FOOD PRODUCTION
AND THE ENVIRONMENT
WHAT IS FOOD SECURITY AND
WHY IS IT DIFFICULT TO ATTAIN?
Human Food Supply
WAYS TO PROTECT CROPS FROM PESTS
HOW CAN WE PRODUCE FOOD MORE SUSTAINABLY?
HOW CAN WE IMPROVE
FOOD SECURITY?
Environmental problems arising from industrialized food production
Causes of food insecurity
Alternatives to
Synthetic Pesticides
Natural enemies
Pesticides
Advantages
Disadvantages
Protective Laws and Treaties
Saving people from insect transmitted disease
Reducing food loss -> food supplies go up
Crop yields & farming profits increase
New pesticides are safer, more effective & work faster, with the right use -> lower health risks
Pesticide resistance in pest organisms
Food security:
the condition under which people have daily access to enough nutritious food
Reducing effectiveness when used in the long term
-> cost more, profit less
Kill the pest’s natural enemies
Both wildlife and human health are affected
Poverty (root cause)
prevents poor people from growing or buying enough food to meet their needs
Other factors
war, corruption, natural disasters, ect
People suffer from
Chronic Hunger and Malnutrition
Malnutrition:
a condition in which people do not get enough protein and other key nutrients
Diets
More-developed countries
Less-developed countries
Heavy diet on cheap food loaded with fats, sugar, salt
Low-protein, high carbohydrate, vegetarian diet consisting mainly of grain
People do not get enough vitamin and minerals
Major environmental impacts
Vitamin A
Iodine (I)
Iron (Fe)
People have problems from eating too much
Overnutrition
Occurs when food energy intake exceeds energy use and causes excess body fat
Causes
greater susceptibility to disease and illness
lower productivity and life quality
lower life expectancy
Reducing Soil Erosion and Salinization
Soil conservation
Ex: terracing, contour planting, strip-cropping, planting cover crops, and setting up windbreaks
Restoring Soil Fertility
Organic fertilizer
Green manure
Compost
Animal manure
Sustainable Food Production Solutions
Inefficient application causes pollution
Crop rotation/adjusting planting time/allows enemies to eat them
Implant genetic resistance
Altering insects' hormones
Reduce synthetic herbicide usage to control weeds
IPM – use of a coordinated combination of cultivation, biological and chemical tools
Polyculture provides homes for pest’s enemies
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both are time consuming and costly
Biological control: use natural enemies (natural pheromones - insect perfume)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
Reducing poverty and malnutrition
Producing food more sustainably
Relying on locally sourced food
Government Policies
Controlling food prices vs. food subsides
Implementing health measures
Aid local, sustainable, organic food production and distribution
Educate farmers
Encourage Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs and vertical farming
Practice More
Sustainable Aquaculture
Circulating aquaculture systems
Synthetic inorganic fertilizer
Produce Meat and Dairy Products More Efficiently
Shifting from less grain-efficient forms of animal protein to more grain forms
Supporting free-range animal operations that use manure to fertilize the soil
Industrialized agriculture
Removes 70% of fresh water from surface sources and aquifers
Uses 38% of the world’s ice-free land
Emits 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions
Produces 60% of all water pollution
Soil erosion
The movement of soil
By nature
Flowing water
Wind loosens and blows away topsoils particles
By people
Farming, deforestation
Overgrazing exposes land
Harmful affects
Loss of soil fertility
Topsoil pollution of surface waters -> kill fish and clog reservoirs and lakes
Croplands
Feedlots
grain
Releases the soil’s carbon content
rice
wheat , corn
The loss of natural biodiversity
meat-products
aquaculture
Agriculture
Clearing and burning forests
Killing of wild predators to protect livestock
Desertification
Deforestation
Excessive plowing, overgrazing
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Soil salinization
The gradual accumulations of salts in the upper soil layers
Impact
Subsistence agriculture
Industrialized agriculture
using heavy equipment
Stunt crop growth
Ruin the land
Lower crop yields
Supplements energy form sun, labor of human , draft animals
Waterlogging
produce crops
Excess water in the root zone
Second major producing system
Half from livestock grazing on grass in unfenced rangelands & enclose pastures
increase steadily each crop's yeild
The other : industrialized factory farm system
Effects
Lower the productivity of crop plants
Damages the land
Third major food-producing
Raising fish & shellfish in in freshwater ponds, lakes, reservoirs, and rice paddies, and
in underwater cages in coastal and deeper ocean waters
Catch wild fish
Leave the topsoil bare and unprotected against erosion by flowing water and wind
Organic agriculture
without
Synthetic pesticides
Animal raised on 100% organic feed without the use of antibiotic or growth hormones
Synthetic inorganic fertilizers
click to edit
fossil fuel, commercial
fertilizer/pesticides, &money
Open-ocean aquaculture
Changing diets
Eat less grain-efficient species (beef, pork and lamb)
Eat more locally sourced, organic food, and have two meatless meals per week
Switch to organic farming, perennial polyculture, renewable energy usage, and subsidies
Alley cropping, agroforestry (planting crops in orchards) and tillage farming
Reducing irrigation dependence; rotating crops/switching to salt tolerant varieties
VN: Law on Plant Protection and Quarantine (Luật Bảo vệ và kiểm dịch thực vật 2013)