Industrial Agriculture

1. Industrial Agriculture

2. DEFINITION the current stage of commercial agriculture resulting from the shift of the farm as the center of production to a position as just one step in a process that begins on the farm and ends at the table of the consumer. It is dominated by … AGRIBUSINESS ownership by large corporations of commercial agriculture characterized by the integration of different steps (farming, chemicals, machinery, food manufacturers, delivery systems, etc.) in the food-processing industry, With the production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops using methods such as machinery, genetic engineering and techniques for achieving economies of scale in production, the creation of new markets for consumption, the application of patent protection to genetic information, and global trade of agricultural goods.

4. Benefits of Industrial Agriculture • Economies of scale reduce per unit (average) costs and provide more uniformity • Americans spend a smaller % of their disposable income for food than anyone else in the developed world. • corporations more able than individual farmers to assume more of the potential risk. • access to more distant markets.

5. Farm Consolidation

6. Impacts of Industrial Agriculture • Economic concentration • # of farms has decreased, ownership is more concentrated. • Example: • In 1967, there were one million pig farms in America • as of 2002, there were 114,000 • In the U.S., only four companies control 81% of cows, 73% of sheep, 57% of pigs and 50% of chickens • Geographic concentration • Iowa average farm now about 14,000 acres (roughly the size of Manhattan.) • And the future? A former undersecretary of agriculture for rural affairs, predicts that • 250,000-acre behemoths will dominate • if so, # of farms in Iowa, would drop from 89,000 to 120. • Sadly, these megafarms aren't going away. • In a perverse logic, a farm needs to get ever larger and more specialized to survive. • American farm policy based on subsidies, will keep us on this path for the foreseeable future. • farmers have been told for years ,"Get big or get out".

8. Impacts of Industrial Agriculture • Health Impacts (we will discuss later) • Harmful ingredients driven by profit motive • Environmental Impacts (these would be additional geographic impacts) • Monocultures • farms that produce single commodities • Biotechnology (GMOs) results in loss of genetic diversity/biodiversity and potentially represent a danger to the environment and health concerns for the consumer • Crop rotation not used because, why? • Use of chemical fertilizers /pesticides • pollutes land, water and food itself • To sustain their unnatural existence, they require enormous quantities of pesticides, fertilizers and antibiotics simply to survive. • The result? • Soil erosion • diseases that spread easily among factory-raised, immune-deficient animals. • Overuse of irrigation • Colorado River runs dry

11. Impacts of Industrial Agriculture • Health Impacts • Harmful ingredients driven by profit motive (we will discuss later) • Environmental Impacts (these would be additional geographic impacts) • Monocultures • farms that produce single commodities • Biotechnology (GMOs) results in loss of genetic diversity/biodiversity and potentially represent a danger to the environment and health concerns for the consumer • Use of chemical fertilizers /pesticides • pollutes land, water and food itself • To sustain their unnatural existence, they require enormous quantities of pesticides, fertilizers and antibiotics simply to survive. • The result? • Soil erosion • diseases that spread easily among factory-raised, immune-deficient animals. • Overuse of irrigation • Colorado River runs dry • Ogallala Aquifer being depleted

15. Impacts of Industrial Agriculture • Factory farming • Abusive, unethical, DISGUSTING practices to lower costs and increase profits

16. Factory Farms • Livestock farming like an “assembly line” • usually associated with meat production (pig and chicken), milk and eggs • Confinement in high stocking density • “planned” to produce the highest output at the lowest cost • economies of scale, • modern machinery, • biotechnology (vitamin supplements and hormones) • Requires antibiotics/pesticides to slow spread of disease

19. Factory Farms Animal welfare impacts: • Close confinement systems (cages, crates) • control movement or actions regarded as undesirable. • Fast-spreading infections encouraged by crowding/stress • Animal abuses • De-beaking (beak trimming without pain killer) and other

21. Factory Farms Animal welfare impacts: • Close confinement systems (cages, crates) • control movement or actions regarded as undesirable. • Fast-spreading infections encouraged by crowding/stress • Animal abuses • De-beaking (beak trimming without pain killer) and other Environmental impacts: • Deforestation to create land for animal feed production • Unsustainable pressure on land • Pollution of soil, water and air by nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer used for feed-crops and from manure • Worldwide reduction of genetic diversity/loss of traditional breeds • Excessive amounts of manure produced

25. Differences Between Small and Large Farms. Why do some people buy from small family farms? • food quality • Small farms produce fresher, less processed food, food generally tastes better • compare tomatoes from a grocery store with ones from a farmer’s market or your own garden • health concerns with industrial practices • chemicals, antibiotics, hormones, diseases, ingredients that are bad for us • political and social considerations: • support small farmers • anti-corporate influence • preserve environment • reduce pollution • water shortages • anti-animal cruelty

26. Growth of the Organic market in MDCs Definition: “Organic” is a certification of an agricultural system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity • Follows a sustainable philosophy • Sensitive land mgmt., limited use of chemicals, integration of crop and livestock • Relies on integrated farming methods • such as crop rotation, green (not literally, ha!) manure, compost, biological pest control, and mechanical cultivation to maintain soil productivity How can you tell if organic or not? PLU has five digit code beginning in “9” “8” means genetically modified Sticker to the right indicates 95% organically produced ingredients 70% can say “made with organic ingredients but no sticker. Farmers’ market ≠ “organic” locally grown, low transport costs, pollution ask, they are suppose to have paperwork handy if they are claiming organic

27. First-World Problems • SO Americans (and increasingly other developing countries) eat a lot of processed and/or fast food! • Let’s see what this is doing to us!

28. Artificial and Changed Ingredients and Preservatives • Refined sugars. • include glucose, dextrose, fructose, and galactose • offer little or no nutrition. • cause weight gain and promote storage of fat. • Bleached White Flour • “manufactured creation” • stripped of its natural nutrients and fiber • makes bread softy and fluffy. • has little nutritional value to your diet. • Refined Flour • low-nutrient calories, carbohydrate imbalances, altered insulin production

29. Pink Slime

30. Pink Slime • The food industry uses ammonium hydroxide as an anti-microbial agent in meats, which allows manufacturers to use otherwise inedible meat, connective tissue etc. • "Basically we're taking a product that would not be sold in the cheapest form for dogs and making it 'fit' for humans." • the chemical, used in fertilizers, household cleaners and even homemade explosives, was also used as a ground beef filler. • Can be up to 15% and still be labelled as 100% ground beef • Even more disturbing, St. Louis-based dietician Sarah Prochaska told NBC affiliate KSDK that because ammonium hydroxide is considered part of the "component in a production procedure" by the USDA, consumers may not know when the chemical is in their food. • x

31. Other Harmful Ingredients in Industrial Food • Propylene glycol: • similar to a dangerous anti-freeze. • prevents products (ice cream) from becoming too solid. • BPA: chemical bisphenol-A – Used in the process of making cans and plastic bottles • Effects • the worst: brain development during pregnancy • possible: linked to stress levels (children) • Phosphoric Acid • acidify foods and beverages such as various colas • Correlation between soft drink consumption and osteoporosis (literally "porous bones") • Calcium deficiency in post-menopausal women • X

32. Osteoporosis (you are what you drink!)

33. Trans Fats • Trans fatty acids • unsaturated fat • Unlike other fats, trans fats are neither required nor beneficial for health. • [1] increases the risk of coronary heart disease. • [2] health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans fat be reduced to trace amounts. • trans fat may increase • weight gain/abdominal fat despite a similar caloric intake with other foods. • Benefits • Give foods longer shelf life • Preservatives help guarantee sales/profits

34. Trans Fats • NAS has concluded • no safe level of trans fat consumption. • A 6-year experiment showed • monkeys fed a trans-fat diet gained 7.2% of their body weight • compared to 1.8% for monkeys on a regular fat diet. • Researchers at Harvard • “trans fat clogs arteries” • estimated that 30,000 Americans die each year because of trans fats. • may also contribute to Type II diabetes.

36. Corn Syrup • Since 1980, obesity rates have climbed at a rate similar to that of high fructose corn syrup consumption.

39. Corn Syrup • Since 1980, obesity rates have climbed at a rate similar to that of high-fructose corn syrup consumption. • the body metabolizes fructose in a way that promotes weight gain. Fructose doesn’t prompt the production of hormones that help regulate appetite and fat storage • Produced in manufacturing facilities across the American corn belt, high-fructose corn syrup is not a product that you could cook up at home using a few ears of corn. • "Fat Land" by Greg Critser, generated more awareness of high-fructose corn syrup saying that the syrup made consumers fat because it was cheap, and thus food makers could afford to offer it in more products and bigger portions. • Corn production is heavily subsidized!!! • Manufacturers had always been able to buy the sweetener at prices 20 percent to 70 percent less than those of sugar. • allowed soft-drink companies to create larger sizes that were only marginally more expensive • X

40. In the 1980's, supersizing began in earnest. In 1983, for example, 7-Eleven rolled out its 44-ounce soda and, in 1988, the huge 64-ounce. And McDonald's began supersizing its drinks in the late 80's.

41. New Studies on High Fructose Corn Syrup • This cheap form of sugar is used in thousands of food products and soft drinks can damage human metabolism and is fueling the obesity crisis. • It's Not “Natural” • Fructose bypasses the digestive process that breaks down other forms of sugar. It arrives intact in the liver where it causes a variety of abnormal reactions, including the disruption of mechanisms that instruct the body whether to burn or store fat. • Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a strictly controlled diet, including high levels of fructose, produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. • regular-soda drinkers experienced dramatic increases in harmful hidden fats, including liver fat and skeletal fat. The regular-soda group also experienced an 11 percent increase in cholesterol compared to the other groups! • Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems. • X

42. Addendum • BUT don’t think switching to diet varieties will save you from harm: Artificial sweeteners and food dyes have been linked to brain cell damage and hyperactivity, and research has shown that people who drink diet soda have a higher risk of developing diabetes.

43. So, are you a lab rat for agribusiness? • many companies are experimenting with what they put in their products. • Mountain Dew contains a flame retardant. • Much of this material is new and that makes your generation the lab rats for figuring out what is right and what is wrong. • X

44. Or is it a lack of personal responsibility? • Despite changes, the food industry is still a business. They want their products to sell and are not so concerned about health risks unless it makes money. • Low commodity prices have allowed products to be “super-sized” for minimal price increases and production costs. • The nation's No. 2 chain is ignoring concerns with a 730-calorie breakfast sandwich. • BK’s Enormous Omelet Sandwich, the two-egg-sausage-cheese-and-bacon combo packs 47 grams of fat -- five more than the chain's signature burger, the Whopper. • "Americans are telling us that this is what they want," said Denny Marie Post, chief concept officer at BK. • some restaurateurs rebelled against healthier options, beefing up offerings -- literally. It's a move that's paid off.

46. Fast Food World • As countries transition from LDC to MDC • food production becomes more of a business. • takes on the benefits/problems of agribusiness • Cheap food but high fat/unhealthy • Asians (especially those from Far Eastern nations like China, Korea and Japan), are acutely susceptible to Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease • They develop it at far lower weights than other ethnicities. • 60% more likely to get the disease than Europeans. • danger is compounded by the recent and sudden collision with American culture (globalization!!!!!). • Urban lifestyles more sedentary • More (bad) calories are available • # of obese people has 3x since 1992 to 90 million

48. Obesity Trends Among U.S. Adults (1985 and 2010) • Definitions: • Obesity: Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or higher. • Body Mass Index (BMI): A measure of an adult’s weight in relation to his or her height, specifically the adult’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of his or her height in meters. • Source of the data: • CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Each year, state health departments use standard procedures to collect data through a series of telephone interviews with U.S. adults. Height and weight data are self-reported.

50. Obesity Epidemic Hits USA! Child Safety Seats • Many young children are too heavy for standard car-safety seats, and manufacturers are starting to make heftier models to accommodate them, according to research on the obesity epidemic's widening impact • More than a 250,000 U.S. children ages 1 to 6 are heavier than the weight limits for standard car seats, and most are 3-year-olds who weigh more than 40 pounds, the study found