Chapter 10: Agriculture, Biotechnology, and the Future of Food

Malnutrition

A shortage of nutrients the body needs occurs when a person fails to obtain a complete complement of vitamins and minerals. Millions of children suffer from forms of this, such as Kwashiorkor and Marasmus.

Summarize pathways to sustainable agriculture

A verity of approaches, from biotechnology to organic agriculture, gives us a way to pursue sustainable agriculture. Locally supported agriculture as shown by farmers markets and community supported agriculture is growing in popularity. Mimicking natural ecosystems is a key approach to making agriculture sustainable.

Feedlots

Also known as factory farms or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), are essentially huge warehouses or pends designed to deliver energy.-rich food to animals living at extremely high densities. Most meat eaten in the United States comes from animals raised here.

Biofuels

Are rules derived from organic materials and sued in internal combustion engines as replacements for petroleum.

Integrated pest management (IPM)

Incorporates numerous techniques, including biocontrol, use of chemicals when needed, close monitoring of populations, habitat alteration, crop rotation, transgenic crops, alternative tillage methods, and mechanic pest removal. When Indonesia signed onto this idea in 1968, pesticide production and imports were reduced, pesticide subsidies were phased out, and yields of rice increased.

Discuss the importance of pollination

Insects and the organisms are essential for the production of many crop plants. Conservation of pollinating insects is vitally important to our food security.

Seed banks

Institutions that preserve seed types as a kind of living museum of genetic diversity. The "doomsday seed vault" in arctic Norway is a safeguard for the genetic diversity of crops plants as insurance against global agricultural catastrophe.

Recombinant DNA

Is DNA that has been patched together form the DNA of multiple organisms.

Sustainable agriculture

Is agriculture that does not deplete soils faster than they from.

Pest

Is any organism that damages crops that are valuable to us.

Weed

Is any plant that competes with our crops.

Food security

The guarantee of an adequate, safe, nutritious, and reliable food supply available to all people at all times. Food has become less costly over the past half century, but the prices have been rising since 2002.

Precautionary principle

The idea that one should not undertake a new action until the ramifications of the action are well understood.

Monocultures

The planting of crops in large expanses of single type crops, making planting and harvesting more efficient and thereby increase output but they are susceptible to outbreaks of pests.

Describe approaches for preserving crop diversity

The protecting diversity of at failure of major crops crib varieties provides insurance again the failure of major crops. Seed banks preserve rare and local varieties of seed, acting as storehouses for genetic diversity.

Landraces

A center of biodiversity with many locally adapted domestic varieties.

Life-cycle analysis

A quantitative analysis of the inputs and outputs across all stages of an item's production, transport, sale, and use.

Access how we raise animals for food

As wealth increased, so has consumption of animal products. Eating animal products leaves a greater ecological footprint than eating plant products. Feedlots create waste and pollution, but they also relieve pressure on lands that could otherwise be overgrazed. Aquaculture provides economic benefits and food security relieves pressure on wild fish stocks, and can be sustainable. Aquaculture also gives rise to pollution, habitat loss, and other environmental impacts.

Biological control

Biocontrol operates on the principle that "the enemy of one's enemy is one's friend." In the 1920's Argentina introduced the cats moth to control invasive picky pear catch from contenting to overrun the rangeland and within a few years, the moth had managed to free millions of hectares of rangeland from the cactus.

Farmers market

Consumers buy meats and fresh fruits and vegetables in season from local producers.

Community-supported agriculture (CSA)

Consumers pay farmers in advance for a share of their yield, usually a weekly delivery of produce.

Organic agriculture

Food growing practices that sue no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides and just relies on the biological approaches such s composting and biocontrol. Look for the USDA organic logo to ascertain whether a product is certified organic under the National Organic program.

Describe the science behind genetic engineering

Genetic modification uses recombinant DNA technology to move genes to desirable traits from one type of organism to another. Genetic engineering is both like and unlike traditional selective breeding. GM foods have spread rapidly and now account fro a large portion of our food supply. Biotech crops can offer benefits for sustainable agriculture, although these have not reached their potential. GM crops can have ecological impacts, including the spread of transgenes and an increase in herbicide pollution.

Norman Borlaug

Helped launch the green revolution by introducing Mexico's farmers to a specially bred type of wheat.

Genetic engineering

Is any process whereby scientists extract genes from the DNA of one organisms and transfer them into the DNA of another.

Pollination

Is the process by which male sex cells of a plant (pollen) fertilize female sex cells of a plant (ova, or egg cells); it is the botanical version of sexual intercourse. Beekeepers bring hives of honey bees to farmers' crops when it is time for flowers to be pollinated.

Evaluate the public debate over genetically modified food

Many people have ethical qualms about altering food through genetic engineering. Development of biotech foods has been controlled by multinational biotechnology corporations, which many critics view as a threat to the independence of small farmers. The debate continues over whether to label GM foods in the marketplace.

Ethanol

Nade from corn is the primary biofuel.

Analyze the nature, growth, and potential of organic agriculture

Organic agriculture, because it reduces chemical and fossil fuels inputs, exerts fewer environmental impacts than industrial agriculture. Scientific studies show that organic agriculture is productive and is a realistic alternative to industrial agriculture. Organic agriculture compromises a small part of the market but is growing rapidly.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

Organisms genetically engineered.

Explain the challenge of feeding a growing human population

Our food production has out paced our population growth, yet 870 million people still go hungry each year. Undernutrition, over nutrition, and malnutrition are all challenges to a goal of food security. Growing crops for biofuels can result in food shortages and pice increase. There are a a variety of ways we can work toward sustainable agriculture. city in delving narration

Undernutrition

Receiving fewer calories than the minimum dietary energy requirement. the number and the percentage of people in the developing world who suffer this have each been declining.

Over nutrition

Receiving too many calories each day.

Identify the goals, methods and consequences of the green revolution

The Green revolution aimed to enhance agricultural productivity in developing nations. Scientists used selective breeding to develop crop strains that grew quickly, were more nutritious, or were resistant to disease or drought. The increased efficiently of production fed more people while reducing the amount of natural land converted for farming. The expanded use of fossil fuels, chemical fertilizer, and synthetic pesticides enhanced yields but has also increased pollution and soil degradation.

Biotechnology

The application of biological science to create products derived from organisms represents another.

Calculating Ecological Footprints

The average person can reduce his or her ecological footprint more effectively by shifting dietary choices (such as eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat and dairy) than by eating locally sourced food. 83% of emissions come from production of farm or feedlot.

Aquaculture

The cultivation of aquatic animals for food in a controlled environment. This involves many types of fish, but also a wide diversity of other marine and freshwater organisms.

Green revolution

The desire for greater quantity and quality of food for our growing population led in the mid and late 20th century, when agricultural scientists devised methods and technologies to increase crop outpour unit area of existing cultivated land.

Transgenes

The genes engineered and moved into these transgenic plants, may have unintended consequences.

Natural selection

Through this process, crop pests often evolve resistance to the positions we apply to kill them.

Pesticides

We have developed thousands of chemicals to kill insects (insecticides), plants (herbicides), and fungi (fungicides).

Explore strategies for pest management

We kill pests and weeds with synthetic chemicals that can pollinate the environment and pose health hazards. pests can evolve resistance to pesticides leading us to design more toxic poisons. The practice of biological control employs natural enemies of pests against them. Integrated pest management combines various techniques and minimizes the use of synthetic chemicals.