Food, Soil, and Pest

Management
What is food security and why is it
difficult to attain?
Many people suffer from chronic health
and malnutrition
 Food security means having daily access to enough nutritious food to live an active and
healthy life.
 One of every six people in less-developed countries is not getting enough to eat, facing food
insecurity—living with chronic hunger and poor nutrition, which threatens their ability to
lead healthy and productive lives.
 The root cause of food insecurity is poverty.
 Other obstacles to food security are political upheaval, war, corruption, and bad weather, including
prolonged drought, flooding, and heat waves.
Many people suffer from chronic health
and malnutrition
 To maintain good health and resist disease, individuals
need fairly large amounts of macronutrients, such as
carbohydrates, proteins and fats, and smaller amounts
of micronutrients—vitamins and minerals.
 People who cannot grow or buy enough food to meet
their basic energy needs suffer from chronic
undernutrition, or hunger.
 Many suffer from chronic malnutrition—a deficiency of
protein and other key nutrients, which weakens them,
makes them more vulnerable to disease, and hinders the
normal development of children.
Starving children collecting ants in
Sudan, Africa
Many people do not get enough vitamins
and minerals
 Deficiency of one or more vitamins and minerals, usually vitamin A, iron, and iodine.
 Some 250,000–500,000 children younger than age 6 go blind each year from a lack of vitamin A,
and within a year, more than half of them die.
 Lack of iron causes anemia which causes fatigue, makes infection more likely, and increases a
woman’s chances of dying from hemorrhage in childbirth.
 1/5 people in the world suffers from iron deficiency.
Many people do not get enough vitamins
and minerals
 Chronic lack of iodine can cause
stunted growth, mental
retardation, and goiter.
 Almost one-third of the world’s
people do not get enough iodine
in their food and water.
 According to the FAO and the
WHO, eliminating this serious
health problem would cost the
equivalent of only 2–3 cents per
year for every person in the
world.
Many people have health problems from
eating too much
 Overnutrition occurs when food energy intake exceeds energy use, causing
excess body fat.
 Face similar health problems as those under: lower life expectancy,
greater susceptibility to disease and illness, and lower productivity and
life quality.
 Globally about 925 million people have health problems because they do
not get enough to eat, and about 1.1 billion people face health problems
from eating too much.
 About 68% of American adults are overweight and half of those people are
obese.
 Obesity plays a role in four of the top ten causes of death in the United
States—heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer.
How is food produced?
Food production has increased
dramatically
 About 10,000 years ago, humans began to shift from hunting for and gathering
their food to growing it and raising animals for food and labor.
 Today, three systems supply most of our food.
 Croplands produce mostly grains.
 Rangelands, pastures, and feedlots produce meat.
 Fisheries and aquaculture provide us with seafood.
 About 66% of the world’s people survive primarily by eating rice, wheat, and
corn.
 Only a few species of mammals and fish provide most of the world’s meat and
seafood.
Food production has increased
dramatically
 Since 1960, there has been an increase in global food production from all
three of the major food production systems because of technological
advances.
 Tractors, farm machinery and high-tech fishing equipment.
 Irrigation.
 Inorganic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, high-yield grain varieties, and
industrialized production of livestock and fish.
Industrialized crop production relies
on high-input monocultures
 Agriculture used to grow crops can be divided roughly into two types:
 Industrialized agriculture, or high-input agriculture, uses heavy equipment and
large amounts of financial capital, fossil fuel, water, commercial inorganic
fertilizers, and pesticides to produce single crops, or monocultures.
 Major goal of industrialized agriculture is to increase yield, the amount of food produced
per unit of land.
 Used on about 25% of the world’s cropland, mostly in more-developed countries, and
produces about 80% of the world’s food.
Industrialized crop production relies
on high-input monocultures
 Plantation agriculture is a form of industrialized agriculture used primarily in
tropical less-developed countries.
 Grows cash crops such as bananas, soybeans, sugarcane, coffee, palm oil, and
vegetables.
 Crops are grown on large monoculture plantations, mostly for export to more-developed
countries.
 Modern industrialized agriculture violates the three principles of sustainability by
relying heavily on fossil fuels, reducing natural and crop biodiversity, and
neglecting the conservation and recycling of nutrients in topsoil.
Oil palm plantation – once covered with
tropical rain forest
Traditional agriculture often relies on
low-input polycultures
Traditional agriculture provides about 20% of the world’s food crops on about

75% of its cultivated land, mostly in less-developed countries.
 There are two main types of traditional agriculture.
 Traditional subsistence agriculture supplements energy from the sun with the labor
of humans and draft animals to produce enough crops for a farm family’s survival,
with little left over to sell or store as a reserve for hard times.
 In traditional intensive agriculture, farmers increase their inputs of human and
draft-animal labor, animal manure for fertilizer, and water to obtain higher crop
yields, some of which can be sold for income.
Traditional agriculture often relies on
low-input polycultures
Many traditional farmers grow several crops on the same plot

simultaneously, a practice known as polyculture.
 Crop diversity reduces the chance of losing most or all of the year’s food supply
to pests, bad weather, and other misfortunes.
 Crops mature at different times, provide food throughout the year, reduce the
input of human labor, and keep the soil covered to reduce erosion from wind and
water.
Traditional agriculture often relies on
low-input Lessens
polycultures
need for fertilizer and water, because root systems at different depths in
the soil capture nutrients and moisture efficiently.
 Insecticides and herbicides are rarely needed because multiple habitats are
created for natural predators of crop-eating insects, and weeds have trouble
competing with the multitude of crop plants.
 On average, such low-input polyculture produces higher yields than does high-
input monoculture.
A closer look at industrialized crop
production
 Farmers can produce more food by increasing their land or their yields per
acre.
 Since 1950, about 88% of the increase in global food production has come
from using high-input industrialized agriculture to increase yields in a process
called the green revolution.
 Three steps of the green revolution:
 First, develop and plant monocultures of selectively bred or genetically engineered
high-yield varieties of key crops such as rice, wheat, and corn.
A closer look at industrialized crop
production
 Second, produce high yields by using large inputs of water and synthetic inorganic
fertilizers, and pesticides.
 Third, increase the number of crops grown per year on a plot of land through
multiple cropping.
 The first green revolution used high-input agriculture to dramatically increase
crop yields in most of the world’s more-developed countries, especially the
United States, between 1950 and 1970.
A closer look at industrialized crop
production
 A second green revolution has been taking place since 1967. Fast-growing
varieties of rice and wheat, specially bred for tropical and subtropical
climates, have been introduced into middle-income, less-developed countries
such as India, China, and Brazil.
 Producing more food on less land has helped to protect some biodiversity by
preserving large areas of forests, grasslands, wetlands, and easily eroded mountain
terrain that might otherwise be used for farming.
A closer look at industrialized crop
production
 Largely because of the two green revolutions, world grain production tripled
between 1961 and 2009.
 People directly consume about 48% of the world’s grain production. About
35% is used to feed livestock and indirectly consumed by people who eat meat
and meat products. The remaining 17% (mostly corn) is used to make biofuels
such as ethanol for cars and other vehicles.
Growth in global grain production of wheat,
corn, and rice between 1961-2010
A closer look at industrialized crop
production
 In the U.S., industrialized farming has evolved into
agribusiness, as a small number of giant multinational
corporations increasingly control the growing, processing,
distribution, and sale of food in U.S. and global markets.
 Since 1950 U.S. industrialized agriculture has more than
doubled the yields of key crops such as wheat, corn, and
soybeans without cultivating more land.
 Americans spend only about 13% of their disposable
income on food, compared to the percentages up to 50%
that people in China and India and most other less-
developed countries have to pay for food.
Crossbreeding and genetic engineering
produceCrossbreeding
varieties
 of crops and livestock
through artificial selection has been used for centuries by
farmers and scientists to develop genetically improved varieties of crops and
livestock animals.
 Such selective breeding in this first gene revolution has yielded amazing results;
ancient ears of corn were about the size of your little finger, and wild tomatoes
were once the size of grapes.
 Typically takes 15 years or more to produce a commercially valuable new crop
variety, and it can combine traits only from genetically similar species.
 Typically, resulting varieties remain useful for only 5–10 years before pests and
diseases reduce their efficacy.
Crossbreeding and genetic engineering
produceModern
varieties
 of crops and livestock
scientists are creating a second gene revolution by using genetic
engineering to develop genetically improved strains of crops and livestock.
 Alters an organism’s genetic material through adding, deleting, or changing
segments of its DNA to produce desirable traits or to eliminate undesirable ones
(gene splicing); resulting organisms are called genetically modified organisms.
 Developing a new crop variety through gene splicing is faster selective breeding,
usually costs less, and allows for the insertion of genes from almost any other
organism into crop cells.
Crossbreeding and genetic engineering
produce varieties of crops and livestock
Currently, at least 70% of the food products on U.S. supermarket shelves contain

some form of genetically engineered food or ingredients, but no law requires the
labeling of GM products.
 Certified organic food, which is labeled as makes no use of genetically modified
seeds or ingredients.
 Bioengineers plan to develop new GM varieties of crops that are resistant to heat,
cold, herbicides, insect pests, parasites, viral diseases, drought, and salty or acidic
soil. They also hope to develop crop plants that can grow faster and survive with
little or no irrigation and with less fertilizer and pesticides.
Meat production has grown steadily
 Meat and animal products such as eggs and milk are good
sources of high-quality protein and represent the world’s
second major food-producing system.
 Between 1961 and 2010, world meat production—mostly
beef, pork, and poultry—increased more than fourfold
and average meat consumption per person more than
doubled.
 Global meat production is likely to more than double
again by 2050 as affluence rises and more middle-income
people begin consuming more meat and animal products
in rapidly developing countries such as China and India.
Meat production has grown steadily
 About half of the world’s meat comes from livestock grazing
on grass in unfenced rangelands and enclosed pastures.
 The other half is produced through an industrialized system
in which animals are raised mostly in densely packed
feedlots and concentrated animal feeding operations
(CAFOs), where they are fed grain, fish meal, or fish oil,
which are usually doctored with growth hormones and
antibiotics.
 Feedlots and CAFOs, and the animal wastes and runoff
associated with them, create serious environmental impacts
on the air and water.
Fish and shellfish production have
increased dramatically
 The world’s third major food-producing system consists of fisheries and
aquaculture.
 A fishery is a concentration of particular aquatic species suitable for
commercial harvesting in a given ocean area or inland body of water.
 Industrial fishing fleets harvest most of the world’s marine catch of wild fish.
Fish and shellfish production have
increased dramatically
 Fish and shellfish are also produced through
aquaculture—the practice of raising marine and
freshwater fish in freshwater ponds and rice paddies
or in underwater cages in coastal waters or in
deeper ocean waters.
 Some fishery scientists warn that unless we reduce
overfishing and ocean pollution, and slow projected
climate change, most of the world’s major
commercial ocean fisheries could collapse by 2050.
Global seafood production, 1950-2008
Industrialized food production requires
huge inputs of energy
 The industrialization of food production has been made possible by the
availability of energy, mostly from nonrenewable oil and natural gas.
 Energy is needed to run farm machinery, irrigate crops, and produce synthetic
pesticides and synthetic inorganic fertilizers, as well as to process food and
transport it long distances within and between countries.
 As a result, producing, processing, transporting, and consuming industrialized
food result in a large net energy loss.
Section 10-3

What environmental problems arise

from industrialized food production?
Food production’s harmful
environmental effects
Producing food has major environmental
impacts
 Spectacularincreases in the world’s food production
since 1950. The bad news is the harmful
environmental effects associated with such production
increases.
 Accordingto many analysts, agriculture has a greater
total harmful environmental impact than any human
activity.
 Theseenvironmental effects may limit future food
production and make it unsustainable.
Topsoil erosion is a serious problem in
parts of the world
 Soil erosion is the movement of soil components, especially surface litter and
topsoil from one place to another by the actions of wind and water.
 Erosion of topsoil has two major harmful effects.
 Loss of soil fertility through depletion of plant nutrients in topsoil.
 Water pollution in nearby surface waters, where eroded topsoil ends up as
sediment. This can kill fish and shellfish and clog irrigation ditches, boat channels,
reservoirs, and lakes.
Topsoil erosion is a serious problem in
parts of Bythe

world
removing vital plant nutrients from topsoil and adding excess plant
nutrients to aquatic systems, we degrade the topsoil and pollute the water,
and thus alter the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles.
Topsoil erosion is a serious problem in
some parts of the world
Serious concern
Some concern
Stable or nonvegetative

Stepped Art
Fig. 10-11, p. 214
Drought and human activities are
degrading drylands
Desertification in arid and semiarid parts of the world threatens livestock and

crop contributions to the world’s food supply.
 Desertification occurs when the productive potential of topsoil falls by 10% or
more because of a combination of prolonged drought and human activities that
expose topsoil to erosion.
 The FAO’s 2007 report on the Status of the World’s Forests estimated that
some 70% of world’s arid and semiarid lands used for agriculture are degraded
and threatened by desertification.
Sand dunes threaten to take over an
oasis in West Africa
Variation in desertification in arid and
semiarid lands, 2007
Excessive irrigation has serious
consequences
 Irrigation boosts productivity of farms; roughly 20% of the
world’s cropland that is irrigated produces about 45% of the
world’s food.
 Most irrigation water is a dilute solution of various salts that are
picked up as the water flows over or through soil and rocks.
 Repeated annual applications of irrigation water in dry climates
lead to the gradual accumulation of salts in the upper soil
layers—a soil degradation process called salinization that stunts
crop growth, lowers crop yields, and can eventually kill plants
and ruin the land.
Excessive irrigation has serious
consequences
 Severe salinization has reduced yields on at least 10% of the world’s irrigated
cropland, and almost 25% of irrigated cropland in the United States,
especially in western states
 Irrigation can cause waterlogging, in which water accumulates underground
and gradually raises the water table; at least one-tenth of the world’s
irrigated land suffers from waterlogging, and the problem is getting worse.
 Excessive irrigation contributes to depletion of groundwater and surface
water supplies.
Agriculture contributes to air pollution
and projected climate change
 Agricultural activities create a lot of air pollution.
 Account for more than 25% of the human-generated
emissions of carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases.
 Industrialized livestock production alone generates about
18% of the world’s greenhouse gases; cattle and dairy cows
release the greenhouse gas methane and methane is
generated by liquid animal manure stored in waste lagoons.
 Nitrous oxide, with about 300 times the warming capacity
of CO2 per molecule, is released in huge quantities by
synthetic inorganic fertilizers as well as by livestock
manure.
Genetically modified crops and foods
have advantages and disadvantages
Food and biofuel production systems have
caused major losses of biodiversity

 Natural biodiversity and some ecological services are threatened

when forests are cleared and grasslands are plowed up and replaced
with croplands used to produce food or biofuels, such as ethanol.
 There is increasing loss of agrobiodiversity, the world’s genetic
variety of animal and plant species.
 In the United States, about 97% of the food plant varieties that were
available to farmers in the 1940s no longer exist, except perhaps in
small amounts in seed banks and in the backyards of a few gardeners.
 The world’s genetic “library,” which is critical for increasing food
yields, is rapidly shrinking.
There is controversy over genetically
engineered foods
 Controversy has arisen over the use of genetically modified (GM) food and
other products of genetic engineering.
 Its producers and investors see GM food as a potentially sustainable way to
solve world hunger problems and improve human health.
 Some critics consider it potentially dangerous “Frankenfood.”
 Recognize the potential benefits of GM crops.
 Warn that we know too little about the long-term potential harm to human health
and ecosystems from the widespread use of such crops.
There is controversy over genetically
engineered foods
 Warn that GM organisms released into the environment may cause some unintended
harmful genetic and ecological effects.
 Genes in plant pollen from GM crops can spread among nonengineered species. The
new strains can then form hybrids with wild crop varieties, which could reduce the
natural genetic biodiversity of wild strains.
 Most scientists and economists who have evaluated the genetic engineering of
crops believe that its potential benefits will eventually outweigh its risks.
 Others have serious doubts about the ability of GM crops to increase food security
compared to other more effective and sustainable alternative solutions.
There are limits to expansion of the
green revolution
 Factors that have limited the current and future success of the green
revolution:
 Without huge inputs of inorganic fertilizer, pesticides, and water, most green
revolution and genetically engineered crop varieties produce yields that are no
higher (and are sometimes lower) than those from traditional strains.
 High inputs cost too much for most subsistence farmers in less-developed
countries.
There are limits to expansion of the
green revolution
Scientists point out that continuing to increase these
inputs eventually produces no additional increase in crop
yields.
 Since 1978, the amount of irrigated land per person has
been declining, due to population growth, wasteful use of
irrigation water, soil salinization, and depletion of both
aquifers and surface water, and the fact that most of the
world’s farmers do not have enough money to irrigate
their crops.
 We can get more crops per drop of irrigation water by
using known methods and technologies to greatly improve
the efficiency of irrigation.
There are limits to expansion of the
green revolution
Clearing tropical forests and irrigating arid land could more than double the world’s

cropland, but much of this land has poor soil fertility, steep slopes, or both.
 Cultivating such land usually is expensive, is unlikely to be sustainable, and reduces
biodiversity by degrading and destroying wildlife habitats
 During this century, fertile croplands in coastal areas are likely to be flooded by
rising sea levels resulting from projected climate change.
 Food production could drop sharply in some major food-producing areas because of
increased drought and longer and more intense heat waves, also resulting from
projected climate change.
Industrialized meat production has
harmful environmental consequences
 Producing meat by using feedlots and other confined animal production
facilities increases meat production, reduces overgrazing, and yields higher
profits.
 Such systems use large amounts of energy (mostly fossil fuels) and water and
produce huge amounts of animal waste that sometimes pollute surface water
and groundwater and saturate the air with their odors and emitting large
quantities of climate-changing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Industrialized meat production has
harmful Meat
environmental

consequences
produced by industrialized agriculture is artificially cheap – harmful
environmental and health costs are not included in the prices.
 Overgrazing and soil compaction and erosion by livestock have degraded
about 20% of the world’s grasslands and pastures.
 Rangeland grazing and industrialized livestock production cause about 55% of
all topsoil erosion and sediment pollution, and 33% of the water pollution
that results from runoff from excessive inputs of synthetic fertilizers.
Industrialized meat production has
harmful The
environmental

consequences
use of fossil fuels energy pollutes the air and water, and emits
greenhouse gases.
 Use of antibiotics is widespread in industrialized livestock production
facilities.
 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are added to animal feed to
prevent the spread of diseases in crowded feedlots and CAFOs and to make the
livestock animals grow faster.
Industrialized meat production has
harmful environmental consequences
Widespread antibiotic use in livestock is an important factor in the rise of genetic

resistance among many disease-causing microbes.
 Reduces the effectiveness of some antibiotics used to treat infectious diseases in
humans.
 Promotes the development of new and aggressive disease organisms that are resistant to
all but a very few antibiotics currently available.

 Animal waste produced by U.S. meat is

roughly 130 times that of its human
population.
Animal feedlots and confined animal feeding
operations have advantages and disadvantages
Aquaculture has advantages and
disadvantages
How can we protect crops from
pests more sustainably?
Section 10-4
Nature controls the populations of most
pests
 A pest is any species that interferes with human welfare by competing with us
for food, invading homes, lawns and gardens, destroying building materials,
spreading disease, invading ecosystems, or simply being a nuisance.
 Worldwide, only about 100 species of plants (“weeds”), animals (mostly
insects), fungi, and microbes cause most of the damage to the crops we grow.
Nature controls the populations of most
pests
 In natural ecosystems and many polyculture agroecosystems, natural enemies
(predators, parasites, and disease organisms) control the populations of most
potential pest species.
 Spiders kill far more crop-eating insects every year than humans do by using
chemicals.
 When we clear forests and grasslands, plant monoculture crops, and douse
fields with chemicals that kill pests, we upset many of these natural
population checks and balances that help to maintain biodiversity.
We use pesticides to help control pest
populations
 Development of a variety of synthetic pesticides—chemicals used
to kill/control populations of organisms that we consider
undesirable such as insects, weeds, and mice.
 Common types of pesticides include insecticides (insect killers),
herbicides (weed killers), fungicides (fungus killers), and
rodenticides (rat and mouse killers).
 Plants produce chemicals called biopesticides to ward off,
deceive, or poison the insects and herbivores that feed on them.
 Since 1950, pesticide use has increased more than 50-fold, and
most of today’s pesticides are 10–100 times more toxic than
those used in the 1950s.
 Use of biopesticides is on the rise.
We use pesticides to help control pest
populations
Broad-spectrum agents are toxic to many pests, but also to beneficial

species. Examples are chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds, such as DDT, and
organophosphate compounds, such as malathion and parathion.
 Selective, or narrow spectrum, agents are effective against a narrowly
defined group of organisms. Examples are algaecides for algae and fungicides
for fungi.
We use pesticides to help control pest
populations
Pesticides vary in their persistence, the length of time they remain deadly in

the environment.
 DDT and related compounds remain in the environment for years and can be
biologically magnified in food chains and webs.
 Organophosphates are active for days or weeks and are not biologically magnified
but can be highly toxic to humans.
We use pesticides to help control pest
populations
In the United States, about 25% of pesticide use is on houses, gardens, lawns,

parks, playing fields, swimming pools, and golf courses, with the average
lawn receiving ten times more synthetic pesticides per unit of land area than
an equivalent amount of cropland.
 In 1962, biologist Rachel Carson warned against relying primarily on synthetic
organic chemicals to kill insects and other species we regard as pests.
Synthetic pesticides: advantages and
disadvantages
You can reduce your exposure to
pesticides
Pesticide use has not reduced U.S. crop
losses to pests
 Syntheticpesticide use has not reduced U.S.
crop losses to pests, mostly because of genetic
resistance and reduction of natural predators.
 Three conclusions from a study that evaluated
data from more than 300 agricultural scientists
and economists:
 Between 1942 and 1997, estimated crop losses from insects almost doubled from 7%
to 13%, despite a 10-fold increase in the use of synthetic insecticides.
Pesticide use has not reduced U.S. crop
losses to pests
 The estimated environmental, health, and social costs of pesticide use in the
United States are $5–10 in damages for every dollar spent on pesticides.
 Alternative pest management practices could cut the use of synthetic pesticides by
half on 40 major U.S. crops without reducing crop yields
 The pesticide industry disputes these findings.
CASE STUDY: Ecological Surprises: The
Law of Unintended Consequences
 In the 1950s, dieldrin (a DDT relative) was used to eliminate malaria in North
Borneo. This started an unexpected chain of negative effects.
 Small insect-eating lizards that lived in the houses died after eating dieldrin-
contaminated insects. Cats died after feeding on the lizards. Rats flourished
and villagers became threatened by plague carried by rat fleas.
 The WHO successfully parachuted healthy cats onto the island to help control
the rats.
CASE STUDY: Ecological Surprises: The
Law of Unintended Consequences
 The villagers’ roofs fell in. The dieldrin had killed wasps and other insects
that fed on a type of caterpillar that was not affected by the insecticide. The
caterpillar population exploded, and ate the leaves used to thatch roofs.
 Ultimately, both malaria and the unexpected effects of the spraying program
were brought under control.
 Laws and treaties can help to protect us
from the harmful effects of pesticides

 In the U.S., three federal agencies, the EPA, the USDA, and the FDA regulate
the sale and use of pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and
Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), first passed in 1947 and amended in 1972.
 Under FIFRA, the EPA was supposed to assess the health risks of the active
ingredients in synthetic pesticide products already in use.
 After more than 30 years, less than 10% of the active ingredients in pesticide
products have been tested for chronic health effects, due to lack of funding.
Laws and treaties can help to protect us
from the harmful effects of pesticides
 In 1996, Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act, due to growing
scientific evidence and citizen pressure concerning the effects of small
amounts of pesticides on children.
 Act requires the EPA to reduce the allowed levels of pesticide residues in food by
a factor of 10 when there is inadequate information on the potentially harmful
effects on children.
 Between 1972 and 2010, the EPA used FIFRA to ban or severely restrict the
use of 64 active pesticide ingredients, including DDT and most other
chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides.
Laws and treaties can help to protect us
from the harmful effects of pesticides
 Up to 98% of the potential risk of developing cancer
from pesticide residues on food grown in the U.S.
would be eliminated if EPA standards were as strict for
pre-1972 pesticides as they are for later ones.
 Banned/unregistered pesticides may be manufactured
in one country and exported to other countries.
 In what environmental scientists call a circle of poison,
or the boomerang effect, residues of some banned or
unapproved chemicals used in synthetic pesticides
exported to other countries can return to the exporting
countries on imported food.
Laws and treaties can help to protect us
from the harmful effects of pesticides
 The wind can also carry persistent pesticides from one country to another.
 In 1998, more than 50 countries developed an international treaty that
requires exporting countries to have informed consent from importing
counties for exports of 22 synthetic pesticides and 5 industrial chemicals.
 In 2000, more than 100 countries developed an international agreement to
ban or phase out the use of 12 especially hazardous persistent organic
pollutants. The U.S. has not signed.
There are alternatives to synthetic
pesticides
 Many scientists believe we should greatly increase the use of biological,
ecological, and other alternative methods for controlling pests and diseases
that affect crops and human health. Here are some of these alternatives:
 Fool the pest. A variety of cultivation practices can be used to fake out pests.
 Provide homes for pest enemies.
 Implant genetic resistance.
There are alternatives to synthetic
pesticides
 Bring in natural enemies. Use biological control by importing natural predators,
parasites, and disease-causing bacteria and viruses.
 Use insect perfumes.
 Bring in the hormones.
 Reduce use of synthetic herbicides to control weeds.
Integrated pest management is a component
of more sustainable agriculture

 Many pest control experts and farmers believe the best way to control
crop pests is a carefully designed integrated pest management (IPM)
program.
 Farmers develop a carefully designed control program that uses a
combination of cultivation, biological, and chemical tools and techniques.
 The overall aim of IPM is to reduce crop damage to an economically
tolerable level.
 Farmers first use biological methods (natural predators, parasites, and
disease organisms) and cultivation controls (such as rotating crops,
altering planting time, and using large machines to vacuum up harmful
bugs).
Integrated pest management is a component
of more sustainable agriculture

 They apply small amounts of insecticides—mostly based on those

naturally produced by plants—only when insect or weed
populations reach a threshold where the potential cost of pest
damage to crops outweighs the cost of applying the pesticide.
 Broad-spectrum, long-lived pesticides are not used, and different
chemicals are used alternately to slow the development of
genetic resistance and to avoid killing predators of pest species.
 A well-designed IPM program can reduce synthetic pesticide use
and pest control costs by 50–65%, without reducing crop yields
and food quality.
Integrated pest management is a component
of more sustainable agriculture

 IPM can also reduce inputs of fertilizer and irrigation water, and slow the
development of genetic resistance, because pests are attacked less often and
with lower doses of pesticides.
 Disadvantages of IPM:
 It 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.
Integrated pest management is a component
of more sustainable agriculture

 Initial costs may be higher, although long-term costs typically are lower than those
of using conventional pesticides.
 Widespread use of IPM is hindered in the United States and a number of other
countries by government subsidies for using synthetic chemical pesticides, as well
as by opposition from pesticide manufacturers, and a shortage of IPM experts.
 The USDA could promote IPM three ways:
 First, add a 2% sales tax on synthetic pesticides and use the revenue to fund IPM
research and education.
Integrated pest management is a component
of more sustainable agriculture

 Second, set up a federally supported IPM demonstration project on at least one

farm in every county in the United States.
 Third, train USDA field personnel and county farm agents in IPM so they can help
farmers use this alternative.
 Because these measures would reduce its profits, the pesticide industry has
vigorously, and successfully, opposed them.
How can we improve food security?
Section 10-5
 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: weather, crop
prices, crop pests and diseases, loan interest rates, and global markets.
 Governments use two main approaches to influence food production:
 Control prices.
 Provide subsidies.
Use government policies to improve food
production and security
 To improve food security, some analysts urge governments to establish
special programs focused on saving children from the harmful health effects
of poverty.
 Immunizing more children against childhood diseases.
 Preventing dehydration from diarrhea by giving infants a mixture of sugar and salt
in water.
 Preventing blindness by giving children an inexpensive vitamin A capsule twice a
year.
How can we produce food more
sustainably?
Section 10-6
Reduce soil erosion

 Soil conservation involves using a variety of ways to reduce 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 topsoil.
 Strip cropping involves planting alternating strips of a row crop and another crop
that completely covers the soil, called a cover crop.
Reduce soil erosion

 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 trees 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 world’s topsoil erosion.
Reduce soil erosion

 Soil erosion in the United States.

 A third of the country’s original topsoil is gone and much of the rest is degraded.
 In 1935, the United States passed the Soil Erosion Act, which established the Soil
Conservation Service (SCS) as part of the USDA.
 Now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service
 Farmers and ranchers were given technical assistance to set up soil conservation
programs.
 U.S. farmers are sharply reducing some of their topsoil losses through a
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 fertilizer from plant and animal materials.
 Animal manure: the waste of cattle, horses, poultry, and other farm animals
adding organic nitrogen, stimulating the growth of beneficial soil bacteria and
fungi.
 Green manure: consists of freshly cut or growing green vegetation that is plowed
into the topsoil to increase the organic matter and humus available to the next
crop.
 Compost is produced when microorganisms in soil break down organic matter in
the presence of oxygen.
Restore soil fertility
 Organic agriculture uses only organic fertilizers and crop rotation to
replenish the nutrients.
 Synthetic inorganic fertilizers are usually inorganic compounds that contain
nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
 Inorganic fertilizer use has grown more than 900% since 1950; now about one-
fourth of the world’s crops.
 Fertilizer runoff can pollute nearby bodies of water and coastal estuaries where
rivers empty into the sea.
 They do not replace organic matter. To completely restore nutrients to topsoil,
both inorganic and organic fertilizers should be used.
Reduce soil salinization and
desertification
One way to prevent and deal with soil salinization is to reduce the amount

of water that is put onto crop fields through use of modern efficient
irrigation.
 Drip, or trickle irrigation, also called microirrigation, is the most efficient way to
deliver small amounts of freshwater to crops precisely.
 These systems drastically reduce freshwater waste because 90–95% of the water
input reaches the crops.
 By using less freshwater, they also reduce the amount of harmful salt that
irrigation water leaves in the soil.
Reduce soil salinization and
desertification
 Reducing desertification is not easy because we can’t control
the timing and location of prolonged droughts caused by
changes in weather patterns.
 We can reduce population growth, overgrazing,
deforestation, and destructive forms of planting, irrigation,
and mining, which have left much land vulnerable to soil
erosion and thus desertification.
 Work to decrease the human contribution to projected
climate change, which is expected to increase severe and
prolonged droughts in larger areas of the world during this
century.
 Restoration via planting trees.
Three types of systems commonly used
to irrigate crops
 Drip irrigation
(efficiency 90–95%)
Center pivot
(efficiency 80% with low-pressure
sprinkler and 90–95% with LEPA Above- or below-ground
Gravity flow
sprinkler) pipes or tubes deliver
(efficiency 60% and 80% with surge valves)
Water usually pumped from water to individual plant
underground and sprayed roots.
Water usually comes from an aqueduct
from mobile boom with
system or a nearby river.
sprinklers.
Fig. 10-24, p. 229
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 account for the largest contribution to the
ecological footprints of most individuals in affluent nations.
 If everyone in the world today was on the average U.S. meat-based diet, the
current annual global grain harvest could sustainably feed only about one-
third of the world’s current population.
Produce meat more efficiently and eat
less meat
 More sustainable meat production and consumption
involves shifting from less grain-efficient forms of
animal protein, (beef, carnivorous fish), to more
grain-efficient forms (poultry, herbivorous farmed
fish).
 Eating less meat by having one meatless day per week.
 Healthier to eat less meat.
 Replace meat with a balanced vegetarian diet.
The efficiency of converting grain into
animal protein varies
Shift to more sustainable food
production
 Industrialized agriculture produces large amounts of food at reasonable
prices, but is unsustainable because it:
 Relies heavily 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.
 Sharply reduces the harmful environmental effects of industrialized farming and our
exposure to pesticides.
 Encourages more humane treatment of animals used for food and is a more economically
just system for farm workers and farmers.
 Requires more human labor than industrial farming.
 Yields can be lower but farmers do not have to pay for expensive synthetic pesticides,
herbicides, and fertilizers; typically get higher prices for their crops.
Major advantages of organic farming
over conventional
Shift to more sustainable food
productionOrganic polyculture.


 A diversity of organic crops is grown on the same plot.

 Use polyculture to grow perennial crops—crops that grow back year after year on their
own.
 Helps to conserve and replenish topsoil, requires and wastes less water, and reduces the
need for fertilizers and pesticides.
 Reduces the air and water pollution associated with conventional industrialized
agriculture.
 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. Greatly increase research on 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 an international fund to give farmers in poor countries access to various
types of more sustainable agriculture.
Shift to more sustainable food
production Replace government subsidies for environmentally harmful forms of
4.
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
Three 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.