FOOD, SOIL, AND PEST

PITCH DECK

Chapter 7
KEY QUESTIONS AND CONCEPTS
At the end of this chapter, students are expected to
discover the answers to the following questions:

❑ What is food security and why is it difficult to attain?

❑ How is food produced?
❑ What environmental problems arise from industrialized
production?
WHAT IS FOOD
SECURITY?

Why is it difficult to
attain?
 FOOD SECURITY

“when all or most of the

people in the country
have daily access to
enough nutritious food to
live active and daily
lives”
 FOOD SURPLUS
But even with this food surplus,
one of every six people in less-
developed countries is not
getting enough to eat because
of unequal access to available
food.
 CAUSES OF FOOD INSECURITY

01 POVERTY 02 WAR &

CORRUPTION

POLITICAL PROLONGED
UPHEAVAL DROUGHT OR
03 04 HEAT WAVES

These problems interfere with food distribution and

transportation systems and can result in people going
hungry.
 CHRONIC MALNUTRITION OR HUNGER

MACRONUTRIENTS VITAMINS AND

MICRONUTRIENTS MINERALS
deficiencies of protein and other key according to WHO, one of every
nutrients. This weakens them, makes three people suffers from a
them more vulnerable to disease, and deficiency of one or more vitamins
hinders the normal physical and mental
and minerals
development of children
Many people do not get
enough vitamins and
mineral

Almost one-third of the

world’s people do not get
enough iodine in their food
and water.
Many people do not get enough vitamins and mineral

Overnutrition occurs when food energy intake exceeds energy use and
causes excess body fat.

People who are underfed and underweight and

people who are overfed and overweight face similar
health problems: lower life expectancy, greater
susceptibility to disease and illness, an
MALNUTRITION AND OVERNUTRITION

We live in a world where more

than 1 billion people face health
problems because they do not
get enough to eat and another
1.2 billion have health problems
from eating too much.
HOW IS FOOD
PRODUCED?
FOOD PRODUCTION HAS INCREASED

There has been a staggering

increase in global food production
because of technological advances
and development of irrigation
systems, fertilizers, and pesticides.
 AGRICULTURE

INDUSTRIALIZED PLANTATION
AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURE
Uses heavy equipment and large Used primarily in tropical less-
amounts of financial capital, fossil fuels, developed countries which
water, commercial inorganic fertilizers involves growing cash crops
and pesticides to produce a single crop
mostly for export to more-
or monoculture
developed countries
A newer form of
industrialized
agriculture uses large
arrays of greenhouses
to raise crops indoor.
Modern industrialized
agriculture produces
large amounts of food
at reasonable prices.
But is it sustainable?
 TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURE

39% of the world’s people in less-

developed countries practice traditional
agriculture

Two types:
1)Traditional subsistence agriculture
2)Traditional intensive agriculture
 TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURE

POLYCULTURE SLASH AND BURN

growing several crops on 39% of the world’s people
the same plot in less-developed
simultaneously countries practice
traditional agriculture
INDUSTRIALIZED CROP PRODUCTION
GREEN REVOLUTION

plant monocultures such as rice, wheat, and

corn
produce high yields but using large inputs of water,
inorganic fertilizers and pesticides.

increase crops by number of crops through multiple

cropping
WORLD’S GRAIN PRODUCTION

consumed directly by
people

used to feed livestock and

thus is indirectly
consumed by people who
eat meat and meat
products
What Environmental Problems
arise from Industrialized Food
Production?
 TOPSOIL EROSION

Two major harmful

effects of topsoil erosion
includes:
• loss of soil fertility
• water pollution
 DEGRADATION OF DRYLANDS
Desertification
occurs when the
productive
potential of
topsoil falls
because of a
combination of
drought and
human activities
 EXCESSIVE USE OF IRRIGATION

Most irrigation water is

a solution of various
salts, which leaves a
thin crust of dissolved
salts on topsoil

Salinization
 EXCESSIVE USE OF IRRIGATION

Waterlogging

Water accumulates
underground and gradually
raises the water table, and
may deprive plants of the
oxygen they need.
 AIR POLLUTION & CLIMATE CHANGE

Agricultural activities
like clearing and
burning of forests to
raise crops and
livestock create a deal
of air pollution.
 LOSSES OF BIODIVERSITY

In areas of the world

now dominated by
farming, the clearing of
forests and plowing of
grasslands has reduced
biodiversity.
 GENETIC
Genetic
ENGINEERING
Engineering could
solve some
problems but can
create others.
LIMITS TO GREEN REVOLUTION
Scientists point out that
continuing to increase these
inputs (water, fertilizer,
pesticides) eventually produces
no additional increase in crop
yields
How can we protect
crops from pests more
sustainably?
 PESTICIDES HELP CONTROL PEST POPULATION

Chemicals are not

invented to repel or kill
Pesticides (insecticides,
other species. Plants
herbicides, fungicides,
have been producing
and rodenticides)
chemicals to ward off
insects.
 PESTICIDES

1600s 1939 1962 1970s

nicotine DDT stricter biopesticides

sulfate control
“first “second “strict controls “natural
generation generation of harmful repellants from
pesticides” pesticides” pesticides” plants similar
to first gen”
 ADVANTAGES OF MODERN SYNTHETIC PESTICIDES

SAVES CONTROLS PEST

HUMAN LIVES QUICKLY

HELPED INCREASE
INCREASE FOOD PROFIT FOR
SUPPLIES FARMERS
 DISADVANTAGES OF MODERN SYNTHETIC PESTICIDES

ACCELERATE THE
CAN KILL NATURAL
DEVELOPMENT OF
PREDATORS AND
GENETIC RESISTANCE
PARASITES

CAN PUT
FARMERS ON A CAN POLLUTE
FINANCIAL THE
TREADMILL ENVIRONMENT
 LAW AND TREATIES CAN HELP TO PROTECT US FROM
HARMFUL EFFECTS OF PESTICIDES

In 2000, more than 100 countries developed an

international agreement to ban or phase out the use
of 12 especially hazardous persistent organic
pollutants (POPs)—9 of them persistent hydrocarbon
pesticides such as DDT and other chemically similar
pesticides. The United States has not ratified this
agreement.
ALTERNATIVES TO CONVENTIONAL PESTICIDES

❑ Crop rotation
❑ Provide homes for pest enemies
❑ Implant genetic resistance
❑ Bring in natural enemies
❑ Use insect perfumes
❑ Bring in the hormones
❑ Reduce use of synthetic herbicides to control weeds
 INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT, COMPONENT OF MORE
SUSTAINBALE AGRICULTURE

❑ Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the best way to control crop

pests
❑ Farmers develop a control program that uses a combination of
cultivation, biological and chemical tools and techniques
❑ IPM aims to reduce crop damage to an economically tolerable level
❑ Farmers first use biological methods (natural predators, parasites, and
disease organisms) and cultivation controls (crop rotating, altering
planting times, and using large machines to vacuum up harmful
bugs).
❑ Apply small amount of insecticides of herbicides
❑ Broad – spectrum, long - lived pesticides are not used, and different
chemicals are used alternately
❑ Well designed IPM program can reduce synthetic pesticide use and
pest control costs
DISADVATAGES OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT

❑ Requires expert knowledge about each pest situation and

takes more time than does using conventional pesticides
❑ Methods developed for a crop in one area might not apply to
areas with even slightly different growing conditions.
❑ IPMs Initial cost may be higher
❑ Widespread use of IPM is hindered in the US and a number of
other countries
 USDA COULD PROMOTE IPM IN THREE WAYS

ADD SALES TAX ON

SYNTHETIC PESTICIDES
TRAIN USDA
PERSONNELA AND
SET UP A FEDERALLY COUNTY FARM
SUPPORTED IPM AGENTS
DEMOSTRATION
PROJECT
How can we improve
food security?
USE GOVERNMENT POLICIES TO IMPROVE FOOD PRODUCTION
AND SECURITY
❑ Agriculture is a financially risky business because
farmers have a good or bad year depending on factors
over which they have little control
❑ Government use two main approaches to influence food
production
❑ Improve food security, some analysts urge government
to establish special programs focused on saving
children from the harmful health effects of poverty
How can we produce
food more sustainably?
USE GOVERNMENT POLICIES TO IMPROVE FOOD PRODUCTION
AND SECURITY
❑ Reduce Soil Erosion
soil conservation using a variety of ways to recue
soil erosion and restore soil fertility, mostly by keeping the
soil covered with vegetation
❑ Some of the methods farmers can use to reduce soil
erosion:
- Terracing and contour planting are ways to grow food
on steep slopes without depleting top soils
- Strip cropping involves planting alternating strips of a
row crop and another crop that completely covers the
soil, called a cover crop
USE GOVERNMENT POLICIES TO IMPROVE FOOD PRODUCTION
AND SECURITY
- Alley cropping, or agroforestry involves one or more
crops planted together in strips or alleys between trees
and shrubs, which provide shade
- Farmers can establish windbreaks, or shelterbelts, of
tree around crop fields to reduce wind erosion
- Conservation tillage farming by using special tillers and
planting machines that drill seeds directly through crop
residues into the undisturbed soil
- Retire the estimated one-tenth of the world`s marginal
cropland that is highly erodible and accounts for the
majority of the worlds top soil erosion
USE GOVERNMENT POLICIES TO IMPROVE FOOD PRODUCTION
AND SECURITY
❑ Soil erosion in the United States
- 3rd of the country`s original top soils is gone and much
of the rest is degraded
- 1935, US passed the Soil Erosion Act,
- Farmers and ranches were given technical assistance to
set up soil conservation programs
- US farmers are sharply reducing some of their topsoil
losses through combination of conservation-tillage
farming and government – sponsored soil conservation
programs
SOIL CONSERVATION METHODS
 RESTORE SOIL FERTILITY
❑ Topsoil conservation is the best way to maintain soil
fertility, with restoring some of the lost plant nutrients
being the next option
❑ Organic fertilizers from plant and animal materials
- Animal manure
- Green manure
- Compost
❑ Organic agriculture uses only organic fertilizers and
crop rotation to replenish the nutrients
❑ Synthetic inorganic fertilizers are usually inorganic
compounds that contains NPK
REDUCE SOIL SALINIZATION AND DESERTIFICATION

❑ Reducing desertification is not easy

❑ Reduce population growth, overgrazing, deforestation,
and destructive form of planting, irrigation and mining
❑ Work to decrease the human contribution to projected
climate change
❑ Restoration via planting trees
THREE TYPES OF SYSTEMS COMMONLY USED TO IRRIGATE
CROPS
WAYS TO PREVENT SOIL SALINIZATION AND WAYS TO CLEAN IT
UP
PRACTICE MORE SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE
 PRODUCE MEAT MORE EFFICIENTLY AND EAT LESS MEAT

❑ Meat production and consumption accounts

the largest ecological footprints of most
individuals in affluent nations
❑ More sustainable meat production and
consumption involves shifting from less grain-
efficient forms of animal protein
❑ Eating less meat having one meatless per
week
❑ Healthier to eat less meat
❑ Replace meat with a balanced vegetarian diet
EFFICIENT OF CONVERTING GRAIN INTO ANIMAL PROTEIN
VARIES
 SHIFT TO MORE SUSTAINABLE FOOD PRODUCTION

❑ Industrialized agriculture produces large

amount of food at reasonable prices, but is
unsustainable because it:
- Relies heavenly on fossil fuels
- Reduces biodiversity and
agrobiodiversity
- Reduces the recycling of plant
nutrients back to topsoil.
MORE SUSTAINABLE, LOW-INPUT FOOD PRODUCTION HAS A NUMBER
OF MAJOR COMPONENTS
 SHIFT TO MORE SUSTAINABLE FOOD PRODUCTION

❑ More sustainable, low-input

agriculture has a number of major
components.
- Organic Farming
- Organic polyculture
- Shift from using imported
fossil fuel to relying more on
solar energy for food
production
 SHIFT TO MORE SUSTAINABLE FOOD PRODUCTION

❑ Five major strategies to help farmers and consumers make the transition to
more sustainable agriculture:
1. Increase in research more sustainable organic farming and perennial
polyculture and on improving human nutrition
2. Establish education and training programs in more sustainable agriculture
for students, farmers and government agricultural officials
3. Set up international fund to give farmers in poor countries access to various
types of more sustainable agriculture
4. Replace government subsidies for environmentally harmful forms of
industrialized agriculture with subsidies that encourage more sustainable
agriculture
5. Mount a massive program to educate consumers about the true
environmental and health costs of the food they buy. This would help them
understand why the current system is unsustainable, and it would help build
political support for including the harmful costs of food production in the
market prices of food.
WAYS YOU CAN EAT MORE SUSTAINABLY
 3 BIG IDEAS
About 925 million people have health problems because they do not get
enough to eat and 1.1 billion people face health problems from eating
too much.

Modern industrialized agriculture has a greater harmful impact on the

environment than any other human activity.

More sustainable forms of food production will greatly reduce the

harmful environmental impacts of industrialized food production
systems while likely increasing food security
THANK YOU