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Environmental Studies > EXAM #2/CH.9- > Flashcards

EXAM #2/CH.9- Flashcards

1
Q

Development of Agriculture helped….

A
  • Changed Human Culture
  • Changed Human evolution
  • Changed the earths Biosphere
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2
Q

What is The Eden Metaphor?

A
  • A transition from an earthly paradise to our present reality(facilitated by a snake)
  • In effect, a transition from a hunting and gathering(Eden)life to that of agriculture(post Eden)
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3
Q

The Command from God vs. effect of domestication

A

-God: the woman will suffer pain in childbirth
Domestication(more frequent childbirth in agriculture culture)

-God: the man will be condemned to work the ground until he dies and returns to it
Domestication:(higher work and increased disease in domesticated food production).

EX. Cain(farmer)has his gifts to God(produce)rejected,
Able(a shepard-hunter/gatherer)had his gift of a lamb accepted.

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4
Q

Jared Diamond believed that….?

A

-If they(early H Sapiens) had actually foreseen the consequences (of domestication), they would have surely outlawed the first steps…”

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5
Q

Archaeological & anthropological data show that…?

A

-hunter-gathers(HG) were overall healthier than (AG) until likely the 19th century

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6
Q

Notes of the Video showed that…?

A
  • The sites of early agriculturalists were clearly in what are now extreme deserts
  • While people did overuse the resources(cut down trees, caused soil erosion)-the climate of the region has slipped toward drier conditions over the past 10,000 years
  • The climate shift has helped facilitate the transfer of the mid-East domesticated plants and animals laterally
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7
Q

Agriculture and “Guns Germs and Steel”
Jared Diamond has proposed a hypothesis that humans that lived in the right places(places where domesticable species lived)at the right time(transition between glacial and interglacial)where able to…?

A
  • Develop agriculture
  • “Create” communicable diseases
  • Develop technology that allowed them to dominate the globe
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8
Q

What is Environmental Determinism(climatic determinism or geographical determinism)?

A
  • Is the view that the physical environment sets limits on human social development.
  • Old use: tropical climates were said to cause laziness, relaxed attitudes and promiscuity, while the frequent variability in the weather of the middle latitudes led to more determined and driven work ethics.
  • Human culture &human genetics can change and are entwined in a connection with the environment-(we can only excel to the degree that our environmental resources allow us.)
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9
Q

What is Possibilism?

A
  • Is the theory that the environment sets certain constraints or limitations, but culture is otherwise determined by social conditions
  • Belief that anything is possible through ingenuity
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10
Q

What are Diamond’s Hypotheses of Reasons for Domestication and Ag?

A
  • Reduction of large mammals by improved hunting
  • Development of technology to store wild grain
  • Competition between human groups
  • Global climate change into an interglacial(holocene)
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11
Q

What did Origin of Agriculture Require?

A
  • Changes in plants and animals

- Changes in human behavior

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12
Q

What are some obstacles in Domesticating animals?

A
  • Diet not easily provided by humans
  • Slow growth and long birth spacing
  • Nasty disposition
  • Reluctance to breed in captivity
  • lack of follow the leader behavior
  • Panic in enclosures
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13
Q

Characteristics of Domesticated Animals are?

A
  • Smaller brains
  • Less acute senses
  • Some smaller(cattle)
  • Some bigger(chickens)
  • Large variety depending on use(wolf hounds, terriers, greyhounds, chihuahuas
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14
Q

Ag Homelands have shifted from…?

A

-original centers to today has much to do with changing climate

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15
Q

The continental major axis is oriented east-west for Eurasia but Nort-South for the Americas and Africa. The spread of food production tended to occur more rapidly along…?

A

-East-West axes than along north-south axes, mainly because locations at the same latitudes required less evolutionary change or adaptation of domesticates than did locations at different latitudes.

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16
Q

What are some Examples of Slow N-S Transfers?

A
  • Slow spread of Mexican corn
  • Slow spread of Llamas
  • Slow spread of potatoes
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17
Q

What are Consequences of Domestication/AG?

A
  • Shorter birth intervals(>4 years for nomadic women.)
  • Higher food density/area(larger populations)
  • Caused cultural stratification(armies,kings,philosophers)
  • Allowed evolution of epidemic diseases(transfer from crowded livestock to humans)

EX.Measles and TB from cattle
Flu from pigs and ducks
smallpox from camels or cattle

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18
Q

Origin of Diseases?

A

-Diseases from “Eden” & “post Eden”

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19
Q

Reasons for Differences Between Temp & Tropical Disease Origins

A
  • Many domesticated animals are of temperate origins
  • Primates most closely related to humans are to tropical origin
  • Few(or no) domesticable animal species in tropics
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20
Q

What are the Results of Domestication?

A

Germs & Armies

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21
Q

What was the Role of “Germs” on European Conquest of New World?

A

-By the time the Pilgrims arrived in North America, 95% of Native Americans were dead from disease derived from domesticated species

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22
Q

What was the Final Species Domesticated by Farming?

A

Humans!

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23
Q

Effects of Domestication on Human Evolution?

A
  • Spread of human genes from ag centers to hinterlands
  • Genetic resistance to disease
  • Adult lactase in Europe & parts of Africa from life-long milk consumption
  • Alcohol metabolism in Western Eurasia
  • Adaptations to lower fiber, higher fat, higher salt, etc.
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24
Q

Diet Impacts our…?

A

Phenotype: genotype+environment=phenotype
Genotype: genetic coding

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25
Q

Modern Ag/Diet & Human Evolution has allowed us to…?

A
  • Being metabolically thrifty a disadvantageous genotype in modern supermarket foraging lifestyle
  • Salt conservation leads to hypertension
  • Populations that recently had Spartan diet now subject to array of dietary disease(blood pressure, diabetes) that cause natural selection
  • –Europeans may already have partially passed through this filter
  • –Important to China,Asia,etc.(growing hotspots of TypeII diabetes
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26
Q

What was the Pre-Ag Diet?

A

-Paleolithic diet also known as the caveman diet

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27
Q

Brain size of Hominids: Need for Meat…?

A
  • Our brain takes about 20% of our energy

- an “expensive” organ facilitated by ability to hunt & gather nutritious foods

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28
Q

Human Height Over Recent Time: Nutrition?

A
  • Human height declined to a (recent) low at the start of the Industrial Revolution
  • Height picked up in late 19th Century as North America Ag kicked in to supply Europe with grain and meat.
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29
Q

Nitrogen in Soil…?

A
  • builds up naturally over time
  • Once a soil is plowed or cultivated, the N is rapidly reduced to about 50% of original level
  • Most soils around the world(not tropics)suffer from N deficiency
  • This limited agricultural production for thousands of years
  • how did we overcome this? A.(Haber-Bosch Process)
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30
Q

What is the Haber-Bosch Process?

A
  • N2+H2(and lots of energy)=NH3
  • 1 to 2% of world’s energy used for this
  • Fritz Haber, 1918 Nobel Prize
  • –Father of chemical ware are
  • –wife & son committed suicide
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31
Q

How did the Haber Bosch process help world population?

A

-Between 50 to 60% of the world’s population exists today because of the Haber Bosch process and the food produced by it.

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32
Q

Our diet & our history…

A
  • We have experienced 10,000 of dietary change
  • Is this long enough for us to have adjusted evolutionarily?
  • “Paleodiets” are efforts to recreate diet of pre-at humans(no grains, daily, sugar, oils)
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33
Q

What did “stone age” people eat?

A
  • they were omnivores

- maybe more than 50% meat calories

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34
Q

Why was/is meat important to humans?

A

-Big brains=energy/nutrient expensive organ

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35
Q

What were Humans of the Middle Ages like?

A
  • Small due to poor nutrition
  • Europe had reached its carrying capacity
  • Continued to the start of the Industrial revolution
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36
Q

Why did European height start to climb in the 19th century?

A
  • Increased food supply from North American market

- grain expansion into the Plains and Midwest

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37
Q

Did improved technology & education(in universities) increase the output?

A
  • most of the grain increases came from increased farmland
  • there was an inherent limit to production caused by soil fertility
  • only with development of industrial N fertilizer production (by Fritz Haber) did crop production increase per acre.
38
Q

Plant Nutrition:

What was Liebeg’s law of the minimum?

A

The discovery that the growth of a crop is determined by the element or factor that is most limiting. If that factor is added or fixed, then the growth will increase to the level of the next limiting element.

39
Q

Which elements limit crop production?

A

In most farming system around the world, nitrogen & phosphorus are the elements that tend to limit crop production(along with things like potassium, sulfur, calcium, etc).

40
Q

A brief overview of plant nutrition:

A
  • C,O,H comes from CO2 and H2O(the atmosphere can be limiting, for example, in drought)
  • The key common limiting elements fro crop growth are N, P….
  • N is in the atmosphere as N gas(80%), but plants can’t access it. A few microbes and industrial processes convert it into forms that plants can us: ammonium(NH) or nitrate(NO)
  • P comes only from rocks and soil. Soil over thousands of years loses its P to water, and P comes from mines [controlled by a few countries and in “limited supply”
41
Q

Nitrogen as a Plant Nutrient…

A
  • It builds up in soil over hundreds to thousands of years
  • Quickly declines once soil is cultivated and used for farming
  • The Haber Bosch process is responsible for the food of about 50% of people on earth(Nature 2008)
42
Q

Food & Thomas Malthus…

A
  • Malthus was one of the first economists
  • Reasoned that population grows geometrically while food should grow linearly: eventually population should out-strip food(the so-called “Malthusian Trap”
  • Malthus thought it would happen soon for him, but we have escaped it due to: (1) expansion of ag land in 19th century, (2) creation of N fertilizer, (3) biotechnology of all types—much of this dependent on petroleum-based energy
43
Q

Ann Thrupp/ named some an environmental issue?

A

Agriculture and food is an environmental issue

44
Q

Good things about Conventional Agriculture…?

A
  • Increased efficiency, yield, and productivity
  • achieved through:mechanization, efficiencies of scale, high inputs, intensification of land use

-

45
Q

Problems about Conventional Agriculture…?

A

-Pollution, natural resources scarcity(fertilizers), biodiversity loss, high water use, climate change, externalizes

46
Q

Definition of Sustainable Agriculture…

A
  • Environmentally sound, economically feasible, socially equitable(3 E’s), or
  • People, planet, profit(3 P’s)
  • there is likely no agreement, however, on what those 3 E’s fully encompass
47
Q

Definition Organic Agriculture…

A

-Eliminates synthetic inputs, no GMO’s

48
Q

National Research Council 2010 Report on Sustainable Ag System

A
  • Goal towards improvements in

- –Environmental, Economic, and Social aspects of ag systems

49
Q

How can agriculture be transformed/improved:

A
  1. incremental

2. transformative

50
Q

About U.S. food

A

-It is relatively cheap. Cheaper than any point in the last century

51
Q

U.S. Farming & Policy

A

-The USA pays less (proportionally) on food than any other country(the USA is also rich, so food costs are less important

52
Q

U.S. Agriculture Geography

A
  • It is About 25% of US land area
  • Grains(corn, soybeans, wheat) in the Midwest(corn belt) and into the Great Plains
  • California, Florida and SE seaboard: fruits, nuts and vegetable
  • Hay & grazing in eastern mountainous regions & the west
53
Q

Average age of U.S. farmer

A

-Average US farmer is 58 years age

54
Q

Women and farming?

A

-Women tend to be farm operators in the regions with smaller farms or with fruits, vegetable, and nuts

55
Q

How have typical farm practices changed in the 30+years?

A

Have changed greatly…

  • greatly decreased tillage
  • new generation of herbicides
  • more fertilizer
  • cost is very high to enter the business
56
Q

The good and bad of changes in farm practices over the past 30+years?

A

Good:less energy, much better soil conservation, better water management, increased carbon storage

Bad: more herbicide, lower biodiversity(example: reduced milkweed populations & impact on Monarch butterfly habitat.

57
Q

US Government & Farm Policy

A
  • Gov intervention in farm policy was minimal until the Great Depression
  • Henry Wallace, Sec. Of Agriculture in Roosevelt Administration, set up the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933(government entry into the commodity business, land set asides). He developed the concept of the “Ever Normal Granary”, which may have been based on Chinese concepts. The government would buy grain when too much was produced, and sell it in periods of lesser yield, to achieve a target price.
  • We now have “Farm Bills” that are intended to be renewed each 5yrs(though due to political issues, this is not always done). Farm Bills are “Food Bills”, that fund food assistance(biggest expenditure), farm subsidies, conservation practices,etc.
  • An import an Farm Bill was in 1973, initiated by Sec. Of Ag. Earl Butz. This(for corn,etc.) tool the government out of trying to control the amount of grain produced and sold, to promoting as much production as possible, and playing farmers additional money to make sure that they were profitable.
58
Q

Farm Policy: Some Good & Bad

A

Good: saved farmers in Great Depression, stabilized farm culture, reduced soil erosion

Less Good: opened doors to large corn surpluses & argo business, increased farm size, cheap grain impacted global market(and small growers in other countries), likely contributed to profusion of processed food.

59
Q

URBAN AGRICULTURE

Morill Land Grant Acts(1862 and 1890)

A

-Federal Government gave land to states to sell or us to fund Universities

  • These universities were to have practical or useful arts:agriculture,engineering, military…
  • UC Berkeley began in 1868
60
Q

URBAN AGRICULTURE(Jennifer Sowerwine)

Hatch Act(1887)

A
  • Authorized Land Grant(above) institutions to have an “Agricultural Experiment Station”, and provided partial funding for professors & staff in “college of agriculture”
  • What our own College of Natural Resources was until 1970s.

-These professors would devote part of their time to research relevant to constituents.

61
Q

URBAN AGRICULTURE(Jennifer Sowerwine)

Smith-Lever Act(1914)

A
  • Set up funds for “cooperative extension” in Land Grant Universities
  • At Cal, CE specialists do research & service as professors due, but rather than teaching, devote that portion to public outreach, education, and research applied to specific issues
62
Q

Why is Urban Agriculture of Interest?

A
  • Closer to consumers
  • Increased freshness
  • Community engagement is possible
  • food education is possible
63
Q

The Role of “Justice” and “access” in Urban Ag?

A
  • Certain areas of urban landscapes have low supermarket densities, and subsequent low availability of fresh produce and other less defied food products
  • Thus, it involves(1)increasing education about choice and(2) increasing access to more choice
64
Q

Community Supported Agriculture(CSA)

A
  • Farms which have subscriber customers, that pay a set amount for weekly produce deliveries.
  • As these develop, profitability is an issue. Grower must try to create a personal relationship with customer, to retain memberships.
  • Retaining customers also involves events and education
65
Q

Peri-Urban farming…

A
  • the perimeter of many urban areas is a low-density region of a mix of fields and various types of development
  • region of lower land value, etc.
  • open lots can be secured on short term leases for farming (very common in California for southeast Asian immigrant farmers)
  • PROS: (1) lower rents, (2) increases quality of area, (3) flexible, (4) increases public awareness and food access
  • CONS: (1) land tenure is unpredictable, (2) marketing system fluid, (3) water and resource challenges
66
Q

Challenges to Urban Ag in General

A

1) Land Access
- Rent,lease,buy, occupy

2) Land Tenure
- Leases unpredictable
- AB551: Urban Ag Incentive Zones-requires contracts with growers on small plots to be no less than 5 years

3) Soil Contamination
- many urban areas were previously used for housing or some type of industry

  • lead, chromium, cadmium, etc. are soil contaminants that should be tested (remediation includes soil removal, new soil cover, specific crop choices
  1. Food Safety
    - food-borne pathogens from manure, handling, human contamination
  2. Food Access
    - Can be avenue for community involvement and benefit if products are kept in area
67
Q

FOOD Deserts?

A

Areas where a large portion of citizens lack access to a grocery store or affordable food outlet.

- solutions are varied and complex (bringing in supermarkets doesn't always work – a resistance or reaction to “top-down” approaches). Some alternate approaches by citizens have included:
- subsistence ag
- back yard farms
- gleaning and canning
- urban foraging (hmmmm)
- a “sharing” or trading economy
68
Q

Kyoto Protocol and Climate

A
  • The Kyoto Protocol was drafted to begin a process to reduce or cap the annual release of CO2 and other gases to the atmosphere. The goal was for all industrial countries, between the years 2008-2012, to reduce their emissions to their 1990 level (which already was causing climate change). The rationale was that the start of a path to a C-free economy was needed, and this would at least begin this process formally. In the USA, president Clinton signed it, but it doesn’t become law until the Senate ratifies it. Clinton never sent it to the Senate, because he knew it would not be passed.
  • A concern by the USA was that other large emitters (India, Chain, Brazil) were not required to follow this because they were still developing.
  • Many countries that signed on to the treaty did reduce emissions, but the world’s total emissions continued to increase due to the expanding economies in the remaining nations.
  • Canada didn’t meet its target due to lack of government engagement in making certain it happened.
  • The USA did peak (in about 2000) and then reduce emissions, but not to the Kyoto target (still higher than 1990)
  • Differences between Canada and USA in this issue:
    1. Canadians are largely more in agreement that climate change is occurring and that we have something to do with it. Also, they appear to think we should do something about it.
    2. In Canada, the Prime Minister has the ability to implement significant climate policy, but has chosen not to. In the USA, some Presidents have wanted to implement change, but Congress impedes this change.

This introduction to climate and energy illustrates the challenges of dealing with a global commons (the atmosphere) through the participation of many independent players (countries). It also shows that while maybe a noble attempt, the first international law (Kyoto) had little practical impact.

69
Q

IN THE NEWS

A
  • antibiotics, used to enhance livestock growth, may contribute to human obesity (NYTimes, March 8, 2014)
  • market control by commodities is varied in its approach. Raisons market quantities are set by a commission and enforced by USDA (NPR and Daily Show)
  • Oil has long been associated with political power (or virility as Sarah Palin suggests). Oil = revenues for potential dictators, and little need to tax or engage citizens in government. Thomas Friedman argues (quite sensibly) if oil suddenly became worthless, the global geopolitical framework would suddenly change. Europe’s recent reticence to challenge Russia is an example of the present power of oil.
70
Q

California Water

A

second drought year

  • Mediterranean climate (rain in winter, dry in summer)
  • Irrigation is needed to produce many (or most) food crops

-Two Big Water Projects (driven by Sierra Nevada snow melt):
A. Federal: paid by federal government (Bureau of Reclamation) with several dams and distribution systems
B. State: Large system moving water from Oroville dam (norther CA) all the way to the San Diego region
- many municipal (city) governments have their own water systems (SF: Hetch Hetchy on the Merced River, Oakland (East Bay Municipal Water District): 2 reservoirs on the Mokelumne River

  • Drought has reduced or eliminated delivery by water projects to farmers, so ground water is now more highly extracted
  • Ground water is poorly regulated in CA (treated to some degree like a commons), and there is growing concern about developing management plans and regulations
71
Q

Three key areas of US food system we focus on:

A
  • vertical and horizontal integration of grain and livestock production
  • adding value to products by manufacturers and wholesalers
  • horizontal integration of the retail food landscape
72
Q

FOOD SYSTEM

A

-food system is far more than farming – it is the production, transformation, distribution of food influenced by social, economic and environmental parameters.

A. “Conventional” food system is the standard example of where we are now: high efficiency, vertical integration, global in scope.

B. “Alternative” food systems advocate for smaller scale, de-integration, local scope.

73
Q

Vertical Integration

A
  • involvement in most links in a “supply chain”

- Coors Beer example: control of involvement in grain, hops, glass, metal, energy, and transportation.

74
Q

VIDEO of tour of modern farm to modern fork

A

-illustrates the economies of scale (large efficient production units) and highly processed products that many of us eat

75
Q

The Chicken as an example of how food production changed due to business and technology

A
  • US protein was largely eggs, pork and beef until 1960
  • Beef began to outstrip all other sources in 1960
  • Chicken rose briefly during WWII, and then began a steady climb with the introduction of Kentucky Fried chicken and other outlets
  • In 1980, McDonald’s developed process to shred/sieve chicken and reconstitute it (and fry it) to nuggets
  • The public demand put pressure for more chicken, cheaper chicken, and more white breast meat.
  • The modern chicken is highly efficient: egg to plate in 40 days, 2lbs grain per pound of chicken, breasts are so big some chickens have a hard time to walk
76
Q

The unpaid cost (by consumers) of modern chicken

A
  • low wages/benefits to workers
  • many workers illegal
  • producers go into large debt, with low profits
  • the cost of feed not always paid for (when government subsidizes price of grain)
  • pollution (air and water) of community
  • many have moved into the “Broiler Belt” of the south and southeast USA
77
Q

Only 20cents of the cost of food is for the raw product: 80% is processing, marketing, packaging, shipping, storage

A
  • since all raw products are the same, competing processors look for ways to “add value” to the raw material and make it distinctive from that being marketed by a competitor (e.g. Pepsi adding water to O.J. – and charging for it).
  • Mostly, the big additives are sugar, fat, and salt. ~1000 calories per day for average US food is added sugar and fat
  • Flavors, made with both natural and “unnatural” components enhance food value
78
Q

“You are what you eat”

A
  • corn, a tropical grass, has a unique ratio of 13C/12C – allowing chemists to track its pathway into our diet
  • most people have 30 to 50+% corn signal in their tissue, showing how it is used in many products or as a feed for many animals
79
Q

Some pros and cons of additives to food

A
  • additives reduce spoilage (and waste- 50% of food is never eaten)
  • are humans capable of digesting all the various additives to food?
80
Q

The “Walmart Effect” on business (and food)

A
  • Unique business plan: rather than selling products for as much as they can get, Walmart opened large stores and sold products as cheaply as they could. This in turn reduced competition, and gave them a large market share. The market share allowed them to have the ability to demand that producers reduce prices, which in turn forced producers to become more efficient (or fail). The efficiencies are achieved in many ways: better management, lower wages, shifting production to overseas locations.
  • An argument for Walmart is that it supplies cheap products that are beneficial to poor people. The argument against this view is that due to its size, Walmart is helping to keep the wages of low end American workers so low that they can only manage to buy Walmart products (a related negative issue was that Walmart took food collections for its own workers for the Holidays in 2013). Robert Reich suggests that Walmart – if it followed the example of Henry Ford a century ago – should raise worker’s salaries, which in turn would force other big companies to do so as well. This would increase buying power of many Americans.
81
Q

Summary of US Food System:

A

-changed with change in US Farm policy in 1970’s under Earl Butz.

  • Cheap grain prices led to, or coincided with, vertical and horizontal integration of grain and livestock systems – and retail market. Five or 6 large companies drive each sector. The largest player in each arena is:
    1. Chicken: Tyson
    2. Pork : Smithfield
    3. Beef : Tyson
    4. Grain: Archer Daniels Midland (in terms of total grain), Cargill is close behind
82
Q

• First question: Is there anyting wrong with the present system? If so, what is it? How do we change it?

A

• The Food System has become highly political or emotional. Its important to recognize that:

  • American agriculture is very diverse (beyond the big farms are hundreds of fruit, nut, and vegetable crops in California, a variety of small to mid size farms of various types, new small scale urban and periurban farms, etc).
  • In addition, the American system must be distinguished from multiple approaches to food production around the world, in both rich and poor nations.
  • It is unlikely that “one size fits all” is even a viable starting point for discussion

• 10,000 years of experimentation

  • while there is much to learn from “traditional” and “indigenous” food production systems, there is a long history of failure or partial failures in all food systems: soil erosion, poor nutrient management (and yields far lower than potentially available)
  • at the other extreme, the large scale US system has a variety of negative social and environmental impacts

• The voices about food:

  • In Berkeley, there are journalists, chefs, activists, scientists, policy experts, etc. all engaged in the debate.
  • Most people will balance choices (or preferences) based on science, economics/business, ethics, and equity
83
Q

Planetary Challenges to Agriculture

A
  1. Limited additional land
    a. we directly cultivate about 12%, use 35% for pasture
    b. FAO suggests up to 31% of planet could be used for rainfed ag
84
Q

what are the tradeoffs in farming so much of the planet?

A

(1) loss of biodiversity,
(2) additional C to atmosphere through forest clearing and soil cultivation (about 12% of our annual CO2 emissions),
(3) loss of habitat
2. Limits to energy
3. Changes in climate will change location of farming, and yields, this century
4. Limits in resources such as fertilizer (phosphorus)
5. More people, and they will live in cities

85
Q

Generally Agreed Upon Goals (but how to do this is highly debated)

A
  1. stop expansion of ag land
  2. close yield gaps (difference between present yield and what the region can truly obtain).
  3. increase resource use efficiency
  4. shift diet
  5. reduce waste
86
Q

What about Biotechnology – especially genetic modification of plants and animals (GMOs)?

A
  • Humans have modified an organism’s genetics through breeding
  • Genetic engineering is a direct transfer of a gene from one organism to another. – first done in 1970’s
  • When gene from one species is added to another, its called “recombinant DNA” and is referred to as a “transgenic” organism.
87
Q

Are GMO’s safe?

A
  • the scientific consensus is that they are – with certain caveats
  • plants with genes that fight pests (Bt) do result in immune pests (the result of natural selection and evolution). This happens to non-engineered solutions as well
  • herbicides used on herbicide resistant crops also result in weeds immune to herbicides (so-called super weeds). But, these result from herbicides used on non-GM crops too.
  • Like farming systems, GMO applications are diverse (and likely to grow dramatically): not all are made by big companies, many by public funds for public use (rice, papaya, etc).
88
Q

What Does Public Think about GMOs

A
  • high percentage (many polls say > 90%) say GMO should be labeled
  • most people trust information from family and friends
89
Q

CUBA as an (unintended) case study of the radical “Conventional” to “alternative” ag transition

A
  • post Soviet economy lost Soviet petroleum, aid, and Soviet purchase of sugar
  • government (of course different that American) raised wages for farm workers, created rural work camps and work programs, created rural housing and programs – to bring human labor back to the land to replace oil based labor and inputs.
  • During transition, Cubans lost (on average) 20 lbs.
  • Transition is interesting: (1) Cuba now produces far more human food (and a lot less sugar), (2) people still moving to cities despite programs and incentives (is this a universal wish?), (3) Much food being produced in or around cities (with some free market intrusion), (4) Cuba still must import grains and other foods – from USA!
90
Q

Is Farming Good for Us (our psyche?)

A

CONS: hard work, long hours, boring, financial difficulties, relationship/marital problems/challenges, uncertainty due to weather and markets

PROS: emotional satisfaction, tangible accomplishments, sometimes less stress, independence

-A trend across the US, are prison and post-prison programs that teach gardening and horticultural skills to inmates. Some programs (see the NYC example) have low repeat offense rates.

91
Q

SUMMARY ABOUT FOOD SYSTEMS

A

What is needed to shepherd the food system to a successful position at the end of the century? There are lots of opinions, and many options. Food production takes energy: either fossil fuel as we have now, or human/animal, solar, nuclear, etc. We have only limited amounts of additional land, and do we even want to use it all for food? Can we make new nutrient cycling systems that conserve resources? Lots of opportunities for science, policy, and business!

Environmental Studies (4 decks)

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