Agriculture and the Environment

July 21, 2009

Can We Feed the World?

Can We Feed the World?

• History of agriculture is a series of human attempts to overcome environmental limitations and problems.

• 38% percentage of world’s land area is agricultural

How We Starve

• People “starve” in two ways:

• Major problem of undernourishment

• Food emergencies affected 34 countries worldwide at the end of 20th century

What We Eat and What We Grow

• Of Earth’s ½ million plant species…

• Crops

Crops

• Rangeland- provides food for grazing and browsing animals w/o plowing and planting.

• Pasture- is plowed, planted and harvested to provide forage.

Aquaculture

• Most marine and freshwater food obtained by hunting.– Not sustainable

• Aquaculture- – Important protein source

• Mariculture

An Ecological Perspective on Agriculture

• Farming creates novel ecological conditions– Agroecosystem– Differ from natural systems in six ways

Limiting Factors

• High-quality agricultural soil has:

• Enough water?

History of Agriculture

• Four stages:

• New crops

Demand-based agriculture

Agricultural Technologies

Resource-based agriculture

Agricultural Technologies

An organic farm

Agricultural Technologies

The Green Revolution

• Name attached to the post WWII programs that have led to the development of:

Organic Farming

• Organic faming typically considered to have three qualities:

• One of the fastest growing sectors in US agriculture

Major Types of Agricultural Production in the US

Eating Lower on the Food Chain

• Some people believe it is ecologically unsound to use domestic animals for food.

• On the best agricultural land this hold true but on rangelands area better suited to livestock

Physical and Ecological Considerations in Watershed Development

Genetically Modified Food

• Genetic engineering in agriculture involves several practices– Faster and more efficient ways to develop

hybrids– Introduction of the terminator gene– Transfer of genetic properties from widely

divergent kinds of life