food

• Feeding the world pulls 70% of the water we use, 40% of the earth's mass, and creates 30% of greenhouse gasses
• This is unsustainable
• Much of the food we grow doesn't feed humans but rather goes to livestock or biofuels
• What Systems Provide Us With Food?

  • Croplands 77%
  • Grains (primarily)
  • Wheat, corn, rice > 50% of all food calories
  • Annual crops
  • Rangelands 16%
  • Meat, mostly from grazing livestock
  • Ocean fisheries 7%

  
• Croplands


  • Provide economic and ecological services

  
• Major Types of Food Production

  • Industrialized Agriculture (80%)
  • High input, high-throughput
  • For example, plantation agriculture (cash crops)
  • Traditional Agriculture
  • Low-throughput agriculture
  • Subsistence agriculture
  • Traditional intensive agriculture
• Not economically feasible to produce the food needed to sustain earth's population
• Producing Food by Green Revolution

  1. Monocultures

  2. Increased fertilizer, pesticides, water

  3. Multiple cropping (only where possible)
• Decrease fertilizer, fuel while increasing yield
• 1st green revolution


  Developed nations, 1950–1970, High-input

  
• 2nd green revolution


  Developing nations, Post-1967, Fast-growing rice, wheat
• The State of Agriculture in Canada: $104 billion industry (6.7% of GNP in 2012), Employs 1.8% of workforce directly, 12% in food-related industries, $44 billion in surplus and exports, 68 million ha. farmland (limited availability), Number of farms decreasing, Average size of farms increasing
• Canada: Net Agricultural Land

  • 83% Prairies
  • 13% ON/QC
• A statement in 2000 signed by 2100 eminent scientists supported the use of GMO crops
• A 2004 UN report states they have great promise for developing countries
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture does not support labelling GM foods: no evidence for alarm
• Negative effects of GMO crops are "projected" and/or "possible"
• Limitations on fertile land, water, Reduced biodiversity limits gene pool, Law of diminishing returns, For example, grain yields: 1950–1990: +2.1% per year, 1990–2000: +1.1% per year, 1997–2008: +0.5% per year

  
• Changing Habits


  • Cultivating new foods
  • Replace staple grains with new species
  • Higher nutrient content
  • Lower resource demand
  • Microlivestock (insects)
  • Avoiding food waste
  • Up to 70% of food produced worldwide is wasted
  • Spoilage
  • Inefficient processing and preparation
  • Plate waste
  • Canada: Up to 60% wasted
• The land from cutting down tropical rainforests isn't particularly fertile and more useful ecologically
• Rangeland management


  • Ecological grazing
  • Limit number of animals
  • Limit grazing duration
  • Fence off riparian zones
  • Suppress invasive species
• Negative effects of overgrazing

  • Soil erosion
  • Soil compaction
  • Productivity loss
  • Desertification
• Positive effects of light grazing
• Approximately 60 million cattle in Canada and USA, 990 million in the world
• High intakes of animal fats are associated with heart disease, stroke, cancer, obesity
• Feedlots produce


  • 43% of beef
  • 50% of pork
  • 75% of all poultry
• Advantages of feedlots

  • Increased meat production
  • Higher profits
  • Less land use
  • Reduced overgrazing
  • Reduced soil erosion
  • Protection of biodiversity
• Disadvantages of feedlots

  • Large inputs of grain, fish meal, water, and fossil fuels
  • Greenhouse gas (CO2 and CH4) emissions
  • Concentration of animal wastes that can pollute water
  • Use of antibiotics can increase genetic resistance to microbes in humans
• By shifting our "feed production" from beef to chicken and fish, we can conserve rangeland
• Shift to free range production, Cows, pigs, chickens, etc. can all be raised free range, Provide ecosystem services
• Aquaculture


  Cultivating fish in an inland environment, often uses marine fish for food
• Alternative proposals: farming for algal species, For example, spirulina (70% protein)
• Problematic Fishing Methods


  • Trawler
  • Longline
  • Driftnet
• Bycatch issues (other accidentally caught species) problematic for all fishing methods
• Effects of Overfishing and Habitat Degradation
• Advantages of Aquaculture


  • High efficiency
  • High yield
  • Reduced over-harvesting of fisheries
  • Low fuel use
  • High profits, not tied to oil
• Disadvantages of Aquaculture


  • Large inputs of land, feed, and water
  • Large waste output (historically)
  • Loss of mangrove forests and estuaries
  • Some species fed with grain, fish meal, or fish oil
  • Dense populations vulnerable to disease
• Canada has over 70 farmed fish and shellfish species, Fourth-largest farmed salmon producer, In B.C., farmed salmon outsell wild
• How Can We Transition to Sustainable Agriculture?

  • Research sustainable agriculture and improving human nutrition
  • Demonstration projects for farmers in each country
  • Incentives like startup subsidies and increased foreign aid
  • Training programs in sustainable agriculture for farmers, government agricultural officials, and college students in agriculture and nutrition
• Food is necessary, Producing food sustainably is a challenge, Genetically modified and organic crops are promising, Aquaculture needs improvement, Need large-scale and small-scale solutions