Chapter 19 Food Resources: A Challenge For Agriculture

1. Chapter 19Food Resources: A Challenge For Agriculture

2. Overview of Chapter 19 • Food and Nutrition • World Food Problems • Principle Types of Agriculture • Challenges of Producing More Crops and Livestock • Environmental Impact of Agriculture • Solutions to Agricultural Problems • Fisheries of the World

3. Food and Nutrition • Carbohydrates • Sugars and starches metabolized by cellular respiration to produce energy • Proteins • Large, complex molecules composed of amino acids that perform critical roles in body • Lipids • Include fats and oils and are metabolized by cellular respiration to produce energy • Vitamins and Minerals

4. Human Foods

5. World Food Problems • Feeding a growing population is difficult • Annual grain production (left) has increased since 1970 • Grain per person has not (right)

6. World Food Problems • Famine • Failure of crops caused by drought, flood or catastrophic event • Temporary but severe shortage of food • Maintaining World Grain Carryover Stockpiles • Amounts of rice, wheat, corn and other grains remaining from previous harvest • Provides measure of food security • Decreased each year since 1987 • UN feels carryover stock should not fall below 70 days

7. World Grain Carryover Stock • Why the decline? • Rising temperatures • Falling water tables and droughts • Ethanol production • More grain is going towards feeding livestock

8. World Food Problems • Poverty and Food • 1.3 billion people are so poor they cannot afford proper nutrition • More common in • Rural than urban areas • Infants, children and the elderly • Economics and Politics • Cost money to store, produce, transport and distribute food • Getting food to those who need it is political

9. Principle Types of Agriculture Industrialized agriculture • Modern agriculture methods require large capital input, less land and less labor

10. Principle Types of Agriculture • Subsistence Agriculture • Traditional agricultural methods, which are dependent on labor and large amounts of land • Examples: • Shifting cultivation • Slash and burn agriculture • Nomadic herding • Intercropping

11. Challenges of Producing More Crop and Livestock • Domestication and Genetic Diversity • Domestication of crops and livestock causes a loss of genetic diversity • Farmer selects and propagates animals with desirable agricultural characteristics • Many high yielding crops are genetically uniform • High likelihood that bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc. will attack and destroy entire crop

12. Challenges of Producing More Crop and Livestock • Increasing Crop Yield • Food production increased in developed countries (wheat) • Pesticides • Selective breeding

13. Case-In-Point Green Revolution • High Yielding Rice Varieties

14. Challenges of Producing More Crop and Livestock • Increasing Livestock Yields • Hormone supplements • US and Canada do this • Europe does not citing human health concerns • Antibiotics • 40% of antibiotics produced in US are used in livestock operations • Problems with increased bacteria resistance

15. Antibiotic Use and Resistance

16. Genetic Engineering • Manipulation of genes by taking a specific gene from a cell of one species and placing it into the cell of an unrelated species

17. Issue with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) • Determined to be safe for human consumption • Concerns about GMO seed or pollen spreading in wild • Backlash against GMOs • GMOs are not currently labeled • FDA finds it would be counterproductive and expensive to label

18. Environmental Impacts of Agriculture • High use of fossil fuels and pesticides • Air pollution • Untreated animal wastes and agricultural chemicals • Water pollution • Harms fisheries • Insects, weeds, and disease-causing organisms developing resistance to pesticides • Contaminate food supply

19. Environmental Impact of Agriculture • Land degradation • Decreases future ability of land to support crops or livestock • Habitat fragmentation • Breakup of large areas of habitat into small, isolated patches • Cultivating marginal lands • Irrigating dry land • Cultivating land prone to erosion

20. Solutions to Agricultural Problems- Sustainable Agriculture

21. Sustainable Agriculture • Examples: • Natural Predator-prey relationships instead of pesticides • Crop selection • Crop rotation and conservation tillage • Supplying nitrogen with legumes • Organic agriculture • Integrated Pest Management (IPM) • Limited use of pesticides with sustainable agriculture practices

22. Fisheries of the World- Problems • No nation lays claim to open ocean • Resource susceptible to overuse and degradation • Overharvesting • Many species are at point of severe depletion • Cod (right) • 62% of world’s fish stock are in need of management action

23. Fisheries of the World- Problems • Overharvesting (continued) • Sophisticated fishing equipment • Bycatch killed off • Magnuson Fisheries Conservation Act

24. Fisheries of the World- Problems • Ocean Pollution - dumping ground • Oil • Heavy metals • Deliberate litter dumping • Stormwater runoff from cities and agricultural areas • Aquaculture • Growing of aquatic organisms for human consumption • Great potential to supply food

25. Fisheries of the World- Problems • Aquaculture (continued) • Locations of fisheries may hurt natural habitats • Produce waste that pollutes adjacent water