Download GG5: Sustainable Food Supply – Key Concepts

GG5: Sustainable Food Supply – Key Concepts
Sustainable Food Supply Word Bank
Key Term/Concept
Abbots Hall Farm
Aeroponics
Agribusiness
Definition
A farm purchased by Essex Wildlife Trust on the
Blackwater Estuary to be used as a ‘demonstration’
farm to show how arable farming and biodiversity can
co-exist through a programme of agricultural
diversification (using different types of crops) and
habitat management i.e. improving hedgerows and
field margins, planting in of hedge-banks, promoting
the use of IPM whilst decreasing the use of pesticides,
herbicides and fertilisers. (You should have made key
point notes on this farm as a detailed/specific case
study of the positive impact of agric diversification on
the environment).
Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in an air
or mist environment without the use of soil or an
aggregate medium. The basic principle of aeroponic
growing is to grow plants in a closed or semi-closed
environment by spraying the plant's roots with a
nutrient rich solution. Ideally, the environment is kept
free from pests and disease so that the plants may
grow healthier and quicker than plants grown in a
medium
In agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term that
refers to the various businesses involved in food
production, including farming and contract farming,
seed supply, agrichemicals, farm machinery,
wholesale and distribution, processing, marketing, and
retail sales. Among critics of large-scale,
industrialized, vertically integrated food production, the
term agribusiness is used as a negative, synonymous
with corporate farming. As such, it is often contrasted
ALURE
Amenity value of
landscape
Antinatalist policy
Aphids
Bioaccumulation
with family farm. Some negative connotation is also
derived from the negative associations of "business"
and "corporation" from critics of capitalism or
corporate excess.
A package of agricultural policies used by the UK
Government in the 1980’s to promote diversification.
ALURE = Alternative Land Uses in the Rural
Environment i.e. promoting non-agricutural activities
on farm land e.g. treeplanting/farm woodland scheme,
grants for promoting rural recreational activities etc.
Environmental or landscape benefit of the landscape
rather than their commercial value as farming land.
Traditional farming landscapes have a high amenity
value with their picture postcard scenes of patchwork
fields, hedgerows, scattered woodland, ponds etc.
Modern agribusiness farming has transformed the
landscape with a resultant loss of amenity value i.e.
large monocultivation systems with a loss of hedges,
woods, ponds and modern farm buildings etc
A deliberate demographic policy aimed at fertility
reduction e.g. China’s ‘One Child Policy’ in the 1970s
had a target of ZPG. The Chinese government
introduced the policy in 1979 to alleviate social,
economic, and environmental problems. The
authorities claim that the policy has prevented more
than 250 million births from its implementation to
2000.The policy is controversial because it is
implicated in an increase in forced abortions and
female infanticide, and has caused China's significant
gender imbalance. However, China’s total fertility rate
(TFR) is now as low as the UK at 1.7 children, so is
below replacement level but population momentum
keeps it growing.
Aphids, also known as plant lice (and in Britain as
greenflies),are small plant-eating insects. Aphids are
among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated
plants such as wheat in temperate regions. They have
a very high reproductive rate and so the population
can double in 4 - 6 days. This means that they are a
good source of food to other creatures including
Ladybirds and their larvae, lacewings, hoverfly larvae
and parasitic wasps. However, broad spectrum
pesticides have eliminated many of their natural
biological controls allowing massive aphid infestations
and this necessitates the need for more pesticide use
resulting in the ‘pesticide treadmill’.
Process producing an increase in the concentration of
chemicals (usually toxins) in the tissues of organisms
with each increase in the trophic level in the food
chain. Examples include poloychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) which reach their greatest concentrations in
predatory birds which are apex predators.
Biodiversity
The variety of living things/species in an environment.
Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given
ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity
is often used as a measure of the health of biological
systems. Intensive arable farming has resulted in the
simplification of ecosystems due to a focus on monocultivation systems (single crop species) resulting in a
loss of biological diversity as hedges, woods and
ponds disappear, and with them the wildlife that
depend upon these habitats.
Biofuels
Biomass or biofuel is material derived from recently
living organisms. This includes plants, animals and
their by-products. For example, manure, garden waste
and crop residues are all sources of biomass. It is a
renewable energy source based on the carbon cycle,
unlike other natural resources such as petroleum,
coal, and nuclear fuels. It is used to produce power,
heat & steam and fuel, through a number of different
processes. There are two common strategies of
producing liquid and gaseous agrofuels. One is to
grow crops high in sugar (sugar cane, sugar beet, and
sweet sorghum) or starch (corn/maize), and then use
yeast fermentation to produce ethyl alcohol (ethanol).
The second is to grow plants that contain high
amounts of vegetable oil, such as oil palm, soybean.
When these oils are heated, their viscosity is reduced,
and they can be burned directly in a diesel engine, or
they can be chemically processed to produce fuels
such as biodiesel. Although renewable, biomass often
involves a burning process that produces emissions
such as Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)
and Carbon Dioxide (CO2), but fortunately in quantities
far less than those emitted by coal plants. As energy
prices rise more and more agricultural land is given
over to biofuel production.
BOD – Biological Oxygen
Demand
This refers to the amount of oxygen needed by
bacteria and decomposers to break down the organic
pollution matter e.g. animal slurry that is released into
a river. If there is a large quantity of organic waste in
the water supply, there will also be a lot of bacteria
present working to decompose this waste. In this
case, the demand for oxygen will be high (due to all
the bacteria) so the BOD level will be high. As the
waste is consumed or dispersed through the water,
BOD levels will begin to decline. When BOD levels are
high, dissolved oxygen (DO) levels decrease because
the oxygen that is available in the water is being
consumed by the bacteria. Since less dissolved
oxygen is available in the water, fish and other aquatic
organisms may not survive.
Biomagnification or
bioamplification
The increasing concentration of persistent chemicals
e.g. PCBs/DDT at higher trophic levels. The chemicals
build up in the fatty tissue of the higher order
consumers resulting in toxic poisoning, organ damage,
cancers, birth defects etc
Boserup (Boserupian
theory or view point)
A Danish agricultural economist who was a resource
optimist. She stated that the prospect of food scarcity
and rising prices associated with population growth
would stimulate improvements in agricultural
technology and an increase in yield i.e. agricultural
intensification. An example is the Green Revolution in
India and China when western-centric technologies
were used to dramatically increase food production
and improve food security.
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a system of
European Union agricultural subsidies and programs.
It represents 48% of the EU's budget, €49.8 billion in
2006.The CAP combines a direct subsidy payment for
crops and land which may be cultivated with price
support mechanisms, including guaranteed minimum
prices, import tariffs and quotas on certain goods from
outside the EU. Reforms of the system are currently
underway reducing import controls and transferring
subsidy to land stewardship rather than specific crop
production (phased from 2004 to 2012). In the UK
DEFRA is responsible for implementing CAP and its
reforms.
CAP – Common
Agricultural policy
Club of Rome
The Club of Rome is a global think tank that was
founded in April 1968 and raised considerable public
attention in 1972 with its report The Limits to Growth.
It predicted a doom-laden scenario for industrial
societies unless they adpopted more sustainable life
styles. They are modern-day Malthusians or NeoMalthusians.
Three main conclusions were reached by this study.
The first suggests that within a time span of less than
100 years with no major change in the physical,
economic, or social relationships that have traditionally
governed world development, society will run out of
the nonrenewable resources on which the industrial
base depends. When the resources have been
depleted, a precipitous collapse of the economic
system will result, manifested in massive
unemployment, decreased food production, and a
decline in population as the death rate soars. There is
no smooth transition, no gradual slowing down of
activity; rather, the economic system consumes
successively larger amounts of the depletable
resources until they are gone. The characteristic
behaviourr of the system is overshoot and collapse.
However, their immediate predictions were not
realised because of economic and technological
factors i.e. price rises and discovery of new resources
etc.
Commercial farming
Commercial agriculture: The production of crops for
sale or widespread distribution to wholesalers or retail
outlets e.g. supermarkets. Commercial agriculture
includes livestock production and livestock grazing.
Commercial agriculture does not include crops grown
for household consumption i.e. subsistence farming.
Curry Commission/Report
The Report of the Policy Commission on the Future of
Farming and Food (The Curry Report) was published
in January 2002. It had been established in August
2001, having been set up "to advise the Government
on how we can create a sustainable, competitive and
diverse farming and food sector which contributes to a
thriving and sustainable rural economy, advances
environmental, economic, health and animal welfare
goals, and is consistent with the Government's aims
for Common Agricultural Policy reform, enlargement of
the EU and increased trade liberalisation
DEFRA
Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs) is a Government Department in the
UK.The overarching challenge for Defra is to secure a
healthy environment in which we and future
generations can prosper. As we build a low carbon,
resource efficient economy, Defra helps people to
adapt to changes, deals with environmental risks and
makes the most of the opportunity we now have to
secure a sustainable society and a healthy
environment. This will help see us through the difficult
economic times, volatile food and energy prices and a
changing climate which all make us more aware that
we can’t take our environment for granted. DEFRA is
responsible for managing all aspects of our rural
environment including food production.
Demographic strategy
A policy adopted by a government with a specific
population objective i.e. China’s anti-natalist ‘One
Child’ Policy aimed to control the rate of pop’n growth.
Deoxygenation of water
Diversification of
agriculture
The process of removing dissolved oxygen from a
liquid, such as water. This occurs when organic waste
e.g. animal slurry is added to a water body or during
the process of eutrophication when algal growth can
cause deoxygenation.
Farm diversification can reduce your dependence on
conventional agricultural production and can make
better use of your farm’s physical resources. Around
50 per cent of farms in the UK supplement traditional
incomes through farm diversification. The likelihood is
with the reform of the Common Agricultural policy and
de-coupling of subsidy away from production that the
need to diversify will become an integral part of
running many farm businesses.
The following are examples of diversification activities
outside the core farm business: accommodation - e.g.
bed & breakfast, holiday cottages, camping and
caravan sites ; retail outlets and catering facilities e.g. farm shop, tea-room/café, or restaurant ; rural
tourism and recreation - e.g. trekking holidays; visitor
attractions; mountain biking/walking routes; clay
pigeon shooting, archery, hot air ballooning; adding
value to agricultural products - e.g. ready-made meals
or direct meat sales; alternative use of redundant farm
buildings - e.g. offices; making and/or selling nonagricultural food products - e.g. cakes, preserves,
beer; development (including training) and promotion
of rural crafts e.g. - thatching, dry-stone walling,
hedge-laying, hurdle making, charcoal making etc
Diversification into alternative
agricultural products
The production of novel and/or niche agricultural
products can have the capacity to generate higher
returns, for example:

livestock products – e.g. sheep cheese, Angora
wool, rare breed meat, venison, fish, wild boar,
goat dairying, ostriches etc

crop products – e.g. speciality flowers,
vineyards, crops for alternative use e.g.
pharmaceutical or energy crops
D02 – Dissolved Oxygen
Adequate dissolved oxygen is necessary for good
water quality. Oxygen is a necessary element to all
forms of life. Natural stream purification processes
require adequate oxygen levels in order to provide for
aerobic life forms. As dissolved oxygen levels in water
drop below 5.0 mg/l, aquatic life is put under stress.
The lower the concentration, the greater the stress.
Oxygen levels that remain below 1-2 mg/l for a few
hours can result in large fish kills.
Ehrlich – Paul
Modern day resource pessismist or Neo- Malthusian
who challenged the ideas of Paul Ehrlich. He
published a well known book The Population Bomb, in
which he predicted that "In the 1970s and 1980s . . .
hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to
death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon
now. Julian Simon criticised his ideas and his
predictions were not realised, because of
technological advances in agriculture i.e. the Green
Revolution. However, his predictions did hold true for
parts of Africa which continues to be affected by food
insecurity and by periodic famines.
Environmental
stewardship
Environmental Stewardship is an agri-environment
scheme manged by DEFRA that provides funding to
farmers and other land managers in England who
deliver effective environmental management on their
land. Environmental Stewardship is a Governmentfunded scheme open to all farmers, which funds the
delivery of environmental benefits through agriculture.
The scheme aims to conserve wildlife, maintain and
enhance our landscape quality and character, protect
our natural resources, and promote public access to
the countryside. Environmental Stewardship is the
latest phase of 21 years of agri-environment schemes
which have brought real benefit to the countryside.
Ethical food sourcing
What does sustainable sourcing mean?Sustainable
sourcing ensures, to the best of the food chain’s
ability, that products or goods that are being
purchased have no or a limited negative impact on the
communities and ecosystems that they are sourced
from. The three key areas to focus on to establish
sustainable sourcing:
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Respect human rights and reduce poverty by
creating profitable trading
Work within the finite limits of the planet’s
resources
Move towards a low carbon economy
During the practice of these three key areas there
Eutrophication
should be no compromise to a continual improvement
to animal welfare standards.
Eutrophication is an increase in chemical nutrients —
compounds containing nitrogen or phosphorus — in
an ecosystem, and may occur on land or in water.
However, the term is often used to mean the resultant
increase in the ecosystem's primary productivity
(excessive plant (algae) growth and decay), and
further effects including lack of oxygen and severe
reductions in water quality, fish, and other animal
populations. Eutrophication is frequently a result of
nutrient pollution, such as the release of sewage
effluent, urban stormwater run-off, and run-off carrying
excess fertilizers into natural waters.
Famine
Famine is a widespread shortage of which is usually
accompanied by regional malnutrition, starvation,
epidemic, and increased mortality. Causes can be
natural and human.
Fasilia
A Canadian flower that is used in UK hedge banks
because it attracts hover flies that lay their eggs on the
wheat stalks which then hatch and feed on the aphid
larvae, thus acting as a natural biological control,
reducing the need for expensive and environmentally
damaging pesticides.
Fertilisers
Plants need nutrients as well as carbon dioxide and
water for photosynthesis. When plants are harvested
the nutrients are removed with them. In a natural
ecosystem the plants would eventually die and decay,
with the nutrients being returned to the soil. Farmers
need to use fertilisers containing these nutrients to
maintain productivity. Farmers can use organic
fertilisers or inorganic fertilisers.
Increasing the amount of fertiliser
increases yield, up to a point.
Inorganic
This is known as the law of diminishing
returns.
Organic
manufactured e.g.
ammonium nitrate
animal manure, sewage
sludge
has concentrated
amounts of
macronutrients
may contain important
micronutrients
more easily leached
from the soil
adds organic matter
which improves soil
structure
manure is a good way
can be applied in
of recyling the manure
smaller amounts as it
produced on mixed
is concentrated
farms
easy to handle and
spread on the fields
smelly
Fertilizers are chemical compounds applied to promote
plant and fruit growth. Fertilizers are usually applied either
through the soil (for uptake by plant roots) or, by foliar
feeding (for uptake through leaves).
FEWS – Famine early
warning system
Food aid
Food supply chain
Food insecurity/security
Food miles
Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS
NET ) is a lead organization in the field of prediction
and response to famines and other forms of food
security. Funded by the United States Agency for
International Development since its creation in 1985, it
analyzes a variety of data and information, such as
market prices of food, precipitation and crop failures to
predict when and where food insecurity will occur, and
issues alerts on predicted crises.
Food aid is hard to summarize succinctly due to many
related issues, but in general it is about providing food
and related assistance to tackle hunger, either in
emergency situations, or to help with deeper, longer
term hunger alleviation and achieve food security
(where people do not have to live in hunger or in fear
of starvation).
This refers to all activities in the agri-food industry
from farm to fork i.e. farming, distribution, processing,
retailing etc
Food security refers to the availability of food and
one's access to it. A household is considered food
secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or
fear of starvation. According to the World Resources
Institute, global per capita food production has been
increasing substantially for the past several
decades.In 2006, MSNBC reported that globally, the
number of people who are overweight has surpassed
the number who are undernourished - the world had
more than one billion people who were overweight,
and an estimated 800 million who were
undernourished. China, the world's most populous
country, is suffering from an obesity epidemic.
Worldwide around 852 million people are chronically
hungry due to extreme poverty, while up to 2 billion
people lack food security intermittently due to varying
degrees of poverty (source: FAO, 2003). As of late
2007, increased farming for use in biofuels, world oil
prices at more than $100 a barrel, global population
growth, climate change, loss of agricultural land to
residential and industrial development, and growing
consumer demand in China and India ]have pushed up
the global price of grain thus increasing the risk of
food insecurity, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Food miles is a term which refers to the distance food
is transported from the time of its production until it
reaches the consumer. It is one dimension used in
assessing the environmental impact of food. High food
miles increases the ecological = carbon footprint of the
food production system. DEFRA is trying to promote
local food sourcing as a more sustainable approach to
food production.
GM Crops and Gene
Revolution
Genetically modified crops could form part of the
answer to world hunger, according to a United
Nations report.
With the world population set to rise by two billion over
the next 30 years, such crops could help meet food
needs. Drought and insect-resistant crops could boost
yields and incomes, the United Nations' Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) says. But it warns that
biotechnology is no panacea and must focus on the
needs of developing countries. Biotechnology holds
great promise for agriculture in developing countries,
but so far only farmers in a few developing countries
are reaping these benefits, FAO said in its annual
report 'The State of Food and Agriculture 2003-04'.
Basic food crops of the poor such as cassava, potato,
rice and wheat receive little attention by scientists,
FAO said.
"Neither the private nor the public sector has invested
significantly in new genetic technologies for the socalled 'orphan crops' such as cowpea, millet, sorghum
and tef that are critical for the food supply and
livelihoods of the world's poorest people," said FAO
Director-General Dr Jacques Diouf.
Green revolution
The introduction of high-yielding varieties of seeds
after 1965 and the increased use of fertilizers,
pesticides and irrigation are known collectively as the
Green Revolution, which provided the increase in
production needed to make India, China and other
LEDCs self sufficient in grains, thus reducing food
insecurity. Use Boserup’s graph/model to illustrate.
But there were negative aspects to the adoption of the
Green Revolution technology i.e. social and economic
disparities between rich v low income farmers and
regions; pesticide treadmill, pressure on water
resources etc.
Hedge-banks
Hedgebanks are a quick way of reintroducing natural
biological controls to farming. Farmers can plough in
hedge banks that are no more than earth mounds that
are seeded with wildflowers which may be divided into
dry earth banks that are covered with wildflowers in
the spring time, and also create much taller
hedgebanks that have mature trees and shrubs to
replace the hedgerows and woodland lost in the
recent/modern agricultural revolution. Hedgebanks
attract insects e.g. hoverfly, ladybirds that can then act
as natural biological controls on crop pests like aphids
(see picture opposite). The hedgebanks act as
ecological corridors within the farm and prevent
localised extinction and islandisation of crop pest
predators.
Hydroponics
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using
mineral nutrient solutions, without soil. Terrestrial
plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral
nutrient solution
Indicator species
Plant or animal whose presence or absence in an area
indicates certain environmental conditions, such as
soil type, high levels of pollution, or, in rivers, low
levels of dissolved oxygen. Populations of common
birds are ideal for the purposes of producing
indicators; they are thought to be a good indicator of
the state of the environment as they occupy a wide
range of habitats, tend to be near the top of the food
chain and long-term data are readily available to
assess population changes. The UK Government are
using studies of wild birds to monitor environmental
improvements in farming.
Intensification of
agriculture
Agricultural intensification is an increase in the
productivity of existing land and water resources in the
production of food and cash crops, livestock, forestry,
and aquaculture.
Generally it is associated with increased use of
external inputs i.e. machinery, HYVs, fertilisers,
pesticides, irrigation etc. The Green Revolution in
India/China and intensiver arable farming in Essex
demonstrate this. However, Intensification of
agriculture is a major cause of habitat degradation as
shown in intensive arable farming systems in E
Anglia/Essex. These are leading to the degradation of
agricultural and semi-natural habitats, causing
declines in biodiversity across huge areas.
Intervention pricing
This is the minimum market price set by the EU in its
CAP price support system. It is always set 10-20%
below the target price, and is the price that the EU is
obliged to buy at, thus guaranteeing a minimum price
to farmers for their products. This resulted in large
surpluses in the food supply chain i.e. food mountains
and lakes.
IPM – Integrated pest
management
In agriculture, integrated pest management (IPM) is
a pest control strategy that uses both natural biological
controls and restricted use of pesticides. It is a more
sustainable approach to pest control and frees farmers
from the pesticide treadmill.
Loam is soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in
relatively even concentration (about 40-40-20%
concentration respectively), considered ideal for
gardening and agricultural uses. Loam soils generally
contain more nutrients and humus than sandy soils,
have better infiltration and drainage than silty soils,
and are easier to till than clay soils.
Loam soil
Local sourcing of food
The UK's big four supermarkets have all said they are
committed to sourcing foods locally as much as
possible. Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons
were responding to a report which said it was most
environmentally friendly to buy food that had been
made locally. This reduces the ‘road’ and ‘air’ miles
that food is transported and helps reduce the carbon
footprint of the food supply chain.
Malthus – Malthusian
theory.
Named after English economist the Reverend
THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS (1766-1834), who
believed that population would increase at a geometric
rate and the food supply at an arithmetic rate.This
disharmony would lead to widespread poverty and
starvation which would only be checked by natural
occurrences such as disease, high infant mortality,
famine, war or moral restraint.
Malthusian population theory was eventually
dismissed for its pessimism and failure to take into
account technological advances in agriculture and
food production. However, aspects of Malthusian
theory are applicable to Sub-Saharan Africa where
food insecurity results in periodic famines.
Neo-Malthusians
Modern day resource pessimists that hold similar
views to Malthus with regards to the relationship
between population and food supply. For example:
Paul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome.
Organic farming
Organic farming is a form of agriculture that relies on
crop rotation, green manure, compost, biological pest
control, and mechanical cultivation to maintain soil
productivity and control pests, excluding or strictly
limiting the use of synthetic fertilizers and synthetic
pesticides, plant growth regulators, livestock feed
additives, and genetically modified organisms. Since
1990, the market for organic products has grown at a
rapid pace.
Oxygen sag
Occasionally in bodies of water, large amounts of
dead fish may turn up, having died all at once in a
catastrophic environmental disaster known as "oxygen
sag." Oxygen sag is the dip in dissolved oxygen
present in water that is the result of the introduction of
waste material. Typically bacteria present in the water
congregate near the food source (waste) and
consume oxygen.
Pesticides
Defined as any substance or mixture of substances
intended for preventing, destroying or controlling any
pest, including vectors of human or animal disease,
unwanted species of plants or animals causing harm
during or otherwise interfering with the production,
processing, storage, transport or marketing of food,
agricultural commodities,
'Pesticide' is a broad term, covering a range of
products that are used to control pests.
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
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


insect killers (insecticides)
mould and fungi killers (fungicides)
weedkillers (herbicides)
slug pellets (molluscicides)
plant growth regulators
bird and animal repellents, and
rat and mouse killers (rodenticides)
Excessive use of pesticides causes
bioaccumulation, biomagnification, and as they are
broad spectrum they kill off natural biological
controls resulting in pest epidemics and pest
mutation causing pesticide resistance which then
traps farmers on a ‘pesticide treadmill’ Ref to rice
brown plant hopper.
Pesticide treadmill
Quota
Rice brown planthopper
Pesticide resistance is the adaptation of pest species
targeted by a pesticide resulting in decreased
susceptibility to that chemical. In other words, pests
develop a resistance to a chemical through selection;
after they are exposed to a pesticide for a prolonged
period it no longer kills them as effectively. The most
resistant organisms are the ones to survive and pass
on their genetic traits to their offspring. For example
the rice brown plant hopper in South East Asia
experienced an exponential growth due to elimination
of its natural predators by broad spectrum pesticides –
see below.
An import quota is a type of protectionist trade
restriction that sets a physical limit on the quantity of a
good that can be imported into a country in a given
period of time. Quotas, like other trade restrictions, are
used to benefit the producers of a good in a domestic
economy at the expense of all consumers of the good
in that economy.
Quota can also refer to the production quotas or limits
placed on farmers in the EU in order to reduce food
surpluses e.g. milk quotas. They are also used in the
Common Fisheries Policy to restrict catch sizes in the
North Sea to a sustainable level.
The brown planthopper is a small planthopper that
feeds on rice plants. There were numerous brown
planthopper outbreaks in Southeast Asia in the 1980s
and new ones are expected. It is believed that
excessive use of insecticides lead to outbreaks
reducing populations of natural enemies which then
allowed the planthopper which layed its eggs inside
the stems of the rice plant to reproduce exponentially.
Predators of this insect include the spiders, ladybirds,
beetles etc Asian Governments then restricted the use
of certain pesticides and encouraged IPM using
natural biological controls and reduced pesticide
levels.
Set-a-side
Simon – Julian
Soil Structure
Soil texture
Set-aside as a political measure was introduced by
the European Union (EU) in 1988 to (i) help reduce
the large and costly surpluses produced in Europe
under the guaranteed price system of the Common
Agricultural Policy; and (ii) to deliver some
environmental benefits following considerable damage
to agricultural ecosystems and wildlife as a result of
the intensification of agriculture. It has since become
used as a generic term for the practice of leaving a
proportion of farm land uncultivated or put to nonagricultural use for a period of time. Under the new
Environmental Stewardship Scheme operated by
DEFRA farmers are expected to deliver some positive
environmental benefit from land that is not being
cultivated in order to qualify for payment.
Julian Simon is a resource optimist with a Boserupian
view on the relationship between population and
resources. Simon’s central premise was that people
are the ultimate resource. "Human beings," he wrote,
"are not just more mouths to feed, but are productive
and inventive minds that help find creative solutions to
man’s problems, thus leaving us better off over the
long run. He challenged the views of his academic
rival Paul Ehrlich and claimed that human ingenuity
would allow improvements in agricultural technology to
go on feeding ever more people at ever higher
standards. The Green Revolution in Asia supports his
claim but critics like Paul Ehrlich said he failed to take
into account the environmental impacts of
intensification.
Soil structure is determined by how individual soil
granules clump or bind together and aggregate, and
therefore, the arrangement of soil pores between
them. Soil structure has a major influence on water
and air movement, biological activity, root growth and
seedling emergence. Farmers prefer a granular
structure but heavy use of machinery causes
compaction and can create a platy structure which
impedes drainage and causes water logging.
Soil texture is a soil property used to describe the
relative proportion of different grain sizes of mineral
particles in a soil. Particles are grouped according to
their size into what are called soil separates. These
separates are typically named clay, silt, and sand. Soil
texture triangles can be used to show soil texture
types – see below.Texture describes the mixture of
different particle sizes in soils and names such as
sandy loam and clay are used to describe these
mixtures. Soils may also be referred to as heavy
(clays) and light (coarse textured) to indicate their
ease of cultivation. Texture is a fundamental soil
property influencing key characteristics such as
drainage, water storage, workability, susceptibility to
soil erosion and suitability for different uses. It also
plays a major part in defining 'soil structure'.
Soya
Subsidies in agriculture
Soybeans are an important source of vegetable oil
and protein world wide. Soy products are the main
ingredients in many meat and dairy substitutes. They
are also used to make soy sauce, and the oil is used
in many industrial applications. The main producers of
soy are the United States, Brazil, Argentina, China
and India. The Brazilian state of Matto Grosso is the
country’s biggest producer of soya and the Avanca
Brazil Programme and infrastructural investments form
US giant CARGILL has helped Brazil to become the
world’s biggest exporter of soya. Much of it goes into
animal feed for intensive livestock farming in EU and
China. China is Brazil’s biggest recipient of soya and
this trade has been nicknamed the ‘Great Chinese
Takeaway’.
An agricultural subsidy is a governmental subsidy or
payment given to farmers and agribusinesses to
supplement their income, manage the supply of
agricultural commodities, and influence the cost and
supply of such commodities. The EU gives its farmers
a range of subsidies under the CAP in order to
guarantee food security through self-sufficiency.
Target price
This is the price set by the EU for agricultural
products,such as wheat, that the farmer will hopefully
receive.
Tariff
A tariff is a duty imposed on foreign imported goods.
They are usually associated with protectionism e.g.
EU protects its own farmers using the price support
system it operates under the CAP.
Threshold price
This is the minimum price set for imported agricultural
products such as wheat. It is always set above the
target price so as not to undercut EU wheat
producers. It is effectively a tariff or levy on imported
agricultural produce.