Agriculture

Marginal Food Security- Anxiety at times in accessing food, but in the end it’s not reduced overall the quality and getting the food

Low Food Security- Reduced their diets, but the food intake and eating patterns aren’t disrupted

Very Low Food Security- They’re food intake and eating patterns is disrupted

Undernutrition- Too few calories

Malnutrition- Too few nutrients

870 million people- do not eat enough

12-14%- of individuals in US are food insecure

Economic- Undernutrition cause

38%- land for agriculture

11%- arable land

77%-croplands (growing plants for human use)

16%-rangelands, pastures, feedlots (land used for grazing livestock)

7%- aquaculture

Wheat, rice, core- important crops

Raising crops- positive feedback loop (neolithic)

Subsistence farming- families feed themselves

Intensive farming- produce excess food to sell in market

Polycultures- traditional farming

Monocultures- more efficient 

90%- food comes from 15 crop species and 8 livestock species (monocultures)

25% cropland- industrialized farming

80% food supply- industrialized agriculture

17 % of commercial energy in U.S- industrialized farming

Food travels 2,400 km- from farm to plate in U.S

Green revolution- prevented deforestation and biodiversity from converting old land

Produced wheat from green rev.-India, Pakistan, & Mexico

Conservational Tillage (no till)- crop residue is left behind

No till advantages- increases benefits of soil, reduces erosion, prevents carbon from entering atmosphere (carbon sequestration), adds organic matter, reduces fossil fuels

No till (conservational) disadvantages- increase herbicide, additional nitrogen fertilizers, decreases erosion, increase fungal disease, can’t be grazed, special machinery

No till (conservational) combatting disadvantages- green manure, rotate fields with cover crops, nutrients added to drip irrigation, application of fertilizers with seeds

40% US farmland- uses conservational tillage

Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay- over half of all cropland is now under no-till cultivation

Traditional Tillage advantages- high rates of incorporation

Tropical rainforest- slash & burn

Consequences of slash & burn- burning oxidized carbon, only some regrowth in land

Organic Fertilizers- Low concentrations = larger applications, Organic material increases water holding capacity, Increases nutrient holding capacity, expensive if bought

Inorganic Fertilizers- Soluble- immediately available to plants, Short duration because they leach away faster, Do not improve water holding capacity

Increased soil degradation vulnerability- Clearing forests on steep slopes or with larger clear-cuts

Soil Degradation severe- in arid areas

Soil Degradation primarily caused by- wind and water erosion

Prior to industrial agriculture in the Great Plains-the native short-grass prairie held the soil in place

Dust Bowl-massive dust storms from erosion of millions of tons of topsoil in the 1930s

Overgrazing can cause soil compaction-Harder for water to infiltrate, etc. more soil disadvantages

Overgrazing occurs when many animals eat too much plant cover-Impeding regrowth, Prevents replace of biomass

Overgrazing creates- a positive feedback loop/cycle (erosion)

Crop typical rotation- corn–> soybean → oats → alfalfa

Terracing- Reduces water erosion

Contour, strip and terracing help control- erosion on farmland with variable topography

Intercropping (different crops)- Slows erosion by providing more ground cover, Decreases vulnerability to insects and disease, when using legumes, replenishes the soil with nitrogen

Shelterbelts/Windbreaks- Lessens the impact of wind erosion

Feedlots/ CAFOS- reduces the impacts of overgrazing

Methane emissions- from animals and is most damaging

Drift netting- large nets float (schooling fish)

Longline fishing- tuna and swordfish

Recirculating aquaculture systems- are an alternative to open pen

GM crops- decrease biodiversity (environmental disadvantage)