Transcript Food! - Denton ISD

Humans and Nutrition
• Approximately 10,000 years ago humans stopped relying on
hunting/gathering techniques and started to grow their own
food (farming).
• Today the most common method of gathering food is going to
the store or market and purchasing what you need and want.
– But the food in the stores came from somewhere.
• Agriculture is one of the most abundant industries in the world.
~38% of all arable land is used in agriculture (meat and crops).
• World wide, we have an overproduction of food….
• Then why are so many people starving?
– There are about 1billion people worldwide who do not get
enough food to eat.
Humans and Nutrition
• Food Security/Insecurity:
– Having/not having access to foods that are nutritious and dietetically sound and
safe.
• Either economically, socially, and physically
• All farmers grow enough grain to feed 8 billion people. Grain is the most
abundant dietary food available worldwide, but it is only a little more than ½
of the food we produce.
• Most of the worlds food is produced in the US, Europe/Asia and parts of S.
America.
• Some of the reasons why people are still starving:
– Poverty – many countries/or groups of people that do not have arable land are
poor and can not afford to purchase enough food to sustain them. (unequal food
distribution)
– Political and economic factors – Refugees, people displaced by natural disasters
(ie Japan) do not have access to food. Poor people often resort to violence or
crime because they are hungry and want to provide for themselves or family
members.
– Rise in food prices – only countries and people in developed countries are able
to afford the costs of transporting food items.
• There are two types of starvation: malnourished and undernourished
Food and Nutrition
Malnourished
Undernourished
Lacking a sufficient amount of protein and Not eating enough calories that can be
other nutrients (vitamins/minerals)
converted into cellular energy
~1/2 world is malnourished regardless of
calories consumed (usually grains)
Continual undernourishment is when a
person is deprived of energy for daily
living and activities.
Leads to: Kwashiorkor
-lack of sufficient types of proteins
especially during infancy causing
underdevelopment of muscles and brain
tissue
Leads to: stunted growth, brain damage,
social development disorders and
Marasmus (emaciation due to lack of
protein).
Food and Nutrition
Feeding a growing population:
Nutritional requirements
2500 calories/day/male
2000 calories/day/female
Protien 30% of caloric diet
Carbs 60% of caloric diet
Fats <10% of caloric diet
100 spp of plants are commercially grown to meet
human nutritional needs out of 350,000.
3 main types: wheat, rice and corn
 Wheat and rice – ½ of human caloric intake worldwide
 Corn – main nutritional supplement for feed industry
Food & Nutrition
Cont.
8 spp of animal protein supply 90% of the world’s
meat.
Takes 16lbs of grain to produce 1lb of meat.
20% of the world’s richest countries consume 80% of
the world’s meat production.
90% of U.S.’s grain is used for animal feed.
Agriculture
Main Types: (we will be discussing each in detail)
Industrial
Organic
Plantation
Subsistence
Monoculture
Polyculture
Agriculture
• Industrial Agriculture:
– High yield/ High In-put agriculture. Usually from large
scale monocultures.
• Use of heavy equipment, fossil fuels, water, commercial
fertilizers and pesticides.
• Large financial capital is involved.
• Produces ~80% of the world’s food.
• Plantation Agriculture:
– Industrialized Tropical agriculture
• Mainly in LEDCs
• Cash crops such as bananas, soybeans, sugarcane, coffee,
palm oil, and vegetables.
Agriculture
• Traditional Agriculture: (Polyculture)
– Two types
• Subsistence farming – growing and harvesting enough food for
your family to survive. With little extra for sale or storage.
• Intensive Farming – subsistence with the intent of increasing
yield for capital gain. Using fertilizer, water and pest control,
labor (human and animal).
• Slash-and-burn - type of subsistence used to increase land
area of trees and brush in tropical forests for crops and
animals.
– Within a few years – depletion of nutrients in soil will cause the
people to abandon the land and leave it fallow if not shown how to
grow sustainably.
Agriculture
Seed Security:
Green Revolution –
- in the 50’s scientists came up with a way to make a genetically
modified seed (GMO). In this they were able to make a higher yield on crops
in a smaller amount of land.
- seeds were better resistant to pests, weather and other ailments.
- this led to the industrial agriculture we know today.
- Large corporations then patented the seeds and bought farmers to
grow them. In a monocultural farm community.
- In the 60’s and 70’s many farmers and environmentalists started to
rebel against the process of GMOs and Industrial farming with lots of
corporate backlash. Which led to organic farming methods being used once
again in smaller areas and a way of life for many (tree huggers) naturalists.
- Today the process of the Green Revolution is still in affect.
Corporations are still controlling the seed industry and most of the farming
practices in the US. Which can cause the soil to be depleted of nutrients and
higher cases of contamination in crops as pests and diseases become
immune to pesticides and fertilizers.