Transcript PP1(Ch19-25)Domestication & Hunger

Chapter 19
Food
Resources:
A Challenge for
Agriculture
Food and Nutrition
Important molecules:
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Carbohydrates - sugars, starches = energy (ATP)
Proteins - 20 amino acids (essential amino acids)
Lipids - fats & oil (energy, membrane, hormones)
Minerals - inorganic salts - iron, calcium, iodine
Vitamins - regulation of metabolic processes - rickets
First 3 metabolized by cellular respiration
Essential Nutrient & Minerals
Available Plants
400,000 estimated
species of flowering
plants
12 account for over
80% of the worlds
crops
Why few domesticated:
Indigestible
Poisonous
Low Nutritional Value
Tedious to Prepare
Difficult to Gather
12 Major Species of Plant
Cereals: wheat, corn,
rice, barley, sorghum,
and soybeans
Roots: potatoes, manioc
and sweet potatoes
Sugars: sugar cane,
sugar beets, and
bananas
Diversity & Heirloom Species
Global decline in domesticated plant and
animal varieties
Heirloom: local varieties
Dutch Belted cow
Heirloom Plants &
Animals?
Heirloom
• Reliance upon modern varieties of rice
caused more than 1,500 local rice varieties
in Indonesia to become extinct.
• Almost 96% of the commercial vegetable
varieties available in 1903 are now extinct.
Domestication of Plants
What makes a plant a good domestic candidate?
1. Size
2. Mutant Pods & seed heads - did not pop or drop
3. Earliest to ripen - at same time
4. Self Pollinating
5. Quick to grow
6. Least care
Domestication of Animals
What makes an animal a good domestic candidate?
Animals:
1. Diet - readily available
2. Rapid Growth Rate
3. Captive Breeding
4. Disposition Reasonable
5. Low Panic Levels
6. Social structure & hierarchy
World Food Problems
• Malnourished – poor diet
• Undernourished - too few calories
• Famine - crisis of food supply
What causes famine?
Famine
Famines
• 1983-1985 – Drought in Africa resulted in 1.5 million
deaths in Ethiopia and Sudan
• 1993 – civil unrest and drought resulted in 2 million
starving Somalis
• 1990’s – flooding and drought resulted in 2 million
deaths in North Korea
Primary causes of Famine:
1. Drought
2. Political Unrest
3. Ecological Distress
Disease Resulting from Malnutrition
Kwashiorkor - malnutrition causing fluid retention
Marasmus - low caloric and protein intake
Kwashiorkor
Marasmus
Obesity
Producing Enough Food
Total Grain Production
Per Capita Grain
Production
Grain
Stocks
Carryover stocks are the supply
that is left over at the end of the
marketing year. Marketing years
for U.S. corn and soybeans end
on August 31.
U.N. estimates that carryover
stocks should not fall below 70
days from start of the next
harvest.
Each year the world demand for grain climbs. Each year the
world’s farmers must feed 80 million more people. In addition,
some 3 billion people are trying to move up the food chain and
consume more grain-intensive livestock products. And this year
some 120 million tons of the 415-million-ton U.S. grain harvest
will go to ethanol distilleries to produce fuel for cars.
The First Green Revolution
1940’s -1970 – began in Mexico
• High yield varieties – domesticated plants
bred specifically to respond to fertilizers
• Increasing the amount of calories produced
per acre of agriculture
The First Green Revolution
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Inorganic fertilizers
Irrigation
Pesticides + other “cides”
Monocultures
Aquaculture
Machine replaces human and animal labor
Oil Dependent
Environmental Concerns
Soil Erosion
Pollution – water & air
Lack of Water due to irrigation
Overgrazing by Livestock - desertification
Overfishing – stock reductions
Loss of Ecological Services
Live on CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation)
• Fed Grains not grass
• Antibiotics in feedstuff
• Hormone supplementation
Bucolic?
Veal
Second Green Revolution? - GMO’s
Issues with Genetic Engineering:
1. The Safety of Genetic Engineering - Playing
GOD
2. The Backlash Against Genetically Modified
Foods – Fear of Unknown Vs Reality Frankenfoods
3. Should Foods from Genetically Modified
Crops and Livestock Be Labeled? - Right to
Know
Examples:
1.Human hormone Producing plants
2.Roundup Ready Corn, Soybeans, Cotton
3.Bt Corn & Potatoes – insect dies of septicemia
4.Arctic Char gene in strawberries – antifreeze
5.Rapid growing fish
What is organic?
http://www.extension.org/article/18735
Going Organic - going back?
Sustainable Agriculture
Keene Family Farm
Walnut Acres
1. Fertilizer = animal and plant waste
2. Integrated pest management
3. Crop Rotations
4. Crop choice for soil fertility (immune system)
5. Cover Crop (alfalfa & clover)
6. Soil Rest
Certified Organic - 3 years no inorganic
fertilizers or pesticides
USDA Organic - animals fed certified organic
More $ = more labor / smaller quantities
Agricultures Future
CUD = http://vimeo.com/6177004