Agro Food Systems Flashcards
3 methods to increase food surplus
- extensification (increase land)
- increase labor productivity (mechanical)
- Increase land productivity
The labour productivity curve
has diminishing returns the more the workload is increased
The labour productivity curve can be increased by
increase in technology, makes yield increase even more
Increase in technology on farms
leads to people moving to the city since there was less work on the farm, and in the past more work in the city trough industralization
Side-effects of agro successes
•Large-scale and ongoing deforestation, with loss of ecosystem services
•Overexploitation of soils and water resources, possible
intensified by climate change
•Inputs of fossil fuels , with dependence and vulnerabilities
•Inputs of fertilizers and pesticides, causing widespread
pollution e.g. N and P
•Dependence on finite phosphorus (P) resources
•Decreasing employment , increasing disconnect between people and their land
•Greater complexity, hence in some ways
less resilient e.g. more trade connections and price fluctuations, easier spread
of diseases
Negative side effects of successes indicate
that humans adopt towards unintended negative side effects
Vulnerability is caused by
- exposure to risk
- sensitivity
- coping capacity
Sensitivity is influenced by
socio-economic conditions
-environmental conditions
The key food question
food allocation and distribution.
There is an uneven distribution in access to and availability and affordability of food in the world
Humans live in
geographical and climate related areas
close to river/sea, not where it is too cold or too hot
The successful of humasn
increases further away from the equator
NPP
net primary production
Net primary production
the growth of vegetation
Extensifaction
the extensification for land is over
wild land
1/4 of the planet
[…] of people live in […]
80%
dense populated areas
Biome categories
-
- dense settlements
- villages
- croplands
- rangelands
- semi-natural
- wildlands
biome
a unit of species composition and ecological processes and a function of climate derived parameters
For 1/3 of the human population
they are involved in agricultur with knowledge of the land and natural resource system as the most important part
Nomadic hurders
still exist
are very vulnerable to climate change. Travelling is their coping strategy
Higher yields
have been won by the increasing the intensity of land use.. This worked for both crops and lifestock
mixed farming system
reduction of fallow period, extinction of common rights, increasing importance of livestock
income spend on food […] as [….]
decreases as income rises
nutrition transition:
vulnerability of poor people for food prices
yield gap
difference between potential and actual yield
potential yield
can be modeled for cereal crops based on soil and climate values
(temperature, precipitation, etc.)
yields have been increasing through
irrigation multiple cropping fertilizers herbicides pesticides improved land management genetic advances
sustainable soil manamemegnt
- nutrient outflow does not surpass nutrient inflow
- rate of inflow fertility-reducing substances does not surpass the outflow and breaking down rate
advantage of increased co2
better photosynthesis
negative side of effect (in the food system)
- polluting soils
- health risks from herbicides/pesticides
- impacts of GMO
- groundwater pressure (-> biodiversity loss)
- agro systems becomming dependent on finite resourcses
LUCC
land use and cover change
LUCC transtition
describes the manifold and milicausal
at the root of LUCC
quest for food, fodder and viber
five fundamental underlying causes of LUCC
1) resource scarcity
2) changing oppertunities created by markets
3) outside policy intervention
4) loss of adaptive capacity
5) changes in social organisations, resource access and attitudes
for moddeling LUCC
a bottem upo approach is needed
[…] of the farming is […] responsible for […] products on the market
3-4%
industrial
2/3
industrial farming –>
cash crops. no link with natural environment
… in … decreases chance of …
diversity
available goods
famine
food production is … in supply chain
upstream
… of food is … and has a higher share of …
processing
downstream
gdp
Future food demand can be met through
improvement on the supply side.
the question is if this can be done sustainable (pesticides, fertilizers, etc..)
3 important feedback loops
- price competition
- production loop
- upscaling/innovation
mechanisms and interventions (of food)
- food surplus and trade
- food shortage & security
- externalizing environmental and social consequences
- environmental and social regulation
two constraints in food
1) amount of food needed for survival
2) food providing resource base is finite
