12.3

1. 12.3 • What environmental problems arise from food production?

2. Producing Food Has Major Environmental Impacts • Harmful effects of agriculture on • Biodiversity • Soil • Water • Air • Human health • Worse than any human activity • ¾ of water quality problems

4. Topsoil Erosion • Soil erosion • Natural causes – flowing water, wind, glaciers • Human causes – farming, mining, deforestation, overgrazing, off-road vehicles • Two major harmful effects of soil erosion • Loss of soil fertility • Water pollution Natural Capital Degradation: Global Soil Erosion

5. Drought and Human Activities Are Degrading Drylands • Desertification – mostly in Africa and Asia • Moderate (10-25% drop in productivity) • Severe (25-50% drop in productivity) • Very severe (more than 50% drop) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=FKEKhdt7Mks • Effect of global warming on desertification- expected to increase severe/ prolonged drought. • Results -drop in • food production, • water shortages • and refugees Desertification of Arid and Semiarid Lands

6. Excessive Irrigation Problems • Most irrigation water has many dissolved salts from rocks and soil • Salinization – evaporation of water, leaving the salt behind. Stunts crop growth, lowers yields and kill plants/ruin land • Worst in China, India, Egypt • Waterlogging – accumulation of water underground which raises the water table • Farmers often water often in order to leach the salts deeper into the soil, but if water table rises, the saline water can be reached by the plants’ roots

7. Limits to Expanding the Green Revolutions • Depletion of water supplies • Wasteful use of irrigation water • Soil salinization • Climate change (melting mountain glaciers that provide summer waters) • Farmers lack the money to irrigate • improve efficiency of irrigation techniques • GM crops that are more drought and cold tolerant and multicropping can increase yields

8. Industrialized Food Production Requires Huge Inputs of Energy • Industrialized food production and consumption have a large net energy loss • Food travels a total of 1300 miles from farm to plate! Industrialized Agriculture uses ~17% of All Commercial Energy Used in the U.S.

9. Controversy over Genetically Engineered Foods • Pros • Cons • What about • chimeraplasty? • Inserting a • Chemical • Instruction • That attaches to • A gene to get • desired traits. • No mixing genes • Of different • species

10. Food and Biofuel Production Systems Have Caused Major Biodiversity Losses • Biodiversity threatened when • Forest and grasslands are replaced with croplands • Agrobiodiversity threatened when • Human-engineered monocultures are used • Importance of seed banks (97% of food plant varieties available in the 1940s no longer exist) • Newest: underground vault in the Norwegian Arctic

11. Industrialized Meat Production Has Harmful Environmental Consequences

12. Producing Fish through Aquaculture Can Harm Aquatic Ecosystems

13. What environmental problems arise from food production? • Topsoil erosion • Drought and human activities degrade drylands • Excessive irrigation • Limits to the Green Revolution • Industrialized food production requires huge inputs of energy • Controversy over genetically engineered foods • Food and biofuel production systems affect biodiversity • Industrialized meat production are energy intensive • Aquaculture can harm aquatic ecosystems

14. 12.4 • How can we protect crops from pests more sustainably?

15. Nature Controls the Populations of Pests • What is a pest? • Natural enemies—predators, parasites, disease organisms—control pests • In natural ecosystems • In many polyculture agroecosystems • there is a balance- spiders kill more insects every year than chemicals do! • What will happen if we kill the pests? Spiders are Important Insect Predators

16. Pesticides • Pesticides • Insecticides • Herbicides • Fungicides • Rodenticides (rats and mice) • Herbivores overcome plant defenses through natural selection: coevolution • First-generation pesticides – natural chemicals from plants • Second-generation pesticides • Paul Muller: DDT • Benefits versus harm • Broad-spectrum agents- DDT, malathion and parathion • Persistence – length of time they remain deadly in the environment

17. DDTdichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanea chlorinated hydrocarbon • Used during WW II to kill mosquitoes • in order to prevent malaria and typhus. • It is not water soluble so it accumulates in the tissues of organisms. • Got in the waters, then fish, then birds. • Caused bird eggs to be too thin so they broke when sat on • Contributed to the declining numbers of bald eagles, bats, peregrine falcons • Banned in 1972, but many countries still use it.

18. Why Are We Concerned About DDT? • Even though DDT has been banned since 1972, it can take more than 15 years to break down in the environment. • What harmful effects can DDT have on us? • Damages the liver • Temporarily damages the nervous system • Can cause liver cancer • Damages reproductive system • How are we exposed to DDT? • By eating contaminated fish and shellfish • Infants may be exposed through breast milk • By eating imported food directly exposed to DDT • By eating crops grown in contaminated soil

19. Rachel Carson • Biologist • Silent Spring - 1962 • Potential threats of uncontrolled use of pesticides • DDT pp. 87-91 and dieldrin 91-94

20. Advantages of Modern Synthetic Pesticides • Save human lives • Increases food supplies and profits for farmers • Work quickly • Health risks are very low relative to their benefits • New pest control methods: safer and more effective

21. Synthetic Pesticides Have Disadvantages • Accelerate the development of genetic resistance to pesticides by pest organisms • Expensive for farmers • Some insecticides kill natural predators and parasites that help control the pest population • Pollution in the environment • Some harm wildlife • Some are human health hazards

23. Chemical groups of Pesticides • Natural organic pesticides come from plants • tobacco produces toxic nicotine sulfate-toxic to insects and mammals • pyrethrum- comes from chrysanthemum and is used in animal dips and flea shampoo • Chlorinated hydrocarbons- DDT, aldrin, dieldrin, chlordane- are nerve toxins that cause nausea, vomiting, convulsions and death. Linked to fertility disorders and may be carcinogens. Highly persistent, fat soluble and subject to biomagnification • Organophosphates – malathion, parathion and tetrethylpyrophosphate. Used as nerve agents in WWII. Break down quickly. More toxic in lower amounts that chlorinated hydrocarbons because they are absorbed quickly. Cause headache, slow heart beat, confusion, paralysis, coma, death.

24. Carbamates – are insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. Lack persistence and bioaccumulation. Examples are carbaryl (Sevin) and aldicarb (Temik). Also act on the nervous system and have same effects. • Case Study- Bhopal, India 1984 • Poisonous gas leak that killed 10,000 – 30,000 and more than 500,000 were injured • Union carbide was producing an insecticide- called Sevin • The chemical name was methyl icocyanate (MIC) • Once inhaled, MIC destroys the respiratory system with lightning speed, causes irreversible blindness and burns the pigment of the skin

25. However… • Pesticide use has not reduced U.S. crop loss to pests • 3 conclusions are: • 1. Loss of crops today is greater than in the 1940s. 37% of crops lost now compared to 31% • 2. High environmental, health, and social costs with use • 3. Use alternative pest management practices • Pesticide industry refutes these findings • Children are most susceptible • For their body size, they eat more food, • drink more water and breathe more air

27. THE UNPREDICTABILITY OF INSECTICIDES • THE CATS OF BORNEO • Malaria and dieldrin (relative to DDT) • Kill the mosquitos to prevent malaria!

28. Laws and Treaties Can Help to Protect Us from the Harmful Effects of Pesticides • Over 25,000 different commercial pesticides • U.S. federal agencies regulate sale/use • EPA • USDA • FDA • Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) first passed in 1947 and amended in 1972 • Food Quality Protection Act 1996- EPA must reduce allowed levels of pesticide residues in food • Effects of active and inactive pesticide ingredients are poorly documented • Circle of poison, boomerang effect – residues of banned pesticides exported to countries can return to those countries on imported food. Wind also carries pesticides

29. Laws Controlling Pesticide Use • Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act (1938) • Pesticide Chemicals Amendment (1954) • Delaney Clause (1958) (a zero cancer risk standard) • Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (1947) federal control of pesticide distribution, sale, and use • Food Quality Protection Act (1996)

30. Alternatives to Using Pesticides • Fool the pest – rotating crops, adjust planting times • Provide homes for pest enemies • Implant genetic resistance- GE used to speed up development of pest/disease-resistant crop strains • Bring in natural enemies • Use insect perfumes • E.g., pheromones (sex attractants) • Bring in hormones – use to disrupt developmental processes • Scald them with hot water – works on cotton, alfalfa

31. Integrated Pest Management • Integrated pest management (IPM) • Coordinate: cultivation, biological controls, and chemical tools to reduce crop damage to an economically tolerable level • Disadvantages • Takes knowledge of the specific pest • Takes time • Methods may vary from place to place • Initial costs high • Government subsidies for using chemicals

32. Systems Approach- Integrated Pest Management (IPM) • IPM • Combination of pest control methods that keeps pest population low without economic loss • Conventional pesticides are used sparingly when other methods fail

33. IPM Project

34. 12.4 HOW DO WE PROTECT CROPS FROM PESTS? • Nature controls most pest populations • Use pesticides • Laws and treaties • Biological, ecological and other alternatives to pesticides • Integrated pest management

35. 12.5 • How can we improve food security?

36. Food Production and Security • Control prices – government can set limits on food prices • Provide subsidies – government can provide subsidies • Let the marketplace decide • United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) suggests these measures to save children from effects of poverty • Immunizing children against childhood diseases • Encourage breast-feeding • Prevent dehydration in infants and children – mix sugar/salt in their water • Prevent blindness by giving children a vitamin A capsule 2x/yr • Provide family planning services • Increase education for women • PREVENTING HEALTH PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN CAN INCREASE FOOD SECURITY

37. 12.6 • HOW CAN WE PRODUCE FOOD MORE SUSTAINABLY?

38. Soil Conservation Methods- Reduce soil erosion

39. Eliminate or minimize plowing/tilling • Conservation tillage farming- uses no machinery- leaves the crop residue on the surface to decompose – a special machine drills seeds directly through the crop residues • This methods helps store carbon and keep other nutrients in the soil –uses less fertilizers/ lowers use of water/fertilizer runoff and tractor fuel • But cannot be used for all crops, costly machinery, and increase use of herbicides

40. Case in Point: American Dust Bowl • Great Plains have low precipitation and subject to drought and wind • 1930-1937 severe drought • farmers had plowed land deeply and did not rotate crops, leave them fallow or plant cover crops to prevent erosion- No natural vegetation roots to hold soil in place- • Winds blew soil as far east as NYC and DC. • Farmers went bankrupt- many moved to Ca and became migrant workers. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2CiDaUYr90

41. Restore Soil Fertility • Organic fertilizer - animal manure, green manure (freshly cut or growing green vegetation), compost (microorganisms break down organic matter like leaves, crop residues) • Crop rotation to preserve nutrients – corn and cotton deplete nitrogen and legumes add nitrogen • Manufactured inorganic fertilizers- contain compounds that add nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – do not add organic material to the soil – need to be controlled carefully since fertilizers can run off the land and pollute the waters

42. Reduce Soil Salinization and Desertification • Soil salinization • Prevention – reduce irrigation/plant salt tolerant crops • Clean-up – stop growing/ flush soil/underground drainage systems • Desertification, reduce • Population growth • Overgrazing • Deforestation • Destructive forms of planting, irrigation, and mining

44. Practice More Sustainable Aquaculture • Open-ocean aquaculture • Farm inland in zero discharge ponds/tanks • Salmon, tuna and cod are carnivores. • Carp, tilapia and catfish are herbivores – more sustainable • Polyculture – raising fish/shrimp/algae/seaweed/shellfish together and the wastes of one is food for another. Shrimp and tilapia can be grown together for they feed at different levels.

45. Produce Meat More Efficiently and Humanely • Shift to more grain-efficient forms of protein • poultry and plant eating farmed fish • Develop meat substitutes; eat less meat • Whole Food Markets: more humane treatment of animals • 38% of world’s grain harvest and 37% of world’s fish catch are used to produce animal protein

46. Whole foods 5-step animal rating

47. MOVE DOWN THE FOOD CHAIN AND SLOW POPULATION GROWTH • MEAT PRODUCTION/DELIVERY CAUSES 40% MORE GHG THAN ALL THE WORLD’S MODES OF TRANSPORTATION. • DECREASING THE AMOUNT OF MEAT AND SWITCHING TO MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT CHICKEN AND HERBIVOROUS FISH IS ALSO MORE HEALTHY AND INCREASES LIFE EXPECTANCY. • MEDITERRANEAN-TYPE DIETS INCLUDE LESS MEAT/CHEESE/SEAFOOD • VEGETARIAN DIETS • SLOWING THE POPULATION GROWTH REDUCES HARMFUL EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURE.

48. What is Organic Farming? • Farming with little or no synthetic fertilizers/pesticides/ or GE seeds

49. SOLUTIONS Sustainable Organic Agriculture Less More Soil erosion High-yield polyculture Aquifer depletion Organic fertilizers Overgrazing Biological pest control Overfishing Integrated pest management Loss of biodiversity Efficient irrigation Food waste Subsidies for unsustainable farming and fishing Perennial crops Crop rotation Water-efficient crops Soil salinization Soil conservation Population growth Subsidies for sustainable farming and fishing Poverty Fig. 12-31, p. 307

50. Buy Locally Grown Food- be a locovore! • Supports local economies • Reduces environmental impact on food production • Community-supported agriculture (CSA) • Farmers’ markets