Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Sustainability

1. Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Sustainability Created for Earth Science Classes Fall 2012 Essential standards

2. Conventional Agricultural Practices • Tillage: Plowing soil to prepare for seeds, nutrient infusion, or pest control application. • Pest control is usually chemical based (pesticides, insectides) • Fertilizer is chemical based. • Regular irrigation (watering).

3. Benefits and Problems with Traditional Farming • Benefits • Less time intensive and less monitoring • Less expensive in the short term • Used for hundreds of years • Problems/Questions • How do the applied chemicals affect humans? • How do the applied chemicals affect the ecosystem?

4. Integrated Pest Management • Keep the pest population below the economic injury level (where the farmer starts losing money). • Monitoring to determine when and if treatment is needed. • Use of chemical (pesticides) or biological controls (natural enemy or a plant pathogen) • Goal is effective pest control that is the least disruptive to the crops, environment and humans.

5. Organic Farming • Relies on crop rotation, biological control of pests, natural fertilizers (animal based), and limits the use of hormones, antibiotics, and genetically modified organisms. • Organic food sometimes costs more because it reflects the true cost of growing the food. • Seeks to encourage and enhance the natural processes going on in the soil.

6. Genetically Modified Crops • Disease resistant • Insect resistant • Delayed ripening / improved shelf life • Increased nutrition • Stress resistance (ex. To drought) • Useful products – vitamin carriers, make vaccines A dramatization, but you get the idea.

7. Hydroponics • Growing plants in water and mineral solutions without using soil. • Advantages: • Water stays in the system and can be reused • Easier to harvest • No pesticide damage • Easier pest control

8. What is aquaculture? • Raising fish, crustaceans, mollusks and aquatic plants under controlled conditions. • Common products: shrimp, salmon, oysters, algae, trout, carp • Fish are raised commercially in tanks, ponds, or ocean enclosures and are primarily raised for food.

9. Potential Problems • Eutrophication: an increased amount of fish waste causes an algal bloom. • Some algal species are toxic and can kill the fish and other aquatic life. • May reduce biodiversity in an area – less adaptable to sudden shifts in weather, climate.