Chapter 12: Agriculture
What is the future of agriculture?
Farm sustainability, farm marginal land, feed more people, reduce issues related to livestock and farming.
Traditional (subsist) vs modern farming
Traditional
Modern
Subsistence agriculture
Farmers live close to the edge
Poor cannot survive crop failures
Common in Asia, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa
Many depend on imported food and prices are soaring
Slash and burn agriculture in Brazil (Oxisol soils-weathered soil that lacks nutrients)
Components of conventional farming
Modern machinery
Infrastructure
Chemicals
Irrigation
Expansive land
Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs)
What are the problems with each?
Modern machinery: uses fossil fuels and messes with ground and soil compaction which leads to erosion-also very expensive
Infrastructure: compacts soil and takes up usable land, fragmentation issues, gas prices and fossil fuels in general, electricity (fossil fuels)
Chemicals: can cause issues with soils and plants (fertilizers and pesticides), fertilizers can lead to eutrophication, pesticides can cause EDCs (carcinogens and neurotoxins) and kill of unintended organisms (pollinators) and bioaccumulation and biomagnification and pesticide resistance, both involve electricity and tons of fossil fuels
Irrigation: relocating water can cause there to be issues with watering the agriculture, center pivot irrigation (wasteful-not good at watering), drop in water table and reduction of groundwater thus leading to land subsidence and sinkholes, waterlogged soil and pest issues, erosion issues
Expansive land: land use can cause issues with natural wildlife thus leading to losses in biodiversity, fragmentation, impacts on local communities, reductions in carbon sequestration
Confined animal feeding operations: animals are close together -taking up land and using resources, inhumane and leads to diseases (more antibiotics), given growth hormones, cows produce methane which is a climate change issues, large usage of electricity meaning large usage of fossil fuels, manure
Limits on farming
Corn production is hardly ever eaten-rather it is used for feed or fuel
Biofuels: ethanol and oils from agricultural crops
Important: limits use of foreign oil and also helpful for climate change mitigation
Use other sources of energy in order to produce biofuel
Limits on sustainable land
Marginal land (land that should not be farmed)
Wetlands, deserts, rainforests, salinized land (phytotoxic), tundra
How do we increase food production?
Urban farming, sustainable agriculture methods, vertical farming, garden, education in agriculture (farming and gardening-improving soil), take land and grow edible crops on feed land, GMOs
Biotechnology
In recent years, more research on disease, pests, and climatic stresses on crops
Genetic modifications
What are they?
Transgenic: gene taken from completely different organism and inserted into another
Marker-assisted breeding: traditional breeding sped up from using molecular biology techniques
Genetically modified organisms (GMO): organism receiving genes from another organism by genetic (transgenic) engineering
Food Crisis: Prolonged shortages of food supply that lead to unrest and death
Food security: access for every person to enough nutritious food for active and healthy life
Hunger: lack of basic food required to provide energy and to meet nutritional needs
The individual cannot lead a normal, healthy life
Undernourishment: lack of adequate food for energy
Malnutrition: lack of essential nutrients
Overnourishment: eating too much
Eg developed countries
Trade