundup ready soybeans • Salmon: grow to maturity in half the time

29. Who’s to blame? • Ignorance (us) • Government Policies • Farm Bill • http://www.farmbillfacts.org/rallying-for-action-toward-the-next-farm-bill • http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15891678 • Subsidies (keeps food prices artificially low) • http://www.pbs.org/teachers/access-analyze-act-economy/curriculum/sugar-supply/the-cultivation-of-agricultural-subsidies#instant-expert

30. More Sustainable Methods • Small scale farming • Shifting agriculture (Includes slash and burn) • Sustainable agriculture: intercropping, crop rotation, agroforestry, contour plowing/planting • No-Till agriculture • Integrated Pest Management (IPM) • Organic Agriculture: use natural systems, keep as much organic matter in soil as possible, no synthetic fertilizers and pesticides • To reduce fertilizer run-off (used prescribe amounts and plant legumes and other nitrogen fixing plants)