-
List 4 characteristics of "sustainable food" according to Sustain (GDPS)
- · Good quality food
- · Doesn’t contribute to climate change
- · Protects diversity of plants/animals
- · Safe and healthy products
-
What is the case made by researchers who argue that Wal-Mart is actually helpful in the fight against
obesity?
According to Thomas deGregori, what was the defining characteristic of Julia Child's life?
What is Heritage Agriculture, what were the main challenges to make the program successful and how are these tackled?
· Fresh produce of good quality is cheap at Wal-Mart so people of poor communities are able to afford more produce, fruits and vegetables
· Julia Child’s life democratized what had been the historic province and exclusive privilege of a tiny elite, by writing a French Cookbook, she allowed many people to participate in haute cuisine
· Heritage Agriculture is a program launched by Walk-Mart to support local food farmers and women and minority owned suppliers
- · Obstacles faced were how much a relatively small farmer can grow and how reliably, given short growing seasons; how to charge a competitive price when the
- farmer’s expenses are so much higher than those of industrial farms
· Wal-Mart is working with various non-profit Agricultural and University networks to solve these problems, by working to get more locally grown food into grocery stores by streamlining and centralizing distribution for farms with limited growing seasons, limited production, and limited transportation resources.
- · Cutting out a middleman allows Wal-Mart
- to obtain the food directly from smaller farms and sell them at a lower price, and local farmers drive their produce over to Wal-Mart warehouses
-
Give a basic definition of horticulture.
Why does much seed production destined to the US market take place in tropical countries?
According to the historian Alfred Crosby, what was the significance of the Columbian Exchange?
Why is the fact that many Old World crops flourished in the New World more than just coincidence?
- · Horticulture is the cultivating of crops (such as
- plants, vegetables)
Transfer of food crops expanded the global supply of agricultural goods. Seeds that are imported are cheaper and more available than in the US
- · The Columbian Exchange was a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres
- (Old World and New World). The Columbian Exchange greatly affected almost every society on Earth. New diseases introduced by Europeans, to which the indigenous peoples of the Americas had
- no immunity, depopulated many cultures.
- · due to east-west orientation of continents found in both the old and new world, New World plants were able to find old world climates similar to their native
- climate
-
List four traditional ways of preserving food.
What are the three (3) main characteristics of marketing contracts? Why did this kind of vertical coordination emerge over time?
- · Freezing
- · Salting
- · Drying
- · Pickling
- · The three main purposes of marketing contracts:
- o To enable hedgers to shift price risk- asset price volatility- to speculators in return for basic risk- changes in the difference between a future price of the
- cash or current shot prices of the underlying asset.
- o To facilitate firms’ acquisitions of operating capital
- o To provide information to decision makers regarding market’s expectations of future economic events.
- · This kind of vertical production emerged over time because of:
- o The synchronization of successive stages of production and marketing with respect to quantity , quality and timing of product flow
- o Prescheduled prices, quantities and time of delivery.
- o Commodity buyer
- o Sets input specifications
- o Often provide inputs
-
List briefly the main biochemical and mechanical innovations associated with the Green Revolution, along with their main consequences
- · Biochemical innovations:
- Hybrid seed selection, increased yields, weeds and pests controlled, use of fertilizer
- · Biochemical consequences:
- Possible environmental degradation, increased use of herbicides and pesticides
- · Mechanical innovations:
- diesel and electric pump-powered
-
What are the main long-standing and more recent goals of sugarcane breeders?
How did sugar cane breeders facilitate the mechanization of harvesting sugarcane?
Why must sugarcane stems be processed quickly?
- · The long standing goals are: resistance to disease,
- insects, animal pests; suitability to different edaphic and climatic conditions; better ratooning; and high sucrose content.
· Recent goals include canes being tolerant of herbicides
· The mechanization of harvesting has been made easier by the breeding of varieties that achieve uniform height and stand erect. The machines can cut and top (remove the inflorescence) with little waste.
· Breeding has not been able to alter the fact that stems of cane are perishable and, once cut, must be milled quickly to avoid loss of juice and, hence, of sucrose and revenues
-
What have been the main trends in recent years
in terms of grain and horticultural crops?
How significant have the latter become compared to the former?
Where has most of this growth taken place?
main trends
-Since the ‘Green Revolution, vastly more resources have been channeled into the development and improvement of cereal grains compared to horticultural crops
- Productivity increases in horticultural crops have been much smaller as compared to rice, wheat or maize
- -Yet, farmers all over the world find it profitable to
- diversify into horticultural crops, and worldwide production of horticultural crops has grown faster than that of cereal crops
– On global level, the value of all fruits and vegetables traded is more than double of the value of all cereals traded
- - Demand for horticultural produce is rising, both in domestic and international markets. In developed
- countries, a desire for year-round availability and increased diversity of foods, as well as a growing awareness of the relationship between diet and
- health, all contribute to the increased consumption of these commodities
- Many consumers today purchase a broad range of relatively expensive commodities such as off season produce, exotic fruits and vegetables, and organic produce
- Increasing participation of women in the labor market of developed economies has created demand for processed, ready-to-eat convenience products, including cut fruit and salad mixes.
- Developing countries are taking advantage of this trend, and over the past decade the increase of their processed food exports has exceeded that from the developed regions
- The growth has occurred primarily in Latin America and China.
-
What is the main Canadian contribution to the oilseed industry?
Where are most Canadian sunflowers grown?
What are the main obstacles that Southern American soy producers have had to contend with?
Which soybean variety is credited with significantly extending the range of soybean production in Ontario?
Why and how do soybeans need to be processed before being fed to animals?
What other alternative approach to using soybeans as
animal food is currently being examined?
The main oilseed contributions are soybeans (used for animal and human food), rapeseed (canola), sunflowers, and flax.
Most Canadian sunflowers are grown in southern Manitoba.
The main obstacles that Southern American soy producers have had to contend with are poor raid/rail infrastructure, economic instability and environmental concerns.
Soybean yields are high in Ontario because the growing seasons are long, and have relatively favourable mositure conditions
"Maple" series of soybeans allowed for Ontario soybean variety to expand.
Soybeans must be processed before being fed to animals because in their raw state, the contain enzymes (known as tripsin inhibitors)that limit the body's ability to use the bean's protein. These enzymes are destroyed by roasting or processing, and are then turned into animal feed.
The alternative to using the current type of soybeans in feed is to produce a high protein, low oil variety soybean specific for animal feed.
-
Why has the last stage of sugar refining historically taken place close to final markets as opposed to production area?
Why is this still typically the case today?
- Close to final markets in the
- past because:
- *transport in leaky sailing ships meant rick of contamination from sea water, crystals coalesced in voyage across tropical seas and lack of fuel in cane growing regions
- still the case today:
- *refineries not limited by harvests; can operate year round by buying supplies from producers worldwide according to season and price
*can also refine beet sugar
*close to known markets
-
Why has the last stage of sugar refining historically taken place close to final markets as opposed to production area?
Why is this still typically the case today?
Historically, transportation was limited, and so the final stages of production took place close to the market.
For example, one common method of transportation (historically) were ships. However, they led to contamination from sea water, coalesced crystals in the voyage across tropical seas, and it was generally difficult because there was a lack of fuel in cane growing regions.
Today, refineries are not limited by harvests; they can operate year round by buying supplies from global producers.
The final stages of production still occur to the markets because they have a trump card; they are close to and know their markets, and can create demand as well as deliver what the market wants
-
What historically happened to the by-products of
sugarcane refining?
What are the basic conditions required to harvest maple sap?
The by-products of sugar include molasses, bagasse, and filter mud. The uses of molasses include: cooking (some is exported too), animal feed (either directly or mixed with other foods), industrial alcohol, citric acid, yeast, and alcoholic beverages (high quality).
The uses of bagasse (the dried cane pulp after juice is extracted) are: fuel, filterboard, paper, and plastics.
- The uses of filter mud (the remnants after cane juice is clarified) are:
- fertilizer, and crude wax.
- The basic conditions for harvesting maple sap are
- temperature (must go from freezing to thawed in a short span of time), or else the sap will not flow properly.
-
What are the general pros and cons of eating
meat versus plant food?
- Pros:
- *less toxic
- *concentrated source of nutrients
- (lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, calories, high quality proteins and fats)
- *most digestible plants deficient in essential amino acids and vitamins (such as vitamin B)
- *Most plants are more tedious to
- prepare
- Cons:
- *animals can run away/fight back
- *spoils more quickly
- *contains dangerous parasites
-
What are the general pros and cons of eating meat versus plant food?
Many health benefits come from eating meat that cannot be compared to plant food:
*high quality proteins
*you get nutrients you can’t obtain from a vegan diet
*contains all essential amino acids that the body needs
*red meat contains very high quantities of iron
*phosphorous content present in meats is more easily absorbed than from cereals or legumes
- disadvantages:
- *does not contain any kind of fibre (helps with your digestive system) can only be found in plant food
*high in saturated fats
*preserved meat are very high in fats, salts, nitrites and nitrates
*since meats are high on the food chain, they tend to concentrate toxins, antibiotics and other chemicals that are found in animal feed
-
What are the main characteristics of modern industrial livestock production?
- Main characteristics are:
- *raising similar animals in close proximity
*Standardized feed for rapid weight gain and uniformity
*Low level of non-therapeutic antibiotics and growth hormones to stimulate growth and improve production and performance.
*Genetic selection to accelerate desirable traits to create uniform meat products
*Mechanization of feeding, watering and other husbandry activities.
-
What are the main characteristics of modern industrial livestock production?
* “intensive farming” à large numbers of concentrated animals confined in enormous operations
*animals can be raised indoors
*fewer producers
*large numbers of animals of the same species in relatively small areas
- *generally in enclosed facilities that restrict movement à the waste produced by the animals is eliminated
- through liquid systems and stored in open pit lagoons
*economic power is in the hands of the large companies that process and sell the animal products instead of the individuals who raise the animals.
*“open market” for animal products has completely disappeared therefore the farmers only have one buyer to sell to and one price to be received.
*standardized feed is given to animals for food, for rapid weight gain and uniformity: genetic selection so animals are more lean, and meat products are uniformed.
*high speed of production
-
List 5 advantages of domesticating (as opposed
to hunting) animals.
- Advantages:
- *Edible garburators (organic waste and surplus food crops)
*Insurance against crop failure (reliability)
*Convenience
*Transportation
*Manure
*Traction power/tongue
*Milk
-
List 5 advantages of domesticating (as opposed
to hunting) animals.
1. Large scale food production
2. You get by-products from domesticated animals (i.e. eggs from chickens, milk and cheese from cows) that would not get if you simply killed them.
3. To make money, by buying and selling products, animals, etc.
4. Use animals in farming and other work and transportation, such as horse drawn carriages, mule wagons, etc.
5. Livestock are easily controlled; they have many uses and easily bred. They are easily traded for services, goods and cash.
-
kinds; surplus crops from sweet potatoes to barley; whey)
-(later) speed of reproduction- facilitates breeding
-Cons: -- low ability to do well on cellulose alone (monogastric)
-no primary non meat uses -no dairy products, source of power- (traction) or transportation
-manure difficult to collect, less- valuable than sheep and horse
- -pigs couldn’t travel well because of shorter legs; they
- lose more weight by travelling, more troublesome
-
What were the three main different environments
in which pigs used to be raised?
What is pannage?
What were historically the main advantages (list 4) and
disadvantages of keeping pigs as opposed to ruminants?
- Three main environments:
- 1. Small-scale outdoor enclosures (sty, parlors, pig parlors)
- 2. Factory farms
- 3. Raised outdoors in fields or yards
Pannage: The practice of turning out domestic pigs in a wood or forest, in order that they may feed on fallen acorns, beechmast, chestnuts or other nuts.
- Advantages of keeping pigs:
- 1. Nearly all of the pig is valuable meat
- 2. They are highly adaptable (graze everywhere)
- 3. Do not take up as much space as other animals
- 4. Pigs convert scraps into quality manure and meat – best for organic farming
- Disadvantages of keeping pigs:
- 1. Carry a lot of diseases that can be transferred to humans
- 2. A lot of maintenance.
- 3. Pigs are omnivores unlike other ruminants
- 4. One germ can wipe out thousands of pigs – high potency waste
-
What were the three main different environments in which pigs used to be raised?
What is pannage?
What were historically the main advantages (list 4) and disadvantages of keeping pigs as opposed to ruminants?
- Environments in which pigs used to be raised:
- forests, farms, cities
- Pannage:
- pasturing in a forest eating nuts from forest floors such as acorns.
Main advantages of keeping pigs as opposed to ruminants
- *Prolific ( 4 month gestation period avg
- litter 10 piglets, sometimes up to 30, on avg 100 female piglets for 2 female
- calves).
- *Semi-wild foraging pigs could fend off
- predators (even wolvers)
*Rapid growth (high conversion ratio)
- *Omnivorous (organic waste of all kinds
- surplus crops from sweet potatoes to barley, whey)
- *Later( speed of reproduction facilitates
- breeding
Disadvantages:
*Low ability to do well on cellulose alone (monogastric)
*No primary nonmeat uses: no dairy products, source of power (traction) or transportation, manure difficult to collect, less vulnerable than sheep and horse
*Before motorized transportation, didn’t travel well (short legs, lost more weight, more troublesome)
- *Modern (leaner) pigs, use to be fat
- before
*Dominant breeds: Hampshire
-
What were the main improvements that took place
in dairy production in North American during the 19th century?
- main improvements were:
- *introduction and improvements in dairy breeds
- *year-round (improved) feeding and milking
- *creation of pastures, increased fodder production
- *better feeding systems, silos, barns
- *improvements in production methods (pasteurization, Babcock test for milk fat content, TB detection tests.
-
What were the main improvements that took place
in dairy production in North American during the 19th century?
**Prior to the 19th century, the milking of the cows was done by hand. The first milking machines were an extension of the traditional milking pail. The early milker device fit on top of a regular milk pail and sat on the floor under the cow. Following each cow being milked, the bucket would be dumped into a holding tank. This developed into the Surge hanging milker
** The main method of milk preservation was cool temperature to extend milk freshness. Before, windmills were used. However a major improvement during the 19th century was the invention of electricity and refrigeration. Initially, cans of milk were cooled which were filled by hand milking.
**More automated methods were developed for harvesting milk and therefore milkhad to be cooled in bulk. 'Ice banks' were the first type of bulk milk cooler. This was a double wall vessel with evaporator coils and water located between the walls at the bottom and sides of the tank.
-
What are "broilers"?
Why was the practice of keeping them indoors developed?
What are "layers"?
Why are they typically kept in cages?
*A broiler is a type of chicken raised specifically for meat production
- broilers were kept indoor to
- *reduce losses of animals to predators
- *reduce exposure to harsh weather (and resulting diseases)
- *reduce exposure to diseases of wild animals
- layers are chicken that are specifically raised for laying eggs
- *they are kept in cages to prevent cannibalism, fighting and increases in diseases.
-
What are "broilers"?
Why was the practice of keeping them indoors developed?
What are "layers"?
Why they are typically kept in cages?
Broilers: indoor confinement
Indoors developed: to reduce
- *Losses of animal to predators
- *Exposure to harsh weather and resulting
- disease
- *Exposure to diseases of wild animals
Layers: chickens that produce eggs
Kept in cages: to prevent cannibalism, fighting, increase in diseases
-
What are the main arguments put forward against
keeping livestock?
- main arguments are:
- *livestock covers and degrades large areas
* contributes to 18% Green house gas emissions (>transport)
*8% water use (feed production)
- *most rapid increases in monogastric
- species (pigs, poultry), leads to more feed
- *industrialization:
- --hurts smallholders, pastoralists and rural economies
- --“industrial” diseases (animals and environments)
- --concentrates pollution
-
What are the main arguments put forward against keeping livestock?
- *Covers and degrades large areas
- *18% GGE (>transport)
- * 8% water use (feed production)
- * Most rapid increase is in monogastric species (pigs,
- poultry) increase feed
- -Industrialization:
- * hurts smallholders, pastoralists and rural economies
- --Concentrates pollution
- --Industrial diseases (animals and environment)
-
List and discuss briefly three (3) solutions or
approaches put forward by Carl Safina to improve the state of the world's fisheries
3 approaches are:
- a) Area-based fisheries. Although this concept may be relatively new in Western fisheries management, it has underpinned the management of fishing in Pacific
- islands for millennia. In practice, this approach is most applicable where fishpopulations spawn in localized areas and do not migrate far from their spawning
- area. This model holds promise for greater use with various fish species as well. In New England waters, cod once spawned in many local populations, many of which are now extinct. Overall regional quotas and
- regional mobility of boats contributed to their extinction. Had managers established local area-based restrictions, these populations might well have been saved, to the benefit of local communities.
b) Closed areas. In recent years, fisheries managers have decided that some stocks are so threatened that the only choice is to close all or part of their habitat to fishing. Such efforts are to be applauded, although they have been too few and too limited in scale to achieve major success. Still, the lessons are instructive, as closures have been found to result in increases in fish populations, in the size of individual fish, and in greater diversity of species.
c) Mixed zoning. A comprehensive zoning program should designate a mix of areas, including areas that are entirely open to any kind of fishing at any time, areas that are closed to fishers using mobile gear, areas that are closed to fishers using gear that drags along the seafloor, areas that are closed in some seasons, and areas that are fully protected no-take zones. Such integrated zoning would better protect sensitive seafloor habitats and aquatic nursery areas from the kinds of activities that hurt those areas, while allowing harmless activities to proceed.
-
What are the main problems in terms of irrigating land
in dry climates?
What are the main ways around that problem?
- Main ways around:
- a) lot of good quality water is applied
b) drainage is rapid and efficient
c) soils need large infusion of fertilizer (to balance the flushing required to keep them salt-free)
-
What is Rinderspest?
List four (4) of its common signs or symptoms.
List four (4) ways of dealing with it in the more distant or
more recent past.
*Rinderspest is the German word for cattle disease/plague
- *4 common symptoms are:
- --dehydration
- --diarrhea
- --discharge from the nose and eyes
- --fever
- *4 solutions are:
- --quarantine
- --slaughtering
- --burial of bodies in lime
- --restrictions in movement
-
Why did seed producers emerge historically?
What were their main advantages?
(List four (4) factors in each case.)
- historically
- **Emerged from best farmers and grain merchants
- **vegetable seeds (time consuming to prepare)
- **fodder crops harvested before seed maturation (alfalfa, sorghum)
- **hybridization technologies (seeds do not “breed true”
- their main advantages were:
- **new and improved varieties (selection, hybridization etc)
- **storage (protection and availability on demand)
- **treatment (chemical protection against fungus and bacteria)
- **production in better region (outsourcing and quality)
- **marketing
-
List four (4) traditional ways of fighting
agricultural pests other than pesticides.
What were the three main traditional ways of supplying nitrogen (N) to crops?
What were historically the tree best types of manure and why?
What were the main problems of two other common types of manure?
- 4 traditional ways to fight pests are:
- *rotating crop
- *crop diversity pattern
- *utilizing natural forage and trees
- *encouraging pests natural enemies (insects, spiders)
- 3 traditional ways of supplying nitrogen to crops are:
- a)-recycling of organic waste
- -crop residues (mostly straw)
- -animal and human wastes
b)-rotations including Nitrogen fixing leguminous grains (beans, peas, lentils, soybeans)
c)-leguminous cover crops ploughed under (green manures), mostly 2 clover genera and vetches
- 3 best types of manure were:
- poultry, sheep and horse.
- *Because they were dry and decomposed quickly,
- releasing nutrients to soil.
- problems with two other common types were:
- a) pigs manure was uneven and difficult to collect
- b) cattle manure contained least plant food per ton and releases its nutrients slowly
-
According to Richard Cowen, what is guano?
Why was it so valuable to agricultural producers?
What kind of geographical and biological
environment is conducive to its formation?
Where is / was it mostly found?
Guano is accumulated bird dung
*It was valuable because as it accumulates and dries, it becomes a dense organic material that is very rich in nitrate and phosphate.
- *It can accumulate only in areas with dense bird populations and little rain, but in those special environments it can eventually form deposits many feet thick. Around the world, guano deposits are usually found on dry oceanic islands lying in the middle of
- oceanic upwelling regions that support very rich fisheries
*Around the world, the most productive guano islands have been along the equatorial upwelling zone, especially in the Pacific, and in the great cold currents of the world: the Humboldt current off South America and the Agulhas current off South Africa.
-
According to Richard Cowen, what is guano?
Why was it so valuable to agricultural producers?
What kind of geographical and biological
environment is conducive to its formation?
Where is / was it mostly found?
Guano is accumulated bird dung.
It is only accumulated in areas with dense bird populations, and little rain. As it dries it becomes a dense organic material that is very rich in nitrate and phosphate.
- Guano deposits are commonly found on dry oceanic
- islands lying in the middle of oceanic upwelling regions that support very rich fisheries.
- Around the world, the most productive guano islands have been along the equatorial upwelling zone, especially in the Pacific, and in the great cold
- currents of the world: the Humboldt current off South America and the Agulhas current off South Africa
-
What are the raw materials used in the most modern version of the Haber-Bosch process?
In 2000, how much ammonia per week was produced worldwide through this process?
Which country produced the most?
How much more useful nitrogen do current Haber-Bosch converters produce compared to the first plants built during World War I?
The raw materials used in the modern version of Haber-Bosch process are, hydrogen and nitrogen.
- In the year 2000, Haber–Bosch synthesis worldwide produced about 2 million tons of ammonia a week. For the 6 billion of us to be fed now, Haber– Bosch synthesis provides more than 99 percent of all
- inorganic nitrogen inputs to farms.
- The country that produced the most was China. The
- biggest single Haber–Bosch converters today produce 30 times as much useful nitrogen as did those of World War I.
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-
-
- A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances - intended for:
· preventing, · destroying, · repelling, or · mitigating any pest. Though often misunderstood to- refer only to insecticides, the term pesticide also applies to herbicides,
- fungicides, and various other substances used to control pests.
- - Critics also worry that the
- hybrid seeds won't grow without fertilizer and chemicals, which the peasant
- farmers can't afford. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hybrid seeds
- will increase yields over open-pollinated seeds, whether purchased fertilizer
- is applied or not. This is why U.S. farmers adopted hybrids a generation before
- the widespread availability of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
-
According to the US EPA, what is a pesticide
and how does it differ from an insecticide?
What are Combi-Packs and what are their main advantages?
Why does Blake Hurst dismiss the argument that hybrid seeds won’t grow without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers?
- A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances intended for: preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pests. Under United States law, a pesticide is also any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator,
- defoliant, or desiccant. Pesticides are often
- misunderstood to refer only to insecticides, however pesticides can also apply to herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, molluscicides and various other substances used to control pests.
- Hursts dismisses the argument that hybrid seeds won because Hybrid seeds don't breed true (reproduce their characteristics faithfully in their offspring) so farmers usually purchase them each year rather than save their seed and risk a worse crop from the
- offspring. Hybrids will germinate, however, and
- the farmer can save the seed if he wants to (not only that, but the seeds have been treated with chemicals to protect them against bacterial disease and fungus, improving germination). This fact undermines the outlandish claims made by the peasant groups and their supporters.
- According to the critics, purchasing seed is very bad because it might provide a market for seed companies. Supporters of food sovereignty believe farmers ought not buy supplies, but be totally
- self-sustaining. Importing productive seeds will lead directly to the kind of "industrial" farming found in the United States. Next thing you know, those Haitian
- farmers will drive gas guzzling, four-wheel-drive
- pickups and lust after John Deere tractors.
- Critics also worry that the hybrid seeds won't
- grow without fertilizer and chemicals, which the peasant farmers can't afford. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hybrid seeds will increase yields over open-pollinated seeds, whether purchased fertilizer is
- applied or not. This is why U.S. farmers adopted
- hybrids a generation before the widespread availability of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Having said that, an increase in the use of purchased fertilizers by
- Haitian agriculture would increase output. When people are starving, that is a worthwhile goal.
-
What is plasticulture?
What are its main benefits?
What are the two main advantages of using plastics for storing grain or silage as opposed to conventional silos?
Plasticulture is the use of plastic in Agriculture
- the main benefits are:
- **improving productivity
- **shortening growing season
- **facilitating crop cultivation in non-traditional growing areas
- **providing new storage systems for forages and grain crops
- two main advantages are:
- **much lower construction costs
- **no insurance costs
-
What is plasticulture?
What are its main benefits?
What are the two main advantages of using plastics for
storing grain or silage as opposed to conventional silos?
- Plasticulture is the use of plastic in agriculture.
- It improves
- productivity, shortening growing season, and facilitates crop cultivation in
- non traditional growing areas.
- The two main advantages of using plastics for
- storing grain or silage as opposed to conventional silos is much lover
- construction costs and no insurance costs
- Plasticulture is the use of plastic in agriculture. It improves
- productivity,
- shortening growing season, and facilitates crop
- cultivation in non traditional growing
- areas. The two main advantages of using plastics
- for storing grain or silage as opposed
- to conventional silos is much lover construction
- costs and no insurance costs
-
According to your professors, what are food
additives?
What are their main uses?
What are the two basic options available to organic beef producers who have sick animals that could be treated with antibiotics but whose meat is not supposed to contain antibiotics?
How do some European organic meat producers get around this?
*food additives are ingredient used at less than perhaps 1% of a food
- main uses are:
- **flavoring and coloring ingredients (majority)
- **extend range and flexibility of food processes while reducing their costs of producing
- -two basic options are:
- **Allow their animals to remain sick or die from treatable illnesses
- **administer antibiotics to their animals and then sell them as non-organic
**in Europe, organic producers are allowed to use antibiotics, but must double “withholding” period after their use.
-
According to your professors, what are food additives?
What are their main uses?
What are the two basic options available to organic beef producers who have sick animals that could be
treated with antibiotics but whose meat is not supposed to contain antibiotics?
How do some European organic meat producers get around this?
· Food additives; ingriedeint used at less than perhaps 1% of food
· Uses; flavouring/colouring ingridents, extend range/flexibility of food process while reducing their cost
- Health benefits:
- **Fortifications (flour, milk, sugar, salt): organic food doesn’t contrain any vitamin but other conventional food does have vitamin
**Non-nutrient sweetners (seccharin, aspartame): diabetes, obesity , dental decay(chewing gum, mouth wash)
- Options available to organic beef producers:
- *Organic producers don’t use antibiotics:
1)Allow their animals to remain sick/die from treatable diseases
2)Ad minister antibiotics to their animals and then sell them as non-orgainc
- · In Europe organic producers allowed to use antibiotics bot much double
- with holding period adter their use
-
According to your professors, what are food additives?
What are their main uses?
What are the two basic options available to organic beef producers who have sick animals that could betreated with antibiotics but whose meat is not supposed to contain antibiotics?
How do some European organic meat producers get around this?
- Food Additives: (standard definition- prof’s
- wording) are ingredients used at less than perhaps 1% of a food. (Better wording: ingredients that make
- up less than 1% of a food item). There are approximately 2200 food additives. They are mainly used as (1) flavouring and colouring ingredients (majority of them are), (2) extending range and flexibility of food processes while reducing their costs. Health benefits of food additives include (1) fortification (flour, milk, sugar and salt) and (2)
- Non nutritive sweetness (saccharin, aspartame and accesulfamek) therefore consumption cannot lead to diabetes, obesity and dental decay (chewing gum
- and mouth wash).
Two basic options available to organic beef producers that have sick animals but their meat is not supposed to contain antibiotics are to: (1) allow their animals to remain sick or die from treatable illnesses, (2) administer antibiotics to their animals and sell them as non-organic.
- In Europe, organic producers are allowed to use
- antibiotics, but must double “with holding” period after their use. (i.e. Animals cannot be cut for meat for double the duration than it normally would if they didn’t take antibiotics).
-
Describe concisely the three (3) main waves of
soil erosion in human history according to McNeill and Winiwarter
*The first arose as a consequence of the expansion of early river-basin civilizations, mainly in the second millennium B.C.E. Farmers left the valleys and alluvial soils of the Yellow River, Indus, Tigris-Euphrates, and lesser rivers (or from the Maya lowlands) and ascended forested slopes, where they exposed virgin soils to seasonal rains. The loess plateau of north China, for example, began to erode more quickly during this period, earning the Yellow River its name (1). Over the next 3000 years, farmers in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas gradually converted a modest proportion of the world's forests into farmland or pasture and thereby increased rates of soil erosion, but the fertile soils of the world's grass- lands were little affected.
*That changed in the 16th to 19th centuries when, in a second great wave of soil erosion, stronger and sharper plowshares helped break the sod of the Eurasian steppe, the North American prairies, and the South American pampas. The exodus of Europeans to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, Siberia, South Africa, Algeria, and elsewhere brought new lands under the plow and put people accustomed to a humid and equable climate in semiarid landscapes where their farming habits helped accelerate soil erosion
- *The third great wave of erosion came after 1945 till today when modem medicine, rapid population growth, and other factors propelled a new frontier into the world's thinly populated tropical rain forests. Heavy rains and steep slopes in, for example, Rwanda and Guatemala have lately brought about some of the
- highest recorded rates of soil erosion. At the same time, however, effective soil conservation has spread since the 1930s, especially in North America and Europe. Nonetheless, in global terms the past 60 years have brought human-induced soil erosion and the destruction of soil ecosystems to unprecedented levels
-
Describe concisely the three (3) main waves of soil erosion in human history according to McNeill and
Winiwarter
- 1)Early river-basin civilization (2nd millennium BCE-ist millennium AD)
- **farmers left valleys and alluvial soils of: yellow river, Indus, tigris-eurphrates. And they ascenteded forested slopes where they exposed virgin soils to season rains (losses pleateau of north china-yellow river)
- 2) 16th-19th century
- **Stronger/sharper plow shares helped break the sod of : Eurasian steppe, north America praries, south American pampas
**European colonization: brought new lands under the plow, technologies from humid and equable climate used in semi arid landscaper approx. soil erosion
- 3) 1945-TODAY
- **Modern medicine rapid production growth and other factors approx. new frontier into worlds thinly populated tropical rain forest
- **Heavy vains/steep slopes from Rwanda to Guatemala appox. Some of highest recorded rates of soil erosion
- **But also effective soil conservative spread since 1930s especially NA/EUROPE
-
According to Aradhana Singh, what are the two
main approaches to crop diversification in agriculture? According to Thomas DeGregori, why was the fact that "early agricultural staples originated as monodominant strands in harsh or marginal conditions" significant? Why does he argue that crop protection must have emerged with agriculture?
- -There are two approaches to crop diversification in agriculture.
- **First is horizontal diversification, which is the primary approach to crop diversification in production
- agriculture. Here, diversification takes place through crop intensification by adding new high-value crops to existing cropping systems as a way to improve
- the overall productivity of a farm or region's farming economy.
- ** The second is the vertical diversification approach in which farmers and others add value to products through processing, regional branding, packaging, merchandising, or other efforts to enhance the product.
-the early agricultural staples originated as monodominant strands in harsh or marginal conditions. Storing energy underground in tubers or producing energy rich seeds for wide dispersal are competitive survival mechanisms for plants in marginal growing conditions, and became a source of food for humans. One would hesitate to go so far as to argue that agriculture would not have occurred had it not been for nature’s monoculture, but it would seem that it was clearly a major contributing factor
-The necessity for crop protection emerged with agriculture not because of any practice of monoculture but because crops were now being grown in areas outside where they originated. And contrary to “organic” agriculture mythology, crops have had to be protected ever since agriculture got started, frequently with very highly toxic “all-natural" compounds such as various forms of arsenic.
-
According to Aradhana Singh, what are the two main approaches to crop diversification in agriculture?
According to Thomas DeGregori, why was the fact that "early agricultural staples originated as monodominant strands in harsh or marginal conditions" significant? Why does he argue that crop protection must have emerged with agriculture?
There are two approaches to crop diversification in agriculture.
·First is horizontal diversification, which is the primary approach to crop diversification in production agriculture. Here, diversification takes place through crop intensification by adding new high-value crops to existing cropping systems as a way to improve the overall productivity of a farm or region's farming economy.
- ·The second is the vertical diversification approach in which farmers and others add value to products through processing, regional branding, packaging, merchandising, or other efforts to enhance the product. Opportunities for crop diversification vary depending on risks, opportunities and the feasibility of proposed changes within a socio-economic and
- agro-economic context.
According to Thomas DeGregori :
- ·the intensive harvesting of the monodominant crop led to population increase, and eventually some of the population had to move into other areas. They took their “domesticated” seeds, their technology and their knowledge with them. the early agricultural staples originated as monodominant strands in harsh or marginal conditions. Storing energy underground in tubers or producing energy rich seeds for wide dispersal are competitive survival mechanisms for plants in marginal growing conditions, and became a source of food for humans. One would hesitate
- to go so far as to argue that agriculture would not have occurred had it not been for nature’s monoculture, but it would seem that it was clearly a major contributing factor.
Why does he argue that crop protection must have emerged with agriculture?
·The necessity for crop protection emerged with agriculture not because of any practice of monoculture but because crops were now being grown in areas outside where they originated. And contrary to “organic” agriculture mythology, crops have had to be protected ever since agriculture got started, frequently with very highly toxic “all-natural” compounds such as various forms of arsenic.
-
List five main factors that, according to Geoff
Cunfer, created and came to define the so-called Dust Bowl. What is it believed by some analysts that larger farms would have helped mitigate the Dust Bowl?
Why were many farms in the Dust Bowl region smaller than they perhaps should have been?
- -The Dust Bowl was defined by a combination of:
- **extended severe drought and unusually high temperatures
**episodic regional dust storms and routine localized wind erosion
**agricultural failure, including both cropland and livestock operations
**the collapse of the rural economy, affecting farmers, rural businesses, and local governments
**an aggressive reform movement by the federal government
-
List five main factors that, according to Geoff Cunfer, created and came to define the so-called Dust
Bowl. What is it believed by some analysts that larger farms would have helped mitigate the Dust Bowl? Why were many farms in the Dust Bowl region smaller
than they perhaps should have been?
- Dust bowl defined by:
- **extended severe drought and unusually high temperatures
- **episodic regional dust storms and routine localized wind erosion
- **agricultural failure, including both cropland and livestock operations
- **the collapse of the rural economy, affecting
- farmers, rural businesses, and local governments
- **an aggressive reform movement by the federal government
- **migration from rural to urban areas and out of the region
- What is it believed by some analysts that larger farms would have helped mitigate the Dust Bowl?
- **arguments relying on this claim note that larger farms would have instituted the environmental safeguards that were inefficient in the short-term for smaller farms
- Why were many farms in the Dust Bowl region smaller than they perhaps should have been?
- **the prevalence of small farms in the region was a result of the property rights distribution authorized by the homestead act.
-
What is the single large human-related use of land? What are the main means to reduce methane emissions associated with livestock production? Why is Frank Mitloehner critical of the statement that livestock creates more emissions than transportation? List two more basic mistakes made by people who made that original claim according to George Monbiot.
- What is the single large human-related use of land?
- **for livestock (Grazing occupies an incredible 26 percent of the ice- and water-free surface of the planet Earth. The area devoted to growing crops to feed those animals amounts to 33 percent of arable land.)
- What are the main means to reduce methane emissions associated with livestock production?
- **These include grinding and pelletizing food for confined animals to make it more fully digestible (a 20 to 40 percent reduction); grazing steers on high-quality alfalfa grass pastures (50 percent reduction); adding canola oil to feedlot rations (30 percent reduction); and separating animals by age group and phasing in food related to their growth stages (50 percent
- reduction). These are laudable solutions and should be implemented, but, absent legislation, they're unlikely to be put in place.
- Why is Frank Mitloehner critical of the statement that livestock creates more emissions than transportation? **Overall, Fairlie estimates that farmed animals produce roughly 10% of the world’s emissions:
- *still too much, but a good deal less than transport. He also shows that many vegetable oils have a bigger footprint than animal fats, and reminds us that even vegan farming necessitates the largescale killing or ecological exclusion of animals: in this case pests. On the other hand, he slaughters the claims made by some livestock farmers about the soil carbon they can lock away.
List two more basic mistakes made by people who made that original claim according to George Monbiot
- It attributes all deforestation that culminates in cattle ranching in the Amazon to cattle: in reality it is mostly driven by land speculation and logging. It muddles up one-off emissions from deforestation with ongoing pollution. It makes similar in its nitrous oxide and methane accounts, confusing gross and net production. (Conversely, the organisation greatly underestimates fossil fuel consumption by intensive farming: its report seems to have been informed
- by a powerful bias against extensive livestock keeping).
-
List four arguments put forward by analysts who argue
that confined livestock practices actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional and
free-range methods.
1.High-yield farms need less land to produce the same amount of food, protecting the huge amounts of soil carbon that would be gassed off if we plowed more land for low-yield crops
2. Indoor animals are also more comfortable, and thus need about 15 percent less feed per pound of protein produced, saving still more acres of land for Nature and still more carbon left in the soil.
3. Feedlot cattle, eating grain from high-yield fields, produce less methane in their guts than cattle digesting grass—because grass is harder to digest. Studies on beef cattle show methane emissions reduced by 38 to 70 percent.
4. More milk, from higher-yielding cows that are fed more grain and less grass, have helped reduce the carbon footprint of the U.S. dairy industry by 43 percent since 1944.
-
List four arguments put forward by analysts who argue that confined livestock practices actually reduce
greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional and free-range methods.
According to George Monbiot, why isn't using a simple conversion rate of feed into meat very instructive in terms of understanding meat production? Under what conditions does meat production become a very efficient way to use resources in his opinion?
- four arguments are:
- **Indoor animals are also more comfortable, and thus need about 15 percent less feed per pound of protein produced, saving still more acres of land for Nature and still more carbon left in the soil.
- **Feedlot cattle, eating grain from high-yield fields, produce less methane in their guts than cattle digesting
- grass—because grass is harder to digest
- **Jude Capper of Cornell University reported last year that more milk, from higher-yielding cows that are fed more grain and less grass, have helped reduce the carbon footprint of the U.S. dairy industry by 43
- percent since 1944.
**Capper’s study also found that supplementing dairy rations with genetically modified rBST would use 2.3 million fewer tons of feedstuffs, need 540,000 fewer acres of land for crop production, and require considerably less chemical fertilizer and pesticides
Instead of citing a simple conversion rate of feed into meat, we should be comparing the amount of land required to grow meat with the land needed to grow plant products of the same nutritional value to humans. The results are radically different.
- - If pigs are fed on residues and waste and cattle on straw, stovers and grass from fallows and rangelands
- – food for which humans don’t compete – meat becomes a very efficient means of food production
According to George Monbiot, why isn't using a simple conversion rate of feed into meat very instructive in terms of understanding meat production?
We’ve been using the wrong comparison to judge the efficiency of meat production. Instead of citing a simple conversion rate of feed into meat, we should be comparing the amount of land required to grow meat with the land needed to grow plant products of the same nutritional value to humans. The results are radically different. If we stopped feeding edible grain to animals, we could still produce around half the current global meat supply with no loss to human nutrition: in fact it’s a significant net gain.
-
What are the main "standards" of organic food production according to the UK Soil Association?
How does the Soil Association explain the price
difference between organic and conventional products?
- Why does it sometimes cost more?
- As the costs of farming with oil-based fertilisers and chemicals increase,
- the price gap between organic and non-organic is closing. Where there is a
- price difference, you are paying for the special care organic farmers place on
- protecting the environment and improving animal welfare.
Standards: - pesticides are severely
- restricted – instead organic farmer develop nutrient-rich soil to grow
- strong healthy crops and encourage wildlife to help control pests and
- disease
- artificial chemical
- fertilisers are prohibited – instead organic farmers develop a healthy,
- fertile soil by growing and rotating a mixture of crops using clover to
- fix nitrogen from the atmosphere
- animal cruelty is
- prohibited and a truly free-range life for farm animals is guaranteed
- the routine use of drugs,
- antibiotics and wormers is disallowed - instead the farmer will use
- preventative methods, like moving animals to fresh pasture and keeping
- smaller herd size
- genetically modified (GM)
- crops and ingredients are banned under organic standards
How does the Soil Association explain the- price difference between organic and conventional products?
- Why does it sometimes cost more?
- As the costs of farming with oil-based fertilisers and chemicals increase,
- the price gap between organic and non-organic is closing. Where there is a
- price difference, you are paying for the special care organic farmers place on
- protecting the environment and improving animal welfare.
-
What are the main "standards" of organic food production according to the UK Soil Association? How does the Soil Association explain the price difference between organic and conventional products?
Strict regulations, known as ‘standards’, define what organic farmers can and cannot do – and place a strong emphasis on the protection of wildlife and the environment. In organic farming:
a) pesticides are severely restricted – instead organic farmer develop nutrient-rich soil to grow strong healthy crops and encourage wildlife to help control pests and disease
b) artificial chemical fertilisers are prohibited – instead organic farmers develop a healthy, fertile soil by growing and rotating a mixture of crops using clover to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere
c) animal cruelty is prohibited and a truly free-range life for farm animals is guaranteed
d) the routine use of drugs, antibiotics and wormers is disallowed - instead the farmer will use preventative methods, like moving animals to fresh pasture and keeping smaller herd size
e) genetically modified (GM) crops and ingredients are banned under organic standards
- - As the costs of farming with oil-based fertilisers and chemicals increase, the price gap between organic and non-organic is closing.Where there is a price difference, you are paying for the special care organic farmers place on protecting the environment and
- improving animal welfare.
-
Why didn't the failure of the potato crops throughout
Europe in the mid-1840s cause as much damage as it did in Ireland?
Name three actions that Chinese peasants did following Mao's "lunatic" advice that, according to Frank Dikötter, soon resulted in mass starvation.
1) Repeated attacks made the Irish famine more protracted than most.
2) Irish had greater dependence on the potato.
3) Inadequate policy response from the authorities
4) their poverty meant that when the potato failed, there was no trading down to a cheap alternative food
- Name three actions that Chinese peasants did following Mao's "lunatic" advice that, according to Frank Dikötter, soon resulted in mass starvation.
- ** They ploughed their paddies uselessly deep
- **They dismantled their houses to use as fertilizer
- **They abandoned their fields and marched miles to work all night constructing mammoth water schemes that often came to nothing, while their families died without grain at home
-
Why didn't the failure of the potato crops throughout Europe in the mid-1840s cause as much damage as it did in Ireland?
Name three actions that Chinese peasants did following Mao's "lunatic" advice that, according to Frank Dikötter, soon resulted in mass starvation.
Ireland was a poor country in 1845, income per head being about half that in the rest of the United Kingdom. The half-century or so before the famine was a period of increasing impoverishment for the landless poor. With impoverishment came rising inequality.
Increasing population pressure was only partly relieved by an increase in the emigration rate and a fall in the birth rate. Moreover, demographic adjustment was weakest in the western and southern areas most at risk.
- The nutritional content of the potato and widespread access to heating fuel in the form of turf eased somewhat the poverty of Ireland's three million 'potato
- people.' They were healthier and lived longer than the poor in other parts of Europe at the time. However, their poverty meant that when the potato failed, there was no trading down to a cheap alternative food.
Nowhere else in Europe had the potato, like tobacco a gift from the New World, made such inroads into the diet of the poor. It bears noting that the potato also failed throughout Europe in the 1840s. This brought hardship in many places, and excess mortality in the Low Countries and in parts of Germany. Yet nowhere was Ireland's cataclysm repeated
- - In the newly established communes, peasants following Mao's lunatic advice ploughed their paddies uselessly deep. They dismantled their houses to use as fertiliser, and melted down their tools to make the steel Mao had decreed was the mark of an advanced
- socialist country. Other peasants abandoned their
- fields and marched miles to work all night constructing mammoth water schemes that often came to nothing, while their families died without grain at home. The only reason millions more didn't starve, as Dikötter
- describes in detail, is because of their desperate
- ploys to steal food.
-
According to Charlebois and Boyer, what are the tree policy interventions required to achieve freer trade
in agriculture? In their opinion, what steps could Canadian policy-makers take to show that they are serious about agricultural trade liberalization?
-
According to Marcia Eames-Sheavly, what are the four
aspects that distinguish community food systems from the globalized food system?
- 1) Food security is a key goal of community food
- systems. While food security traditionally focuses on individual and household food needs, community food security addresses food access within a community
- context, especially for low-income households. It has a simultaneous goal of developing local food systems.
- 2) Proximity refers to the distance between various
- components of the food system. In community food systems such distances are generally shorter than those in the dominant or global food system. This
- proximity increases the likelihood that enduring relationships will form between different stakeholders in the food system - farmers, processors, retailers, restaurateurs, consumers, etc.
- 3) Self-reliance refers to the degree to which a community meets its own food needs. While the aim of community food systems is not total self-sufficiency (where all food is produced, processed, marketed and
- consumed within a defined boundary), increasing the degree of self-reliance for food, to be determined by a community partnership, is an important aspect of a community food system.
- 4) Sustainability refers to following agricultural and food system practices that do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their food needs. Sustainability includes environmental protection, profitability, ethical treatment of food system workers, and community development. Sustainability of the food and agriculture system is increased when a diversified agriculture exists near strong and thriving
- markets, when non-renewable inputs required for every step in the food system are reduced, when farming systems rely less on agri-chemical fertilization and pest control, and when citizen participation in food system decision-making is enhanced.
-
According to Marcia Eames-Sheavly, what are the fouraspects that distinguish community food systems from the globalized food system?
Four aspects distinguish community food systems from the globalized food system that typifies the source of most food Americans eat: food security, proximity, self-reliance and sustainability.
- i) Food security is a key goal of community food systems. While food security traditionally focuses on
- individual and household food needs, community food security addresses food access within a community context, especially for low-income households. It has a simultaneous goal of developing local food systems.
ii) Proximity refers to the distance between various components of the food system. In community food systems such distances are generally shorter than those in the dominant or global food system.
- iii) Self-reliance refers to the degree to which a community meets its own food needs. While the aim of community food systems is not total self-sufficiency (where all food is produced, processed, marketed and consumed within a defined boundary), increasing
- the degree of self-reliance for food, to be determined by a community partnership, is an important aspect of a community food system.
iv) Sustainability refers to following agricultural and food system practices that do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their food needs. Sustainability includes environmental protection, profitability, ethical treatment of food system workers, and community development.
-
List 3 "good food ideas" discussed by Lauren
Baker et al. and explain them concisely.
Idea 1: Support Producers of Locally Consumed Fruit, Vegetables, and Meats
- Today the farm and food sectors are under tremendous financial stress due to low-priced imports, rising input costs, and an inability to cover these costs
- in the market place.
Paying farmers directly for the real costs they incur to grow good food puts money directly into farmers’ pockets and perhaps saves money overall. Buying directly from farmers and paying the true cost of food also makes it possible for consumers to have a say in the kind of farm practices they want to support.
Idea 7: Establish Local Food Infrastructure through Regional Food Clusters
- Across Ontario, facilities for food processing have either reduced in size or closed, including the only facility that processed frozen organic vegetables. Farmers’ options for value-added processing have become extremely limited. Farmers need food processing that is flexible, can be subject to regional and sustainable labelling and certification regulations, and can use marketing strategies to build regional
- food economies rather than export and transnational economies. This middle must be rebuilt through the concerted effort at every level and aspect of the food
- economy, from policy to legislation to marketing to agricultural training and support. Regional food clusters can be encouraged through targeted investment, favourable legislation, regulations, research, and policy development. Strengthened
- co-operative legislation could support the development of cooperative models for food processing.
Idea 9: Link Good Food with Good Health:
Healthy eating leads to better health. Poor diet is associated with health problems that include colorectal cancer, low-weight births, and heart disease. Increasing access to healthy food requires linking food production and distribution to health promotion as a central public health strategy. If the food system and the health system are not linked, chronic diseases, obesity rates, and disparities in health will likely continue to rise.58 If they are integrated, there is an opportunity to improve the health of our population and reduce health care costs while supporting the local farm and food sector.
-
Describe the key steps/ecosystem consequences involved in the eutrophication of surface waters caused by excessive nutrient input (e.g. through leaching form nearby fertilized agricultural systems).
P and ( N, K and micronutirents) cause euthrophocation downstream from agricultural fields: cyanobacterial blooms - decomposition of this new biomass by other bacteria- depletion of o2 lower in the water column- dead fish
SIDE NOTE:
· euthrophocation : applies to aquatic and marine systems
o When nutrients are dumped into a lake, a lot of productivity in an aquatic system things get nasty Green slime of the surface- don’t look nice
Depletion of oxygen in water column- fish can’t live
-
Describe the key steps/ecosystem consequences involved in the eutrophication of surface waters caused by excessive nutrient input (e.g. through leaching form nearby fertilized agricultural systems).
*If not held in soil or taken up by plants, N is lost from systems through microbial dentrification, including N2O emissions to the atmosphere or leached in groundwater primarily as nitrate
*If not held in soil or taken up by plants P, K, and other micronutrient are leached
*Big issue: losing an expensive product
- *Also, other problems:
- **Nitrate in drinking water is TOXIC- oxidizes haemoglobin (blue baby syndrome) and leads to production of carcinogenic nitrosamines
- **P (and N, K, and micronutrients) cause eutrophication downstream from agricutural fields: cyanobacterial blooms -> decomposition of this new
- biomass by other bacteria -> depletion of 02 in the water column ->dead fish
-
What are two key problems surrounding nitrogen loss from typical fertilized agricultural systems
- *If not held in soil or taken up by
- plants, Nitrogen is lost from systems through microbial dentrification, including N2O emissions to the atmosphere or leached in groundwater
- primarily as nitrate
*If not held in soil or taken up by plants O, K and other micronutrients are leached
- *Besides loss of an expensive product, there are other issues…
- --Nitrate in drinking water is TOXIC - oxidizes hemoglobin (blue baby syndrome) and leads to production of carcinogenic nitrosamines
- --P and ( N, K and micronutrients) cause euthrophocation downstream from agricultural fields: cyanobacterial blooms - decomposition of this new biomass by other bacteria- depletion of o2 lower in the water column- dead fish
-
Name one reason why the prairie biome/ eco-regions of Canada (southern AB, SK, and SW MB) is/are so amendable to production of grain crops.
- Prairie ecosystem***
- *Climate
- --Influenced by Rockies and mountains chains to
- west
- --Hot summers, cold winters
* Precipitation is reasonably low (200mm) SW SK to moderate (700mm/year) SE MB - high winds exacerbate drying
*Natural vegetation: "short grass Prairie" was dominated by spear, wheat, and blue grama grass
- *Geology
- --Underlain by cretaceous shale and lime stone
- >>>>Very flat plain
- --With some glacial moraines- very fertile soils
-
Name one reason why the prairie biome/ eco regions of Canada (southern AB, SK, and SW MB) is/are so amendable to production of grain crops.
Prairie Ecosystems:
- **Climate: Influenced by Rockies and
- mountain chains to west
- **Hot summers, cold winters
- **Precipitation is reasonably low (200mm) SW SK to moderate (700mm/year) SE MB – high winds exacerbate drying
- **Natural vegetation: “Short Grass Prairie”
- **Geology: Underlain by Cretaceous
- shale and limestone (very flat plain) with some glacial moraine = very fertile soils
- **Chernozem
- **Deep, dark organic (humus) – rich surface horizon (at least 10cm thick)Forms beneath prairies and steppe (grasses)
- **Very fertile, but often dry, and this means they can become saline
-
List and describe briefly five (5) crucial processes in coffee production.
Coffee managing
- *Mulching
- --With grass, sheet mulch to protect against erosion and sunshine. It contributes to the organic matter
- *Fertilizing:
- --With manure and fertilizers every year after
- harvesting an on flowering
- * Weeding:
- --Regular manual control to protect trees against weeds
- *Cutting:
- --Dead branches after harvesting and old trees after 20-25 years to regenerate coffee plantation
- * Fighting diseases and insects
- --With chemicals and fungicides
- --Wilt disease can destroy 75% of Arabica coffee
-
List and describe briefly five (5) crucial processes in coffee production.
- Importance of Coffee in East African community economy
- **Coffee share in GDP in 2009
- **Uganda – 11% (highest)
- Conclusion
- *Coffee crop – constitutes an important revenue source for EAC countries
- Politics to promote coffee culture:
- *To increase coffee crop productivity and quality
- * To intensify research for identifying a speciality coffee easy to make and sell
- *To add value to the coffee by exporting it finished to give a better price to farmers
- *To study and analyze markets
-
Identify the environmental advantages of oil palm according to its promoters.
- Environmental advantages
- *High yields
- --productivity per hectare is 7x higher than soybean
- *Good energy balance
- --High yields the energy input necessary to grow
- palm oil
- >>>Very low compared to output
- --Fertilizer, pesticides, labor and transport and
- machinery and processing- energy involved
- >>>Less energy than palm oil production than any
- other veggie oil
--Only maize grown in Mexico can compare
--Extremely productive and cheap to grow
- **Efficient carbon sink
- --Tree crop- 5-6 m high
- --Produces biomass
- >>>Traps and absorbs carbon
- >>>>>Easier to argue that this crop is good for the
- reduction of carbon emissions and climate change
- >>>>>However, it is obvious that palm oil does not
- have the same capacity to sink carbon than the tropical rainforest
- *Performs ecological functions of a rainforest
- --Performs some of the ecological functions of the
- rainforest
- --A tree top plantation- treetop canopy prevents
- soil erosion in the tropics
- >>>>Rainfalls extremely hard and produces erosions
- --Root system by oil palms prevent erosion in the
- same way
- --Contributed to the restoration of tropical and
- degraded soils
- >>>i.e. due to logging
- >>>Est. of oil palm plantation with proper
- application of fertilizers it givers fertility to the soil
- --Intensive logging= soil deplete of nutrients due
- to heavy rainfall washing away nutrients
*"degraded lands"
- --Oil palm production in degraded areas- apply
- fertilizers to encourage palm to grow and also reestablishes the fertility of the soil
--Prevents invasive weeds species
-
Identify the environmental advantages of oil palm according to its promoters.
Environmental advantages of oil palm
- i. High yields
- – 7x higher than soil bean per hectare
- ii. Energy Balance
- – Energy input necessary to grown oil palm is very low, compared to the output. The output is significantly higher in the case of palm oil. Energy
- input in measured by the amount of labour, pesticides, machinery, processing, fertilizer, transport
********KNOW THIS********
iii. Efficient carbon sink (for a crop) – it is a biomass which traps and absorbs carbon.
- iv. Ecological functions of a rainforest – root pumps maintain restoration of tropical degraded soils if there has been logging. Adequate fertilizers will restore the
- soil. It also prevents evasive species. Soil has low capacity to maintain any type of biodiversity.
-
What are the main concerns associated with oil palm cultivation?
1) Issues associated with pal
2) Destruction of tropical rainforests
a. Many large NGOs have launched campaigns to raise awareness of North about the role of oil palm in the South
i.Impact on animals
- b.From 1957-2000 in Borneo (81-55%)
- i.Dramatic decrease in forested areas
1. Direct and indirectly related to oil palms
- a. I.e. burning large areas of the forest and in the
- future may start up plantations
- b.Government will grant permission to start oil palm in
- an areas, but instead of doing the planting they just log the forests
2. Oil palm plantations are related to forest fires
3) Indigenous land ownership
a. Indonesia and Malaysia
i. No clear and legal land rights
ii.Rights are not recognized by the state
b. Leads to conflicts when government deposes the communities territory to est. a plantation
c. Harms communities livelihoods and access to resources
i.Repeated thousands of times
4) Labor rights abuses
a.Most large scale plantations rely on large scale temporary labor
1. Harvest and pesticide application
b. No labor arrangement that puts the workers in vulnerable positions than temporary arrangements
c. Plantation- 5000 hectares on average
- i. Hard for government to enforce labor regulations on
- such large areas
d. States like Malaysia and Indonesia- limited resources to enforce regulations
e. Lack of water, high costs of food
i. Plantation provides food at high costs and water
ii."trapping" works on the plantation
f. Workers on plantation have little means to leave the plantation- complete dependency on the plantation company
i.Wages are very low
ii. People are the most vulnerable in the community
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What are the main concerns associated with oil palm cultivation?
- i. Destruction of tropical rainforests
- **there have been campaigns launched to give awareness to the destruction of these rainforests which destroy and endanger species only living in these
- particular rainforests in these countries.
- ii. Indigenous land rights
- **legally this land is not recognized by the state legally to be cultivated, so it creates conflict.
- iii. Labour rights abuse
- **Most large scale plantations rely on temporary unspecialized labour tasks such as harvest and pesticide application. No labour arrangements between corporations and labourers. This keeps taking place because there is SOOO much space (extends over large area, large hectares) to be able to have the government manage and speculate the
- situation within these companies. Law states labourers will be entitled to cheaper food, place to sleep, etc.
- however it traps workers on plantations. Since wages are so low, the people on these plantations won’t have financial means to have a car or bus ticket to bring them to the next village (which may be 20kms away).
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