AGRICULTURE AND FOOD PRODUCTIONGenevieve Depelteau

Geog100

A geographic topic: relationships between people and land

Major changes: Decline in number of people employed in

farming in both the core and the periphery Farming practices intensified through the

use of chemical, mechanical, and biotechnological innovations

Change in the scale: from local to global Is now directly linked to other economic

sectors such as manufacturing and finance

Our food system is one of the most controversial contemporary topic!And raises many

questions!!

Why is healthy food so

expensive but fast-food so

cheap?

Why is our current agricultural practices so unsustainable?

Why are so many people

suffer from diabetes and

obesity, while so many from

a lack of food and basic

nutritionWhy is there a come back

for agriculture among your

adults in core countries?

But first of all! How did we go from hunting and gathering to the complex agro-food system that we have now??

Three food revolutions:1- First agricultural revolution (10-15,000 years ago)2- Second agricultural revolution (Manufacturing)3- Third agricultural revolution (new technologies) – Green Revolution

Let’s look back at the history of agriculture

First Agricultural Revolution

Is the wide-scale transition of many human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, allowing the ability to support an increasingly large population

Early agriculture is believed to have originated and become widespread in Southwest Asia around 10,000–9,000 BP, though earlier individual sites have been identified. The Fertile Crescent region of Southwest Asia is the centre of domestication for three cereals (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat and barley) four legumes (lentil, pea, bitter vetch and chickpea) and flax OR

Plant domestication may have originated from Southeast and South Asia (and later in South America) more than 14,000 years ago with the domestication of tropical plants.

First agricultural revolution: Common methods of farming

1) Subsidence agriculture: farming for direct consumption, not for sale

shifting, rotation, slash-and-burn (small land, low productivity)

Intensive-subsidence agriculture: high productivity, small land, high labor requirement (raised fields and and hillside farming)

Pastoralism (breeding and herding of animals) steppes, deserts)

Increasing numbers of peasant farmers convert from a subsistence economy to cash economy: they become incorporated into a globalized economy

Second agricultural revolution (1600 – 1900): Move beyond subsistence

was the result of the complex interaction of social, economic and farming technology changes.

1) End of the feudal landholding to private landowners (or renters)2) The second agricultural revolution was composed of a series of

innovations, improvements, and techniques especially in Great Britain ( improved plow and the horse collar, seed drills, new breeds, natural fertilizers, etc.)

3) New type of crops coming from New World: e.g. potato and corn

4) Move agriculture beyond subsistence to generate the kinds of surpluses needed to feed thousands of people working in factories instead of in agricultural fields – market of food

5) Innovation in transportation

Beginning of land-use: relation between distance and food price; transportation and price of land

Johann Heinrich von Thünen theory in 1826

The Isolated State, developed the first serious treatment of spatial economics and economic geography, connecting it with the theory of rent

Rent will be the outcome of profit you can make at the market in relation of cost of production and distance

Third phase of agricultural revolution: technological innovation

1) Mechanization (machine replace human labor)

2) Chemical Farming (Introduction of innovative inputs- fertilizer, hybrid seeds, agrochemicals, etc.

3) Biotechnology 4) Food manufacturing (agro-production

systems, adding economic value to agricultural products )

Revolution that emanates from North America

1. Mechanization

In 1892, John Froelich invented and built the first gasoline/petrol-powered tractor in Clayton County, Iowa, USA.

Agricultural mechanization is one of the great achievements of the 20th century

Created value in agricultural production practices through the more efficient use of labor, the timeliness of operations, and more efficient input management

Mechanization

2. Chemical Farming

Fertilizers: any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply nutrients essential to the growth of plants

atmospheric nitrogen (N2) into nitric acid (HNO3) referred to as nitrogen fixation (1915) then used for the production of synthetic fertilizer

Chemical fertilizers

1920’s – Superphosphate Following the privations of

World War II, many countries made food security a top priority. In the following years, policies were put in place to encourage farmers to use fertilizers and other modern farming technologies. Fertilizer consumption grew rapidly, largely in parallel with an accelerating expansion of the world population.Conservative estimates report 30 to 50% of crop yields are attributed to natural or synthetic commercial fertilizer

Canada and the US

Potash discoveries in USA and Canada and the introduction of synthetic nitrogen (N) in the early to mid-90s helped make America a leader in the production of fertilizer. It took nearly 1,000 years for wheat yields to increase from 0.5 to 2 metric tons per hectare, but only 40 years to climb from 2 to 6 metric tons

3. Biotechnology/Biorevolution The genetic engineering of plants and

animals Biotechnology: using living organisms to

improve, make, or modify plants and animals or to develop microorganisms for specific uses

the development of genetically engineered crops (GE) or genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

Today, genetically modified organisms are found in 75% of all processed foods in the United States

Monsanto

Difference between GE and GMOtechnology

Genetically Engineering describes the high-tech methods used in recent decades to incorporate genes directly into an organism

E.g. corn modified with a naturally occurring soil bacterium for protection from corn borer damage (Bt-corn)

an organism produced through any type of genetic modification, whether by high-tech modern genetic engineering, OR long time traditional plant breeding methods

Examples of 20th century breeding work include familiar fruits such as seedless watermelons

GMO GE

Green Revolution (1960-70s)

Colonial powers invested little in the food production systems of these countries, and by independence, their populations were growing at historically high rates. By the mid-1960s, hunger and malnutrition were widespread, especially in Asia, which increasingly depended on food aid from rich countries.

Green Revolution

The Rockefeller and Ford foundations (1948) took the lead in establishing an international agricultural research system to help transfer and adapt scientific advances to the conditions in developing countries

Corn, weat, rice and stem were produced with inbred resistance to some of the worst pest (high-yielding varieties (HYVs))

Green Revolution

HYVs are bred to respond to the added application of large quantities of nitrogenous fertilizer and water

requires a ‘package’ of inputs: chemical fertilizers and irrigation, but also biochemical programs to control for disease, insects and weeds, and increased mechanization

Generate yields two to five times larger than traditional plants

Positive Outcomes of the Green Revolution

By the mid-1980s, approximately 50% of the wheat and nearly 60% of the rice area of developing countries were sown to HYV strains: in 1983, China sowed 95% of its rice area and Latin America sowed 82% of its wheat area to high yielding varieties

Real per capita incomes almost doubled in Asia between 1970 and 1995, and poverty declined from nearly three out of every five Asians in 1975 to less than one in three by 1995.

The absolute number of poor people fell from 1.15 billion in 1975 to 825 million in1995 despite a 60 percent increase in population

In some countries yield were enough to engage in exporting food

Where?

The area of its most successful application has been mainly in the tropical wetlands or high-potential rainfed areas in less developed or newly industrializing countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and China

Pesticides

Because Green Revolution farming is characteristically based on genetically uniform monocultures, dependency on pesticides is high

In the mid-1950s about 2 000 t of pesticides were used annually: by the mid-1980s more than 80 000 t.

Negative Impacts

Genetic Diversity: monoculture rice, wheat and maize; infestation

Reliance on oil and fertilizers, pesticides Ecological Impacts: soil, water, emissions Water depletion Health Impacts : Biocides (In India, a study of food, including cereals, eggs

and vegetables, found that 30% of the sample exceeded tolerable levels. Residues of DDT and BHC were both found in all 75 samples of breast milk collected from women in Punjab)

Additional Inputs: Farmers with extra profits often invest in new farming machinery, which intensifies the Green Revolution’s commercial approach to agriculture. support systems which provide monetary loans are created, providing farmers with the means to purchase the new seeds, fertilizers, water credits for canal use and power for pumps used in tube wells

Income disparities and unemployment No subsidies

Negative Impacts

Ecological Impacts Water issues Health Impacts : Biocides (In India, a study of food,

including cereals, eggs and vegetables, found that 30% of the sample exceeded tolerable levels. Residues of DDT and BHC were both found in all 75 samples of breast milk collected from women in Punjab)

Genetic Diversity Income disparities and unemployment No subsidiese.g. Wheat subsidies in Canada : Crowsnest

Wheat agreement and Canadian Wheat Board

Third agricultural revolution: technological innovation

1) Mechanization (machine replace human labor)

2) Chemical Farming (Introduction of innovative inputs- fertilizer, hybrid seeds, agrochemicals, etc.

3) Biotechnology 4) Food manufacturing (agro-

production systems, adding economic value to agricultural products )

Revolution that emanates from North America

Affect Input

Affect Output

$

4. Food Manufacturing (20th century)

Agricultural industrialization: farms have moved from being the centerpiece of agricultural production to one part of a vertically organized industrial processes including production, storage, processing, distribution, marketing, retailing.

Development of industrial substitutes for agricultural products (aspartame, MSG, corn syrup.)

Agribusiness: agro-food production form the development of seed to the retailing and consumption of the agricultural product – usually by large TNC (Nestle, DelMonte, Coca Cola, Pepsi Co, etc.)

Food chain: inputs, production, processing, distribution, and consumption)

Some history: why food processing? Preserved food, individualized food

product, diversified, increased the market, efficiency

1940s – feeding the troops

Marketing and agri-food trend

Coca Cola

1950s-60s “The good life” under advertizing

1990Nutrition Labeling and Education Act requires all packaged foods to bear nutrition labeling, and all health claims for foods must be consistent with terms defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The food ingredient panel, serving sizes and terms such as "low fat" and "light" are standardized.

Agrofood production: from yields to supermarket

Monsanto: from seed to supermarket

The problem with GE seeds

Food system directly linked to 3 crisis!

Why is healthy food so

expensive but fast-food so

cheap?

Why is our current agricultural practices so unsustainable?

Why are so many people suffer from

diabetes and obesity,

while so many from a

lack of food and basic

nutrition

Why is there a come back

for agricultu

re among your

adults in core countrie

s?

What are the solutions ??

Bottom- up (citizen, community)

Top-down (Government, policy)

Alternative food movements

Organic Food and local food

Without any fertilizers, pesticides, hormones, but also often imply sustainable practice such as labor

Is free range eggs and organic eggs the same?

Food produced within 160 km radius

Organic Local

Be careful of greenwashing!!

Michael Pollan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQlqb14FCEw

e.g. Urban AgricultureUBC Farm: 24 hectare farm and forest for research and selling. Saturday market and produce sold on the campus and local restaurant and can even be delivered at your house

Sole Food’s mission is to empower individuals with limited resources by providing jobs, agricultural training

Urban agriculture: Some examples in Vancouver

New Urban Practices

Permaculture

Permaculture is a branch of ecological design, ecological engineering, and environmental design that develops sustainable architecture and self-maintained agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems

Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature

Permaculture

“Permaculture is the study of integrated systems, for the purpose of better design & application of such systems”

"Permaculture is not the rain, the roof, or the garden. Permaculture Design is the connections between these things. Permaculture brings cohesion where there was once isolation

https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_ritz_a_teacher_growing_green_in_the_south_bronx