Food & Agriculture

1. Food & Agriculture Undernourished- less than 2500 calories/day. 11 million children die/yr. from diseases exacerbated by nutrition deficiencies. Poverty is the greatest threat to food security. 1.4 billion people live on less than $1/day. Famines – politics & economics prevent people from getting food. Environmental conditions are the initial trigger. Closed borders to prevent migration, wars, land seizures. “ Political oppression & armed conflict are almost always are the root of famine. No democratic country with a relatively free press has ever had a major famine.” Amartya Sen

2. Malnourishment – specific dietary component is missing or the inability to absorb or utilize essential nutrients. Kwashiokor “displaced child” – diet low in protein or high quality protein. Reddish-orange hair, puffy, discolored skn & bloated belly from swelled liver. Marasmus “to waste away” diet low in both calories & protein. Thin & shriveled like a very old starving person.

3. Objectives: • Notes on food & hunger. • Debates • Red fish / blue fish if time. Warm Up: • List the 3 main grain crops in the world? • Wheat, rice & maize. 2. What % of people depend on fish as their source of protein? Worldwide, about a billion people rely on fish as their main source of animal proteins. Dependence on fish is usually higher in coastal than in inland areas. About 20% of the world’s population derives at least one-fifth of its animal protein intake from fish, and some small island states depend almost exclusively on fish.

4. Essential vitamins & minerals: Folic acid (dark leafy green vegetables) – fetal development & specifically brain development. Vitamin A (green & yellow veg. & dairy) – vision Iron – (Red meat, eggs, legumes & green veg.) anemia if low levels Most common mineral deficiency in the world. B12 (meat & soybeans) for iron absorption Iodine (seafood & iodized salt) brain damage & thyroid health (goiter)

5. Of the thousands of edible plants & animals only approximately a dozen types of seeds & grains, 3 root crops, 20 fruits & vegetables, 6 mammals, 2 domestic fowl, & a few fish make up almost all of the food humans eat. Wheat, rice & maize are the 3 crops which humanity depends on for the majority of its nutrients & calories. Wheat & rice are the staple foods for 5 billion people in the developing countries = 50 of the calories consumed by humans. Potatoes, barley, oats & rye = staples in high latitudes & altitudes. Cassava, sweet potatoes & other roots & tubers = warm, wet areas.

6. N. America, Europe & Japan – 20% of world population but consume 30 % of all meat & milk in the world. 90% of grain in N. Am. Used to feed cattle, hogs, poultry & other animals. 16 kg of soybeans fed to beef cattle produce 1 kg of edible meat. Eating grain directly = 21x’s calories & 8x’s more protein. Fish & other seafood = 94million metric tons of high quality protein especially to Japan (1/4 of dietary protein). However, fisheries globally are in steep decline. One animal in four is unwanted “by-catch”.

7. Objectives: • Video: Feed the World • Complete notes on pros & cons. • Complete debates. Warm Up: What is the pesticide treadmill? Rules of the activity.

8. Objectives: Outline soil formation, crop input necessities & soil loss. Warm Up: • What is necessary to grow crops? • Fertile Soil • Water • Seeds • Pesticides (Insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides etc.) • Fertilizer • Machinery or man or animal power.

9. Soil is made up of a mixture of organic material and minerals. The organic matter comes from dead plants and many of the minerals come from the rocks underground. These rocks, which are part of the lithosphere, are referred to as bedrock. Because the plants grow on top of the soil and the rocks are found underground, soil is made up of layers. The type of soil that forms in a region will depend upon the climate, the bedrock underground, and the plants growing there. In deciduous forests the soil may be deep, rich, and dark brown in color. In sandy areas the soil will be dry with a dusty grey colour. In tropical regions the soil is often very deep and bright red. The richest soils are found in grasslands while the poorest soils are found in tropical rainforests and tundra area. Why? If you look in a soil pit or on a roadside cut, you will see various layers in the soil. These layers are called soil horizons. The arrangement of these horizons in a soil is known as a soil profile. Soil scientists, who are also called pedologists, observe and describe soil profiles and soil horizons to classify and interpret the soil for various uses.

11. Sign up for AP Test before 3/13 (One week from this Friday) Objectives: • Sign up for topic debates that will be done tomorrow. • Soil problems and solutions. • Begin CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feed Organizations) if time. Warm Up: • What happened in Haiti? • Who is coming this Saturday?

12. Problems: Erosion removes valuable soil & harms the watershed. EROSION AND SOIL LOSS: Rill erosion – small channels form. Gully erosion – rills enlarge to form bigger channels. Row cropping leaves soil exposed between each row. Planting against the contours increases runoff speed. Deforestation – without roots to hold the soil in place when it rains it washes away. Wind erosion – can lift large quantities of soil up into the air & transport it across the ocean. Especially powerful in arid environments.

13. Over irrigation can increase the risk of disease while under irrigation can increase the risk of aflatoxin contamination. Proper irrigation scheduling can be accomplished by manual or electronic sensors to check water content, sensors to monitor plant water status, or use of an irrigation scheduling program. Water can be applied to the soil using overhead sprinkler systems (center pivot, lateral, hose tows, big guns, etc.), surface drip or subsurface drip irrigation.

14. Dust storm Mud slide due to deforestation.

15. Solutions Farming problems and solutions EROSION AND SOIL LOSS: Rill erosion – small channels form. Gully erosion – rills enlarge to form bigger channels. Row cropping leaves soil exposed between each row. Leave crop residue or no till. Planting against the contours increases runoff speed. Contour plowing. Deforestation – without roots to hold the soil in place when it rains it washes away. Do not remove entire areas of forest. Wind erosion – can lift large quantities of soil up into the air & transport it across the ocean. Especially powerful in arid environments. Plant trees in rows perpendicular to prevailing winds to break the force of the wind.

16. Problems Irrigation techniques (the largest use of water globally) causes: Usually due to cheap water & greater availability. [80% of water used in the U.S. is for irrigation.] Soil erosion. Water logging of soil – over watering fills air spaces. Nitrogen in carried in the air. Salinization of soil – mineral accumulate in soil – especially prevalent in arid areas. Solutions: Water conservation techniques like drip irrigation. Use contour planting Use row cropping or no-till to leave plants in place to stop water runoff. Plant trees in 100’ widths to stop runoff & encourage infiltration.

17. Trees & shrubs form wind breaks & help reduce erosion. Contour plowing to keep water from running off.

18. Overuse of fertilizers: Runoff into water bodies cause eutrophication. Too expensive for poorer countries. Soil texture degrades so it does not hold moisture as well. Rotate crops & plant nitrogen restoring legumes. Use animal manure which improves texture. Let soil rest (fallow). Use drip irrigation to prevent water runoff (excess N &P) Problems: Solutions:

19. Pesticides problems: • Health. Can cause cancer in workers. • Kills non-target beneficial organisms. • Expensive & some countries can’t afford them. • Pests can develop resistance through natural selection & cause a pesticide treadmill. Solutions: • Use I.P.M. (Integrated Pest Management) which only spot kills pests, uses crop rotation to cut the insect cycle & uses natural fertilizer rather than petrochemicals. • Introduce beneficial predators like spiders, ladybugs etc. • Trap insects using pheromones.

20. G.M.O. Genetically modified plants. Problems: • Can escape into wild stock. Repercussions: Prosecution, hardier weeds. • Expensive & farmers are required to purchase seeds each season. • Some G.M.O.’s contain proteins which people may be allergic to such as peanuts. • Sharply decreases diversity of food crops. Solutions: • Support small, organic, local farms when possible. • ?

21. Milpa or Swidden Agriculture Milpa agriculture produces maize, beans, lima beans and squash. The milpa cycle calls for 2 years of cultivation and eight years of letting the area lie fallow. Agronomists point out that the system is designed to create relatively large yields of food crops without the use of artificial pesticides or fertilizers, and they point out that while it is self-sustaining at current levels of consumption, there is a danger that at more intensive levels of cultivation the milpa system can become unsustainable. Location of different crops