Lecture Outlines Chapter 10 Environment: The Science behind the Stories 4th Edition

Lecture Outlines Chapter 10 Environment:The Science behind the Stories 4th Edition Withgott/Brennan

Notes HW • Write each slide title on the left side of the paper • Summarize provided information on the right side of the paper • If there are slides with Objectives or “this lecture will help you understand” you do NOT need to write these. • Define any words or answer any questions or fill in the blanks when something appears in red. • Sometimes it is a question linked to a website you should view • Sometime there are comments written in purple. You do not need to write these. They are just my personal commentary  • Be prepared to answer questions at the end.

Today, we are producing more food per person • 1 billion people do not have enough to eat due to economics, politics, conflict, and inefficiencies in distribution • Undernutrition ? • Most undernourished live in developing nations • But 36 million Americans are “food insecure” • Food security ?

Overnutrition and malnutrition • Overnutrition ? • Most prevalent in developed countries have abundant, cheap junk food, and people lead sedentary lives • In the U.S., 25% of adults are obese • Malnutrition ? • The diet lacks adequate vitamins and minerals • Can lead to diseases

Kwashiorkor = diet lacks protein or essential amino acids Occurs when children stop breast-feeding Bloated stomach, mental and physical disabilities Marasmus= protein deficiency and insufficient calories Wasting or shriveling of the body Malnutrition can lead to diseases

Spread to the developing world in the 1940s Wheat, rice, corn Depended on lots of: Synthetic fertilizers Chemical pesticides Irrigation Machinery The Green Revolution increased yields Norman Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work

Monocultures increase output, but at a cost • Monoculture ? • More efficient, increases output • Devastates biodiversity • Susceptible to disease and pests • Preserving native variants protects against crop failure • Human diet is narrowed: 90% of our food comes from 15 crop and 8 livestock species • Wheat, rice and maize provide >50% of the global plant-based energy intake.

Biofuels affect food supplies • Biofuels ? • Replace petroleum in engines • Ethanol ? • 2007 subsidies doubled production • Food prices increased • Farmers sold corn for ethanol, not food • Farmers planted biofuels, not food crops • Riots erupted in many nations

Seed banks are living museums • Seed banks = institutions that preserve seed types as living museums of genetic diversity • Seeds are collected, stored, and periodically planted The “doomsday seed vault” in Norway stores millions of seeds from around the world

We have thousands of pesticides • Pest ? • Weed? (definition given in your book in this chapter) • Pesticides = poisons that target pest organisms • Insecticides = kill insects • Herbicides = kill plants • Fungicides = kill fungi

Pests evolve resistance to pesticides • Some individuals are genetically immune to a pesticide • They pass these genes to their offspring • Pesticides stop being effective • Pesticide treadmill ? • Pesticides also kill nontarget organisms • Including predators and parasites of pests • Pest populations become harder to control

Biological control (biocontrol) Biological control ? Reduces pest populations without chemicals Reduces chemical use Cactus moths control prickly pear Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) = soil bacteria that kills many pests

Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Using 2 or more techniques Biocontrol Chemicals, if necessary Population monitoring Habitat alteration Crop rotation and transgenic crops Alternative tillage methods Mechanical pest removal

Not all insects are pests Pollination ? By wind or animals Pollinators include: Hummingbirds Bats Insects (bees, wasps, etc.) Bees numbers are declining Flowers are evolutionary adaptations to attract pollinators

Resources needed for livestock production When we choose what to eat, we choose how we use resources Explain the 2 pictures on the right?

Consumption of animal products is growing • As wealth and commerce increase, so does meat, milk, and egg consumption • Since 1950, global meat production has increased fivefold and per capita meat consumption has doubled Domestic animals raised for food increased from 7.2 billion in 1961 to 24.9 billion in 2008

Our food choices are also energy choices • Eating meat is far less energy efficient than eating crops • _?_% of energy is lost from one trophic level to the next • Eating lower on the food chain feeds more people • Some animals convert grain into meat more efficiently than others

Environmental ramifications of eating meat • Land and water are needed to raise food for livestock • Producing eggs and chicken meat requires the least space and water • Producing beef requires the most

Feedlot agriculture • Feedlots (factory farms) ? • Huge warehouses or pens deliver food to animals living at extremely high densities • Over half of the world’s pork and most of its poultry U.S. farms house hundreds of thousands of debeaked chickens in crowded cages

Livestock agriculture pollutes water and air • Causing eutrophication • Waterborne pathogens sicken people • Feedlots produce huge amounts of manure and urine • Crowded, dirty housing causes outbreaks in disease • Heavy use of antibiotics, hormones, heavy metals • Chemicals are transferred to people • Microbes evolve resistance to antibiotics • Air pollution: odors, ammonia (acid rain) • More greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, nitrous oxides) than automobile emissions

We raise fish on “fish farms” • World fish populations are plummeting • Aquaculture ? • Species are raised in open-water pens or land-based ponds

Genetically modified organisms • Genetic engineering ? • Add, delete, modify DNA • Genetically modified (GM) organisms ? • Recombinant DNA ?

Biotechnology is impacting our lives Biotechnology ? Transgenic organism ? Transgenes =the genes that have moved between organisms Biotechnology has created medicines, cleaned up pollution, and dissolved blood clots

Advantages of genetic engineering Other organisms • Faster growth rates • Increased body mass • Ability to produce valuable proteins in animal milk Plants • Pest resistance • Virus resistance • Increased crop yields and longer shelf life • Environmental tolerance (able to withstand drought, extreme temperatures, etc.)

Gene silencing • Some genetically modified organisms do not contain a foreign gene • instead engineering allows scientists to “turn off” normally expressed genes • Scientists remove gene and reinsert it in the wrong direction forming nonsense mRNA • Gene silencing has been used to reduce the amount of caffeine in some coffee beans

Herbicide resistance • Most commonly introduced trait in GM crops • Allows farmers to spray herbicides onto fields without harming crops • Increases crop yields since crops are no longer competing with weeds for moisture, nutrients, and light • Round-upTMis a broad spectrum herbicide • Round-up Ready crops are not harmed when the herbicide is sprayed

Pest resistance • Insects can damage crops • Many insecticides from the past have negative environmental consequences (DDT) • Modern insecticides safer, but have to have repeated applications • Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is soil bacterium that targets a specific group of insect larvae • Regular corn in left destroyed by corn borer • Bt corn from same field on right (It works)

Neutraceuticals • Adding or increasing vitamin or mineral contents, modifying fats and oils, and altering starch and sugar quantities • Benefit consumer rather than farmer • Examples: Golden Rice, potatoes modified to convert more starch into glucose, oils that are healthier, decaffeinated coffee • Golden rice was developed using daffodil and soil bacterium genes to provide beta-carotene to people in developing countries. Many individuals in developing nation are hesitant to eat it since it looks so differently.

Pharmaceuticals “Pharming” • Placing vaccines or other drug/treatments into foods • Very similar to neutraceuticals • Edible vaccines could be used in developing countries to increase vaccinate rates Future Developments • Transgenic cows making blood proteins for hemophiliacs or lactoferrin for infant formula • Pigs developed to provide organs for human transplant

Environmental Tolerance • Plants are being developed that can withstand: • High salinity • Drought • Frost

Concerns of genetic engineering • Cross-pollination • Ecosystem disruption • Evolution of “superweeds” • Allergens transferred to new foods • Unknown long-term health effects • Inadequate regulation

Problems have arisen No individuals have been made sick from genetically modified food Genes have escaped and hybridized with wild relatives up to 13 miles away Precautionary principle ?

GMO producers are suing farmers Corporations go to great lengths to protect their GM investments • Monsanto has launched 112 lawsuits against 372 farmers, winning an average $385,000 per case • Monsanto sued Percy Schmeiser of Canada for using its GM seeds without paying for them • Schmeiser said the seeds blew onto his field from adjacent fields • The courts sided with Monsanto, saying that Schmeiser had violated Monsanto’s patent

The future of GM foods • Europeans demand that GM foods are labeled • U.S. consumers have mostly accepted GM crops • They don’t realize most food contains GM products • The U.S. sued the European Union before the World Trade Organization for hindering free trade • The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety lays out guidelines for open information about exported crops • The U.S. has not joined • Brazil, India, and China approve GM crops

Benefits: A reliable protein source Can be sustainable Reduces pressure on overharvested wild fish Energy efficient Drawbacks: Diseases require expensive antibiotics Lots of waste Uses grain Escaped GM fish introduce disease or outcompete wild fish The benefits and drawbacks of aquaculture Top fish is GM salmon and bottom is normal salmon of the same age and raised in same environment. YIKES!!!!

Governments can support organic farming • In 1993, the European Union adopted a policy supporting farmers financially during conversion to organic farming • The U.S. offers no support so organic production lags • The 2008 Farm Bill gives $112 million over 5 years for organic agriculture • Many farmers can’t switch, because they can’t afford the temporary loss of income • In the long run, organic farming is more profitable than conventional farming

Locally supported agriculture is growing • Sustainable agriculture reduces fossil fuel use from long-distance transport of products • Food is chemically treated for freshness and color • Farmers’ markets = provide fresh, locally grown food Published in 1917 and still good advise today.

10-A • Describe the Green Revolution. • Explain the pesticide treadmill/resistance. • Describe undernutrition, malnutrition, over nutrition, & food security. • Describe integrated pest management (IPM) and biocontrol.

10-B • List the arguments for and against genetically modified crops. How does the precautionary principal relate? • What are feedlots and aquaculture? What are the positives & negative associated with both? • What are processed foods and how have the created environmental problems? • What is meant by the phrase “eating at a lower trophic level.”

Biological controls are frequently used to replace persistent chemical pesticides. Which of the following represents the greatest potential risk of using biological controls? • The control agents attacks not only its intended target but also beneficial species. • The control agent mutates and is no longer an effective control. • Repeated applications or introductions are required to eliminate the pest population. • Residual pesticides in the environment kill the control agent before it can eradicate the pest. • Biological controls prove to be more costly to use than chemical pesticides.

QUESTION: Review Why has our production of food increased over the past 50 years despite the growing population? • We have become more sustainable in food production. • We have doubled the land used for agricultural production. • Technology in the form of fossil fuels, pesticides, and fertilizers have increased production. • We have not produced more food in the past several decades.

QUESTION: Review Which term means “a shortage of nutrients the body needs”? • Undernourishment • Overnutrition • Food security • Malnutrition

QUESTION: Review Which of the following is NOT correct about monocultures? • They are an efficient way to produce food. • They increase biodiversity. • They make crops more susceptible to diseases. • They narrow human diets.

QUESTION: Review Which of the following is NOT a part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM)? • No-till farming • Biocontrol • Some chemical use • All are part of IPM

QUESTION: Review How does GM food production differ from traditional, selective breeding? • It does not differ. • It uses genes from different species. • It involves more fieldwork. • It works better in developing countries.

Lecture Outlines Chapter 10 Environment: The Science behind the Stories 4th Edition