Can the World Feed Us?

1
Can the World Feed Us?

• Malthus Concern.

2
The Central Question

• How far can technology go to keep up with the
  growth of population?
• Is it infinite?

This is an exponential curve, and so, ultimately
nothing can keep up with it.
3
The Keywords.
Make sure you know what these words mean, even if
I dont explain them in class.
4
The Hierarchy of Eating

• You are all familiar with the famous Food Chain
  or pyramid, that you came across in High School.

Remember, in this course, everything gets back to
Energy. Each time you move up this pyramid, you
lose over 90 of the energy. In other words, each
step up is 90 less efficient at using the suns
energy as the step below. Meat is the least
efficient.
5
Energy Pathway
Here is where and how the energy gets lost along
the way.
6
Changing Diets
Whole World
Developing World
1897
1997
2100
Developed world
7
The History of Food.

• First of all, food is, from our point-of-view,
  anything that can be digested by humans and
  turned into useful energy
• Our capacity to do that has changed radically
  several times.
• Here are the main stages

8
Hunting and Gathering

• Foraging
• Adaptation to the Environment.

9
Agriculture

• Agriculture was the discovery of how to reproduce
  selected plants as useful energy (food)
• This was the first adaptation of the environment.
  This began to separate us from naturemainly
  through the cutting down of trees.
• This period was called the Neolithic Revolution

10
The Industrialization of Agriculture.

• Application of steam power
• Application of chemical industry to fertilizers,
  pesticides
• Hybridization and the rise of the seed industry
• Transportation of crops.

11
The Genetic Revolution

• Started with Hybrids Dwarf Varieties and then
  moved on to cloning
• This involves creating identical plants.
• Very productive, very dangerous.

12
Food and Nutrition
13
The Vicious Cycle
14
Global Food Production
Obesity rules.
15
A Turnaround

• A Curious change over time.

16
Alternatives