Quiz Review - Food Production & Distribution Flashcards
List examples illustrating the connection between ecosystem health and human health
Ex. ecosystem goods and services, diet and nutrition factors
Ex. Good soils produce nutritious crops which make humans healthy when consumed.
Define the dimensions of sustainability and provide an example of how the dimensions depend on one another in the “food problem”
Economy: In the past, we have given greater importance to the economic implications of food production but in a healthy ecosystem, the cost of food will include externalities on the community and environment
Environment: How food is produced greatly impacts the environment. In a healthy ecosystem, crops are rotated and soil doesn’t erode. Use of pesticides and fertilizer also damage the environment.
Community: When foods are produced using pesticides, these chemicals end up in the blood streams of humans. This can cause medical concerns down the road. These cost money, and therefore, relate to “economy”.
What was the ‘post-war’ task, the root problem, and its relationship to today?
The “post-war” task was an initiative to produce more food to feed growing populations. The problem was that in doing so, soils were abused and over-farmed. Today, this misuse of soil is why we have rampant soil erosion and increased difficulty in agriculture.
Describe the epiphany Aldo Leopold had after his experience on the mountain … and how it links to environmental and even human health.
He was on a mountain to kill the wolves. Had an epiphany while looking into the eyes of a dieing wolf. Wolves eat deer so when the population of wolves decreased, the populations of deer would dramatically increase. This would cause their food supply (plants) to be all eaten. This would cause root decay and thus soil erosion. A lot of soil erosion would cause the mountains to become bare.
What was significant about Howard and “Post-war Task”?
Howard was one of the first who saw the root cause of poor health as the poor treatment and undernourishment of soils. He suggested that to nourish the soil, increased gardens, compost, and a balance of plants and animals were needed
Who was Malthus and what was his ‘nightmare’?
He believed that growth in human populations will exceed the food supply growth, thus leading to global starvation.
Why have past societies collapsed?
- Deforestation
- Soil Erosion
- Climate Change
- Overpopulation
What is carrying capacity? Ecological footprints?
Carrying capacity is the size of the population that an area can hold.
What is Ecological footprints? How does footprint size change as a function of population transitions, or, total population?
Measure of human demand on the Earth’s ecosystems. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth (or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody followed a given lifestyle.
As populations moves from developing to developed, the amount of resources consumed increases dramatically. This increases the number of planets required should everyone in the world have that same lifestyle.
Define what a food system is?
A food system is the processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population (Growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, and disposal). Includes the inputs needed and outputs generated at each step.
List the earth’s major ecosystems, especially agroecosystems and freshwater systems.
Grasslands Forests Lakes and ponds Rivers, streams and springs Wetlands
Define agroecology.
The study of ecological processes that operate in agricultural production systems. Often referred to as:
- A science
- A movement
- A collection of practices
What is ecological literacy?
It is the ability to understand the natural systems that make life on earth possible. To be ecoliterate means understanding the principles of organization of ecosystems and using those principles for creating sustainable human communities.
What are ecosystem goods? Services?
Definition: the benefits arising from the ecological functions of healthy ecosystems. Such benefits accrue to all living organisms, including animals and plants, rather than to humans alone
Ecological Goods: clean air, and abundant fresh water.
Ecological Services: purification of air and water, maintenance of biodiversity, decomposition of wastes, soil and vegetation generation and renewal, pollination of crops and natural vegetation, groundwater recharge through wetlands, seed dispersal, greenhouse gas mitigation, and aesthetically pleasing landscapes.
What is ecosystem resilience or resistance? How are these different?
Resistance: is the ability of the ecosystem to work with change present
Resilience: is the ability of the ecosystem to rebound after a large change occurs
Using your ecological literacy, explain how some action in an ecosystem is a tradeoff: dam a river, apply a herbicide, fertilizer on a lawn.
Dam a River: Flooding kills plants and removes any animal life once present. Slowing of river might reduce water depth and kill of fish downstream.
Apply a Herbicide: Fewer songbirds because the bugs attracted to these plants will no longer come. Also, soil erosion due to root depletion.
Fertilize a Lawn: More winter fish kills because fertilizer gets into sewer systems and flows into water sources. When surface water freezes in winter, this fertilizer concentrated water becomes toxic for fish.
