Lecture 26: Insects & Agriculture

1. Lecture 26: Insects & Agriculture Where’s the problem??

2. Key Points: • Insects & Agriculture: Where’s the problem? • What are the limitations of the wheat, rice and corn paradigms • What is the function of the clonal repositories • How important are pest insects in world food production • What are the attributes/problems of 1st world ag.? • How will the loss of pesticides affect our economy?

3. History of human development • Genus Homo - 1.5 to 2 million years B.P. • Homo sapiens - 200,000 years B.P. • Homo sapiens sapiens - 30 to 40,000 years B.P. • This is “modern” man (human), dating from the discovery of Cro-Magnon • For 99.5% of our existence as a species we lived in a hunter/gatherer societal structure.

4. Most important change in cultural development • What was it??? • Development of AGRICULTURE • H. Curtis (1983) BIOLOGY

5. Evolution of Agriculture • 12,000 BP to 18th Century • Productivity was low but slow upward direction • Thomas Jefferson’s Agrarian Society ideal • 18th Century to Today • Rapid increase in productivity • Many fewer persons involved in “production” agriculture in 1st world societies. • 1.8% of U.S. citizens are “farmers” • Ca. 80% in Bangladesh • Worldwide it is ca. 50%

6. World Diet • Twenty-Nine major food crops • The BIG Three • WHEAT - RICE - CORN • plus 15 vegetable species • plus 15 fruit species • World Diet is 94% plant product & 6% animal product.

7. World Diet • Edible Plants • Estimated that there are 80,000 species from which some edible portion is available • Of this huge assembly, only 50 are actively cultivated • Of this 50 species, only seven provide 75% of the world’s food supply • wheat - rice - corn - potatoes - barley - cassava & sorghum • [SCIENCE vol. 257: 1347 (1992)] {germ plasm repositories}

8. The entrance to the underground Svalbard Global Seed Vault juts from a hillside in the Norwegian Arctic. (Credit: John McConnico/Associated Press)

9. National Clonal Germplasm Repository • One of about 30 in the U.S. • Specializing in temperate fruit (pears), nuts, and Humulus.

10. World Food Production • Is it sufficient?? • Population = 7 BILLION + • 50% directly involved in food production. • Ca. 20 to 25% inadequately nourished • One-third of world mortality related to poor nutrition • 40,000 children will die within the next 24 hours [1,666 in this hour]

11. Are there food production problems? • Not in developed nations • the irony is too frequently an overproduction of given crops • the political mess of subsidies & production control targets (economics) • Yes, in developing nations • famine • political instability • Paradox of resource utilization vs population (U.S. with 5% of pop. using 30% of world resources)

12. Famine • Primary Causes • CLIMATE (weather) • SOIL FERTILITY (erosion) • pests • Insects are direct competitors for our food • dead last but still accounts for 20% crop losses, and that is with the use of insecticides

13. Constraints to agriculture growth Biological • most important aspect • rice & corn paradigm • Technological • can we keep up? • resistance to gains (GMOs) • Societal • demographic shift of rural to urbanized, literal loss of our agrarian “roots”we are not reminded on a daily basis of importance of continued investment in Agriculture

14. Population & the Environment Land degradation will depress world food production 20% in the next 25 yr. Natural resource base can optimally sustain 3 billion persons. [From David Pimentel, 1994], (Sustainable future World population hardcover, Amazon.com) {Note: big debate on the issue of the sustainable human population of earth}

15. Fundamental attributes/problems of 1st World Agriculture • Specialization • by individuals & corporations • mega-monocultural development • Elevated Energy/Production Inputs • fertilizers (Oregon: 1 billion lbs./yr.) • works out to 55 lbs/agri. acre • pesticides (Oregon: 16 million lbs./yr.) • works out to 5.3 lbs/capita • Production farmers a minority (we are removed from our food production source and have no idea of food production impact on our economy and environment)

16. Oregon’s Agriculture • 38,600 (previous 39,300) farms • Average size = 435 acres • $ output ca. 4.1 billion dollars (annually) Top five commodities ($) • Greenhouse & nursery ($732 m) • Cattle & calves ($420 m) • Dairy products ($308 m) • Grass seed ($322 m) • Hay ($464 m)

17. U.S. Pesticide Use • 975,000,000 pounds/yr • ca. 3 pounds per American • U.S. accounts for 20% of world pesticide use • Ca. $12,000,000,000 per annum • Pesticide Class Usage • Herbicides 40% • Insecticides 26% • Fungicides 9% • Other 25%

18. What makes an insect a pest?? It is in conflict with human interests • In growing plants (our food) • In storing food products • As vectors of disease • (for both us and our animals.)

19. What makes an insect a pest?? • Ecosystem simplification • Monoculture: = reduction in system components = ecological instability. • Transportation • ease of movement of insects worldwide, both intentionally and inadvertently. • Human attitudes • what makes a weed??

20. Insect Competitors • Joel 1: 4 “What the palmer-worm left, the locust ate; and that what the locust left, the canker-worm ate, and what the canker-worm left, the caterpillar ate.”

21. Corn Pests Putative Amer-Indian homily “One for the bug one for the crow one to rot and two to grow” • That’s 20% insect damage!!! Corn rootworm

22. Bring on the Insects!!! • How many pest insects are there?? • U.S. • 150 to 200 species that frequently cause serious damage • 400 to 500 species that may cause serious damage from time to time • 6,000 species that cause minor damage on an infrequent basis. • Compare this to the 91,000 insect species known in North America (0.02-0.8% pests)

23. Corn Pests • 85,000,000 acres planted in the U.S. • value of about $5,000,000,000 • hybrid seed corn market alone is 2 billion $ • Corn Insect Pests • 7 major • 18 minor • Insect Damage • $900,000,000 per annum • ca. 18% of crop value

24. Agriculture Pests (the bug kinds) • Cotton • 125 identified insect pests • FIVE of which are major • Apples • 400 cataloged pests • Twenty-five of which are of economic importance.

25. What does this have to do with the economy? • V.G. Dethier from his book Man’s Plague • “Farming is ‘big business.’ Its principal product is money; food is a by-product.” • “The insect does not compete with our bellies; he competes with our pocketbooks.”

26. Final Thoughts • N.E. Borlaug {plant geneticist - founder of the Green Revolution - Nobel laureate} • “It is as simple a matter as this. We can either use pesticides and fertilizers at our disposal or (we can) starve.”

27. Final Thoughts Zilberman et al. (1991) - Science • “Without substitutes, pesticide bans result in reduced production levels and higher prices; • a substantial loss of discretionary income to consumers and a redistribution of income among agricultural producers.”

28. Key Points: • Insects & Agriculture: Where’s the problem? • What are the limitations of the wheat, rice and corn paradigms • What is the function of the clonal repositories • How important are pest insects in world food production • What are the attributes/problems of 1st world ag.? • How will the loss of pesticides affect our economy?