11.21.19
- Give an example of an externalized cost
- Why do we have national parks?
- Pick one of these folks: Thoreau, Emerson, Leopold or Roosevelt and describe their role in land management
- Why was Silent Spring Silent, and who wrote it?
Notes:
Mod 31
Undernutrition: lack of calories
Malnutrition: lack of critical part of diet, usually protein (Kwashiorkor)
Famine: one of these impacting a large group, often from crop failure, drought or war/displacement
Agribusiness: just what it sounds like, the larger conglomerates taking over instead of smaller privately owned family farms. Often use monoculture crops to increase profits, as well as patented seeds and herbicides (e.g. "roundup ready corn")
n.b. roundup has recently been linked to cancer in humans, look up glyphosate...
See: Monsanto and Cargill
GMO crops: in the beginning were just to withstand frost, now into a larger patent issue with GMO seeds and "round up ready crops"
What is the impact on lesser developed countries of this business model?
Mod 32:
Food energy subsidy (cost factor):
20 kg of grain to produce 1 kg of beef (20:1 factor, or subsidy factor 20x)
2.8 kg of grain to produce 1 kg of chicken (2.8:1 factor, or subsidy factor of 2.8)
Better to eat beef, chicken, fish or tofu? (you need protein in some form)
----------------------------------------11.21.19
11.22.19
- What is the difference between malnutrition and undernutrition?
- How does roundup ready corn work?
- What is the subsidy difference between beef and chicken?
- What is the deal with HFCS?
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern United States.[1][2][3] It arose as a reaction, to protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality at the time.[4] The doctrine of the Unitarian church as taught at Harvard Divinity School was of particular interest.
Transcendentalism emphasizes subjective intuition over objective empiricism. Adherents believe that individuals are capable of generating completely original insights with little attention and deference to past masters.
Food miles:
Average 1240 miles from farm to table (more here, unless you shop at the farmer's market)
Started as a good thing:
Green Revolution, Norman Borlaug-Mexican famine averted by development of hybrid (not GMO) wheat, called dwarf wheat (large kernel, short stalk).
Waterlogging: too much water in the soil, roots die (see hydroponics demo at elab)
Salinization/desertification: using well water for irrigation, salts build up in the soil, infertile soil results
Pesticides and herbicides: can be persistent or not (DDT, round up)
Mod 33:
Desertification (see above)
intercropping vs. monocropping, see
"the three sisters"
Contour cropping: saves space, reduces runoff, preserves top soil (e.g. our garden, most of Asia)
No-till ag: same idea, retains organic material in topsoil, reduces erosion by wind and water
IPM: integrated pest management (see Lalamilo Farmers)
Organic agriculture (also mentioned in
Portlandia and Colin the Chicken)
More than just N-P-K, also micronutrients, slower release time, low salinity
CAFO: concentrated animal feed operation (e.g. chickens, pigs, cattle)
Fishery collapse: see cod crisis in N. Atlantic
Bycatch: killed while harvesting other fish
Methyl xanthines: caffeine, theobromine, theophylline
evolved plant poisons for insects:
Actually, almost anything that ends in -ine is usually a plant poison evolved to kill insects:
nicotine, caffeine, cocaine, etc.
Comments