Chapter 12 Flashcards
- What are the two strongest arguments for industrialized agriculture? Organic?
Industrialized farming has can produce higher yields on less land and organic farming costs 10-100% more to produce food.
- How might organic food actually be cheaper than industrial food?
if you include the cost of health and environmental effects, then some say organic farming would be less expensive.
- What is food insecurity? What is the primary cause? What are some other obstacles to food security?
It is when people live with chronic hunger and malnutrition, which threaten their ability to live healthy and productive lives. Most say that poverty is the root cause of food insecurity but other causes are politics, war, corruption and bad weather.
- With climate change, what % of the world’s population will face food shortages by the end of this century?
50%
- What is the difference between chronic undernutrition and chronic malnutrition?
Undernutrition is the inability to grow or buy enough food to meet their basic energy needs, also known as hunger. Malnutrition is the inability to be able to afford enough food to support a high energy diet.
- How many people in less developed countries are chronically undernourished or malnourished?
About 1 billion people are malnourished/undernourished as of the mid-1990s IN THE WORLD. However, in less-developed countries, 1 out of every 6 people are in this condition.
- How many more people do we need to feed on the planet each day?
1 billion
How many children under the age of 5 die from malnutrition?
6 million
- T/F We produce enough food to feed everyone on the planet? ‘
T
- What is a famine? What are its causes
Famine is the severe shortage of food in an area that leads to mass starvation, death and economic chaos. They are caused by crop failures from drought, flooding, war and other catastrophic events.
- Why is protein an important macronutrient (figure 12-1)?
Because it helps the body repair and build body tissues.
- Why is vitamin A important? How many people go blind each year from a lack of it?
250,000 – 500,000 people go blind from a lack of vitamin A each year and amount half of them die within a year.
- What is anemia? How many people suffer from it?
Anemia is the lack of oxygen that is transported to the blood. It causes fatigue, makes infection more likely and increases a woman’s chances of dying at birth. 1/5 of the world suffer from it.
- What is a goiter? Cause? How much would it cost to prevent?
A goiter is a very swollen thyroid gland, which produces hormones that handle the metabolism. It is caused by a lack of iodine and would only cost 2-3 cents per person per year to prevent it.
- How many people on the planet suffer from overnutrition? How many people suffer from this?
1.2 billion people have health problems due to overnutrition. 2/3 of adults are overweight and by 2030 86% of Americans will be overweight.
- How much is spent on weight loss in the U.S.? How much is needed to eliminate undernutrition and malnutrition?
$147 billion is spent on treatment on the health care bill and an additional $58 billion that Americans personally spend to lose weight.
- Which systems provide most of our food and what % each? (Total, croplands, rangelands, pastures and feedlots)
Total: 40% of land use for food supply – Croplands use 11% of the land and feed 77% of the population. Rangelands, pastures, and feedlots use 29% of the land and feed 16% of the pop. Fisheries feed 7% of pop.
- Of the 50,000 edible plants species, how many provide most (90%) of our food?
14
- What are problem associated with relying on such a limited number of species?
It puts us in a vulnerable position if we can no longer if we can no longer support them – breaks principles of sustainability
- What technological developments helped increase food production?
Irrigation, fishing tech advancements, tractors and other farm machinery
- Compare and contrast industrialized and subsistence (page283) agriculture. Make a chart for your answer.
Industrialized – uses heavy equipment, uses pesticides, fossil fuels and inorganic fertilizers, one mass focused yield
Subsistence – sustainable labor, growth at cash crops
- What is plantation agriculture? Where is it primarily used?
It is the growth of cash crops and it is used in less developed countries.
- Is modern industrial agriculture sustainable? Explain.
No, high yields, but relies on fossil fuels that are nonrenewable, doesn’t have a high crop diversity and neglects soil/nutrient conservation
- What is hydroponics? Make an advantage/disadvantage chart for hydroponics.
Growing plants without soil by exposing their roots to nutrient rich water
- Pros: Indoor crop growth, high yields, underground growth with artificial lighting, no pesticides or fertilizer runoff.
- Cons: expensive to establish, need expert knowledge, threatens big business profits.
- What are the advantages of polyculture?
- Principles of sustainability approved
- reduces risk of losing food supply
- What is slash and burn agriculture?
Burning and clearing small plots in tropical forests, growing a variety of crops for a few years, then moving to a fresh plot when the nutrients are ready.
- T/F Polyculture outproduces monocultures?
T
- What is the green revolution? What is the difference between the first and second?
Using high input industrialized agriculture to increase yields
1st – 1950 – 1970: high input increase of crop yields
2nd – 1967: New dwarf varieties introduced to under developed countries.
- How long does it take for 1” of topsoil to form?
Hundreds of years
- What is agribusiness? How much of the world’s grain is produced with how much of the world’s farm labor force?
Higher yields induced by tech advances through agribusiness = less use of unfarmed lands
How much of our disposal income is spent on food? How about for a person living in a developing country?
US: less than 10%. Developing: 40%
- What are some of the hidden costs of food production?
- Subsidies in taxes by the government
- Environmental damage and future impact
- How can you tell from a label if produce was grown organically?
You can look at the price look up code #s on labels and stickers to identify: organic fruit has 5 digits beginning with 9 GMOs, have 5 digits beginning with 8 and conventional produce has 4 digits.
- What is a CAFO?
Concentrated animal feeding operations
- Feedlots: raising large #s of animals in small, dirty spaces to get fat quickly then be sold
- How many food animals are raised each year?
56 million
- Grain shortages likely to increase in the future. Why?
Countries income grows: more meat eaten, supported/grown by grain → increased demand for grain → loss of crop land to urban spread → further increase grain import resilience → not enough land to produce grain.
- What is aquaculture and what % of our food is produced this way?
The practice of raising freshwaer and marine fish in freshwater in cages in coastal or open ocean waters - 20% of animal protein provided in some areas
- What is the fossil fuel to food ratio?
10 units of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy: 1 unit of food energy
- How far, on average, does food travel from farm to plate? What are some environmental consequences of this well-travelled food?
1300 miles from farm to plate
- What might happen to industrialized food production and to your lifestyle if oil prices rise sharply in the next two decades as experts predict?
Food prices would increase sharply, diet standards and amounts would lower → health would drop
- Agriculture accounts for what % of water pollution?
Approximately 40%
- What is the difference between weathering and erosion?
Erosion → movement of soil components such as surface litter and topsoil
Weathering → the wearing down and gradual degrading of land due to weather.
- What are some causes of soil erosion? What factor—wind, water or ice—accounts for most erosion?
Water = biggest cause → over use of land, drought, wind, water, runoff carrying away loose particles
- What is desertification? Which countries have the most serious problems? Are they countries that can afford to grow less food?
It occurs when 10% or more of the productive potential of topsoil falls by more than 10% because of the combination of prolonged drought and human activities such as over grazing and deforestation.
- What are some downsides to irrigation? Explain each.
Most irrigation water is a diluted form of salt water so the water that doesn’t get dissolved into the ground evaporates and leaves a thin crust of dissolved minerals in the topsoil. This is known as salinization and can be harmful to crops. Another problem is waterlogging, which is when water accumulates underground and gradually raises the water table.
- Where has the sharpest drop in food production occurred? Why?
America has lost 97% of the food plant varieties since the 1940s.
- What are some limitations to increasing irrigated cropland?
Salinization and waterlogging
a. Salinization
The gradual accumulation of salts in the upper layers of topsoil
b. Waterlogging
When water accumulates underground and gradually raises the water table.
c. Desertification
Land that has a 10% or more drop in productivity
- Discuss several examples of how food production has caused major losses in biodiversity.
As food yields increase, we use less varieties of strains of foods. India once used 30,000 types of rice but now more than 75% of its rice production comes from one or two varieties.
- How much of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops have we lost since 1900? Does this loss of biodiversity make our food supply more vulnerable?
¾ and the endangered species are very important to our worlds food supply and so this loss of biodiversity makes it more vulnerable.
- Why might organic farmers dislike farming next to GM crops?
Because the GM crops have unknown ecological effects, may have harmful toxins, may need more pesticides to kill of weeds around it and it may disrupt the seed market as well.
- Are there limits to the expansion of the green revolution?
Yes and many people can’t irrigate their farms because they are too poor. Also, flood numbers are projected to increase which will lower food production as well.
- What are some of the harmful environmental consequences of industrialized meat production?
In the production of this meat, they use large amounts of fossil fuels and water and produce large amounts of animal waste, which contaminates the environment.
- What % of the world’s greenhouse gases are produced from livestock production?
18%
- How does meat production contribute to the “dead zones” in the Gulf of Mexico?
Lots of fertilizer is used to feed the animals in the feedlots and that inorganic fertilizer runs off into the Mississippi River, which then runs into the Gulf and causes dead zones.
- How much more livestock waste is produced in US compared to human waste?
130 times more than the amount of human waste.
- What % of antibiotics are feed to animals?
70% of all antibiotics used in the US are added to animal feed.
- What are some problems with farmed raised “Atlantic” salmon?
Had toxic levels that were 11 times higher than that of wild salmon. It also takes 6 pounds of wild fish to produce 2 pounds of farmed salmon.
- What is a pest? How does nature generally control them?
They are any species that interferes with human welfare by competing with us for food, invading lawns and gardens, destroying building materials, spreading disease, invading ecosystems or simply being a nuisance. However, natural enemies control the populations of these animals as a part of the natural capital.
- What is a pesticide? What is a fertilizer?
It is a chemical that we use to kill or control populations that are undesirable to us.
- What were some of the first-generation pesticides?
Nicotine sulfate and other natural chemicals that were borrowed from plants
- What are the second-generation pesticides?
DDT and other chemicals that slight modifications have been made on.