Modules:
31: human nutritional needs
32: large scale farming
33: farming alternatives
31:
24,000 deaths daily from malnutrition
2200 Cal daily minimum (1 Cal = 1000 cal or 1 kcal)
Food security
Famine: local food insecurity, many deaths
Anemia: iron deficiency
Kwashiorkor: protein deficiency
Overnutrition: High Fructose Corn syrup, Red meat (WHO warning 10.27.15)
Grain vs meat (meat industry is subsidized to use grain for feed)
food riots 2008 (Egypt, "Arab Spring")
Bioethanol: corn lobby (Iowa caucus and primary) diverts food to fuel ("national interest")
how is this sustainable?
32:
Impact of transition from hunter gatherer to concentrated ag (historic vs. modern)
Energy subsidy: petrochemical fertilizers, insecticides, transport (5:1) calories in vs. calories out
hunter gatherer: 0.1
farming: 0.5
fishing 1.0
US diet 1950: 5
US diet 2010: 10
Beef: 20 (e.g. Parker ranch-fly the cows or the feed)
Offshore fishing: 20+ (also more sharks)
Review of units:
1 Watt = 1 joule/second, 4.18 joules = 1 cal, 1000 cal = 1 kcal = 1 Cal
See figure 32.1 (surprise fishing)
green revolution: Norman Borlaug Dwarf wheat
Do the math
waterlogging: no air to roots
salinization: minerals left behind from well water (absorbs minerals along the way-contrast with rainwater)
organic vs inorganic fertilizers (micronutrients)
Organic: historical fertilizers: mild, labor intensive, gradual decomposition
Inorganic: Haber process (Nitrogen), WWII and WWI others (phosphates, from nerve gas research)
Inorganics lead to salinization faster
Inorganics are very petroleum intensive
Nitrate runoff (eutrophication)
monoculture/monocropping-why? economies of scale
pesticide, herbicide, insecticide (what defines "pest"?)
Pesticides from WWI and WWII nerve gas research
persistent pesticides: DDT (silent spring-Rachel Carson)
pesticide resistance/treadmill
GMO
impacts gut bacteria and immune system?
impact biodiversity?
labeling-public right to know
CAFO concentrated animal feeding operation (e.g. feedlots)
nitrate runoff (see video next)
fishery collapse and bycatch
33:
desertification
sustainable agriculture
intercropping
crop rotation
contour plowing
no-till agriculture
IPM: Lalamilo agreements
organic ag
sustainable fisheries
aquaculture: Costco Salmon color
Comments