What is Agriculture?

1
What is Agriculture?

• Christopher Large, Alec Stoll, Tori Talbot, Amber
  Amin, Niki Ang

2
Agriculture

• The simplification of natures food webs
• The rechanneling of energy for human planting and
  animal consumption
• Agriculture disrupts the food web
• Plants protected for human consumption

3
Crop Types

• Sustainable
• Use ecological principles to farm
• Slash and Burn
• Most unsustainable farming practice
• Conventional
• Commonly practiced in United States

4
Sustainable

• Uses agro-ecology which is the study of the
  relationships between organisms and the
  environment
• Maintaining the natural environment and using
  ecological principles
• Reduces soil erosion
• Eliminates need to use insecticides
• Diversity is maintained and increased over time

5
Slash and Burn

• Occurs in rain forests where the soil is poor in
  nutrients
• Degrades the soil
• Involves cutting and burning forests to clear
  fields
• Vegetation can repeatedly grow vigorously on the
  site afterwards

6
Conventional

• Modern farming that industrializes production of
  livestock, crops, fish and poultry.
• Can lead to soil erosion and plant vulnerability
  to disease
• Pesticides and insecticides used are harmful to
  the environment
• Mass production is effective with the growing
  population of today