Food Systems

Mass Food Production

  • more food has to be produced to sustain 9.6 billion people (future)

  • world grain production x3 between 1961 and 2009

  • 2/3 of the world people live on rice, wheat, and corn

  • fish & shellfish = Asian island nations + coastal areas of developing countries

  • as incomes rise, livestock products rise in demand

  • monoculture - artificial selection; high consumption of fertilizer, water, pesticides, and fossil fuel energy

  • the green revolution: shift in agriculture away from small, family operated farms to large, industrial-scale agribusiness

    • increased use of mechanization, GMOs, irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides

    • greatly increases efficiency of lands, short-term profitability, and food supply + decreased world hunger and increased earth’s carrying capacity for humans

    • bring neg. consequences (soil erosion, biodiversity loss, ground surface water contamination)

  • polyculture: human labor and draft animals → sustain a family or family group

    • traditional subsistence agriculture: human + draft-animal labor

    • intensive subsistence agriculture: human + draft-animal labor + fertilizers + water

  • depend on weather and nature but more sustainable

  • 20% of the world’s food crop on 75% land

  • 80% of world’s food on 25% of all cropland

  • large scale, profit driven, monoculture → agribusiness

CAFOs

  • factory farms = industrial scale, high density

    • concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)

    • feedlots

  • Genetic Engineering: 70% of all food products on US supermarket shelves are GMOs

  • Development of the Fishing Industry: advances in navigational, shipping, storage technologies → worldwide fishing

  • but global harvested leveled off after the 1990s

  • Aquaculture & Mariculture

  • cultivating aquatic products under controlled conditions

  • Industrial scale & monoculture

  • aquaculture: freshwater; mariculture: seawater

Malnutrition

  • undernutrition - chronic hunger or food insecurity

    • 1990: 1.9 billion people (36%) living with <1.90/day

    • 2015: 750 million people (10%) living with <1.90/day

    • horrible effects on women and children

  • major causes of food insecurity

    • political & economic instability

    • bad weather, natural disaster

    • corruption, inflation

    • climate change

  • hidden hunger - enough calories but not enough micronutrients

Overnutrition → Obesity

  • similar health problems as undernutrition:

    • low life expectance

    • greater susceptibility to disease and illness

    • lower productivity and life quality

processed/manufactured food:

  • sweeteners: sugar, high-fructose corn syrup; food additives, pesticide residues, high calorie food (sugar/carbohydrates/fat)

  • global duet change

Planetary Health Issues

Loss of Marine Biodiversity

  • Overfishing

    • bycatching: indental capture of non-target species

    • bottom-trawling destroys entire benthic ecosystem

    • trawling is worse for fish, but cost less for consumers

    • trolling and pole and line: low bycatch (better for fish)

Agriculture

  • irrigation: 70% of the water humans use

    • overconsumption & waste

    • soil pollution (salinization)

    • water pollution

    • soil fertility loss

  • fertilizers + insecticides → fertility loss + water pollution

  • soil erosion → fertility loss + water pollution

  • desertification → fertility loss

  • eutrophication:

    1. fertilizer runoff (N, P, K)

    2. algal bloom

    3. light depletion: photosynthesis down

    4. decomposition: O2 depletion down

    5. fish die

  • bioaccumulation - increase in concentration of a pollutant in an organism

  • biomagnification - increase in concentration of a pollutant in a food web

  • Impacts of a Meat Diet: environmental footprint, water footprint, land consumption, energy consumption, GHG gas emissions

  • declining agrobiodiversity, animal slaughtering, declining insects, birds, and bats (provide 75% food plants & 90% flowering plants)

Food Waste, Miles, and Desert

  • ~40% food wasted

  • food miles - distance production to consumption → greenhouse gas emissions

  • food deserts - area with no direct access to nutritious food; area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food

Sustainable Agriculture

A Five-Step Plan

  1. Freeze agriculture’s footprint

    1. stop the agricultural expansion to produce more food

  2. Grow more on farms we’ve got

    1. increasing yields on less productive farmlands

  3. Use resources more efficiently

    1. finding innovative ways to reduce the use of chemicals & water

  4. Shift diets

    1. more of the crops we grew ending up in human stomachs

  5. Reduce waste

    1. avoid losing and wasting the food before they can be consumed

Marine Protected Areas

  • restrict human activities (ex. oil drilling)

  • allow local fishing and recreational activities

  • ~5.3% of the ocean waters

  • success within 2-4 years

Organic farming

  • ancestral farming techniques

  • polyculture

  • build healthy soil:

    • animal/green manure, compost

    • crop rotation

    • nitrogen-fixing legumes

  • minimize pests:

    • crop rotation

    • companion planting

    • beneficial insects

  • recommended diet

A Better Distribution System

  • food hubs - collection, distribution, marketing of local and regional food

  • farmers’ markets - buy directly from farmers

  • CSAs - community-supported agriculture; subscriptions, shares of farmer’s harvest