L14 and 15 Gary Foster - Cereals and Food security

Question 1

How much of the Earth’s total land is arable?

Answer 1

Total: 14.7 billion hectares of land
Arable: 3.1 billion

Question 2

Where is the most arable land?

Answer 2

Countries with most arable land are also most developed, and areas of massive population growth.
Poor soil areas have the most malnourished and underweight children.

Question 3

What family are grasses?

Answer 3

Poaceae - 4th largest angiosperm family.
837 genera, 10.5-11000 species.
Provides 80% global food

Question 4

What are the most important crops?

Answer 4

Rice - Poaceae
Wheat - Poaceae
Maize - poaceae
Potatoes
Barley - poaceae
Tomatoes
Soybeans
Oranges
Sorghum - poaceae
Banana

Question 5

Describe the physiology of grasses/

Answer 5

Monocots
parallel veined leaves
Perrenial or annual herbs
Flowers are on spikelets, contain 1+ florets
leaves are alternate, open sheath with ligule and blade

Question 6

Why are grasses successful?

Answer 6

Very wide geographical range, wider than any other plant family. Tropical to arctic.
Diverse adaptations.
Can tolerate most grazing as apical meristem is below ground so it is not bitten off and new growth can be initiated.

Question 7

which part has the most energy and nutrients?

Answer 7

Seed!

Endosperm’s capacity to synthesise large quantities of carbohydrates makes cereals so economically important.

Question 8

Which is the most efficient cereal for carbohydrates, and 2 others?

Answer 8

Rice - 38.1 x10^6 Kj/Ha
Maize - 33.1
Wheat - 27.7

Question 9

Why is the growing population and land loss a problem when it comes to rice farming?

Answer 9

1 ha of rice can feed ~ 4700 people for 1 day, as people need ~8000 Kj per day.
In the near future, this 1 ha will need to feed 10-20,000 people.

Question 10

Which Amino acids are cereals very high in?

Answer 10

Glutamate and proline

Question 11

What are the major arable crops in the UK?

Answer 11

Wheat and also oilseed rape - used to feed livestock.

Also lots of grain imported from Australia to UK.

Question 12

Where are the major wheat producing countries?

Answer 12

USA, Russia, Australia, China, E. Europe. 1/3 US grain exported.
Lowest: African countries, Indonesia

Question 13

Why is it an issue importing loads of grain>?

Answer 13

Rich countries are buying land from poorer ones to use the resources to feed people. Problems if el nino event or war or pathogen outbreak in australia - would cause them to use their excesses and then food shortage.

Question 14

What would happen if the UK stopped getting imports?

Answer 14

We would have enough reserves to feed the population for 5 days.

Question 15

how much do wheat and barley take up of arable land in the UK?

Answer 15

Wheat - 63%

Barley - 31%

Question 16

In what way is the UK countryside not ‘pure’ anymore?

Answer 16

What takes up 63% of UK arable land, and it isn’t even a native plant - originally from middle east, adapted to ~UK.
So it is ridiculous for people to complain that GM plants would make the countryside ‘impure’.

Question 17

How has the yeild of crops been pushed?

Answer 17

Using new varieties, fertilisers and pesticides. Now we have pretty much reached the limit.
1 tonne of wheat used to make 1695 loaves of bread. A 2-3 fold increase has let us supply the economy with 678 billion extra loaves per annum.

Question 18

Why has the global rate of yield increase actually decreased?

Answer 18

years 1961-1990 compared to 1990-2007.
Yeild is actually higher but increasing more slowly as we have almost reached the limits.
Study by Alston, Parday and Beddow, 2010

Question 19

China is crazy because..

Answer 19

they have a rapidly increasing population, but as they get richer, have turned rice paddies into cattle fields.

Question 20

Why would Norman Borlaug win a nobel peace prize?

Answer 20

Breeding new varieties of wheat. Without these new varieties, could lead to world hunger and wars break out.

Question 21

What mistake are developing countries making?

Answer 21

As they get richer, meat production is increasing. Doesn’t make sense as reduces he land and food availability for people.
eg 40% of cereals grown in US arefed to livestock, whereas only 14% on average in Africa.

Question 22

What is the agricultural revolution?

Answer 22

Switch from hunter-gatherer to herder-farmer. 12-8000 years ago.

Question 23

what are 5 agricultural advances

Answer 23

1. introduction of new crops
2. Mechanisation - this increased CO2 output
3. New and improved varieties
4. inorganic fertilisers
5. persticides and fungicides (many now banned)

Question 24

What are 7 further crop enhancements?

Answer 24

1. High crop yeild
2. High nutritional quality
3. N fixation - so less fertiliser use
4. Drought resistance
5. Pest resistance
6. Plant architecture
7. Toxic/unwanted compounds

Question 25

Why was GM needed to help prevent future potato blights?

Answer 25

Breeding for resistance is difficult, and resistance genes dont last long. Found some varieties naturally resistant to phytophthora infestans
Couldnt breed into common plants, as they are too different.
GM used instead, greener, less chemicals needed.
However, protesters ruined experiments and field trials.

Question 26

What is is natural way of plant transformation, and how can it be useful?

Answer 26

Agrobacterium tumefaciens
Colonises root cells and inserts tDNA, causing tumours to form which it feeds off.
Can be used to insert a desired gene into plants
Once gene transferred into plant chroosome, cells left to grow on growth medium. Promoter added to switch on transferred gene.

Question 27

How can we engineer aphid resistance?

Answer 27

Aphids emit EBF (E) B farnesene as an alarm, which repels other aphids. Some plants eg mint, naturally release this chemical, keeping aphids off.WE can genetically engineer plants to synthesise EBF which would also attract aphid enemies.

Question 28

Which are the main countries growing GM crops?

Answer 28

USA 69million ha
Brazil 30.3 million
Argntina 23.7 nillion
India 10.6 million
China 3.9 million

Question 29

How could Cassava brown streak disease epidemic have been avoided?

Answer 29

CBSD caused losses of up to 100% in parts of E africa.
Causal agent identified by Foster group at bristol.
Despite warnings of dangers od CBSD and no natural resistance, ability to create transgenic resistance was available and not allowed.
Bill Gates donated millions to help research in Africa to reduce starvation.

Question 30

How can CF be helped using GM?

Answer 30

1 mutation,equivalent of to just one wrong letter in one word in the whole of the Harry potter series
25% chance of a child of 2 carriers to be affected.
Sufferers only live up to25-35 years.
Would it be ethical to screen and select embryos with no mutation?
Could instead correct the gene , using a virus with healthy gene inserted and inserted into lungs. healthy gene gets inserted by virus into lung cell nucleus.
However, could become imune to the virus and so could instead target sperm/egg cell before fertilisation.