2050 Challenge Flashcards
1
Q
Bovine Bubbles
A
- house cows together and control what goes in and out
- allows measurements of emissions from the cows
- measures pollutants
- allows interventions based on research to take place
2
Q
CA Agriculture
A
- fertile land in Central Valley
- limited in water
- water comes from Sierra Nevada mountains’ snow melting
- 2/3 CA water falls in NorCal
- tension between farmers in N and urbanites in S because both require water
- CA has worst air pollution: comes from across the world, plus vehicle & agricultural emissions
3
Q
NorCal Food
A
- 50% of all fruits and veggies consumed in US
- 90% nuts worldwide grown in Central Valley
- 20% of dairy in US produced in Central Valley
- 400 specialty crops (olives, raisins)
- twice as strong as #2 producer of agriculture (Iowa)
4
Q
Urban Conflict
A
- when land-use planners allow residents in agricultural area
- farmers lose these conflicts
- residents have more political, tax-raising, voting power; also, juries are made up more of people like the residents
4
Q
2050 Challenge
A
- 9.5M people in world by 2050
- tripled world population over 50 years (in Mitloehner’s lifetime)
- amount of food is not tripling
- we have enough calories to feed the world, but we have distribution and nutrition issue
- as average lifetimes increase, population increases (developing countries’ pop incr, developed countries, plateau)
5
Q
SE Asia and Africa
A
- more people live in SE Asia than rest of the world
- SE Asia population will increase by 41%
- Asian urbanization is key driver for industrial feed and food demand
- Africa will increase its population by 50%
- 1/2 of the countries in Africa double human population every 10 years
6
Q
Demand for Meat
A
- going up exponentially worldwide
- as disposable increases, demand for meat increases
7
Q
Global Livestock Distribution
A
- sheet of paper is world
- 1/4 of paper is land globally
- business card is land available for agriculture
- 2/3 of ag land is marginal land (where crops can’t grow) –> ruminants
- 1/3 of ag land is arable land (where crops can grow) –> not enough to support tripling of population plus livestock population
8
Q
Cellulose
A
- most abundant biomass in the world
- only ruminants can digest it due to microbes in their rumens
- grows on marginal land
- can’t just get rid of livestock and grow crops on that land because it’s not suitable for crops
9
Q
Fertilizer
A
- to fertilize arable land
- 1/2 is synthetic (industrially-made, energy intensive, pulls nitrogen out of atmosphere)
- 1/2 organic (animal manure; can’t be vegan on organic food because fertilizer is from animal agriculture
10
Q
Without Animal Agriculture
A
- 2/3 of land for production gone
- 1/2 fertilizer for crops gone
- crop yields would tank
- without natural land use, we’d lose rainforests
11
Q
Efficiency
A
- India and Brazil combined have more cattle than rest of the world combined
- China has most pigs
- emissions caused by milk and beef production are affected by efficiency
- 10 cows in India produce same amount of milk as 1 cow in US
12
Q
Mitigation to Improve Productivity
A
- improved fertility, health, genetics, and nutrition
- CO2 emissions from livestock depend on energy density of feed, carbon content of soil, management practices, weather
- a more energy dense feed decreases methane emissions per animal, but more carbon emissions per kg feed produced
- nitrous oxide emissions depend on #s of animals, feed, manure management, soil, weather
13
Q
US Beef Trends
A
- 1970: 140M head of beef
- today: 90M head of beef
- in 1970 and 2010, 24M tons of beef produced
14
Q
US Dairy Trends
A
- 1950: 25M dairy cows
- today: 9M dairy cows
- milk production has increased by 60%
- carbon footprint of a glass of milk is 2/3 smaller today than 70 yrs ago
