02/03/2021

MILLER/SPOOLMAN
LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT 17TH

Chapter 12
Food, Soil, and Pest
Management

Core Case Study: Organic Agriculture Is

on the Rise
• Organic agriculture
• Crops grown without using synthetic pesticides,
synthetic inorganic fertilizers, or genetically
engineered seeds

• Animals grown without using antibiotics or synthetic

hormones

• U.S. in 2008: .6% cropland; 3.5% food sales

• Europe, Australia and New Zealand much higher

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Industrialized Agriculture
•Uses :
-synthetic inorganic fertilizers and
sewage sludge to supply nutrients

-synthetic chemical pesticides

-conventional and genetically

modified seeds

-antibiotics and growth hormones

to produce meat and meat
products

-fossil fuels (mostly oil and natural

gas) in production

•Produces significant air and water

pollution and greenhouse gases

•Is globally export-oriented

Fig. 12-1a, p. 277

Organic Agriculture
•Uses:
-Soil erosion control

-organic fertilizers such as animal

manure and compost

-crop rotation and biological pest

control

-no genetically modified seeds

-no antibiotics or growth hormones to

produce meat and meat products

•Produces less air and water pollution

and greenhouse gases

•Is regionally and locally oriented

Fig. 12-1b, p. 277

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12-1 What Is Food Security and Why Is

It Difficult to Attain?
• Concept 12-1A Many people in less-developed
countries have health problems from not getting
enough food, while many people in more-developed
countries have health problems from eating too
much food.

• Concept 12-1B The greatest obstacles to providing

enough food for everyone are poverty, political
upheaval, corruption, war, and the harmful
environmental effects of food production.

Food Security and Health

• Food security
• All or most people in a country have daily access to
enough nutritious food to lead active and healthy
lives

• Food insecurity
• Chronic hunger and poor nutrition
• Root cause: poverty
• Political upheaval, war, corruption, bad weather

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Starving Children in Sudan Collect Ants

Fig. 12-2, p. 279

Keys to a Healthy Diet

• Macronutrients
• Carbohydrates – wheat, corn, rice
• Proteins – animal and plant products
• Fats – animal and plant oils, nuts

• Micronutrients
• Vitamins (A, B, C, D, E)
• Minerals (ex. Ca, Fe, K…)

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Key Nutrients for a Healthy Human Life

Table 12-1, p. 279

Chronic Hunger and Malnutrition

• Chronic undernutrition: hunger due to low caloric
intake

• Chronic malnutrition: lack of key nutrients in diet

• Stunted growth and development
• Vulnerable to disease
• Est. 800 million under/malnourished worldwide

• Famine: severe food shortage

• Drought, flooding, war, other catastrophes

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World Hunger

Figure 15, Supplement 8

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Many People Do No Get Enough

Vitamins and Minerals
• Most often vitamin and mineral deficiencies in
people in less-developed countries

• Vitamin B1 (thiamine) - Beriberi

• Vitamin D, Ca, K - Rickets

• Iodine - Goiter

• Vitamin C - Scurvy
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Many People Have Health Problems

from Eating Too Much
• Overnutrition
• Excess body fat from too many calories and not
enough exercise

• Similar health problems to those who are underfed

• Lower life expectancy
• Greater susceptibility to disease and illness
• Lower productivity and life quality

• Est. 79 million US adults are overweight/obese

• Est. $150 billion in health care costs
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Many People Have Health Problems

from Eating Too Much
• Est. 79 million US adults are obese (1/3 of population)
• Est. $150 billion in health care costs
Obesity Among U.S. Adults, 2013

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12-2 How Is Food Produced?

• Concept 12-2 We have used high-input industrialized

agriculture and lower-input traditional methods to
greatly increase supplies of food.

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Maintaining Soil Health

• Soil composition
• Eroded rock
• Mineral nutrients
• Decaying organic matter
• Water
• Air
• Microscopic decomposers

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Oak
tree Fern
Moss and lichen
Organic debris Millipede
Honey fungus
Rock fragments Grasses and small Earthworm
shrubs Wood sorrel

O horizon
Leaf litter
A horizon
Mole Topsoil
Bacteria
B horizon
Subsoil

Fungus
C horizon
Parent
material

Mite

Root system
Red earth mite Beetle larva Nematode
Fig. 12-A, p. 284

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Maintaining Soil Health

• Farming and crops by definition reduce soil health

• Crops remove nutrients
• Machinery can compress (or erode) soil
• Key goal – find ways to maintain soil health

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Food Production Has Increased

Dramatically
• Three systems produce most of our food
• Croplands: 77% of our food on 11% world’s land area
• Rangelands, pastures, and feedlots: 16% of our food
on 29% of world’s land area
• Aquaculture: 7% of our food

• Key dominant crops:

• Corn
• Wheat
• Soy
• Rice
• Oil seed plants (canola, sunflower, rapeseed)
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Industrialized Crop Production Relies

on High-Input Monocultures
• Industrialized agriculture: high-input,
monoculture/plantation crops
• Goal is to steadily increase crop yield
• Grow more food per acre (maintain land area used)
• Increased use of greenhouses to raise crops

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Example – Missouri corn crops

Acres planted compared

(below) compared to
yield (right)

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Heavy Equipment Used to Harvest Wheat

in the United States

Fig. 12-4, p. 281

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Plantation Agriculture: Oil Palms on Borneo in

Malaysia

Fig. 12-5, p. 281

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Case Study: Hydroponics: Growing

Crops without Soil
• Hydroponics: growing plants in nutrient-rich water
solutions rather than soil
• Grow indoors almost anywhere, year-round
• Grow in dense urban areas
• Recycle water and fertilizers
• Little or no need for pesticides
• No soil erosion
• Takes money to establish
• Help make the transition to more sustainable
agriculture

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Hydroponic Salad Greens

Fig. 12-6, p. 282

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Traditional Agriculture Often Relies on

Low-Input Polycultures (1)
• Traditional subsistence agriculture
• Human labor and draft animals for family food

• Traditional intensive agriculture (basis of “organic”

farming)
• Higher yields through use of manure and water

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Traditional Agriculture Often Relies on

Low-Input Polycultures
• Polyculture
• Multiple crops grown in same field
• Can be grown simultaneously or rotated season to
season
• Can benefit soil health
• Slash-and-burn agriculture
• Subsistence agriculture in tropical forests
• Clear and burn a small plot
• Grow many crops that mature at different times
• Once soil is depleted of nutrients, find a new area to
slash
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A Closer Look at Industrialized Crop

Production
• Green Revolution: increase crop yields starting in 1960s
1. Monocultures of high-yield key crops
• Rice, wheat, and corn
2. Large amounts of fertilizers, pesticides, water (& fuel)

• Second Green Revolution

• Fast growing dwarf varieties of wheat, rice, and other
grains

• World grain has tripled in production since 1950s

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Global Outlook: Total Worldwide Grain

Production (Wheat, Corn, and Rice)

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Case Study: Industrialized Food

Production in the United States
• Agribusiness
• Average farmer feeds 129 people
• Annual sales greater than auto, steel, and housing combined

• Food production: very efficient = low costs

• Americans spend 10% of income on food

• Hidden costs
• (taxpayer) subsidies to farmers to grow (or not grow) crops
• costs of pollution and environmental degradation

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Industrialized Food Production

Requires Huge Inputs of Energy
• Mostly nonrenewable energy – oil and natural gas
• 19% of total fossil fuel energy use in U.S.
• Farm machinery
• Irrigate crops
• Produce pesticides (petrochemicals)
• Commercial inorganic fertilizers
• Process and transport food
• Emissions of CO2, NO2 and other greenhouse gases
• U.S. food travels an average of 2,400 kilometers (1,500
miles)

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Crossbreeding and Genetic Engineering Produce

New Crop/Livestock Varieties (1)
• First gene revolution
• Cross-breeding through artificial selection
• Slow process (decades to centuries)
• Seek to promote specific traits to promote high yield

• Genetic engineering = second gene revolution

• Alter organism’s DNA
• Genetic modified organisms (GMOs): transgenic
organisms

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Crossbreeding and Genetic Engineering Produce

New Crop/Livestock Varieties (2)
• Age of Genetic Engineering: developing crops that
are resistant to
• Herbicides
• Insect pests
Pests
• Parasites
• Viral diseases
• Heat and cold
• Drought Climate Change
• Salty or acidic soil

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GMO Trade-Offs
Advantages Disadvantages

Need less fertilizer Unpredictable

genetic and
Need less water ecological effects
Harmful toxins and new
More resistant to allergens in food
insects, disease,
frost, and drought No increase in yields

Grow faster More pesticide-resistant

insects and herbicide-resistant
May need less weeds
pesticides or tolerate
higher levels of Could disrupt seed
herbicides market
May reduce energy Lower genetic
needs diversity
Fig. 12-18, p. 294

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Meat Production and Consumption

Have Grown Steadily
• Animals for meat raised in
• Pastures and rangelands (“organic meat”)
• Feedlots
• Increase in cropland dedicated to feeding animals

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Industrialized Meat Production

Fig. 12-8, p. 287

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Meat Production and Consumption

Have Grown Steadily
• Worldwide meat production increased fourfold
between 1961 and 2007
• Demand is expected to go higher as countries become
wealthier

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Meat Production and Consumption

Have Grown Steadily
• Meat consumption greatest in wealthiest countries
• Growing fastest in developing countries

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Industrial Meat Trade-Offs

Animal Feedlots

Advantages Disadvantages
Increased meat Large inputs of grain,
production fish meal, water, and
fossil fuels
Higher profits
Greenhouse gas (CO2
Less land use and CH4) emissions

Reduced
Concentration of
overgrazing
animal wastes that
can pollute water
Reduced soil
erosion
Use of antibiotics can
increase genetic
Protection of resistance to microbes
biodiversity in humans
Fig. 12-19, p. 295

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12-3 What Environmental Problems

Arise from Food Production?
• Concept 12-3 Food production in the future may be
limited by its serious environmental impacts,
including soil erosion and degradation,
desertification, water and air pollution, greenhouse
gas emissions, and degradation and destruction of
biodiversity.

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Producing Food Has Major

Environmental Impacts
• Harmful effects of agriculture on
• Biodiversity – creating large swaths of monoculures
• Soil
• Depletion of nutrients
• Addition of foreign chemicals
• Water
• Use in irrigation
• Pollution from fertilizers, pesticides
• Air
• Dust and chemicals
• Greenhouse Gases
• Human health
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Natural Capital Degradation

Food Production

Biodiversity Loss Soil Water Air Pollution Human Health

Loss and degradation of Erosion Water waste Emissions of Nitrates in drinking
grasslands, forests, and greenhouse gas CO2 water (blue baby)
Loss of fertility Aquifer depletion
wetlands in cultivated from fossil fuel use
areas Increased runoff,
Salinization Pesticide residues in
sediment pollution, drinking water,
Emissions of
Waterlogging and flooding from food, and air
Fish kills from greenhouse gas N2O
cleared land
pesticide runoff from use of inorganic
Desertification
Pollution from fertilizers Contamination
Killing wild predators pesticides and of drinking and
Increased acidity Emissions of
to protect livestock fertilizers swimming water
greenhouse gas
methane (CH4) by from livestock
cattle (mostly wastes
Loss of genetic diversity
of wild crop strains belching)
Bacterial
replaced by monoculture contamination of
Other air pollutants
strains
from fossil fuel use and meat
pesticide sprays Fig. 12-10, p. 289

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Topsoil Erosion Is a Serious Problem in

Parts of the World
• Soil erosion
• Movement of soil by wind and water
• Poor farming techniques increase risk

• Two major harmful effects of soil erosion

• Loss of soil fertility (removal of topsoil)
• Water pollution (sediment in water)

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Topsoil Erosion on a Farm in Tennessee

Fig. 12-11, p. 289

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Natural Capital Degradation: Gully Erosion

in Bolivia

Fig. 12-12, p. 290

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Wind Removes Topsoil in Dry Areas

Fig. 12-13, p. 290

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Natural Capital Degradation: Global Soil

Erosion

Fig. 12-14, p. 291

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Drought and Human Activities Are

Degrading Drylands
• Desertification Causes
• Overgrazing
• Unreplenished farmland or grassland
• Drought
• Over watering (salinization)

• Human agriculture accelerates desertification

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Severe Desertification

Fig. 12-15, p. 291

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Natural Capital Degradation: Desertification of

Arid and Semiarid Lands

Fig. 12-16, p. 292

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Excessive Irrigation Has Serious

Consequences
• Salinization
• Gradual accumulation of salts in the soil from
irrigation water
• Lowers crop yields and can even kill plants
• Affects 10% of world croplands

• Waterlogging
• Irrigation water gradually raises water table
• Can prevent roots from getting oxygen
• Affects 10% of world croplands

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Natural Capital Degradation: Severe

Salinization on Heavily Irrigated Land

Fig. 12-17, p. 292

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Agriculture and Air Pollution and Projected

Climate Change
• Dust and chemical sprays

• 25% of all human-generated greenhouse gases

related to crops and livestock

• Livestock contributes 18% of gases: methane in cow

belches
• Grass-fed better than feedlots

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Food and Biofuel Production Systems Have

Caused Major Biodiversity Losses
• Biodiversity threatened when
• Forest and grasslands are replaced with croplands –
tropical forests

• Agrobiodiversity threatened when

• Human-engineered monocultures are used

• Importance of seed banks

• Newest: underground vault in the Norwegian Arctic

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There Are Limits to Expanding the

Green Revolution
• Industrial farming techniques require large inputs of
fertilizer, pesticides, and water

• Can we expand/refine the green revolution by

• Irrigating more cropland?
• Improving the efficiency of irrigation?
• Cultivating more land? Marginal land?
• Improving pesticide use?
• Using GMOs?

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12-4 How Can We Protect Crops from

Pests More Sustainably?
• Concept 12-4 We can sharply cut pesticide use
without decreasing crop yields by using a mix of
cultivation techniques, biological pest controls, and
small amounts of selected chemical pesticides as a
last resort (integrated pest management).

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Nature Controls the Populations of

Most Pests
• What is a pest?
• Interferes with human welfare

• Natural enemies—predators, parasites, disease

organisms—control pests

• Pesticide use can alter these natural systems

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We Use Pesticides to Try to Control

Pest Populations (1)
• Pesticides
• Insecticides
• Herbicides
• Fungicides
• Rodenticides

• Pests can overcome plant defenses through natural

selection: coevolution

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We Use Pesticides to Try to Control

Pest Populations (2)
• First-generation pesticides
• Borrowed from plants

• Second-generation pesticides
• Lab produced: DDT and others

• Broad-spectrum agents: kills everything

• Narrow-spectrum agents: kills a specific target pest

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Modern Synthetic Pesticides Have

Several Advantages
• Save human lives (ex. Anti-Malarial agents)

• Increases food supplies and profits for farmers

• Work quickly

• Health risks often very low compared to benefits

• New pest control methods: safer and more effective

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Modern Synthetic Pesticides Have

Several Disadvantages (1)
• Accelerate rate of genetic resistance in pests

• Expensive for farmers

• Kill natural predators and parasites that help control

the pest population (alters food web)

• Pollution in the environment

• Some are human health hazards

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Trade-Offs

Conventional Chemical Pesticides

Advantages Disadvantages
Save lives Promote genetic
Ex. Anti-Marlaial resistance
agents
Kill natural pest enemies
Increase food
supplies Pollute the environment

Work fast Can harm wildlife

and people
Safe if used
properly Are expensive for
farmers
Profitable
to farmer

Fig. 12-22, p. 299

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Laws and Treaties Can Help to Protect Us from

the Harmful Effects of Pesticides
• U.S. federal agencies and laws
• EPA, USDA, FDA
• Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, 1947
• Food Quality Protection Act, 1996

• Effects of active and inactive pesticide ingredients are poorly

documented
• U.S. exports many banned pesticides

• Circle of poison

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There Are Alternatives to Using

Pesticides (1)
• Fool the pest
• Crop rotation; changing planting times

• Provide homes for pest enemies

• Polyculture

• Implant genetic resistance – genetic engineering

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There Are Alternatives to Using

Pesticides (2)
• Use insect pheromones and hormones to interrupt

• Bring in natural enemies

• Predators, parasites, diseases

• Alternative methods of weed

control
• cover crops, mulches

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Integrated Pest Management Is a

Component of Sustainable Agriculture
• Integrated pest management (IPM)
• Use cultivation, biological controls, and chemical tools
to reduce crop damage to an economically tolerable
level
• Reduces pollution
and pesticide costs

• Disadvantages
• Requires expert
knowledge
• High initial costs
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12-5 How Can We Improve Food

Security?
• Concept 12-5 We can improve food security by
creating programs to reduce poverty and chronic
malnutrition, relying more on locally grown food, and
cutting food waste.

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Use Government Policies to Improve Food

Production and Security
• Government Subsidies (tax dollars) used to:
• Control prices to make food affordable
• Limit costs to farmers to remain profitable

• Often misused/misguided, leading to

• Enriching large corporations
• Planting of certain crops over others
• Wasted Money

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Reduce Soil Erosion

• Soil conservation, some methods

• Terracing
• Contour planting
• Strip cropping with cover crop
• Reduced till farming

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Soil Conservation: Contour Planting and

Strip Cropping

Fig. 12-27, p. 305

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Case Study: Soil Erosion in the United

States—Learning from the Past
• What happened in the Dust Bowl in the 1930s?

• Migrations to the East, West, and Midwest

• 1935: Soil Erosion Act

• More soil conservation needed

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Natural Capital Degradation: The Dust

Bowl of the Great Plains, U.S.

Fig. 12-30, p. 307

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Restore Soil Fertility

• Organic fertilizer
• Animal manure
• Green manure
• Compost

• Manufactured inorganic fertilizer

• Nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium

• Crop rotation

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Reduce Soil Salinization and

Desertification
• Soil salinization
• Prevention
• Clean-up

• Desertification, reduce
• Population growth
• Overgrazing
• Deforestation
• Destructive forms of planting, irrigation, and mining

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Solutions: Soil Salinization

Fig. 12-31, p. 308

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Solutions

Soil Salinization

Prevention Cleanup
Flush soil (expensive and
wastes water)
Reduce irrigation

Stop growing crops for

2–5 years

Switch to salt- Install underground

tolerant crops drainage systems
(expensive)

Fig. 12-31, p. 308

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Practice More Sustainable Aquaculture

• Open-ocean aquaculture
• Choose herbivorous fish

• Polyculture

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Solutions: More Sustainable Aquaculture

Fig. 12-32, p. 308

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Case Study: Raising Salmon in an

Artificial Ecosystem
• Cooke Aquaculture in the Bay of Fundy, New
Brunswick, Canada

• Mimic a natural system with 3 species:

• Salmon in cages
• Shellfish in socks filter waste
• Kelp uses some of added nutrients

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Produce Meat More Efficiently and

Humanely
• Shift to more grain-efficient forms of protein

• Beef from rangelands and pastures, not feedlots

• Develop meat substitutes; eat less meat

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Efficiency of Converting Grain into Animal

Protein

Fig. 12-33, p. 309

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Shift to More Sustainable Agriculture

(1)
• Sustainable agriculture
• uses fewer inputs
• creates less pollution
• contributes less to global warming

• Organic farming
• Many benefits
• Requires more labor

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Shift to More Sustainable Agriculture

(2)
• Strategies for more sustainable agriculture
• Research on organic agriculture with human nutrition
in mind
• Show farmers how organic agricultural systems work
• Subsidies and foreign aid
• Training programs; college curricula
• Encourage hydroponics
• Greater use of alternative energy

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Solutions: More Sustainable Organic Agriculture

More Less
High-yield polyculture Soil erosion

Organic fertilizers Water pollution

Biological pest Water wasted

control
Integrated pest Fossil fuel use
management
Greenhouse gas
Efficient irrigation emissions

Soil conservation Subsidies for

unsustainable
Subsidies for farming
sustainable farming

Fig. 12-34, p. 310

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Solutions
Organic Farming

▪ Improves soil fertility

▪ Reduces soil erosion

▪ Retains more water in soil

during drought years
▪ Uses about 30% less energy per
unit of yield
▪ Lowers CO2 emissions
▪ Reduces water pollution by
recycling livestock wastes

▪ Eliminates pollution from

pesticides
▪ Increases biodiversity above
and below ground
▪ Benefits wildlife such as birds
and bats
Fig. 12-35, p. 311

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What you can do

• Buy local produce (ex. farmer’s markets and
community supported agriculture)
• Grow some of your own food
• By organic when you can
• Reduce amount of meat you eat
• Compost food waste

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