Feeding the World

1. Feeding the World

2. Feeding the World Eco-Log: Think & Write • Why do you think it is so difficult to provide adequate food for all of the world’s people? • What are some limitations? • What can be done to increase production? • How do farmers keep insects from destroying crops?

3. A Balanced Dietvs. malnutrition

7. Due to global warming, there are projections that in the near future, there could be a massive die-off of crops due to a warmer or more aggressive climate and increasing droughts. • Southern Africa could lose more than 30% of its main crop, maize, by 2030. • In South Asia, losses of many regional crops, such as rice, millet and maize could top 10% • This is problematic for areas that are already short of food.

8. Long-term Effects Due to massive die-off of crops and the world population rising by the day, long-term effects could be a worldwide food struggle, killing off thousands and impoverishing millions and starving millions more. A food riot in Mozambique (Africa) Food Riot in Algeria

9. Democratic Republic of Congo 2010

10. Somalia 2011

11. One week of food in Chad

12. In Somalia – Jihad Uber Alleshttp://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/17/in-somalia-jihad-uber-alles/ The drought in the Horn of Africa that began in 2009 is the worst in 60 years. But humanitarian aid from the UN, the USA and other countries has prevented mass starvation in the nations of that region, except one.  In Somalia that drought soon turned into a famine of unprecedented proportions.  To date almost 30,000 children under the age of 5 have died of starvation, according to U.S. estimates.  The UN fears that at least 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished:  a statistic that suggests the death toll of small children could rise to as many as 800,000!  More than one million Somalis have fled to Ethiopia and Kenya, where makeshift refugee camps house hundreds of thousands.[1] One might expect that all Somali leaders and political parties would join forces to help their people survive this enormous tragedy; but one would be wrong. The Somali Muslim terrorists known as al-Shabaab have worked for the past two years to prevent any foreign aid from reaching their Muslim Somali co-religionists, even as tens of thousands of Somali Muslim children die of starvation and hundreds of thousands of starving Muslim families flee al-Shabaab’s reach to find food and water in nearby Kenya and Ethiopia.

13. Pros The introduction of new grains and new farming techniques allowed for a much greater “yield”. Cons New varieties of grain did not grow well without the right fertilizer, pesticides or enough water. Green RevolutionAsia & Latin America ~ 1950-1970

14. Farming Challenges • Arable Land decreased 1/5 from 1985 to 2000. • Over ½ of the fertile U.S. “TopSoil” has been lost in past 200 years • Desertification • Beneficial Organisms suffer from chemicals. • Pest Control

15. Agricultural Effects on the Climate From Farming in general…… • CO2 releases linked to deforestation • Methane releases from rice farming • Methane releases from feces fermenting from cattle • Nitrous oxide releases from fertilizer application From livestock…… • 9% of global Carbon dioxide emissions • 35–40% of global methane emissions (chiefly due to fecal fermentation and Manure) • 64% of global nitrous oxide emissions emissions (chiefly due to fertilizer use

16. Farming Solutions • Soil-Conservation (preventing erosion) • Sustainable Agriculture • Preventing Salinization • Organic Pest Control • Companion Planting • Lady Bugs • Soapy water

17. Other Food Issues • Processing • Packaging • Shipping (Non-local)

18. Pest resistance Herbicide tolerance Disease resistance Cold tolerance Drought tolerance Salinity tolerance Nutrition Pharmaceuticals Environmental hazards Harm to other organisms Reduced effectiveness of pesticides Gene transfer to non-target species Human health risks Allergens Steroids & Hormones Antibiotics lose effectiveness GMOsGenetically Modified Organisms http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php

20. All-Mighty Corn!