FOOD, SOIL AND PEST MANAGEMENT

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
PEOPLE AND EARTH’S ECOSYSTEMS
KEY QUESTIONS

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

 How is food produced?
 What environmental problems arise from food production?
 How can we protect crops from pests more sustainably?
 How can we improve food security?
 How can we produce food more sustainably?
WHAT IS FOOD SECURITY AND WHY IS IT DIFFICULT TO ATTAIN?

 Many people have health problems from not getting enough to eat
 Food insecurity – living in chronic hunger and poor nutrition
 Many scientists agree on this: root cause of food insecurity is poverty
 World’s population will face serious food shortages because of a rapidly warming climate (Battisti & Naylor,
2009)
 Macro and micronutrients needed to lead a normal life
CONNECTIONS
 SANGKAP PINOY Corn, ethanol and hunger
Since 2007, prices of corn, rice and wheat have risen
sharply. This was caused by a lot of factors including
the diversion of corn to make ethanol fuel for cars.
WHAT IS FOOD SECURITY AND WHY IS IT DIFFICULT TO ATTAIN?

 Many people have health problems from eating too much

 Overnutrition is a condition when food energy exceeds energy use and cause
excess body fat
 Lower life expectancy, greater susceptibility to disease and illness and lower
productivity and quality of life
HOW IS FOOD PRODUCED?

 We have used high – input industrialized agriculture and lower – input traditional methods to greatly increase supplies of
food
 Large amounts of financial capital, fossil fuel, water, commercial inorganic fertilizers, pesticides to produce monocultures
 Major goal of industrialized agriculture: increase crop yield – the amount of food per unit of land
 Major shifts:
 Reliance on sunlight to cheap energy
 Producing polycultures to monocultures
 From local and regional to global consumption
 Reliance on supply and demand to government subsidies and policies to manipulate prices and keep them artificially low
 Cash cropping in tropical countries
LAWS OF SUSTAINABILITY
 Is it sustainable?
1. Reliance on Sunlight
2. Biodiversity
3. Nutrient Cycling
HOW IS FOOD PRODUCED?

 Traditional agriculture often relies on low – input polycultures

 Traditional subsistence or traditional intensive
 More sustainable because it does not degrade the topsoil
 GREEN REVOLUTION
 Develop and plant monocultures of selectively bred or genetically – modified organisms
 Produce high yields by using large inputs of inorganic fertilizers, pesticides and water
 Increase the number of crops grown per year on a plot of land through multiple cropping
HOW IS FOOD PRODUCED?

 Crossbreeding and genetic engineering can produce new crop varieties

 Meat production have grown steadily
 Fish and shellfish production have increased dramatically
 aquaculture

CONNECTIONS
Corn, ethanol and ocean dead zones
Much of the fertilizer runoffs eventually goes into rivers
and to oceans creating a “dead zone” which leads to
decrease in ocean productivity
WHAT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS ARISE FROM FOOD
PRODUCTION?

Biodiversity Loss Soil Water Air Pollution Human Health

Loss and degradation Erosion Water waste Greenhouse gases Nitrates in drinking
of grasslands, forests from fossil fuel use water
and wetlands Loss of fertility Aquifer depletion
Greenhouse gases Pesticide residues in
Fish kills from Salinization Increased runoff, from inorganic drinking water, food
pesticide runoffs sediment pollution, fertilizers and air
Waterlogging and flooding cleared
Killing wild predators lands Greenhouse gases Contamination of
to protect livestock Desertification from methane drinking and
Pollution and swimming water
Loss of genetic pesticides and Other air pollutants from livestock wastes
diversity of wild crop fertilizers from fossil fuel use
strains replaced by and pesticide spray Bacterial
monoculture strains Algal blooms contamination of
meat
WHAT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS ARISE FROM FOOD
PRODUCTION?

 Topsoil erosion is a serious problem in parts of the world

 Drought and human activities are degrading drylands
 Desertification
 Excessive irrigation has serious consequences
 Salinization and waterlogging
 Industrialized food production requires huge input of energy
 Food and biofuel production systems have caused major
losses in biodiversity
 Producing fish through aquaculture can harm aquatic
ecosystems
WHAT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS ARISE FROM FOOD
PRODUCTION?

Genetically – modified crops and foods trade - offs

Projected advantages Projected disadvantages
Need less fertilizer and pesticides Irreversible and unpredictable genetic and ecological
effects
Need less water
Harmful toxins in food from possible plant cell mutation
More resistant to insects, disease, frost and drought
New allergens in food
Grow faster
Lower nutrition
Can grow in slightly salty soils
Increase in pesticide – resistant insects, herbicide –
Tolerate higher levels of herbicides resistant weeds, and plant diseases

Higher yields and less spoilage Can harm beneficial insects and lower genetic diversity
WHAT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS ARISE FROM FOOD
PRODUCTION?

AQUACULTURE TRADEOFFS
Advantages Disadvantages
High efficiency Needs large inputs of land, feed and water

High yield in small volume of water Large waste output

Can reduce overharvesting of fisheries Can destroy mangrove forests and estuaries

Low fuel use Uses grain, fish, meal and fish oil to feed some
species
High profits
Dense populations vulnerable to disease
HOW CAN WE PROTECT CROPS FROM PESTS MORE SUSTAINABLY?
 We can sharply cut pesticide use
without decreasing crop yields by CONVENTIONAL CHEMICAL PESTICIDES
TRADE-OFFS
using a mix of cultivation
Advantages Disadvantages
techniques, biological pest controls
Save lives Promote genetic resistance
and small amounts of selected
chemical pesticides as a last resort Increase food supplies Kill natural pest enemies
 Nature controls the population of most
Profitable Pollute the environment
pests
 Some pesticides are advantageous Work fast Can harm wildlife and people

 Some synthetic ones may be harmful Safe if properly used Are expensive for farmers
(broad – spectrum)
 The law of unintended consequences
ALTERNATIVE TO PESTICIDES

 Fool the pest

 Provide homes for pest enemies
 Implant genetic resistance (debatable)
 Bring in natural enemies
 Use insect perfumes
 Integrated pest management is component of more sustainable agriculture
HOW CAN WE IMPROVE FOOD SECURITY?

 We can improve food security by creating programs to reduce poverty

and chronic malnutrition. Relying more on locally grown food, and
cutting food waste
 Provide subsidies and control prices
 Research say that children should be saved from the harmful effects of
poverty
HOW CAN WE PRODUCE FOOD MORE SUSTAINABLY?

SOLUTIONS
 Reduce soil erosion
Prevention Cleanup
 Strip cropping
Reduce irrigation Flush soil (expensive and
 Alley cropping or agroforestry
wastes water)
 Establishing windbreaks or shelterbelts
 Conservation – tillage farming Switch to salt-tolerant crops Stop growing crops for 2-5
years
 Restore soil fertility
 Reduce soil salinization Install underground drainage
systems
HOW CAN WE PRODUCE FOOD MORE SUSTAINABLY?
 Practice more sustainable
aquaculture
 Produce meat more efficiently and
eat less meat
 Shift to more sustainable agriculture
eg. organic farming
 Consumers can buy local, grow
some of their own food and cut
food waste
SOLUTIONS
More sustainable Aquaculture
Restrict locations of fish farms to reduce losses of mangrove
forests and estuaries
Improve management of aquaculture wastes
Reduce escape of aquaculture species into the wild
Raise some aquaculture species in deeply submerged cages to
protect them from wave action and predators and to allow
dilution of wastes into the ocean
Certify sustainable forms of aquaculture and label them
accordingly