Lecture 13 - philosophy and approaches

Question 1

what is sustainable agriculture?

Answer 1

Producing abundant food without depleting the earth’s finite resources or polluting its environment whilst providing dependable incomes to growers

A sustainable agricultural system should be able to be maintained for the foreseable future of the Anthropocene and not compromise the abilities of future generations to feed themselves.

Question 2

What is the millennium ecosystem assessment?

Answer 2

provided a stark warning to how much humans are degrading earths finite resources - also notes how its not just sustainability in terms of money but also need to preserve biodiversity and wildlife

Question 3

5 possible metrics for measuring sustainability

Answer 3

1. Life cycle analysis
2. Carbon, water, nutrients, energy, soil footprints?
3. Greenhouse gas footprints?
4. Ecological footprints?
5. Earths? (unsustainable resource use by earth capacity) - how many ‘earths’ are we using up

Question 4

what is a life cycle analysis and why is it important?

Answer 4

• Looks at the whole system and all the components of it in a complete cycle
• This is important because sometimes there are unexpected outcomes when you do lifecycle analyses
• The environmental costs and benefits of food production are complex to quantify and for consumers to understand.

Question 5

describe an example of how food miles are more complex than they may first appear

Answer 5

most UK apples purchased in July will have been in long-term cold storage from the previous year often requiring more energy than importing from crops harvested in New Zealand - food miles is a complicated system

Question 6

How sustainably are we using the Earths resources?

Answer 6

Today we use 50% more resources that the planet can renew

Question 7

to address global sustainability whos lifestyles will have to change and what issues does this bring about?

Answer 7

people in developed countries will have to change their lifestyles to ensure less privileged others can live better lives therefore there is moral and ethical issues embedded in sustainability issues

Question 8

what are the 4 key issues in sustainability?

Answer 8

Feeding the World without destroying the Earth.
Not reliant on non-renewable inputs
Protecting ecosystem services- soil, water, air, climate
Protecting profits and viable farming communities - needs to be economocially viable

Question 9

what motivates humans to solve the key sustainability issues? (7)

Answer 9

Selfish-Genes- altruism driven by concern for ourselves and our children
Abrahamic Religion - love God - love your neighbour - care for creation
Neopaganist nature worship – love of ‘Mother Earth’
Anthroposophy ‘nurture the soul, the individual and human society’
Organic Movement: Fear of ‘artificial’ chemicals, and GMO
Permaculture Movement: Learn from nature and self-sufficient human societies- use science to develop true sustainability.
Transition Movement: Do it yourself- trust no-one else- adapt to impending crises of resource depletion (e.g. oil)

Question 10

what entails sustainable agriculture?

Answer 10

Sustainable agriculture needs to deliver food more efficiently with less inputs and less waste

Question 11

6 ways we can achieve growth in efficiency of management of food production systems?

Answer 11

• Reduce waste
• Increase nutrient and water use efficiency of crops
• Increase soil nutrient and water storage capacity
• Recycle nutrients through the food chain
• Use of biological nitrogen fixation
• Effective pest / disease/ weed management

Question 12

what underpins all 6 methods to try achieve efficiency of food production systems?

Answer 12

• Knowledge, skill, understanding, experience

Question 13

8 current ‘alternatives’ to conventional intensive agriculture

Answer 13

1. “Sustainable intensification”
2. Precision Agriculture
3. Integrated Crop Management and conservation tillage
4. Organic
5. Biodynamic
6. Permaculture
7. Agro-forestry
8. Kitchen gardens, allotments and urban agriculture

Question 14

describe the paradox of current food production in different parts of the world?

Answer 14

• could easily improve productivity in areas were productivity is currently very low - developing countries etc
• However in some areas of the world intensification is too high - need to maybe reduce yields to sustainably manage agriculture

Question 15

what does Fokey suggest as major solutions for lack of food production?

Answer 15

• Halting agricultural expansion
• Closing yield gaps on underperforming lands
• Increasing cropping efficiency
• Shifting diets
• Reducing waste

Question 16

what 3 factors pull in different directions when it comes to food production?

Answer 16

1. food access - needs to be improved
2. environmental damage - needs to be reduced
3. food production - needs to be increased

Question 17

describe techniques involved in sustainable intensification

Answer 17

• Improving yields using sustainable resources.
• Improving soil quality- managing organic matter, nutrients, structure, biology.
• Improved crop genetics.
• Better biological control of pests and diseases.
• Smart crop rotations such as legumes to build N fertility.
• Rock-dust fertilizer.
• Recycling organic matter to soil rather than biomass and manure burning in stoves
• Solar-desalination of sea water for irrigation and solar powered pumps.

Question 18

what is the issue with feeding animals?

Answer 18

trade-off between how much cereal crops we feed to animals vs how much land used for crops eaten by humans - We currently produce double the amount of food needed to feed to population ( fed to animals and used for biofuels)

Question 19

currently only 12 crops provide most of human food - what is the issue with this and how could we solve it?

Answer 19

presents high risk if one crop is susceptible to a disease

- Greater diversity of food crops could produce greater sustainability and resilience

Question 20

describe precision agriculture

Answer 20

Combining remote sensing, GPS technology with crop physiology, agronomy, IT, agricultural technology – to ensure optimal production and applications of chemicals, water and nutrients most effectively ( however, not relevant to small farmers)
Increasing technological sophistication and dependency- underlying philosophy- total human control of production- leaving nothing to chance, but trying to optimise profit for input – not normally seeking sustainability goals. Ultimately if this approach is used to legitimize unsustainable resource depletion it remains “unsustainable intensification”

Question 21

describe the scientific approach of integrated farming systems

Answer 21

employing scientific rigour to minimise inputs where possible, but not abandoning successful chemical and other approaches that have provided high yields, whilst seeking to minimise such inputs and maximise ecological benefits

Question 22

examples of some integrated farming system techniques

Answer 22

• crop rotation
• minimum soil cultivation
• disease resistant cultivars
• different tillage systems
• managing field margins

Question 23

Benefits of integrated versus conventional farming in the UK:

Answer 23

• can provide smaller yields but with less input costs - more economically viable
• also has set of environmental benefits such as less soil erosion - less fertiliser run off - less leaching of nutrients - improvement of wildlife etc - Changed goalposts compared to conventional agriculture -
  looking at financial sustainability, environmental sustainability by not making yield the primary goal

Question 24

possible issue with integrated farming systems?

Answer 24

may not be fully sustainable

Question 25

what is the issue with industrialised farming?

Answer 25

industrialized farming is the minority. Yet almost all the grant and research money goes into industrialized farming (now known anomalously as “conventional” farming) and the small, traditional farms that in reality deliver the goods are neglected and derivedIt’s clear, too, that mixed farms – which traditional farms generally are – can be far more productive per unit area and per unit of fossil fuel than the monocultures that are typical of industrialized farming. If we really care about feeding the world we need small to medium sized mixed farms – which in practice means up-graded traditional farms.

Question 26

4. Organic- has become synonymous with sustainability in the public perception- but is this perception true? Is organic actually sustainable?

Answer 26

• GM is banned
• Unscientific fear of ‘chemicals’ and genetic modification- Organic agriculture has 34% lower yields than conventional agriculture, so needs more land area to produce the same amount of food.
• Organic agriculture (OA) is not consistently better performing environmentally than conventional agriculture, and newer forms of agriculture such as no-till cropping using herbicides may outperform OA with respect to soil quality and fossil fuel use because the reliance of OA on ploughing.

Question 27

organic cropping requires the use rotation cycles with the use of leys to build up fertility - which in turn gives less crop yields - what is a possible solution to this?

Answer 27

growing two types of crops together - always produce high yields - however is labour intensive and requires developed technology

Question 28

describe biodynamics and its efficiency

Answer 28

Planting crops according to an astrological calendar - ridiculous and unethical to sell people this food under false pretences

Question 29

describe permaculture

Answer 29

• Whole system approach to sustainability
• Underlying principles are designing systems by understanding all the components
• It integrates ecology, landscape, organic gardening, architecture and agro-forestry in creating a rich and sustainable way of living

Question 30

what can you get from agro-forestry (4)

Answer 30

Timber
Fruits
Nuts
Legume trees- nitrogen fixation and enhanced P cycling

Question 31

describe the use of allotments in the UK and its advantages

Answer 31

Over 300,000 allotments (not all in cities)
These can yield over 36 tonnes of food per hectare per year We could be self-sufficient in much of our food production - Only 7% of agricultural land in the UK is used for horticulture (fruit and vegetables)

Question 32

describe the issue of low wages in other countries and food prices

Answer 32

• Low wages in other countries (even within the EU) drives down prices of food products and makes it cheaper to import produce that is labour-intensive even if the climate and soil conditions are appropriate in the UK. E.g. could grow apples in UK but would have to pay more for them because minimum wage is higher

Question 33

describe the issue of waste from garden produce

Answer 33

• Lots of gardens and suburban areas with apple trees but the fruit is never harvested - volunteer groups are now picking it and making sure it goes to good causes - minimising waste

Question 34

what is a vertical farm?

Answer 34

• Urban crop production systems - Less land is needed to grow the crops
• However, do require artificial lighting etc