Future of Food Quiz #2 (UNC Chapel Hill 2024)

Path dependence

Preceding steps induce further movement in the same direction

Agriculture

The practice/science of cultivationg plants and animals to produce food or other usable products.

changes in climate, increased population density, overhunting, changing technology

Why did humans adopt agriculture

open-field system

division of large fields into long, narrow strips that are not communal.

Tools for open-field system

Ox-powered plows and hand tools

Enclosure

Fencing or hedging large blocks of land

60%

Average working-class family % of budget on food

Specialization

Narrower range of crops/tasks

Mechanization

Repetative tasks can be performed by machines; fewer people work in agriculture

Consolidation

shift towards fewer and larger farms

Market Concentration

Small number of countries earn most of the sales in one industry

Shifting Baseline

Assuming what we see around us is "natural"

Fishing down the food chain

harvesting at progressively lower trophic levels as higher trophic levels become depleted

Caribs (Kalinago)

Overfished with small population and massivley affected fish ecosystem

Black Sigatoka

Disease that ruins photosynthesis in banana plants killing the plant. Can ruin whole farm in three weeks.

The Greenhouse Effect

Natural situation in which heat is retained in Earth's atmosphere by carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other gases

Greenhouse gases

Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, and ozone in the atmosphere which are involved in the greenhouse effect.

Methane

Very potent but last short amount of time compared to CO2

Sources of CO2 emmisions

Energy (72%), Agriculture use (18.4%), Misc (9.6%)

Methane emmisions main sources

Agriculture: Livestock ruminant animals, rice cultivation, Burning of forests for land use,

Waste

the decomposotion of organic waste in landills

Importance of cereal grains

could feed domesticated animals, good storage, whole plant is useful

Meta-analysis

a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies

Participant observation

doing the same as workers aswell as interviewing and asking questions for research

Majority to the Ocean (93.4%)

Where is Global Warming going?

range shifts due to climate change

Warming will shift species distributions poleward (most common in the ocean)

Benefits to zooxanthellae

protection from predators
regulation of environment
nutrient recycling
provision of CO2

change in marine animal biomass

due to increasing metabolism and by stratification and reduced upwelling and primary production

Benefits to coral

productivity
Calcification
nutrient recycling
provision of O2

coral bleaching

the loss of color in corals that occurs when stressed corals expel the algae that live in them

Compost

Great solution to food waste?

31-40%

What % of harvested food is wasted in the US?

Food Waste

What is the largest trash item in landfills?

20%

What percent of food waste comes from date labels?

Food Recovery Hierarchy

most preferred --> least preferred
1. source reduction
2. feed hungry people
3. feed animals
4. industrial uses
5. composting
6. incineration or landfill

Colonial Era style of farming

Subsistence or plantation farming

Homestead Act

Provided free land in the West to anyone willing to settle there and develop it. Encouraged westward migration.

Federal Irrigation Projects

provides irrigation for 1/5 of farmers in West
-60% of the nation's vegetables
-25% of fruit/nut crops

government agricultural subsidies

government boosts the farmer's income, not food production

AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act)

goal to end overproduction and raise crop prices (helped struggling farmers)

Why consolidation?

Federal agriculture programs encourage big farms growing conventional crops.

Farm Bill

a congressional act that is renewed/modified/amended, etc. every 5 years that governs how the Federal government interacts with agriculture in the US

Domestication

the process of changing plants or animals to make them more useful to humans

Fairtrade Organization

A global system that aims to improve the lives of farmers and workers in developing countries by providing better prices, fair terms of trade, and decent working conditions

Fairtrade Principles

- Transparent and democratic farmer-focused decision-making
- Trading partner based on dialogue transparency and respect
- Social, Economic, and Environmental developments