APES Chapter 12
Fishery
concentration of particular aquatic species suitable for commercial harvesting in a given an area or inland body of water
Chronic undernutrition
condition suffered by people who can't grow or buy enough foo to meet their basic energy needs. Most undernourished live in developing countries and are likely to suffer from mental retardation and stunted growth and to die of infectious diseases.
Food security
condition under which every person in a given area has a daily access to enough food to have an active and healthy life
Food insecurity
condition under which people live with chronic hunger and malnutrition that threatens their ability to lead healthy and productive lives
Desertification
conversion of range-land, rain fed cropland, or irrigated cropland to desert like land, with a drop in agricultural productivity. It's usually caused by a combination of overgrazing, soil erosion, prolonged drought, and climate change.
Aquaculture
growing and harvesting of fish and shellfish for human use in freshwater ponds, irrigation ditches, lakes, cages, or fenced in areas of coast lagoons and estuaries.
What five strategies could help farmers and consumers shift to more sustainable agriculture?
increasing research on more sustainable organic farming. Establishing education and training programs in more sustainable agriculture. Setting up an international fund to give farmers in poor countries access to forms of more sustainable agriculture. Replacing government subsidies for environmentally harmful forms of industrialized agriculture with subsidies that encourage more sustainable agriculture. Mounting a massive program to educate consumers about the true costs of the food they buy.
Irrigation
mix of methods used to supply water to crops by artificial means
Describe the role of organic farming and its role in making this shift.
n organic farming crops are grown with little or no use of synthetic pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or genetically engineered seeds. Livestock are raised without use of genetic engineering, synthetic growth regulators, or feed additives. Fields must be free of chemicals for 3 years before crops grown there can be certified as organic. Since 1990, organic farming has been the fastest growing sector of the agricultural economy.
Organic fertilizer
organic material such as animal manure, green manure, and compost applied to cropland as a source of plant nutrients
Green revolution
popular term for the introduction of scientifically bred or selected varieties of grain that with adequate inputs of fertilizers and water, can greatly increase crop yields
Industrialized agriculture
production of large quantities of crops and livestock for domestic and foreign sale
High input agriculture
production of large quantities of crops and livestock in domestic and foreign sale; involves use of large inputs of energy from fossil fuels, water, fertilizers, and pesticides
What is agrobiodiversity and how is it being affected by industrialized food production?
Agrobiodiversityis the world's genetic variety of animal and plant species used to provide food. Industrialized food production has led to a sharp decline in agrobiodiversity. Some estimate that the ¾ of all crop diversity has been lost since 1900.
Food Desert
An area characterized by a lack of affordable, fresh and nutritious food. They are found predominantly in low-income areas, although not everyone living in a food desert is poor. They can be in urban, suburban or rural communities.
Pesticides
Any chemicals designed to kill or inhibit the growth of an organism that people consider undesirable
How is artificial selection different from genetic engineering?
Artificial selection is choosing what's desirable after the facts while genetic engineering is when people physically change the DNA of the plant seed.
Explain how industrialized food production systems have caused losses in biodiversity.
Biodiversity is threatened when forests are cleared and grasslands are plowed up and replaced with croplands.
How are the diets of people in industrialized countries different than those in developing countries?
Both countries have malnutrition. Developing countries suffer from undernutrition while industrialized countries suffer from overnutrition. More meats in industrialized countries. More plants in developing countries.
Explain three of the benefits of buying locally grown food.
By buying locally, people support local economies, help reduce fossil fuel costs of producing food, and associated greenhouse gas emissions
polyculture
Complex form of inter cropping in which a large number of different plants maturing at different times are planted together
What are the two main approaches used by governments to influence food production?
Control prices. Use price controls to keep food prices artificially low. oProvide subsidies. Give farmers price supports, tax breaks, and other subsidies to keep them in business and to encourage them to increase food production.
What three systems supply most of the world's food?
Croplands produce mostly grains, rangelands, pastures, and feedlots produce meat, and fisheries and aquaculture provide us with seafood.
Slash and Burn agriculture
Cutting down trees and other vegetation in a patch of forest, leaving the cut vegetation on the ground to dry, and then burning it. The ashes that are left add nutrients to nutrient poor soils found in most tropical forest areas. crops are planted between tree stumps. Plots must be abandoned after a few years because of loss of fertility or invasion of vegetation from the surrounding forest
What is one example of a pest, the adverse effects it can have on agriculture or human health and a viable method of controlling the pest (other than the use of pesticides)?
Deer are a type of pest. They eat people's garden and eat plants and kill them. By using onion as a repellent, you can control this pest and lure them away from your garden.
Explain why industrialized food production requires large inputs of energy.
Energy is used in food production to run farm machinery, irrigate crops, and produce pesticides (mostly from petrochemicals) and commercial inorganic fertilizers. Fossil fuels are also used to process and transport food. This results in a net energy loss because it takes about 10 units of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy to put 1 unit of food energy on the table.
What are feedlots and CAFOs?
Feedlots and CAFOs are very crowded pens and cages where animals are raised for consumption.
seven alternatives to conventional pesticides.
Fool the pest. Provide homes for pest enemies.Use biological controls. Implant genetic resistance. Bring in natural enemies.Bring in the hormones.
Section 12-3. What is the key concept for this section?
Future food production may be limited by soil erosion and degradation, desertification, irrigation water shortages, air and water pollution, climate change, and loss of biodiversity.
How have governments used subsidies to influence food production and what have been some of their effects?
Governments give farmers price supports, tax breaks, and other financial support to keep them in business and to encourage them to increase food production. This can result in overproduction.
In terms of calories for consumption, is it more productive to use farmland for growing corn or letting cattle graze?
Growing Corn because there's more corn to feed a larger population.
Plantation agriculture
Growing specialized crops such as bananas, coffee, and cacao in tropical developing countries, primarily to sell to developed countries
Section 12-5.What is the key concept for this section?
Key concept: We can improve food security by reducing poverty and chronic malnutrition, relying more on locally grown food, and cutting food waste.
Section 12-4. What is the key concept for this section?
Key concept: 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).
Define organic agricultureand compare its main components with those of conventional industrialized agriculture.
Organic agriculture involves crops grown with the use of ecologically sound and sustainable methods. Organic agriculture differs from industrialized agriculture becauseit doesn't use synthetic pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, or genetically engineered plants.
ompare the benefits and harmful effects of industrialized meat production.
Producing meat by using feedlots and other confined animal production facilities increases meat production, reduces overgrazing, and yields higher profits. However, such systems use large amounts of energy and water and produce huge amounts of animal waste that sometimes pollutes surface water and groundwater and saturates the air with their odor.
Traditional subsistence agriculture
Production of enough crops or livestock for a farm family's survival
Traditional intensive agriculture
Production of enough food from a farm family's survival and a surplus that can be sold. This type of agriculture uses higher inputs of labor, fertilizer, and water than traditional subsistence agriculture
Integrated pest management (IPM)
combined use of biological, chemical, and cultivation methods in proper sequence and timing to keep the size of a pest population below the level that causes unacceptable losses of crops or livestock
Pests
unwanted organisms that directly or indirectly interfere with human activities
Describe two ways to make meat production and consumption more sustainable.
A more sustainable form of meat production and consumption involves shifting from less grain-efficient forms of animal protein, such as beef, pork, and carnivorous fish produced by aquaculture, to more grain-efficient forms, such as poultry and herbivorous farmed fish.Another approach is to find alternatives to growing grain to feed livestock. India's dairy Food, Soil, and Pest Management industry based mostly on feeding dairy cows roughage such as rice straw, wheat straw, corn stalks, and grass gathered from roadsides. Developing meat substitutes is an alternative.
Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of modern pesticides.
Advantages of conventional chemical pesticides include: save lives, increase food supplies, profitable, work fast, and safe if used properly. Disadvantages include: promote genetic resistance, kill natural pest enemies, pollute the environment, can harm wildlife and people, and are expensive for farmers.
Summarize industrialized agriculture's contribution to projected climate change.
Agricultural activities create a great deal of air pollution. They also account for more than a quarter of the human-generated emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, which are helping to warm the atmosphere
Salinization
Accumulation of salts in soil that can eventually make the soil unable to support plant growth
Compare the advantages and disadvantages of aquaculture.
Advantages of aquaculture include: high efficiency, high yield in small volume of water, can reduce overharvesting of fisheries, low fuel use, and high Food, Soil, and Pest Management profits. Disadvantages include: needs large inputs of land, feed, and water; large waste output; can destroy mangrove forests and estuaries; uses grain, fish meal, and fish oil to feed some species; and dense populations vulnerable to disease.
How are the health problems associated with developing countries different than those of a developed country?
In developing countries, they lack the technology and advanced medicine and sanitation. This leads to certain heart problems as well as infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. In developed countries, you rarely see diseases like that. Most people in developed countries suffer from diabetes because of the overnutrition. There are also a lot of health problems regarding obesity in developed countries because they have more choices and a variety of foods to chose from.
What is the best agriculture strategy to reduce the exposure of farmworkers and nearby residents to toxic chemicals?
Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Combined use of biological, chemical, and cultivation methods in proper sequence and timing to keep the size of a pest population below the size that causes economically unacceptable loss of a crop or livestock animal.
Define integrated pest management (IPM) and list its advantages.
Integrated Pest Management involves using a combination of cultivation, biological, and chemical tools and techniques to reduce crop damage to an economically tolerable level., When an economically damaging level of pests is reached, 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). Insecticides are used only as a last resort and in the smallest amounts possible.
What are the positive impacts of polyculture on the environment?
It allows for maximum use of land and constant upkeep which will keep the land healthier and not wasted.
Describe the effects of diet deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine.
Lack of vitamin A can cause children younger than age 6 to go blind each year and double chances of dying within a year. Having too little ironcauses anemia which results in fatigue, makes infection more likely, and increases a woman's chances of dying from hemorrhage in childbirth. Chronic lack of iodine prevents proper functioning of the thyroid gland, which produces hormones that control the body's rate of metabolism, and can cause stunted growth, mental retardation, and goiter—a swollen thyroid gland that can lead to deafness.
Explain the connection between feeding livestock and the formation of ocean dead zones?
Large amounts of manufactured inorganic fertilizers are used in the mid-western United States to produce corn for animal feed. Much of this fertilizer runs off cropland and eventually goes into the Mississippi River.The added nitrate and phosphate nutrients overfertilize coastal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, where the river flows into the ocean, creating a "dead zone."
Section 12-1 What are the two key concepts for this section?
Many people in less-developed countries have health problems from not getting enough food, while many people in more-developed countries suffer health problems from eating too much. The greatest obstacles to providing enough food for everyone are poverty, war, bad weather, climate change, and the harmful environmental effects of industrialized food production.
Define polyculture and summarize its benefits.
Many traditional farmers grow several crops on the same plot simultaneously, a practice known as polyculture. Polyculture reduces the chances of losing all of the year's food supply to pests, bad weather, or other misfortunes.
Describe the growth of industrialized meat production.
Meat production produced through an energy intensive industrialized system in which animals are raised mostly in densely packed feedlots and confined animal feeding operations where they are fed grain or meal produced from fish. For example,large numbers of cattle are brought to feedlots where they are fattened up for about four months before slaughter. Between 1961 and 2007, world meat production increased more than fourfold and average meat consumption per person more than doubled.
What are some ways to prevent and clean up soil salinization.
Methods for preventing soil salinization include: reduce irrigation and switch to salt-tolerant crops (such as barley, cotton, and sugar beet). Clean-up includes: flush soil (expensive and wastes water), stop growing crops for 2-5 years, and install underground drainage systems (expensive).
Soil conservation
Methods used to reduce soil erosion, prevent depletion of soil nutrients and restore nutrients previously lost by erosion, leaching, and excessive crop harvesting
Soil erosion
Movement of soil components, especially topsoil, from one place to another, usually by wind, flowing water, or both. This natural process can be greatly accelerated by human activities that remove vegetation form soil
What is overnutrition, and what are its harmful effects?
Overnutrition occurs when food energy intake exceeds energy use and causes excess body fat. Too many calories, too little exercise, or both can cause overnutrition. People who are underfed and underweight and those who are overfed and overweight face similar health problems: lower life expectancy, greater susceptibility to disease and illness, and lower productivity and life quality.
Compost
Partially decomposed organic plant and animal matter used as a soil conditioner or fertilizer
Distinguish between chronic undernutrition (hunger) and chronic malnutrition and describe their harmful effects.
People who cannot grow or buy enough food to meet their basic energy needs suffer from chronic undernutrition, or hunger. Many suffer from mental retardation or stunted growth or die prematurely from infectious diseases such as measles and diarrhea, which rarely kill children in developed countries. Many of the world's poor can afford only to live on a low-protein, high-carbohydrate, vegetarian diet consisting mainly of grains such as wheat, rice, or corn causing chronic malnutrition—deficiencies of protein and other key nutrients. This weakens them, makes them more vulnerable to disease, and hinders the normal physical and mental development of children.
What is the root cause of food insecurity?
Poverty Lack of food sources Population growth Natural disasters Food wastage
What is soil permeability?
The rate at which water and air move through the soil.
List the advantages and disadvantages of using genetic engineering in food production.
Projected advantages of genetically modified crops and foods include needing less fertilizer and less water; more resistant to insects, disease, frost, and drought; grow faster; can grow in slightly salty soils; may need less pesticides; tolerate higher levels of herbicides; higher yields; and less spoilage. Projected disadvantages include irreversible and unpredictable genetic and ecological effects, harmful toxins in food from possible plant cell mutations, new allergens in food, lower nutrition, increase in pesticide-resistant insects, herbicide-resistant weeds, and plant diseases, can harm beneficial insects, and lower genetic diversity.
Describe three ways to make aquaculture more sustainable?
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 products accordingly.
How are the 3 major components of soil (sand, silt & clay) different from one another?-
SAND: Has the biggest particle size and cannot retain any water. CLAY: small sized particle and can retain a lot of water. SILT: in between sand and clay. Can retain somewhat water.
How can the effects of soil salinization be remediated?
Salt can be drained from the soil by watering the crop with more water than it needs. This washes the salt away from the crops roots.
What are the components of soil that can affect the water-holding capacity?
Sand isn't able to absorb water which means it affects the water-holding capacity in the soil.
Waterlogging
Saturation of soil with irrigation water or excessive precipitation so that the water table rises close to the surface
Summarize the story of industrialized food production in the United States.
See Case Study: Industrialized Food Production in the United States.
Describe six ways to reduce topsoil erosion.
Soil conservation methods include: terracing, contour planting and strip cropping, alley cropping, windbreaks, cover crops, conservation tillage farming,no-till, and minimum-tillage farming.
Define soil and describe its formation and the major layers in mature soils.
Soil is a complex mixture of eroded rock, mineral nutrients, decaying organic matter, water, air, and billions of living organisms, most of them microscopic decomposers. Soil formation begins when bedrock is slowly broken down into fragments and particles by physical, chemical, and biological processes, called weathering.
What are 2 physical or chemical properties of soil and what role does each play in the determination of soil quality?
Soil's ability to retain water determines how much it should be used and watered. soil's nitrogen content determines what kind of plants should be grown there.
What are 2 viable strategies for reducing the amount of land needed for agriculture?
Terracing helps to use less land and reduces erosion as does the practice hydroponics, which is done by exposing plant's roots to a nutrient rich water solution instead of soil
What is the biggest problem resulting from excessive use of water for irrigation in agriculture?
The biggest problem with excessive irrigation is that it contributes to the depletion of groundwater and surface water supplies.
List two major benefits of high-yield modern agriculture?
The major advantages of modern agriculture are that large amounts of food are produced per unit area and prices are low.
Describe the second green revolution based on genetic engineering.
The second green revolution involves altering an organism's genetic material by adding, deleting, or changing segments of its DNA to produce desirable traits or to eliminate undesirable ones. It also allows for the transfer of genetic material between organisms that would not be able to interbreed in nature.
What factors can limit green revolutions?
There are several factors that have limited the success of the green revolutions to date and that may limit them in the future. Without huge inputs of fertilizer, pesticides, and water, most green revolution crop varieties produce yields that are no higher than those from traditional strains. These high inputs cost too much for most subsistence farmers in developing countries.
ummarize three important aspects of making a shift to more sustainable food production.
Three important aspects of shifting to more sustainable food production are that it would require less energy, would restore topsoil fertility and reduce erosion, and be more profitable for families while enhancing food security.
Distinguish between crossbreeding through artificial selection and genetic engineering.
Traditional crossbreeding is a slow process, typically taking 15 years or more to produce a commercially valuable new crop variety, and it can combine traits only from species that are genetically similar. Genetic engineering involves altering an organism's genetic material through adding, deleting, or changing segments of its DNA to produce desirable traits or to eliminate undesirable ones. It enables scientists to transfer genes between different species that would not interbreed in nature. The resulting organisms are called genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
How can urban farming help to increase food security?
Urban farming brings food closer to consumers, thereby increasing food security.
What are three important ways in which individual consumers can help to promote more sustainable agriculture?
Use organic farming to grow some of their own food. Buy certified organic food. Eat locally grown food.
Section 12-6.What is the key concept for this section?
We can produce food more sustainably by using resources more efficiently, sharply decreasing the harmful environmental effects of industrialized food production, and eliminating government subsidies that promote such harmful impacts.
How can we reduce desertification?
We can reduce desertification by reducing population growth, overgrazing, deforestation, and destructive methods of planting, irrigating, and mining, which have left much land vulnerable to desertification. We can also decrease the human contribution to global climate change.
List the advantages of relying more on organic polyculture and perennial crops.
When using perennial polyculture, there is no need to till soil each year and it reduces topsoil erosion. It reduces the need for irrigation because perennials use less water. There is little need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and thus no pollution from these sources.
Famine
Widespread malnutrition and starvation in a particular area because of a shortage of food
Hunger
a condition caused by lack of food
Over nutrition
diet so high in calories, saturated (animal) fats, salt, sugar, and processed foods, and so low in vegetables and fruits that the consumer runs a high risk of developing diabetes, hyper tension, heart disease, and other health hazards
What are possible strategies for ensuring adequate nutrition for a rapidly growing global population?
diversified crops, encouraging organics, ethical practices, use of efficient and natural fertilizers
Animal Manure
dung and urine of animals used as a form of organic fertilizer
Describe the system used by Jennifer Burney to help people grow crops in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. What are two other ways in which organizations are improving food security?
ennifer Burney advocates a system of solar irrigation and drip irrigation systems in Africa. Solar-powered pumps work without electricity. Organizations are improving food security by working to reduce population growth, buying food from small farmers to increase food security, and issuing small loans to help people start businesses and buy land.
Chronic malnutrition
faulty nutrition caused by a diet that does not supply and individual with enough protein, essential fats, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients needed for good health.
Hydroponics
form of agriculture in which farmers grow plants by exposing their roots to a nutrient rich water solution instead of soil
Green manure
freshly cut or still growing green vegetation that is plowed into the soil to increase the organic matter and humus available to support crop growth