Food, Soil, and Pest Management

1. Food, Soil, and Pest Management Chapter 12 Alec Scaffidi

2. What is Food Security, and Why is it Difficult to Attain? • Food Security- Having enough nutritious food to have a healthy life • Food Insecurity- Living with chronic hunger and poor nutrition • Chronic Under Nutrition or Hunger- Not having enough food to meet basic energy needs • Malnutrition- Deficiencies in protein and key nutrients, causing physical weakness, and higher risk for disease • 1 out of every 6 people in developing countries suffers from chronic under nutrition or malnutrition

3. Extremes in Nutrition • High populations cause scarce resources • Dense areas of poverty causing low amounts of food • Poor growing conditions • Severe shortages of food or Famine

4. Other Extremes • Over Nutrition- Excessive food intake, causing excess body fat • 1 billion people suffer from malnutrition while another 1.6 billion people suffer from health problems brought on by over eating

5. How is Food Produced? • 3 systems provide most of our food • Croplands- Mostly grains, produce 77% of food, using only 11% of their land for food • Rangelands, Pastures, and Feedlots- Meat, produce 16% of food, using 29%of the world’s land • Ocean Fisheries or Aquaculture- Fish 7% of food

6. Farm Food • Of 50,000 edible crops, 14 of them supply 90% of world’s food calories • Big 3 are wheat, rice, and corn • 2/3 of world survive on those 3 crops • Only a small amount of animals are used for food

7. How do We Keep Up? • Industrialized Agriculture or High Input Agriculture- Many resources used to mass produce crops for consumption, usually specializing in one crop • Plantation Agriculture- Mass growing of cash crops ($$$) such as bananas, coffee beans, and other exports • Most Industrial agriculture happens in rural areas in developed countries, while plantations are in developing countries, mostly in the tropics

8. Types of Agriculture • Traditional Subsistence- Growing enough to survive • Traditional Insistence- Inputs used to produce more than needed in order to make a profit • Polyculture- Growing multiple crops at once • Slash and Burn- Clearing an area by cutting existing crops and burning them and using soil for more agriculture • Green Revolution- Since 1950, the industrialization of agriculture, causing higher crop yields

9. Meat Production • About ½ of meat comes from livestock grazing on grass • Other ½ comes from feedlots, confined animal feeding operations (fattening up for slaughter) • Industrialized meat production, produces more meat, however a lot of farmable land is used to produce less food than what could be produced

10. Fisheries • Fishery- concentration of aquatic species raised solely for harvest • Aquaculture- raising marine species in confined space underwater • Fisheries are the world’s fastest growing type of food production • That rise in production is called the blue revolution.

11. Problems in Food Production • Biodiversity Loss • Soil Erosion • Polluted water from pesticides • Emissions from machinery polluting the air • Pesticide residues in food we eat

12. Soil Erosion • Movement of soil components to another place by wind or water • Topsoil is removed resulting in loss of soil fertility and pollution of water from sediment build up • Loss of soil results in desertification (resulting from human activity) and salinization (soil degradation)

13. Water and Industrial Problems • Over watering results in waterlogging • Without adequate drainage, waterlogging causes runoff of soils and pesticides to bigger water supplies • Higher amounts of industry causes high amounts of pollution

14. Genetic Engineering • With higher demand for food, industries have turned to genetically modified food • Modifying the food produces more of the food but cause major damage to the species that are modified • Chimeraplasty- Inserting a chemical instructions to genes, giving the animal desired traits • These genetic mutations lead to many problems such as irreversible ecological effects, harmful toxins in food, newer allergies, lower nutrition and more

15. Industrialized Meat • Advantages- More meat, higher profits, less land used, reduced overgrazing, reduced soil erosion, protection of biodiversity • Disadvantages- Large uses of grains, fish meal, and fossil fuels, as well as Greenhouse gasses, animal wastes causing pollution, and genetic alterations causing problems in humans

16. Industrialized Fishing • Advantages- Highly Efficient, High yield in small volume of water, reduces overharvesting of fisheries, low fuel use, and high profits • Disadvantages-Uses a lot of land, feed, and water, produces a large amount of waste, can destroy wetlands, dense populations vulnerable to disease

17. Pests and Pesticides • Pest- Any species that interferes with human welfare • Pesticide- Chemicals used to control or kill undesirable animals • Rachel Carson- Wrote the book Silent Spring, exposed pesticide problems • Advantage to pesticides- Increase food, profitable, and work fast • Disadvantages- Kill natural pest enemies, pollute environment, harmful to wildlife and people

18. How Can We Produce Food More Sustainably • Soil Conservation- Using a variety of ways to prevent soil destruction • Terracing- Planting on sloping surfaces to prevent soil erosion • Strip Cropping- Planting one crop that protects another strip of crops • Alley Cropping- Planting in alleys between trees which reduce water loss • Windbreaks- Planting to protect wind erosion

19. Restoring Soil Fertility • Organic Fertilizer-Made from plant and animal waste • Made from- Animal Manure, green manure (plant wastes) and compost (broken down organic material) • Inorganic fertilizer- made from various minerals

20. Sustainable Organic Agriculture • Organic Agriculture- crops grown with little or no pesticides • Produces More- High Yielding polyculture, organic fertilizers, biological pest control, efficient irrigation, and perennial crops • Decreases- soil erosion, aquifer depletion, overgrazing, overfishing, loss of biodiversity

21. Case Study: Ecological Surprises • In 1955 the chemical dieldrin was sprayed in Malaysia. The chemical killed malaria-carrying mosquitoes, cockroaches and other insects. Lizards who fed on the chemical infected insects also began to die, setting off an ecological chain reaction diminishing the cat’s food supply, causing cats to die, and allowing rats to over run the city. All of that to get rid of some bugs.