Agriculture Readings (chapter 18)
In your notes, find this section:
3.5.3: Compare/Contrast the following for 2 named food production systems:
§ inputs & outputs of materials & energy (energy efficiency)
§ system characteristics
§ relative environmental impacts
Important to consider:
In IB, they LOVE to use this type of wording for their exams (and hey, your midterm or final just might have this also!). “Compare and contrast these concepts for two named food production systems.” You’ve seen this before, when we discussed biomes. “Discuss biotic and abiotic factors in two named ecosystems you’ve studied.”
When answering questions like this, you need to be specific and intentional in your answer.
· For the biomes example, you must be specific, saying where you’re discussing.
o Bad answer: The tundra
o Good answer: The tundra ecosystem of northern Alaska
· For the food production system example:
o Bad answer: Cattle Farming
o Good answer: High-Input / Intensive beef production in the USA
o Bad answer: small family farming
o Good answer: small-scale subsistence farming in Argentina
· Once you’ve sufficiently identified the example you will discuss, then you can finish answering the question about comparing & contrasting inputs/outputs, system characteristics, and relative environmental impacts.
· This question would be
Add the following to your notes:
INPUTS (discussed today)
• fertilizers, irrigation water, pesticides, fossil fuels, food distribution, human labor, seed, breeding stock.
OUTPUTS (discussed today)
• food quality and quantity, pollutants, soil erosion
SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS (these should be relatively obvious)
• Selective breeding, genetically engineered organisms, monoculture versus polyculture, sustainability.
SOCIO-CULTURAL (these should be obvious if you think about it)
• Ex: In Intensive Beef Production in USA
• Beef production is important for USA culture, as cheap meat is central to the diet of many americans. Thus, to maximize output of beef, the cattle are in close quarters.
• Workers in slaughterhouses and packaging plants tend to be low-income workers, sometimes even being illegal immigrants. The slaughterhouses can pay low wages because illegal immigrants cannot fight for higher wages legally.
• Another example: the Maasai people of Kenya/Tanzania
• cattle equals wealth and quantity is more important than quality. The measure of a man’s wealth is in cattle and children… 50 cattle is respectable, and the more children the better. (Wikipedia)
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
• pollution, habitat loss, reduction in biodiversity, soil erosion.
IB Goal 3.5.3: Impacts of Farming Systems
http://sciencebitz.com/?page_id=529
All agriculture regardless of where it is in the world exerts a set of impacts upon the environment. These impacts result from inputs of energy and materials into the system, processes within the system as well as outputs from the system.
The diagram left illustrates some of the impacts of the more common forms of intensive farming found in the developed world.
Intensive beef production:
The diagram below opens a summary of one of these systems in more detail, intensive Charolais beef production in France.
Charolais are one of the beef breeds of choice across most of Western Europe. Through selective breeding and even genetic engineering bloodlines exist that put weight on quickly but have a low fat cover - preferred by customers. Many Charolais never see grass being fed entirely in doors under controlled conditions eating food high protein supplements and being treated with antibiotics to make sure they stay health. Lots of energy is used transporting and processing the finished meat.
Cattle that are raised outdoors grow on single monoculture grass land in large fields with a high stock rate. To maintain the productivity of these fields large amounts of chemical fertilizer are used. Intensified farming since the 1940’s with the aim of producing cheaper meat has led to habitat loss as hedgerows have been removed to make bigger fields and cases of eutrophication have increased as excess use of fertilisers and the large amounts of slurry produced in the system enter water courses. there is also a fear that the amount of antibiotics used to maintain health herds may also cause antibiotic resistance in human bacteria through bioaccumulations.
Nomadic Cattle grazing of the Himba:
The intensive beef production methods can be contrasted with more subsistence practices in other parts of the world. The Himba people of North west Namibia exist in one of the harshest environments on the planet. They survive by being Nomdic hunter/grazers and Himba society has a tight bond with the cattle that they graze. During the dry season the Himba and their cattle move from area to area as grass is used up until finally just before the rainy seasons they return to better pastures.
Himba cattle like the Himba themselves are extremely susceptible to drought and cattle often die during the season. Cattle for the Himba are central to their society providing, meat, milk, skins and even dung for fires. Prestige for the Himba is measured in number of cattle owned not the size of those cattle.
During the dry season and especially if the region is hit by prolonged drought, Himba cattle may compete directly with wild herbivores for any remaining grass and forage. With global warming drought periods have increased this has led to the Himba grazing their cattle in more remote areas more often, this can lead to soil erosion as extra grazing pressure removes the grasses that hold the top soil together.
In your notes, find this section:
3.5.4: Discuss the links that exist between social systems and food production systems:
· wet-rice ecosystem of SE Asia
· agribusiness
· slash & burn agriculture
In your notes:
Brainstorm (alone or with a partner) how the colored concepts below apply to the links between social systems & food production systems. Use the food production systems inside the blue box.