Chapter 12: Food Production and the Environment

Food security

Every person in a given area has daily access to enough nutritious food to have an active and healthy life

Food insecurity

Living with chronic hunger and poor nutrition, which threatens one's ability to lead healthy and productive lives

Poverty

The root cause of food insecurity is...

Macronutrients

Ex) carbs, proteins, and fats

Micronutrients

Ex) vitamins, iron, iodine, and calcium

Chronic undernutrition

Occurs in people who cannot grow or buy enough food to meet their basic energy needs

Chronic malnutrition

Deficiencies of protein and other key nutrients

Iodine

Essential for proper functioning of the the thyroid gland, which produces hormones that control the body's rate of metabolism (deficiency causes goiter)

Famine

A severe shortage of food in an area accompanied by mass starvation, many deaths, economic chaos, and social disruption

Overnutrition

Occurs when food energy intake exceeds energy use and causes excess body fat

Underweight or overweight

People who have a lower life expectancy, greater susceptibility to disease and illness, and lower productivity and life quality

Croplands

Produce mostly grains and provide about 77% of the worlds food using 11% of its land area

Ranglands, pastures and feedlots

Produce meat and supply about 16% of the world's food using about 29% of its land area

Ocean fisheries and aquaculture

Produce 7% of the world's food

Industrialized or high-input agriculture

Uses heavy equipment and large amounts of financial capital, fossil fuel, water, commercial fertilizers and pesticides to produce single crops

Monocultures

Single crops

Yield

The amount of food produced per unit of land

Plantation agriculture

A form of industrialized agriculture used primarily in tropical developing countries; involves cash crops

Cash crops

crops grown especially for export and profit; ex. Bananas, soybeans, sugarcane, coffee, and palm oil

Hydroponics

A method whereby plants are grown with their roots in troughs of water inside a greenhouse

Traditional subsistence agriculture

Uses mostly human labor and draft animals to produce only enough crops for a farm family's survival, with little left over to sell or store as a reserve in hard times

Traditional intensive agriculture

Farmers increase their inputs of human and draft-animal labor, fertilizer, and water to obtain higher crop yields

Polyculture

Growing several crops on the same plot simultaneously

slash-and-burn agriculture

a type of polyculture; involves burning and clearing small plots in tropical forests, growing a variety of crops for a few years until the soil is deleted of nutrients, and then shifting to other plots.

O Horizon

Leaf litter

A Horizon

Topsoil

B Horizon

Subsoil

C Horizon

Parent material; often lies on bedrock

Humus

Porous mixture of the partially decomposed bodies of dead plants and animals

Low-input; high-input

measurements of the amount of chemicals and effort needed to accomplish a certain type of agriculture

agribusinesses

a small number of giant multinational corporations increasingly controlling the growing, processing, distribution, and sale of food in the United States and in the global marketplace

first gene revolution

involves cross breeding through artificial selection; typically takes 15 years

second gene revolution

involves genetic engineering; results in genetically modified organisms or transgenic organisms

advanced tissue culture

Using this method, scientists have altered citrus trees, which normally take 6 years to produce fruit, to yield fruit in only one year. Scientists hope to use this technique to mass-produce only orange juice sacs which would eliminate the need for citrus orchards altogether.

fishery

a concentration of particular aquatic species suitable for commercial harvesting in a given ocean area or inland body of water

aquaculture/fish-farming

raising marine and freshwater fish in ponds and underwater cages

blue revolution

nickname for aquaculture

soil erosion

the movement of soil components, especially surface litter and topsoil, from one place to another by the actions of wind and water

waterlogging

water accumulates underground and gradually raises the water table

marginal land

Land that is not well suited for growing crops

agrobiodiversity

the world's genetic variety of animals and plants used to provide food

pest

any species that interferes with human welfare by competing with us for food, invading lawns and gardens, destroying building materials, spreading disease, invading ecosystems, or simply being a nuisance

natural enemies

all the predators and parasites and even disease organisms that may feed on a given organism; used to control a specific pest through predation or parasitism

first-generation pesticides

mainly natural chemicals borrowed from plants

second-generation pesticides

synthetic organic compounds used to kill insects and other pests; started with the use of DDT in the 1940s

broad-spectrum agents

pesticides that are toxic to many pest and nonpest species; i.e. DDT, organophosphate compounds such as malathion and parathion

narrow-spectrum (selective) agents

pesticides that are effective against a narrowly defined group of organisms

boomerang effect (aka the circle of poison)

residues of banned or unapproved chemicals exported to other countries can return to the exporting countries on imported food

integrated pest management (IPM)

a variety of pest control methods that include repairs, traps, bait, poison, etc. to eliminate pests

soil conservation

involves using a variety of ways to reduce soil erosion and restore soil fertility, mostly by keeping the soil covered with vegetation

terracing

a way to grow food on steep slopes without depleting topsoil; it is done by converting steeply sloped land into a series of broad, nearly level terraces that run across the land's contours

contour planting

involves plowing and planting crops in rows across the slope of the land rather than up and down

strip cropping

involves planting alternating strips of a row crop (i.e. corn or cotton) and another crop that completely covers the soil, called a cover crop (i.e. alfalfa, clover, rye)

alley cropping or agroforestry

several crops are planted together in strips or alleys between trees and shrubs that can provide fruit or fuel wood

windbreaks/shelterbelts

trees around crop fields to reduce wind erosion

conservation-tillage farming

Crop cultivation in which the soil is disturbed little (minimum-tillage farming) or not at all (no-till farming) to reduce soil erosion, lower labor costs, and save energy

erosion hotspots

1/10 of the world's cropland that is highly erodible and accounts for the majority of the world's soil erosion

Soil Erosion Act

established the Soil Conservation Service as part of the USDA; soil districts were formed throughout the country

organic fertilizer

fertilizer made from plant and animal wastes

synthetic inorganic fertilizer

fertilizer produced from nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other minerals

green manure

consists of freshly cut or growing green vegetation that is plowed into the topsoil to increase the organic matter and humus available to the next crop

organic agriculture

agriculture in which crops are grown with the use of ecologically sound and sustainable methods and without the use of synthetic pesticides, synthetic inorganic fertilizers, and genetically engineered plants or animals.

CAFO

concentrated animal feeding operation-a very crowded form of livestock raising done in industrialized countries

topsoil

the fertile top layer of many soils

desertification

the process in which the productive potential of topsoil falls by 10% or more because of a combination of prolonged drought and human activities that expose topsoil to erosion.

soil salinization

caused by repeated applications of irrigation water in dry climates lead to the gradual accumulation of salts in the upper soil layers

pesticides

chemicals used to kill or control populations of organisms that we consider undesirable. (ex. herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides)

persistence

how long a chemical remains deadly in nature

animal manure

the dung and urine of cattle, horses, poultry, and other farm animals

compost

a material produced when microorganisms in topsoil break down organic matter such as leaves, crop residues, food wastes, paper, and wood in the presence of oxygen.

polyaquaculture

operations which raise fish or shrimp along with algae, seaweeds, and shellfish in coastal lagoons, ponds, and tanks.