Agriculture and Global Food Security

1. Agriculture and Global Food Security APES notes

2. In the beginning… • All humans got their food by hunting, gathering and fishing • Then humans invented agriculture, transforming natural ecosystems into ones devoted to the production of food, fiber and fuel • A population explosion followed; agriculture gave us food security

3. The still INCREASING DEMAND FOR FOOD CROPS • Increasingpopulation (about 9 Billion people by 2050) • Changing food consumption patterns as global incomes increase (more meat, wheat and dairy desired) • Increasing demand for biofuels (food crops that can be converted to ethanol, biodiesel and methane)

4. HOW DO WE GET MORE FOOD TO MEET THE INCREASED DEMANDS? • BEFORE 1960 greater demand for food was met by taking more land into cultivation. Today, there is little likelihood of significantly more arable land becoming available. Yet we still have to double crop production to keep ahead of current demand

5. There is no more arable land • ANY INCREASE IN THE AMOUNT OF ARABLE LAND TODAY WOULD COME FROM habitat destruction: DEFORESTATION, OR TAKING LAND NEEDED FOR GRAZING OR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES • Adding land by deforestation would lower biodiversity and add Green House Gases (GHG), contributing to climate change

6. Practice questions • At the current rate of growth, Earth’s human population will double in about 50 years. Which of the following is the LEAST viable strategy for ensuring adequate nutrition for a population of this size? • Increasing the number of new food crops from the great diversity of plant species • Doubling the area of arable land on a global basis • Developing systems for making the global distribution of food more equitable

7. Actually, we are LOSING LAND to desertification, salinization, erosion and urbanization But agriculture is essential Without agriculture there would not be enough food to keep up with population growth. Agriculture is also important economically (GDP) and for personal livelihoods

8. BUT a rapidly growing population needs increasing amounts of food

9. Crops humans depend on the most for food • WHEAT • RICE • CORN Are the top crops for supplying calories and nutrients globally, as people increasingly eat the same types of food. Diets are far less nutritionally diverse. In recent years, the use of grain, such as corn as an energy source (biofuel) has increased food prices and contributes to world hunger

10. Adequate amounts of food • Malnourishment is the lack of sufficient protein or vitamins or other nutrient regardless of the number of calories they consume • Malnourished people often get enough calories, but poor quality food

11. Diseases from Malnutrition • Kwashiokor is the result of inadequate protein and vitamins in the diet • Anemia (iron deficiency) is the most widespread nutritional deficiency in the world. Anemic women are more likely to die in childbirth

12. Malnutrition • Vitamin A deficiency: • can cause eye damage/ blindness • Reduces ability of immune system to cope with infection • Zinc and Iodine deficiency: • Increases severity of diarrhea, pneumonia • Causes stunting • Iodine deficiency is the single greatest cause of preventable mental retardation and learning disability

13. As global incomes increase, more people demand better quality food • There is a strong correlation between income (GDP) and the consumption of meat and diary protein

14. The importance of animal source food • Meat and diary proteins are more digestible than plant sources. • Animals also provide many key micronutrients such as zinc and vitamin B-12 In a nutrition intervention study of Kenyan children the addition of meat increased the lean body mass (growth) by 80% and improved cognitive development (on-the-spot reasoning and problem solving abilities) over 2 years

15. About 1 billion people worldwide lack access to adequate amounts of food • Undernourishment means not consuming enough calories to be healthy. An average person needs approx. 2200 kcal/day for proper growth, learning abilities, physical work and to cope with infections • Most undernourished people are rural poor, living on less than $1.25/day

16. Diseases from undernourishment • Marasmusis a form of severe emaciation leading to loss of energy and large numbers of deaths. • A poor diet reduces the capacity to fight disease- Diarrhea, measles, malaria and respiratory diseases are common in the developing world. Well fed people can fight them off.

17. Practice question • Deficiencies in protein and other key nutrients is known as: • A) undernutrition • B) malnutrition • C) hunger • D) calorie overdraft • E) starvation

18. Starvation • Lack of food calories causing exhaustion of the body. • When starvation occurs on an epidemic scale, accompanied by increasing mortality, we call it a FAMINE

19. THE FOOD WE NEED • A food calorie or kilocalorie (kcal) is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1kg of water by 1°C and is acquired through digestion and oxidation (respiration). • Carbohydrates are the main source of energy, yielding about 2kcal/g • Fats are a secondary energy source, yielding about 9kcal/g. Fats are essential to growth in early life and are essential to absorbing some vitamins, such as vitamin A, but can lead to heart disease and increased cholesterol • Proteinsare necessary for muscle and bone growth

20. 2. Even with enough calories, chronic malnutrition can lead to: I. compromised mental development II. Increased susceptibility to nonfatal infectious disease III. Stunted growth a) I only b) II only c) I, II and III Practice questions

21. Diseases from overnutrition • Obesity: is the result of ingestion of too many calories and improper foods causing individuals to be more than 20% above their ideal weight. • Obesity can lead to type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke

22. ENOUGH FOOD = FOOD SECURITY • IS DEFINED AS the condition in which people have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Access refers to the economic, social and physical availability of food.

23. LIMITATIONS TO ACCESS OF FOOD • Poverty- Much of the world exists on less than $1 per day (economic access) • Political factors such as civil unrest, poor infrastructure or natural disasters that interrupt distribution (and/or production) • Diversion of resources to feed livestock rather than people (physical access) • Diversion of food crops for use as biofuel (physical access)

24. Living on $1/day • Americans in Haiti • http://youtu.be/VGeFpz10baw • NOTE- about 52% of all people living in the HAITI are undernourished (source-NatGeo, 2014) the highest rate in the world. Haitians have endured an earthquake (2010), a hurricane (2012) and a drought (2014)

25. Practice question • The factor that indicates the GREATEST cause of malnutrition and hunger is: • A) poverty • B) age • C) location • D) gender • E) blood pressure

26. Prevalence of Food Insecurity & Hunger in U.S., 2003

28. Feeding the World’s One Billion Hungry

29. GOVERNANCE-Federal Domestic Food Assistance Programs: short term solutions • The Food and Nutrition Service administers all of its programs in partnership with the states. • 94% of all federal expenditures for food assistance went to five programs: • Food Stamp Program • National School Lunch Program • Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) • Child and Adult Care Food Program • School Breakfast Program

30. International food aid: short term solution • Within the UN, specialized agencies from the WHO to the FAO foster international cooperation. • The FAO (food and agriculture organization) collects and analyzes global agricultural data and provides technical assistance • Food assistance is done by the World Food Programme

31. Long term solutions • “If we cannot produce higher crop yields with less water and conserve fertile soils, many agricultural areas will cease to be viable • If we cannot move to stabilize the climate, we may not be able to avoid runaway food prices • If we cannot accelerate the shift to smaller families and stabilize the world population the ranks of the hungry will almost certainly continue to expand” … Les Brown: the New Geopolitics of Food, 2011

32. THE GREEN REVOLUTION • Started in 1960s as a way to end famine by increasing crop yield per hectare (1ha= 2.5 acres) in Asia and Latin America • The USAID distributed packets of- • High yielding crop varieties of corn, rice and wheat • Inorganic fertilizer required to maximize growth • Improved irrigation technologies • Pesticides and herbicides to reduce competition and insect pests

33. Breeding high yielding crops • By selectively cross breeding varieties, new strains of grains were developed. Seeds from all over the world were crossed to produce grain that could grow in all microclimates and at all times of the year • This genetic modification was easier once specific genes were recognized in plants

34. Effectiveness of 1st green revolution • Allowed Asia and Latin America to become self sufficient in grain production- more income (GDP) with no further need to import grain • Farmers doubled their yields and incomes. In Vietnam, rice became known as Honda Rice since profits paid for motorcycles.

35. Effectiveness of 1st Green Revolution • Major environmental consequences: • Increase in inorganic fertilizer use which are manufactured using fossil fuels and themselves emit potent GHG when they are applied to fields. Excess fertilizer can also cause eutrophication • Major environmental consequences: • Increased Irrigation depleted natural river flow altering habitats; contributed to soil salinization; excess fertilizer not taken up by plants ended in groundwater, increasing nitrate levels in drinking water

36. Effectiveness of 1st green revolution • An increase in pesticide use which can cause a secondary pest infestation as natural predators of insects decreased; rise in pesticide resistant rice pests • Fertilizers and pesticides are very expensive for poor farmers and farmers with very small farms

37. PESTICIDES- increasing yield/ha Pesticides are valuable for preventing crop loss due to herbivory by insect, rodent or viral pests and competition with weeds They include insecticides (for bugs), herbicides (weeds) and fungicides (mold, spores) and rodenticides (mice) Although initially effective, pesticide use ultimately fails and necessitates increased dosage over time (the pesticide treadmill)

38. 1. They save human livespreventing premature deaths from insect transmitted diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and dengue. 2. They increase crop yields, work fast and can be stored, controlling most pests quickly, with a long shelf life, and are easily shipped and applied. Pesticides have some advantages and will probably always be used to some extent

39. Disadvantages of pesticides • Cause nerve damage in humans, birds, leading to spasms and death • Some, like DDT, are persistent, lasting for many years after spraying • Pesticides can bioaccumulate and biomagnify in tissues of animals, increasing in concentration up the food chain. Pesticides are suspected carcinogens and hormone disruptors • Some pesticides have been implicated in egg shell thinning, lowering the population of some birds and alligators

40. Insects eventually become resistant to chemical pesticides • In the 1970s organochlorines were replaced with less toxic, less persistent pesticides. • But insects develop resistance to pesticides, so they eventually become ineffective. • Today, hundreds of species of insects and weeds are resistant to pesticides and herbicides, encouraging farmers to put more and more pesticides into the environment. This is known as a pesticide treadmill

41. Farms should be placed farther away from surface water bodies to limit the amount of agricultural runoff and drift from aerial spraying that enters streams. Many pesticides dissipate rapidly in soil as microbes utilize the pesticide as a source of carbon. A natural riparian zone between farmland and stream could act as buffer. Bacteria in the soil can break down some pesticides before they enter waterways. 3. Reduce the amount of pesticide used, turning to IPM instead which use mechanical and biological alternatives 4. Promote organic farming which, by definition, does not use pesticides 5. Require training and licensing in the proper use of pesticides Mitigating pesticide pollution

42. Can agriculture be sustainable? • Current approach is treating farms as AGROECOSYSTEMS: agriculture as modified ecosystem where biodiversity is reduced to a limited set of crop, pest and weed species and predators (such as birds)

43. AGROECOSYSTEMS • Sustainable agriculture relies on resources internal to the ecosystem to increase yield- using different species that benefit each other. For example, trees and shrubs provide shade for herbs, legumes provide nitrogen and livestock can furnish manure. Mixtures of crops can also deter pests. The more diverse the farm, the more resilient and sustainable

44. WHAT IS AN ECOSYSTEM? An ecosystem is a community of organisms and its nonliving environment in which chemical elements cycle and energy flows. Ecosystems can be natural or artificial.Natural ecosystems carry out public service functions for us and are considered natural capital in an economic and social sense. Treating a farm as an ecosystem will use some of these services to maximize crop yield

45. Trophic levels • Trophic levels show feeding relationships in a community. Even a farm community has various trophic levels. • Basic food chains show how organisms in an ecological community get the energy they need. • The food chain is made of PRODUCERS (crops and competing weeds), various CONSUMERS (pests and their predators) AND DECOMPOSERS (soil organisms)

46. Intercropping as sustainable farming • Intercroppingis the practice of growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same piece of land. • Intercropping exploits mutualistic or commensalistic relationships • Intercropping makes efficient use of soil nutrients; can shade or support a companion crop; host a great diversity of insects, birds or other organisms that prey on pests, supporting more biodiversity on the farm

47. Crop rotation and agroforestry • Rotation is the growing of two or more crops in sequence on the same piece of land. Same benefits as intercropping • Agroforestry is a form of intercropping with trees interspersed with herbaceous crops. Trees offer wind breaks and mulch to reduce soil erosion and shade to reduce evaporation

48. Green manuring and conservation tillage • The growing of legumes and other plants to fix nitrogen and then incorporating them in the soil for the following crop. Clover, beans, the fern Azolla are common green manures • Conservation tillage incorporates humus into soil also improves texture and reduce erosion

49. Sustainably controlling pests • Biological control the use of natural enemies, parasites or predators to control pests • Integrated Pest management • The use of all appropriate techniques of controlling pests. If pesticides are used, they are used sparingly and selectively

50. IPM uses a combination of methods to control a pest. These may include limited and specific use of chemical, biological and physical controls. The aim of IPM is long term control,not eradication of a pest, with minimal environmental impact Though some pesticide may be needed, an IPM lowers the amount used overall Physical controls: short grass, crop rotation, brush reduction, draining stagnant ponds Biological controls: introduce a natural predator or competitor, interrupt breeding cycle, eg male sterility Chemical controls: targeted use of pesticides only where most effective and in the most effective season Integrated Pest Management (IPM)