Lecture 15: Chemical Pesticides and Fertilizer

modern intensive farming has enabled us to feed a ________ population from the _______ amount of land

growing, same

the Second Modern Agricultural Revolution

application of the Second Industrial Revolution to agriculture: petroleum, electricity, and chemistry

what characterizes the Second Modern Agricultural Revolution?

motorization: internal combustion and electricity to power tractors

mechanization: greater use of machines

chemicalization: synthetic fertilizers and pesticides

what are the advances in plant and animal breeding/varieties that took place during the Second Modern Agricultural Revolution?

plant-breeding for higher yield varieties

lock in between energy, fertilizers, and genetic makeup of plants

what happened to market integration during the Second Modern Agricultural Revolution?

global market integration

vertical and horizontal division of labor

vertical integration

the integration of all steps of production

horizontal integration

integration across one level of the supply chain; spatial division of labor

what is the difference between energy applications between the First and Second Industrial Revolutions?

the first IR utilized coal and steam power

the second IR utilized electricity, chemistry, and the internal combustion engine

what are the trends in US corn grain yield since 1866?

after 1930, yields exploded

late 1950s and early 1960s there is a change in the slope (increase) due to availability of synthetic fertilizers

what kind of crop production was the Second Modern Agricultural Revolution characterized by?

capitalized farms were able to specialize in one or a few products

differs from the diversified farming that took place before

what happens to the farms that cannot afford the technologies of the Second Modern Agricultural Revolution?

they are bought by larger farms leading to consolidation

how much did raw productivity of farm labor increase by during the Second Modern Agricultural Revolution?

more than 100x because the average area per worker increased by 10 and then there was a 10x increase in yields

what does Smith say about pre-industrial agriculture?

graziers and corn farmers needed each other due to fertility (restoring fertility through livestock manure)

what was food production like in pre-industrial agriculture?

there was not enough surplus of food to support non-agricultural workers

pre-industrial nitrogen cycle

lightening breaks atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates that soil can absorb, which is then utilized by plants, and eventually returned to the atmosphere through decomposition and nitrogen fixation by bacteria

nitrogen cycle today

a man-made process that involves synthetic fertilizers to supply nitrogen for crops, altering natural cycles and impacting ecosystem health

these sources of nitrogen are subject to runoff and leaching

what was Justus von Liebig’s discovery?

plants need specific mineral to grow, which opened a realm of addressing soil fertility and agricultural productivity through the use of fertilizers

the law of the minimum

plant growth is limited by the element, or the compound, that is present in the soil in the least adequate amount (N, P, or K) relative to the plant’s needs

Guano imperialism (explanation)

guano is the feces of seabirds, which is high in nitrogen

off the coast of Peru, there was an abundance of guano on islands that became a vital fertilizer source in the 19th century, leading to global competition and imperialistic strategies over guano-rich territories

Britain and the US annexed islands and harvested the guano until it was gone

Guano imperialism definition

the geo-political struggle between major powers over guano rich islands

Fritz Haber

developed the technique for fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere, in the form of ammonia, by catalysis at high temperature and pressure

how was ammonia utilized by the Germans?

bombs and poisonous gas

industrial ammonia production

the process of synthesizing ammonia on a large scale, primarily through the Haber process, to meet agricultural and industrial needs

the Haber-Bosch technology was held by the ________ in WWI

Germans

after WWII, the technology for the Haber-Bosch process was given to

Allied power and then to private firms so they could produce fertilizer

Vaclav Smil estimates that ___% of the population would not exist without Haber’s invention

40

what is the relationship between the consumption of nitrogen and population?

consumption of nitrogen increases with the use of fertilizer, which increases yields, which causes populations to increase

what are the ecological ramifications of fertilizer use?

reduced crop and soil biodiversity due to monocultures, lack of rotations, and landscape-scale homogeneity

increased susceptibility to pests and diseases, necessitating greater pesticide use as the uniform habitat means there is more opportunity for pests to grow

contamination of air, soil, food and water from run-off, leaching, drifts and residues

CO2 emissions from production of crops and agricultural inputs

______ _______ are needed for breaking of nitrogen bonds in a man-made way (Haber-Bosch process)

fossil fuels

what is the total estimated pesticide use in the US?

1billion pounds/year

most of the growth of pesticide use has occurred where?

in the developing world

what shift in trends has pesticide use experienced?

for a long time it was only developed, wealthy countries that could afford the pesticides, now it is commonly used overseas and in the developing world

more than _____ the world’s agricultural population of 1.8 billion people now use ______

half, pesticides

pesticide imports have nearly ______ since 2000

tripled

herbicide

a type of pesticide specifically designed to kill or inhibit the growth of unwanted plants or weeds

fungicides

a class of pesticides that target and control fungal infections in plants, helping to prevent crop damage and promote healthy growth

insecticide

a type of pesticide that specifically targets and controls insect populations, helping to protect crops from damage

what are the health implications of pesticide use?

pesticide applicators, farmers and farmworkers, and communities near farms are often most at risk

farmers and pesticide applicators have higher rates of prostate cancer

women who work with pesticides suffer more often from ovarian cancer

cropduster pilots and farm women have higher rates of skin cancer

the pesticide treadmill

is a cycle where farmers rely on chemical pesticides that can lead to increased pest resistance, resulting in the need for even more pesticide use over time

when and how did pesticide use get started?

started in Southern California to support the citrus industry

everything was fumigated uderground to control pests and disease outbreaks in the early 20th century.

how does agriculture serve as a sink for industry?

the waste of industry serves as the inputs for agriculture

agricultural absorbs the toxic chemicals from industry

what is the problem of overproduction?

causes prices to be so low that farmers cannot make a living

how are industry and agriculture connected?

agriculture absorbs the waste product (often toxic chemicals) of industry and the surplus raw materials produced in the agricultural sector are utilized in industry

what has happened to the rural population in the US?

declined significantly

Haber-Bosch process

is an industrial method for synthesizing ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen gases, using high pressure and temperature