ESS Topic 5: land - 5.2 Agriculture & Food

Food security

Physical and economic availability of food; enable balanced diet for an active & healthy life

Food security & marignalised groups

More vulnerable if their needs are not taken into account in land-use decisions

Marginalised groups case study: Maasai in Kenya & Tanzania

Who?

- Indigenous pastoralist group in Kenya & Tanzania

- Historically relied on vast grassland; cattle grazing is their primary livelihood

Land issues?

- Land grabs by the government, tourism & agricultural industry

- For conservation, tourism& commercial farming: displaced them from their ancestral lands; limited access to water & grazing areas

- Tanzania government's policies

- Forced them off their land to expand wildlife reserves; benefitted tourism industry but marginalised local communities

-Poverty, food insecurity, & conflicts to Maasai people; they struggled to maintain their traditional way of life

Marginalised groups case study: Guarani-Kaiowá in Brazil

Who?

- Indigenous people of Paraguay, Brazil & inhabits an area of tropical rainforest

- Their traditional way of life is based on fishing, hunting, and farming(growing small crops to support their livelihood)

Land use issues?

- Beginning of 1980s: have been forced to leave their traditonal/ancestral settlements; to do deforestation for soy, corn, & cane plantations

- Their profit/method of living was from agricultural businesses & biofuel industries, but with their foced leave, this was made almost impossible

Food security & world agriculture

World agriculture produces enough to feed 8 billion people but food is not distributed equally and ≈1/3 is wasted or lost in food distribution

Methods to increase food security: The Green Revolution - What is it?

To increase food security, high-yielding crops were bred with increased & improved irrigation systems, and the use of synthetic fertiliser & pesticides were applied during the 1950s & 1960s

Methods to increase food security: The Green Revolution - How/What happened after it?

Breeding of high-yielding crops:

- Modern genetics enabled the production of seeds more resilient to disease & drought

Use of synthetic fertilisers & pesticides

- Reduced limiting factors of plant growth

Develop of irrigation infrastructure

- More efficient water supply to crops

Methods to increase food security: The Green Revolution - General Outcomes

More reliable food production; less reliance on climatic conditions

Faster increase of cereal production & yields with small impact on land use

Methods to increase food security: The Green Revolution - Concerns

Was happening in developed/rich countries but not in developing/poor countries

Improved soil productity depends on N-fixing into synthetic fertilisers

-Is fossil fuel dependent as it uses the Haber-Bosch process, which is very energy intensive & gets H from CH4

Methods to increase food security: The Green Revolution - Sociocultural consequences

Supported increased population

- Increased food production helped sustain rapidly growing populations

-Prevented famines in countries such as India & Mexico

Methods to increase food security: The Green Revolution - Economic consequences

Increased input costs

- Farmers became dependent on expensive fertilisers, pesticides, & high-yield seeds

-Benefit agrobusinesses but strain small-scale farmers

Methods to increase food security: The Green Revolution - Environmental consequences

Chemical pollution

- Heavy use of synthetic fertilisers & pesticides

-Harmed ecosystem & human health

Methods of improving soil fertility - Instead of using synthetic fertilisers...

Use organic fertilisers from farm animals or humanure

Methods of improving soil fertility - for soil conservation from wind or water erosion...

Water erosion:

- Contour ploughing; ploughing the land according to its shape

- Help sustain natural systems

Wind erosion:

- Use of cover crops: can also be ploughed into soil to become green compost

Methods of improving soil fertility - soil conservation using conditioners

Use of lime:

- Increases soil pH & makes it less acidic

-More nutrients available to plants

Methods of improving soil fertility - use of cultivation techniques

Avoiding marginal land: no farming in inappropriate lands for farming

Human diets & sustainability

Diets in lower trophic levels: more sustainable(vegetables, fungi, etc.)

- Yield of food per unit of land area is greater in quantity & has a lower cost than livestock

Strategies to achieve sustainable food supply

Current global strategies

1) Reduce demand & food waste

2) Reduce GHG emissions from food production

3) Increase productivity without increasing land area for agriculture

Strategy #1: plant-based meat substitutes

- Use fewer resources such as water & land compared to traditional livestock farming

- Produce significantly fewer GHG emissions

- Reduced need for animal agriculture, which contributes fo deforestation & biodiversity loss

Food insecurity

Situation when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe & nutritious food for normal growth and development & healthy life

Measured using Food Insecurity Experience Scale(FIES)

-Based on household survey data about several conditions someone with food insecurity would typically experience

Moderate food insecurity

Generally associated with the inability to regularly eat healthy, nutritious diets

Severe food insecurity

More strongly related to insufficient food/energy