1 / 34

Sustainable Thinking: Achieving a Sustainable World through Sustainable Agriculture

Explore the concept of sustainability and its importance in achieving a sustainable world through sustainable agriculture. Learn about the goals of sustainable agriculture and how your personal contribution can promote global equality and environmental health.

georgier
Download Presentation

Sustainable Thinking: Achieving a Sustainable World through Sustainable Agriculture

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Which Came First; The Chicken or the Egg? Sustainable Agriculture? or A Sustainable World?

  2. Goals: • What is sustainable thinking? 2. Define a sustainable World. 3. Sustainable agriculture and its goals. 4. Understand your personal contribution to global equality and environmental health Read: Chapters 40, 42, 43, 44 & 45 (Alt. Bk. – 27 to 32 not 28) Websites: These may be helpful…http://www.sare.org/ http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/Concept.htm http://www.farmsanctuary.org/ http://www.factoryfarming.com/index.htm

  3. When you think of a sustainable USA; what does that mean to you? Dr. Mark WhalonDepartment of Entomology Center for Integrated Plant Systems Michigan State University whalon@msu.edu

  4. Context- In the cold cruel world of life on planet earth: • Why would we (you, me, your parents, your friends, your state, your country all of Society) want to “conserve” natural resources • if it’s not to sustain “useful” lands and natural systems for the future (generations)? • If Sustainability is what we are aiming at, will our current measures (way we live) “hit” the target? Given: • 1) Your (mine and our) attitudes, • 2) What you (me and us) have bought into, • 3) The way you do life, and/or • 4) The way we ALL DO LIFE. • Since current definitions of sustainability segregate into four general, but related sectors; • 1) economics, • 2) social systems, • 3) agroecosystems (landscapes) and the • 4) environment, • What do you know about sustainability? What gets measured gets managed…

  5. 4- Economics 3- Society 2- The Ecosystem 1- The Environment Sustainability • Definition: “the ability of a system to continue in time” • It’s at the least a presumption or presupposition about the future: • involves at least: • How well are you, me, WE measuring our own life outcomes relative to sustainability?

  6. B. Observations about sustainable thinking 1. Future 2. Closed world system 3. Standard of living depends on production 4. The longer the long-term consequences, the less likely detected 5. Can the natural environment be degraded irrevocably?

  7. Meso-area Biotic Exchange: • landscape interactions • recruitment & biotic flow Everybody on the farm knows that this unit of land is ‘Dad’s back-ten’…it’s an agroecosytem. What is an ecosystem?May be easier to understand an agroecosystem… • A unit of management. = a spatial unit of habitat that a producer identifies as a field, a block, a planting, a woods or a paddock; which he manages asa contiguous whole. • Applies inputs to…as a unit. • Harvests from…as a unit. “Hey, John! Spray ‘Dad’s back-ten’ before the wind gets up today! OK?” “Yep, I’ll get ‘er done right now, Boss…” Jay Bruner Picture

  8. Everybody in the house knows that this unit of land is ‘the back yard’…it’s an ecosystem—a unit of managed habitat. What is an ecosystem?You can understand any unit of earth that you have impact on as an ecosystem, your ecosystem… • A unit of management. = a spatial unit of habitat that a person identifies as a yard, a house, a block, a township a county or state or continent or earth; which he (you, me or we) manage or influence asa contiguous whole. • Applies inputs to…as a unit. • Harvests from…as a unit. “Hey, John! Mow the lawn! OK?” “###%***##!!!, Ah, well, OK I’ll do it…(under his breath, I just got home and now this! Doesn’t he know that I’m not a kid anymore?” • Meso-area Biotic Exchange: • landscape interactions • recruitment & biotic flow Jay Bruner Picture

  9. Abiotic Environment Physical laws and structure: earth, soil, water, minerals, atmosphere… Cycles: H20, C, N, etc… Chemical Interactions… metabolism & synthesis degradation & mass action Energy flux: light, +/_ charge e.g. heat (long wave length light) e.g. electrical charges (chemical bonds & enzymes) Biotic Systems Species Populations Communities Agro-Ecosystem Ecozones Hemispheres Bioshpere Earth Solar System Universe Integration Structure + Process = Pattern Ecosystems:Abiotic and Biotic Integration

  10. Energy Flow

  11. Water Cycle

  12. Carbon Cycle

  13. Nitrogen Cycle

  14. “The Soil Ecosystem” Arthropods Nematodes Earthworms The Soil Food Web Fungi Protozoa Bacteria Actinomy-cetes

  15. Carnivores “Biocontrol Agents” Herbivores “Pests” Producers “Crops” Trophic Levels Complexity

  16. Regions (1,000,000 m2) AVHRR scene Plants (1 m2) Tripod Plant patches (100 m2) Balloon Landscape mosaics (100,000 m2) Field patches (1000 m2) Aerial Photo TM Landsat Scene Spatial scales: Local to Regional to Global Imagine using different Visual Tools…from a Microscope (.0001 m2) to Camera tripod, to an aerial baloon, To an Airplane, to Landsat, to AVHRR

  17. A. Definition of a sustainable land unit… "sustain," from the Latin sustinere (sus-, from below and tenere, to hold), to keep in existence or maintain, implies long-term support or permanence & YOU figure prominently in the equation… 1. Philosophy: stewardship of both natural and human resources You hold the key to sustainability of the land, its ecosystems and environment!

  18. Social Economic Agroecology Defining Sustainable Agriculture • Systems of food, feed and fiber production that are socially responsible, economically viable and environmentally sound. • Highly productive • Serve local needs • Provide rewarding human vocations • Perform restorative ecological functions • Viable over long time horizons

  19. A. Definition of sustainable agriculture "sustain," from the Latin sustinere (sus-, from below and tenere, to hold), to keep in existence or maintain, implies long-term support or permanence 1. Philosophy: stewardship of both natural and human resources It’s the same definition Just a different unit Of land!

  20. Overview • Challenges and opportunities in sustainable agriculture & world • Background • A vision for sustainable agriculture and the role of each person in this class

  21. Challenges • World population • Economic disparities • Globalization • Environmental degradation

  22. Opportunities • Awareness of sustainability • Wellness lifestyles– Apply to you? • Michigan’s/US’s natural resources • Personal Responsibility?

  23. Michigan Land Resources 2040 2020 1980 Built Agriculture Other vegetation Forest Lake Wetland Projected Land Use Trend

  24. Health & Well-being Climate Nature & Landscape Production Environment Work & Income Integrated Agricultural Landscapes Vereijken, P., 2001

  25. C. What Sustainable thinking seeks not to do Fail to value all of life; including the soil, microbes, plants, animals, people, communities, populations, cities, regions, continents, the Earth! One can not value something without Some understanding of it!

  26. Four disciplines: 1) environmental health, 2) functional ecology, 3) social and economic equity, & 4) economic profitability within the system’s limits

  27. 2. Avoid long-term side effects

  28. 3. Use non-renewable resources slowly The fate of lead in the 1970’s

  29. 4. Value the land and the people on it! That means farmers, they are your kids future!

  30. 5. Value Self-sufficiency… could you survive in a polluted world? A world without clean water? A world where you had to produce your own food and housing?

  31. D. Measures of sustainability 1. Productivity 2. Stability 3. Sustainability 4. Equity 5. Functional Ecology

  32. Implementation of sustainable thinking in you… 1. Ecological Efficiency & Living simply… 2. Substitution expensive and energy wasteful for frugal and effective 3. Redesign your thinking, expectations & your (our) future!

  33. Extension has the information you need to survive! • Insect Ecology and Biological control • MSU a resource for your future • Biological Control Programs • Sustainable Agriculture • Sustainable U • Sustainable MI • Sustainable World http://www.cips.msu.edu/biocontrol/

  34. Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) US president 1953-1961 I believe that the great Creator has put ores and oil on this earth to give us a breathing spell. As we exhaust them, we must be prepared to fall back on our farms, which is God’s true storehouse and can never be exhausted. We can learn to synthesize material for every human need from things that grow. George Washington Carver (1860-1943) Agricultural chemist, developer of crop-rotation and 325 uses for the peanut Farmers are the only indispensable people on the face of the earth. Ambassador Li Zhaoxing (1940-present) Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the United States

More Related