Food Resources Chapter 13

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Food ResourcesChapter 13
There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a
farm. One is the danger of supposing that
breakfast comes from the grocery store and the
other that heat comes from the furnace. Aldo
Leopold
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Key Concepts

• Methods of producing food
• Increasing food production
• Environmental effects of food production
• Increasing sustainability

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How is food produced?

• Sources of food
• Primary plants wheat, corn, and rice
• Primary animals beef, pork, and chicken

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Major Types of Agriculture

• Traditional subsistence
• Traditional intensive
• Plantation
• Industrialized (high-input)

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World Food Production
Fig. 13-2, p 279
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Producing Food By Green Revolution Techniques

• High-input monoculture
• Selectively bred or genetically-engineered crops
• High inputs of fertilizer
• Extensive use of pesticides
• High inputs of water
• Increased intensity and frequency of cropping

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Green Revolutions
Fig. 13-6, p 282
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Producing Food by Traditional Techniques

• Interplanting
• Polyvarietal cultivation
• Intercropping
• Agroforestry (alley cropping)
• Polyculture

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Food Production

• Rapidly increasing
• Prices decreasing
• Shortages in developing countries
• Approaching limits on meat production

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Nutrition

• Undernutrition
• Malnutrition
• Overnutrition

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Environmental Effect of Food Production

• Biodiversity loss
• Soil
• Air pollution
• Water
• Human health

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Increasing World Crop Production

• Crossbreeding and artificial selection
• Genetic engineering (gene splicing)
• Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
• Continued Green Revolution techniques
• Introducing new foods
• Working more land

See Figure 13-16, p 291
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Producing More Meat

• Rangeland
• Pasture
• Efficiency
• Adaptations of rangeland plants
• Range conditions and management
• Environmental consequences

Fig. 13-25, p 298
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Catching and Raising More Fish

• Fisheries
• Fishing Methods
• Sustainable yield
• Over fishing
• Commercial extinction
• Aquiculture
• Fish farming and ranching

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Government Agriculture Policy

• Artificially low prices
• Subsidies
• Elimination of price controls
• Food Aid

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Solutions Sustainable Agriculture

• Low-input agriculture
• Organic farming
• More benefits to the poor
• Increasing funding for research in sustainable
  techniques