Download Population, Environment and Food III: Sustainable Agriculture

Population,
Environment,
and Food:
Sustainable Agriculture
Pollution from farming practices:

Pollution by waste from food production

The feedlots for cows and pigs produce
tremendous amounts of waste.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
(CAFOs) have become a major environmental
problem.

Water (above and below ground), air, and soil
pollution.
Effects to us?

Every year, approximately 36 million cattle are
raised to provide beef for US consumers.

Two-thirds of these cattle (about 24 million
cows) are given hormones to help make them
grow faster.

Same with poultry and egg production. Many
hormones and antibiotics are introduced to
reduce illness and increase production.

Odor and toxic air
emissions from
large-scale
operations
uncontrollable.
are
confinement

Can cause serious
physical and psychological
effects on people living
near and working in these operations.

Over 150 volatile compounds are produced
by the decomposition of livestock waste.

Produce millions of
gallons of manure,
stored in open-air
lagoons the size of
several football fields

Can contaminate
ground water supply
and cause illness in
nearby populations
Land Use and Meat
To produce 1 pound of meat you need to farm 12
times as much land compared to producing 1
pound of bread, rice or potatoes.
 80% of total grain grown is fed to animals for meat
production
 90% of total soy beans grown are fed to animals
for meat production.
 Keep in mind the effects on our water and soil
resources.

Production Comparison

12 pounds of corn ; produce 54 bowls of
cornflakes

12 pounds of wheat ; produce 12 loafs of
bread

12 pounds of grain ;
produce 1 pound of
ground beef.
The Global Food Pyramid
I. Food energy deficient people:
More then 900 million people (20% of population, of which 60% are children) is unable to
provide for a daily healthy diet.
II. Grain eaters:
About 4 billion people on this globe have a diet consisting merely of grains and starch.
This provides them with enough calories and proteins and can be considered as the
healthiest diet on earth. This group receives less then 20% of their calories from fat
(Asia, Latin America)
III. Meat eaters:
About 1 billion people eat meat as their basic diet. This group obtains 40% of calories
from fat. It is the most unhealthy diet. Besides that it creates a high demand for
meat production that causes substantial share of the global inequity of food
resources (high grain consumption. 1/3 of worlds grain production is fed to animals
to produce meat) and environmental abuse.
Food deficiency?
Often the food problems of the world are pictured as if
there were not enough food to feed the world. –Research
has proven that that is not exactly the case.
•For adults experts advise a calorie intake between 2,000
and 3,900 (depending on physical activities).
•A 2006 study shows that the worlds farmers produce
enough to feed the world population 2,800 calories per
day.
•Theoretically, there are no problems or deficiencies in
food.
•The real culprits may be…1) social disruptions, 2) natural
disasters, 3)local social relations, 4) gender relations

strategies and technologies that served to
keep food production growing more rapidly
than population, no longer do so...
1.
 2.
 3.
 4.
 5.

green revolution
adding more land
new genetic hybrids
increasing fertilizers, pesticide, herbicides
irrigation
Food exporters can be counted on one
hand: Argentina, France, Canada,
United States, Australia.


Availability of natural
resources is not
expected to increase
much, but population
still increases (Harper
table 5.3).
World food demand is
likely to nearly double
its present level by
2030.
Supply and Demand
Issues…
Accommodating the larger population that
will appear will require greater outputs on
increasingly stressed natural resources.

Challenge: produce more food and halt
the destruction of the agricultural resource
base. We need more with less resources.
How to increase food
production?

1. Technical options

2. Biotechnology

3. Sustainable agriculture

Biotechnology or genetic
engineering is often called
the gene revolution.

By gene splicing and
injection, the new genetic
engineering techniques can
produce new varieties that
were not known before.

More pest resistant, earlier
maturing, drought resistant,
salt resistant and
more efficient
users of solar
energy during
photosynthesis.

It is expected to give an
enormous boost to
agricultural productivity. In
the year 2000 about two
thirds of soybeans in the US
were grown from
engineered seed species.
(genetically modified
organisms = GMOs)

So will this solve all the
world’s food problems?
There are reasons for caution concerning
GMOs:
Ecologically
• The crop would need more fertilizer and water.
•New species would be inserted into natural food
chains, predator systems, and mineral cycles with
unpredictable results. Some scientists think they
could over time, by cross pollination, result in superweeds or super-pests.
• New organisms introduced into an environment
can themselves become pests.
Political and Economic Problems
• Genetic engineering requires heavy capital and technical
investments and is being conducted by large private
companies that will hold patents on ‘their newly developed
organisms’.
• Available to buyers at the right price, rather than cheaply
to those most in need for food.
• Bioengineering so far has been driven by desire for
agribusiness sales and profits rather than for food for the
hungry or agricultural sustainability—seeds would need to
be purchased every year, patents keep costs up, special
treatments also drive prices up for growers.
Sustainable
Agriculture

Recognizes that a farm is also an
ecosystem and uses the
ecological principles of diversity,
interdependence, and synergy to
improve productivity as well as
sustainability.

Sustainable agriculture integrates
three main goals--environmental
health, economic profitability, and
social and economic equity.
Tools:
1. Intercropping (several crops
simultaneously in the same field).
2. Multiple cropping (more than one
crop a year on the same land).
3. Crop rotation, and the mixing of plant
and animal production.
4. It must be stressed that these are
not new strategies and are all time
honored practices of farmers around
the world.
Study of National Research Council:
In the US, alternative
farmers often produce
high per acre yields with
significant reductions in
costs per unit of crop
harvested.

Regarding the use of
agrochemicals low input
farming out competes
high input farming in
terms of profit per acre.

In the early 90s, only 10% of
US farmers practiced low
input and low tillage
agriculture.

Growing rapidly because of
significant economic and
environmental advantages.
Example of egg production:
Comparison of two farming methods
Conventional method

Chicken Feed
– “All-mash” consists of
sorghum, corn, cottonseed
meal or soybean oil meal.
 Water Use/quality
– For cleaning concentrated
waste, leads to water quality
problems.
 Pesticides
– applied to chicken house,
litter, manure pits, farmyard,
feed and live birds
 Antibiotics
– 4 daily cocktail of antibiotics
helps reduce feces, disease.
Toward sustainability

Chicken Feed
– Whole grains, grasses, insects,
and grit provide protein, calcium,
and minerals.
 Water Use/quality
– Quality improves. Manure used
as fertilizer in other areas, no
concentrated wastes
 Pesticides
– None
 Antibiotics
– None
Source: www.eco-labels.org