5.2 - Terrestrial Food Production

The sustainability of terrestrial food production systems is influenced by factors such as

scale, industrialization, mechanization, fossil fuel use, seed/crop/livestock choices, water use, fertilizers, pest control, pollinators, antibiotics, legislaion and levels of commercial versus subsistence food production

LEDC

Less economically developed country: low to moderate industrialization and low to moderate average GNP per capita

MEDC

More economically developed country: a highly industrialized country with high average GNP per capita

Agribusiness

The business of agricultural production including farming, seed supply, breeding, chemicals for agriculture, machinery, food harvesting, distribution, processing, and storage

Subsistence farming

The provision of food by farms for their own families or the local community. There is no surplus

Cash Cropping

Growing crops for the market, not to eat yourself

Commerical farming

Takes place on a large, profit-making scale, maximizing yields per hectare. Often monoculture and uses high levels of technology, energy, and chemical input with corresponding high output

Extensive farming

Uses more land with a lower density of stocking or planting and lower inputs and corresponding outputs

Intensive farming

Uses land more intensively with high levels of input and output per unit area. Animal feedlots are ______

Pastoral

Raising animals, usually on grass and land that is not suitable for crops

Arable farming

Growing crops on good soils to eat directly or to feed to animals

Mixed farming

Both crops and animals. A system in itself where animal waste is used to fertilize the crops and improve the soil structure and some crops are fed to the animals

Malnutrition

Umbrella term for “bad” nutrition and it is the result of a diet that is unbalanced. Nutrients may be lacking, excessive, or unbalanced

Undernourishment

Lacking in nutrients - usually a lack in calories

Overnourishment

Excessive in nutrients - usually too many calories leading to obesity

Unbalanced nutrients

The wrong proportion of micro-nutrients

Factors that play into the food we grow and eat

Climate, Cultural and religious, Political, Socio-economic

Climate

Local conditions determine what will grow where on Earth. Usually adapted via irrigation and greenhouses to artificially alter the ______.

Cultural and religious

Some religions prohibit eating certain foods. Ex: Islam and Judaism prohibit eating pork

Political

Government can subsidize or put tariffs on some foods to encourage or discourage their production Ex: the EU manipulates production in this way

Socio-economic

Market forces determine supply and demand in a free-market economy.

Animal domestication

dog, sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle were all _____ to fufill a variety of needs. for example, dogs were used as hunting companions.

Livestock

Useful means of converting plant material unsuitable for human digestion systems (like grass) into valued protein.

Monoculture

all of one species

What happens in arable farming?

Seeds of crop plants are deliberately sown into a soil that has been cleared of natural vegetation. The seeds are usually planted into a bare soil that has been previously conditioned by plowing. Grown in high density and monoculure

Fertilizers are

Added to encourage growth or flowering. Soil that is too acidic has lime added, irrigation may be used

Harvesting

requires the removal of the biomass from the field, the soil, and the ecosystem

Crop rotation

One way of addressing loss of soil fertility. Leguminous crops like soya beans, peas, and beans add nitrogen to the soil, so may be grown every fourth year, in a ____ with other crops