General Flashcards
List 5 Tropic Levels of Soil Food Web
1st: Photosynthesizers
2nd: Decomposers, parasites
3rd: Shredders, predators
4th/5th: Higher level predictors
Extensive vs. Intensive
Extensive: (agrarian) agricultural tactics that respect natural thresholds of nature vs.
Intensive: Systems requiring significant capital and labour to produced intensified yields (Industrial Phil)
Activities for improved soil management.
Conservation tillage and cover cropping
Activities for improved water management.
Riprarian buffers
Activities for improved nutrient management
Precision agriculture - using satellites to determine nitrogen uptake
What is Integrative Pest Management (IPM)?
eco-system based strategy focusing on long-term prevention through techniques of biological control or habitat manipulation
Examples of Integrative Systems in Agriculture
Agroforestry - couple forestry with agriculture
Permaculture - e.g. Spain fish farm
What does CRAAP stand for?
Currency, Relevance, Authority, Acuracy
Recent trends in Organic Agriculture
Organic farms in canada increased significantly
Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan
Barriers of health and environment - is organic more sustainable?
Health - not proven to have better nutrient content, but shows to have less chemical redisude
Environment - both conventional and organic can demonstrate same management practices
Given and example when units are useful for determining sustainability.
When determining benefits of organic products by comparing to traditional
If yields are the same, its fine, if not should base off of GHG emissions per tonne of wheat instead
Explain dilemma of Land sharing vs. Land sparing
Land sharing = extensive agriculture system that strives to create health systems but can have lower yields
Land sparing = intensive management of land for max yields so that spare land can be better managed
How can you determine which is better between land sparing or sharing?
Butterfly theory
Explain the controversy of GMOs
Beneficial as they can increase yields or help plants resistance to harsh conditions (important with climate change) vs. arguing they have impacts of health safety
What is Canada’s number one agri-food export?
Canola
In the agri-food industry, what are the Primary/Secondary and Tertiary Sectors
Primary: Agriculture and forestry
Secondary: Food related manufacturing
Third: Food related services
What percentage of land on earth is arable
11%
What percent of canadas land is arable? Why?
7% - tough climate and topography
What is the CLI and the associated classes?
Canada Land Inventory 1 - no limitations 1-3 - prime 4-6 - severe limitations 7 no potential for arability
Give examples of Subclasses of CLI
P - Stoniness
T - Topography
What percentage of Canada’s urbanized land is located on depedenable ag land?
50%
What percentage of food of Canadians waste
30%
What is the biggest culprit for food waste
consumer
What are the 3 steps to FIELD CROP PROCUCTION?
- Seedbed preparation (tillage)
- Seeding
- Manage growth (nutrient, water, pest management)
- Harvest
What are the benefits of conventional tillage?
Soil aeration, nutrient mixing
What are the benefits of conservation tillage?
Reduced GHG, reduced soil erosion
What are the disadvantages of conventional tillage?
soil erosion, GHG emissions
What are the disadvantages of conservation tillage?
Specialized equipment, soil moisture
what are the three elements contained most in fertilizers?
Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium
Soil nutrients
Macro and Mirco examples
Macro = Nitrogen/Potassium Miro = Iron, Colbalt
What happens when there is too much nitrogen in soils
Toxicity - eutrophication causing algal blooms and resulting is dead zones
Which chemical is most easily leached from soils?
Nitrogen
What is biological nitrogen fixing
process by which organisms fix nitrogen from atmosphere into soils
What systems can fix nitrogen from atmosphere? (NNC)
Nodule-forming (plants) - nodes at roots of plants
Non-Nodule forming (plants) bacteria
Cyanobacteria (non-symbiotic) floats in water
Stages of nitrogen reactions.
- Atmospheric nitrogen
- fIZED BY NITROGEN FIXING BACTERIA OR NODULES
- Fixed into ammonium
- Ammonium converted into nitrate through NITROFICATIONS
What does the process of nitrofication do?
converts ammonium into nitrate
How is nitrogen obtained
through the Haber-bosch process
Pros and cons of soil drainage
pros: workable lands, reduced fungal diseases, dressed GHG emissions
cons: loss of wildlife habitat
leaching of N
How can you control inadequate water in soils?
weeding, fallow periods, veg mulches.
What is the growth process for cows
calves spring-fall with mothers vaccinated, castrated weaned in fall and sold to feedlot Feelot given bulking diet end weight 1250pds
What is the controversy with milking cows?
require 115L water/day EXCESSIVE
What is the controversy of egg laying effs
Disposal of male chick
Free run
ability to move freely in barn
free range
access to outdoors
F
Forage
Plants consumed by livestock such as hay, silage, etc.
Silage
Green forest crops that have been harvested and chopped up and air sealed allowing fermentation (WHITE MARSHMELLOWS)
Pelagic
Open sea fish such as ocean perch
Anadromous
Migrate from sea into fresh water to spawn, such as salmon
What is a net pen
Pen located in open waters but still securing fish populations
what is culture based-fisheries
Releasing young fish into wild to grow and then recatching
Why does agricultural diversity matter?
When species is lost, its genetic information is lost too losing its potential to help us manage climate risks, or improve health and neutron
when is land considered degraded?
When productivity is diminished OR when yields are same but require more inputs
How many hectares/year are we currently losing?
9 million
What is geological erosion
natural levelling or smoothing of earths surface - new soil replenishing at rate equal to soils depleting
Effects of accelerated erosion
loss of topsoils, washing of seed or burial of smaller plants as well as sediment leaching to waters
What three factors influence amount of soil lost from water erosion?
- soil intrigty
- precipitation
- land slope
What practices can help sustain soils?
Riprarian buffers
conservation tillage
cover crops and mulch
What are common measures taken to control wind erosion
Barriers, soil moisture control (moist soils have less movement)
What percentage of water is agriculture responsible for withdrawing
70%
Why is Canadians water consumption lower than other countries averages
our climate is less arid
Explain nutrient loading
Occurs from contaminated run off making its way into water ways - nitrogen or pathogens
What is persistent pesticides
Pesticides that don’t degrade easily and can evaporate and transfer through atmosphere
What os the grand hopper effect
substances moving through series of hops
What is the ideal pesticide
selective, non-persistent, non-mobile
what drink consumes the most water
wine
what animal product consumes most water
milking cow
what are the three pillars of sustainability
Economy, Society, environmnet
SAFA’s 4 dimensions of sustainability
- Good governance
- Environmental Integrity
- Social wellbring
- Economic resilience
what are the 6 themes of Environmental integrity, provide examples of possible sub themes
Atmosphere Water Land Materials and Energy Biodiversity Animal welfare
how can we mitigate GHG
reduced/zero tillage
use of less intensive GHG transports
thermal screens for Greenhouses
Define Agrarian philosophy
Agriculture with the function of providing feed but also seeking to protect environment
Industrial Philosophy
agriculture priotizing lowest costs but higher tyields
Extensive
Yields depending on the natural ability of the soils
Intensive
Systems requiring large amounts of labour and capital
jules petty and sustainability
Middle ground between intensive and extensive methods
What are examples of integrated systems?
Agroforestry
Permaculture: design process based on principles mimicking patterns that are naturally found in nature
What is roundup ready
GMO that aims to resist herbicide roundup - can actually be useful for no-til soils as it helps farmers kill weeds that are left
What is the Neolithic Revolatuon
10,000 to 12,000 ya
Movement from hunter-gatherer to agriculture
seeking ti cultivate and domesticate
Define CULTIVATION
The managing of wild populations of plants
Define domestication
human modifications to plants/animals to alter their wild counterparts
What does OMAF stand for
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, food and rural affairs
define flexitarianism
semi-vegetarian diet
What are the arguments in favour of meat consumption
animals contribute to an integrated farm, potential to turn food waste into protein, and ability of grasslands to produce human foods
Which country dominates the global fisheries production
china
What % of fish stocks are being fished at unsustainable levels
30%
What is the turtle excluder device
device used to decrease amount of by catch in fishing industry
What fishing methods is damaging for seafloor
bottom trawl
What fishing methods is asscociated with high levels of bycatch
long line
What is off-bottom culture used for
aquaculture methods for production of shellfish
Mangrove forest destruction is associated with
farming of shrimp
What is considered the first step to decreasing food waste
better food storage systems
In Europe feeding food waste to pigs is illegal
true
Who started the initiative Incredible Edible that is focused on growing food locally by planting on unused lands
Pam Warhurst
Who start campaign feeing 5000
Stuart
What is soil organic matter?
Organic matter of soils that contain plant and animal residues.
What is SOM do for healthy soils
Reduces soil compaction, increases water infiltration for soils and acts as a reservoir for nutrients
