CDAE 002 – World Food, Population, and Sustainable Development Notes UNIT 2

10/25/22 – Climate Change

Key Questions
● Is climate change political?
● What do we mean by “climate change” and what is the scientific evidence?
● What are the expected impacts of climate change?
● How can we respond?

What is the problem?

1. The problem (and urgency of that problem is our climate is changing faster than we know
it to be, temperatures are rising.
2. The solution (and responsibility for that) is to reduce how much we (we being humans)
travel, how much electricity is used, etc.

The Politics of Climate Change

● % of Americans that think global warming is happening vs % of Americans that think
global warming is NOT happening
● As of 2020 ¾ of the population do think it is happening
● 1/24 - 1/30 of 2022 46% of Americans say human activity contributes a great deal to
climate change, 29% say some
● **Government intervention** many think government needs to be involved to encourage
reliance on renewable energy sources

So what’s the status of things?

● Carbon dioxide levels ‘exploded’ last year to reach record highs not seen since end of Ice
Age, scientists warn ~ 2016

Climate Science Today: 2021 IPCC Report

● "It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.“
● Even the severest of cuts are unlikely to prevent global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre industrial
temperatures. Without immediate steep emissions cuts, though, average temperatures could cruise past 2C
by the end of the century.
● Weather extremes once considered rare are becoming increasingly common: heat waves, cyclones,
precipitation, droughts, etc.
● Sea levels are sure to keep rising for hundreds or thousands of years. Even if global warming were halted at
1.5C, the average sea level would still rise about 2 to 3 meters (6 to 10 feet), and maybe more. Scientists
could not rule out extreme rises of more than 15 meters by 2300, if tipping points trigger runaway warming.
● Meeting the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5C will require sticking to a "carbon budget," a
term describing how much additional carbon can be pumped into the atmosphere before that goal is likely
out of reach. The world is now on track to use up that budget in about a decade.
Hurricane Sandy

● $65 + Billion
● 2012
● 199 dead

California Drought

● 2012-2019
● $2.2 Billion

Russian Heat Wave & Fires

● $3.6 Billion
● 2012
● 56,000 dead

Hurricane Katrina

● $125 Billion
● 2005
● 1,833 dead

Drought Sahel

● +$10 Billion
● 2012 - Present
● 2.5 million displaced
● Widespread food insecurity

And where are things headed?

● Arctic sea ice is gone in 2 out of every 3 summers

● 50% of insect species lose >50% of their habitat range
● Drought: 11 months longer (increase in average drought length)
● Area burned by summer wildfires in Mediterranean doubles

Temperature Change

● The projected 21st-century global temperature change is positive

● Changing precipitation
● Growing water stress
● Sea level rise

**There is no one consistent way that climate change is going to affect every place**
Economic costs

● In the United States, it has been estimated that for each +1 degree change, GDP will
decrease by 1.2%
● By the late 21st century, poorest third of counties in the United States can expect
economic damage between 2 and 20% in county income under business as usual
scenarios

Weather is short-term and climate is long-term

Climate Change Facts

● Arrhenius (1896) warns of “enhanced greenhouse effect”

● World Meteorological Organization (WMO) (1950)
● International Geophysical Year (1957-58) establishes observatory at Mauna Loa, Hawaii
(data supporting theory)
● WMO, UNEP and the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU)
○ 1979 First World Climate Conference (Geneva)
○ World Climate Program
● Canada: World COnference on the Changing Atmosphere (1988)
○ “Toronto target” (developed countries): 20% below 1988 emissions by 2005
● That same year: UNEP/WMO → IPCC

What is different about recent and expected climate change?

1. Past climate change due to natural variability

2. Recent and expected climate change more complicated:
a. Much more rapid
b. Human involvement

Climate Change and Agriculture

● ~24 of GHG emissions globally come from farms and land use change (IPCC, 2014)
● Of those emissions,
○ 40% from enteric fermentation
○ 16% from manure left on pasture
○ 13% from synthetic fertilizers
○ 10% from paddy rice
So what’s being done?

● The international community began talking about this all at COP-1 in 1995
● In November 2021, COP-26 took place
● And in interim, progress on how to approach global climate change has been sloooow

Paris Climate Agreement

● International agreement agreed to in 2015 with goal to limit temperature rise to 20℃
● Voluntary targets set by each country:
○ China: Peak emissions by 2030
○ US (re-entered as of February 2021): reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28%
below the 2005 level in 2025, and to make “best efforts” to reduce emissions by
28%
○ Brazil reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent below 2005
levels by 2025, increasing renewable resources to 45 percent of the energy mix by
2030, and increasing the share of non-hydropower renewables in the electricity
mix to 23 percent by 2030
○ EU: At least 40% domestic reduction in greenhouse gasses by 2030 compared to
1990 levels

BUT

● A report by the UN in 2017 reports that if action to combat climate change is limited to
just current pledges, the Earth will get at least three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees
Fahrenheit) warmer by 2100 relative to preindustrial levels

So what can we do?

1. Adaptation
a. Deliberate adjustments in natural or human systems and behaviors to reduce the
risks to people’s lives livelihoods
2. Mitigation
a. Actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or store carbon and development
choices that lead to low emissions

Adaptation Examples:

● Adopting new varieties or new crops

● Efficient irrigation/Harvesting water
 ● Shift planting dates
● Improve drainage
● Build flood barriers
● Plan for alternative power supply
● rain water harvesting
● Relocate from vulnerable areas

Mitigation Examples:

● Use soil to store carbon (cover crops, mulching, no till)

● Shifting consumption behaviors
● Methane digesters
● Reforestation
● Implement renewable energy sources
● Public transportation, cycling, walking
● Compost organic materials
● Waste minimization

10/27/22 – Soil

Overview

● Why are soil resources key to sustainable development?

● What are the causes of soil degradation?
● What practices, strategies, and paradigms can be used to overcome these challenges?

About how long does it take to form an inch of topsoil (most productive)?

● A) About 50 years
● B) About 100 years
● C) About 250 years
● D) About 500 years
● Correct Answer = between 500 - 1000 years

Soils: A Hidden Resource (Video) – Good source for notes

Why Care? (Ecosystem Services)

● Soil erosion has both on-site and off-site effects. Loss of soil productivity is the main
on-site effect, while enhanced productivity of downstream land, sedimentation and
eutrophication of waterways and reservoirs are common off-site effects. Estimates of soil
erosion costs are therefore difficult and complex because the on-site effects are often
compensated by the use of increased amounts of fertilizers that mask the productivity
losses, and because the cost of environmental goods and services depends very much on
the point of view of the different stakeholders. Estimates of soil erosion costs are
therefore widely variable and controversial. At the extreme high side Pimentel et al
(Science Magazine, 1995) stated that the total on- and off-site costs of damages by wind
and water erosion and the cost of erosion prevention each year is 44,399,000,000 US$ in
the USA alone. On the other extreme, Crosson (Journal of Environmental Economics,
2007) estimated the loss in farm income in the USA per year at $100 million US$ only.

Human-Induced Soil Degradation

● Water erosion
○ Loss of topsoil
○ Rill and gully erosion
● Wind erosion
○ Loss of topsoil
○ Terrain deformation
○ Overblowing
● Chemical
○ Loss of nutrients and organic matter
○ Salinization
○ Acidification
○ Soil pollution
● Physical
○ Soil compaction
○ Waterlogging
○ Subsidence of organic soils

Salinization

● Salinization of soil is an excessive accumulation of water-soluble salts

● Causes
○ Dry climates
○ Low precipitation when excessive salts are not flushed from the earth
● High evaporation rate
 ○ Adds salts to the ground surface
● Poor drainage or waterlogging when salts are not washed
○ Due to lack of water transportation
● Irrigation with salt-rich water
● Removal or deep-rooted vegetation and a raised water as a consequence
● Leakage from geological deposits and penetration into groundwater
● Sea-level rise when sea salts seep into lower lands
● Breezes in the coastal areas that blow salty air masses oto the nearby territories
● Inappropriate application of fertilizers when excess nitrification accelerates soil
salinization

Desertification

● Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity

is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas
become increasingly arid
○ It is the spread of arid areas caused by a variety of factors
■ Climate change
■ Overexploitation of soil as a result of human activity

Human Causes of Soil Degradation

1. Deforestation
a. Agriculture
b. Logging
c. Roads
d. Urbanization
2. Overgrazing
3. Poor agricultural practices
a. “Slash and Burn” / Swidden Agriculture
4. Overexploitation for domestic use
a. Firewood to cook for example
i. Cut down the trees in order to burn
1. All the trees get cut down and you lose the roots that provide soil
stability
2. What do you burn when you run out of trees?
a. Dried cow feces
i. Causes respiratory illness
5. Industrial pollution
a. Where does all the toxic stuff go?
i. Coal mines…
ii. There is waste to our industrial processes. It ends up polluting the soil
What can be done to protect soil?

● Improved crop management

○ Conservation Agriculture
○ Cover crops
○ Diverse crop rotations
○ Agroforestry
○ Composting
● Structural practices (terraces, bunds, improved irrigation and drainage)
● Reforestation
● Managed grazing / reduce compaction
● Pollution control

Farmer Managed Natural regeneration (FMNR) (Farm-led)

● Manage natural regrowth of trees

● Provide fruit rich in nutrients
● Provide firewood
● Provide fodder
● Fix atmospheric nitrogen
● Increase organic matter
● Provide erosion protection

Conservation Agriculture: Approach

● Environmental restoration
○ Rebuilding the soil through…
■ Minimize soil disturbance (reduces loss)
■ Organic soil amendments (e.g., mulch)
■ Plant diversity: Agroforestry, crop rotations – actively enhance soil

Benefits of Conservation Agriculture

● Enhanced environmental management

○ Reduced erosion
○ Improved soil health
○ Increased crop yields in the long term
○ Reduced incidence of pests
● Enhanced efficiency
○ Reduced dependency on inputs
○ Reduced greenhouse gas emissions

Soil Carbon Sequestration

What is the ‘Great Green Wall’ of China?

- Planting trees to fight desertification

Broader Questions

● Assuming that there is a broad-based recognition that soil provides a critical resource for
sustainable development, what are the most promising approaches to ensuring soil
health?
○ Voluntary?
○ Market-based?
○ Government policy?

11/1/22 - Water

Key Questions

● What is the status of water resources globally?

● What are the main challenges to maintaining the water resource base?
● What strategies can be used to overcome these challenges?

**Sustainable Goal #6 → Clean Water and Sanitation**

Water Consumption

● Only 2.5% of water resources on earth are fresh water

○ About 1% of the 2.5% of fresh water

(that exists on earth) is available for

human use. Agriculture uses the most water

● About 70% of freshwater use is for

agricultural usages.

● Agriculture plays a huge role in

the way we use our water resources**

**Threats to Global Water Resources?**

H2O as Resource: From Abundance to Scarcity

● Aquifers declining
○ Not all aquifers are created equally
■ Shallow aquifers recharge at a rate determined by water use, regional
climate, and other factors (e.g., glaciers)
■ Fossil aquifers, once depleted, do not recharge (Ogallala aquifer, North
China Plain deep aquifer, Saudi aquifer)
● Important to large part of agriculture production globally
● Scarcity in China
○ Wheat in the North China Plain
● Scarcity in India
○ >21 million wells and heavy investment in pumps (hand-dug wells drying up)
○ Yemen out of water by 2025, Israel, Palestine, Mexico, U.S. …

Depletion of Groundwater

- In 1975 the Ogallala Aquifer was overdrafted by an amount equal to the entire flow of the
Colorado River. Today it has been depleted at an annual volume equivalent to 18
Colorado Rivers
- In Mexico the majority of groundwater extracted is withdrawn from 106 overexploited
aquifers
Saudi Arabia: As Water-poor as it is Oil-rich

● After the Arab oil export embargo in the 1970s, the Saudis realized they were vulnerable
to a counter embargo on grain
● To become self-sufficient in wheat, they developed a heavily subsidized irrigated
agriculture based largely on pumping water from a deep fossil aquifer
● In 2008 the Saudis announced that, with their aquifer largely depleted, they would reduce
wheat planting by one eighth each year until 2016, when production ended

Drought = lack of water caused by little or no rainfall

Not Just the Colorado…

● Lake Chad has shrunk 96% in 40 years

○ A result of declining rainfall coupled with increasing irrigation demand
● Rivers no longer reaching the sea
○ The Colorado
○ The Yellow (running dry since 1972)
○ The Nile
○ The indus
○ The Ganges
○ Amu Darya (feeds the Aral Sea)

Water Pollution

● Urban Development
● Improper Sewage Disposal
● Fertilizer Run-Off
● Oil Spills
● Chemical Waste Dumping
● Radioactive Waste Discharge

- 4.5 billion people globally have no toilets at home that safely manage excreta
- 2.3 billion still do not have basic sanitation services
- 892 million defecate in the open
- 600 million share a toilet or latrine with other households
Salinity

● Freshwater is getting saltier, threatening people AND wildlife

● Salt administered to roads to promote thawing and melting contaminates our waterways
○ Ex. Flint River
■ Salt levels in the Flint River that promoted corrosion
● This lead to lead being extracted from the pipes and flowing into
the water that people were consuming

Access

● There are two kinds of issues

○ Lack of physical access to water → really about “does it exist”?
○ Lack of economic access to water → really about “the water exists, but people
don’t have the resources in order to extract it”

Physical Water Scarcity

- 2.1 billion people globally lack safe water at home

- 263 million spend more than 30 minutes per round trip collecting water
- 844 million do not have basic drinking water services
- 159 million drink water directly from surface sources such as streams or lakes

Policy Options?

● Scarcity is great! [sort of]

● With scarcity, policy tools become available including:
○ Public infrastructure: Better conserve water at the source
■ Dam rivers
○ Public institutional reform: Better allocate water along the way
■ From state to local to private ownership
■ Water Permits
○ Incentives to use less water for agriculture?
○ Incentives to make more water?

Conserving H2O In-Stream: Dams

● Dams are a highly effective means of conserving water

● Small retention dams capture water during the rainy season and prolong the growing
season for farmers
○ Larger dams provide irrigation water and other benefits such as electricity
generation (e.g., Senegal River, Aswan Dam in Egypt)
Case Study: Tonle Sap

● On the down side, dams’ focus on the resource (water) is often to the detriment of the
system
● The Tonle Sap in Cambodia is one of the richest inland fisheries in the world
○ Cambodians are among the bestfed poor
○ Dam construction in China has restricted the flow of the Mekong River

Ecological, Economic, and Political

● The Nile is part of a vast system stretching from the Mediterranean to Burundi and the
highlands of Ethiopia.
● Spanning more than 4,200 miles, it is the longest river in the world.
● The volume of water is relatively small – 2% of the size of the Amazon; 15% of the
Mississippi
○ As much as 86% of the Nile’s waters originate in Ethiopia
○ Nile Basin Initiative: The Nile flows through 10 countries, including South Sudan

Hydropolitics

● “Many of the wars of the 20th century were about oil, but wars of the 21st century will be
over water.” – Ismail Serageldin

Allocating H2O via Prices

● Increasingly high-income countries are embracing “cap-and-trade” policies regarding

water
○ (1) State and local officials set a water use cap based on a scientifically
determined sustainable water harvest level
○ (2) Water users are assigned permits for water use…
■ …often based on historical precedent
■ …or based on bidding (“cap-and-auction”, with proceeds used to fund
water system maintenance, repairs, and administration)
○ (3) Water users can buy and sell permits based on their interests and
willingness-to-pay
● Benefits? Drawbacks?
○ Costs of getting prices right…
○ Farmers versus cities…
○ Others…?
Hope for Making H2O: High-Tech Tools?

● In a planet where 70% of the surface covered by water, only 1% of this amount is usable
freshwater
● Will reverse-osmosis save us?
○ Not for a little while anyway
○ Extremely expensive

Oh, and Reduce Consumption

● About how many gallons of freshwater is required to produce one pair of jeans?
○ A) About 100 gallons
○ B) About 800 gallons
○ C) About 1800 gallons
○ D) About 2800 gallons

11/3/22 – Land Cover → Deforestation and the Food System

Key Messages

● Deforestation, even far away, matters for a habitable earth

● Remote sensing is our best monitoring tool
● Many “levers” to reduce deforestation
● Don’t get complacent, conditions change

Forests: A background

● A metaphor that forests are the “lungs” of the world

● Carbon cycle
○ Most important regulating in this cycle are forests because they are heavily
disturbed
● Forests also regulate recycling
○ Making a lot of water available to our atmosphere

**Most deforestation makes way for agriculture**

The Amazon River Basin

● Largest river on our planet

● Home to extensive agricultural development
● Responsible for about 20% of earth’s water discharge
● Holds ⅕ of the freshwater in the world
● About 50% of earth’s remaining tropical rainforest
 ● About 20% of the oxygen we breathe
● 90-140 billion tons of CO2

Cerrado

● Other names: Cerrado, Cerradão, Campo limpo

● 43% of plant species found here, nowhere else
● Most unprotected savanna in the world
● THREATS:
○ Expansion of croplands, mostly soy

** Total land in agriculture 8,000,000 → 15,200,000 ha 6-fold increase in soy/corn double

cropping (833,000 ha → 5,200,000 ha) **

Unintended Consequences of Deforestation: Amazon and Cerrado

● Among the most concerning environmental impacts of deforestation are those regarding:
○ Carbon pollution
○ Climate
○ Agricultural productivity
○ Biodiversity
● Socioeconomically, deforestation impacts:
● Agricultural productivity
● Culture
● Business risks

Carbon Pollution and Climate

● Forests capture CO2

● Deforestation releases ~20% of human-caused CO2

Biodiversity and Culture

● Strong indigenous culture and governance projects majority of forest

● Nature is an important part of Brazilian culture and identity
● The Rio Olympics (2016) celebrated Brazil’s environmental treasures and stewardship as
an important part of its brand identity
● Brazil nuts are typically collected from forests, not plantations, and generate income
without destructive extraction
● Undiscovered medicinal plants are reasons to avoid deforestation
○ Example: jaborandi treats fever, detoxifies the body and reduces fluid retention;
active ingredient in glaucoma medicine (synthetic)
● Acai is a traditional Amazon fruit, only recently taking hold in the global market – today
a half billion (USD) industry
Brazil’s Soy Supply Chain

● Brazilian soy industry: increasing consolidated through mergers and acquisitions of the
1990s – early 2000s through foreign investment of multinational food companies
● Trifecta for tropical soybean production (late 1990s)
○ Stabilization of the Brazilian currency
○ Policy’s encouraging expert-oriented agriculture
○ Agronomic advances in crop breeding and soil management
● Today: small # of soy firms control majority of Brazil’s market: ADM, Bunge, Cargill,
Louis Drefus and Amaggi Group
○ Example: Amaggi is involved in the financing production, barter of inputs (e.g.,
fertilizer), transport, storage, crushing, and export

Agricultural production
● Land area. Soy farms are few thousand hectares for profitability
● Financing. Producers supported by government owned banks and development banks,
receiving preferred funding from Banco do Brasil, Caixa Economica, and BNDES, to
promote Brazilian agricultural competitiveness in global export markets.
● Knowledge base. Farm practices are heavily informed by locally-adapted advice and
research from Brazilian agricultural extension, EMBRAPA.
● Vertical intensification. Under commitments for zero-deforestation, soybean producers
have looked for other means of increasing production, especially “double cropping”
Processing, transport, trade & distribution
● Brazil is the world’s largest soy exporter. Nearly 90% of Brazilian soy is processed to
soymeal for livestock feed.
● Over 75% of Brazilian soy exports are destined for China, worth US$14.8b
● Brazilian soy producers often process soy in two commodities, protein-rich soymeal
flakes and soybean oil (cooking oil, processed foods).
● Less than 2% of Brazilian soybeans are used for direct human consumption.

Manufacturing
● Brazil ranks third globally in production of livestock feed
● Domestically produced feed goes to poultry (49% to broilers), swine (24%), laying
poultry (8%), dairy (8%), or beef (4%)
● Soy exported to China largely used for livestock feed but it is difficult to trace beyond the
port of entry
● In Holland, imported Brazilian soy is used as feed for dairy production, ending in various
global products such as chocolate
Retail and Consumption
● Restaurants and retailers play an important role in the soybean value chain
 ● These companies can indirectly influence production practices and supplier standards
within their value chain
● Moreover, they are sensitive to external pressures as well as responsive to market trends
and consumer preferences
Efforts to limit deforestation
● A confluence of forces have been effective in slowing deforestation in the Amazon (w/
recent exceptions), which could be a model for future efforts.
● Policy, enforcement, incentive, investment and market efforts must be constantly
evolving in step with changes in deforestation drivers.
● Forest loss slowed and remained stable for the last decade until 2015 and 2016 when
deforestation began to increase. It is worth noting that zero deforestation has never been
achieved.

National Policies
● The Brazilian Forest Code requires land owners to hold “legal reserves” of Forest
● Early 2000s: Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal
Amazon (PPCDAm) is attributed with 59% decrease in deforestation rates
● Sustainable Action Plan (PAS, 2008): strategic guidelines for government policies,
private investments and compliance.
● Only 3% of Cerrado is protected as national parks, indigenous reserves or conservation
areas compared with >50% in the Amazon.

Enforcement and monitoring

● Brazil’s space agency (INPE) PRODES project tracks Amazon deforestation, publicly
releasing rates and locations.
● PRODES project has assessed annual deforestation larger than 6.25 hectares since 1998
● Deforestation in the Cerrado is monitored by researchers at the Federal University of
Goiás(LAPIG) using similar methods
● Rapid response system (DETER by INPE) developed in 2004.
● Capable of detecting deforestation hot spots (>25 hectares)
● Triggers alerts to the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural
Resources (Ibama), national environmental police and law enforcement authority, to
target law enforcement
● Efforts have been hindered by the current recession, which have cut Ibama’s budget 30%.
● Does not operate in Cerrado

The Soy Moratorium

● Voluntary compact with supply chain actors
● Five times more effective at reducing deforestation than the Brazilian Forest code but
experiences higher non-compliance
● Producers have benefited through increased supply security and reputation.
 ● By 2013, new soybean fields were developing on lands previously cleared for other uses,
not newly deforested lands.
● The Cerrado biome was not included in the Soy Moratorium. Since the Cerrado region
does not contain high biomass forest, it was over-looked for conservation initiatives as
agricultural expansion increased.
● Demands for deforestation-free production from NGOs, global consumers and global
brands with support from the Brazilian government and Banco do Brasil (primary source
of credit)
● Enacted (2006) vegetable oil and cereal exporter associations controlling over 90% of
Brazilian soy production
● Soybean traders (Cargill, ADM, Bunge, Dreyfus and Amaggi) promised not to purchase
soybean grown on Amazon lands deforested after July 2006.
Moratoriums
● Supply chain prior to Soy Moratorium
International agreements
● World leaders, UN Secretary General & the New York Declaration on Forests Goal:
● Cut natural forest loss in half by 2020
● End forest loss by 2030
● Bonn Challenge: governments and private stakeholders have committed to restoring over
148 million hectares of deforested and degraded land globally.
● Norway has committed to reducing deforestation through direct pledges to local
governments within the Amazon; funds now at risk due to increased deforestation.

Brazil’s commitment to UNFCCC (iNDC)

● Intends to commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 37% below 2005 levels in
2025.
● For forests this means:
○ strengthening and enforcing the Forest Code
○ strengthening policies and measures to achieve zero illegal deforestation in the
Amazon
○ restoring and reforesting 12 million hectares
○ enhancing sustainable native forest management systems, through applicable
georeferencing and tracking systems, to curb illegal and unsustainable practices

11/8/22 – Land Grabs

Key Questions
● What are the roles of land ownership and control in agriculture, economic
development, and power?
● What are different forms of land tenure?
● What are land grabs?
● Why are land grabs becoming more common and how do investors and communities
perceive them?
Where is land in social position and power?
~80% of world’s undernourished live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their
livelihoods

Land Tenure
● Formal tenure (title / private property rights) is often the exception rather than the rule
among smallholders in low-income countries
● More than 500 million people in developing countries lack ownership or woner-like
rights (e.g., customary tenure) to the land they farm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhAYUIBYs8c (Good youtube video to watch)

Individual Property Rights: A Controversy

● Advantages of formal land title:

○ Legal title promotes increased investment in land
○ Legal title can enable poor to access credit markets
○ Legal title enhances livelihood security
● Counterpoints:
○ Welfare improvements for smallholders come from secure land tenure but not
necessarily property titles
○ Investment does not necessarily occur within titling; must also have access to
credit system
○ Traditional/customary systems often supersede private titling
○ Costs and access to titling likely stratified along socioeconomic lines

Land Reforms
● State-based or market-based
○ Latin America: Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexiocl,
Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Paraguay
○ Middle East and N. Africa: Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria
○ South Asia: Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka
○ Europe: Albania, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, italy, USSR, Russia,
Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom
○ North America: Canada, United States
○ East and Southeast Asia: China, Taiwan, Japan, S. Korea, Philippines, Vietnam
 ● “For most Americans, land is money, and land ownership constitutes power.” –
Mosteller, 2016
● “Land is lost after civic and human rights have already been systematically
trampled upon.” (Holt-Jimenez, 2014)
● 1.5 billion acres seized from North America’s native peoples between 1776 and
the present
The Plantation Economy
● From 1830 to 1840 the U.S. army removed 60,000 Indians–Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee
and others–from the East in exchange for the new territory west of the Mississippi
● Thousands died along the way of what became known as the Trail of Tears

“Land Grabs”: A Global Phenomenon

● Land grabs refer to large-scale land acquisitions by foreign investors
● Generally, investors from richer countries buy land from governments in lower-income
countries for a comparably low price (or lease land for long periods - sometimes up to a
hundred years)
Land Deals also Take Place in the U.S.
● Nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland were held by foreign investors in 2015, nearly
double the acres owned by foreign investors a decade before.
Who’s Grabbing Land?
● According to a 2011 report in The Guardian, which investor was making some of the
largest “land grabs: for agriculture in Africa?
a) China b) Saudi Arabia
c) World Economic Forum d) Harvard
● “A responsible investment,” some purchases exceeding $500 million, earning a 25%
return
Why Land Grabbing?
● “Push” Factors
○ High production and rents costs in many developed countries
○ Fear about food security
○ Fears about energy security
○ Investment opportunity)
● “Pull” Factors
○ “Unutilized” land being readily available in many countries
○ Cheaper prices for land in developing countries
○ Cheap labor in developing countries
○ Potentially high rewards for investors
○ Other benefits than food production or securing energy resources such as access
to water, minerals, etc.
How Do Investors Justify “Land Grabbing”?

● Land Deals are “win-win” scenarios

● Foreign investment:
● Fuels economic development
● Creates employment opportunities
● Provides education and training for locals
● Modernizes agriculture
● Develops infrastructure
● Enhances access to global markets
● Encourages private property rights
● Brings underutilized land under production
● Contributes to regional and global food security
**Investors also take on risks**
● Uncertainty in future political conditions
● Cultural differences

‘Win-Win’? (Depends Who is Counting)

● What threats might these deals pose to communities?
○ To what degree of local communities benefiting from investment? Are these deals
providing opportunities or perpetuating and intensifying poverty and inequality?
○ Does uncultivated land necessarily mean that the land is unused?
○ Are there moral concerns? Does the displacement of locals from traditional lands
violate human rights? Are locals the victims of insecure land tenure systems over
which they have no control?
○ Is environmental health being considered? Who is responsible for the land once
the lease is up?
○ To what degree are these land grabs a manifestation of colonialism, a
neocolonialism?

Concerns among External Critics

● Many of these deals lack transparency
● Lack of accountability measures
● Suppression of local voices

Broader Questions
● What ethical considerations related to land do you think are necessary to achieve
sustainable development?
○ Should rights be the highest priority?
○ Should utilitarianism? (A utilitarian perspective argues that the greatest food for
the greatest number of people)
11/15/22 – Crop Diversity

Key Questions
1) What is biodiversity? Agrobiodiversity? Crop diversity?
2) What are the benefits of crop diversity?
3) What are threats to crop diversity?
4) What strategies exist to preserve crop diversity?

Biodiversity
“Biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial,
marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this
includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.”

Global Biodiversity Decline

- One in four species at risk of extinction
- Crop security threatened long-term
- Marine pollution ‘has increased tenfold since 1980’

Agrobiodiversity
- Within the bucket of biodiversity is agrobiodiversity → agricultural biodiversity
- Mixed agro-ecosystems
- Crop species/varieties
- Livestock and fish species
- plant/animal germplasm
- Soil organisms in cultivated areas
- Biocontrol agents for crop/livestock pests
- Wild species as landraces or with breeding culture and local knowledge of
diversity
Agrobiodiversity has been shaped by:
1. Crop domestication and cultivation
2. Global human-mediated movement
3. Professional breeding and seed commercialization

Crop Diversity
● Interspecific diversity
○ Crop diversity across species
● Intraspecific diversity
○ Crop diversity within species
Where did our crops originate?
● Evidence for the origins of agriculture comes from archaeological excavations and
botanical observations on the distribution of the relatives of our domesticated

Trivia Questions
1. How many plant species exist in the world?
● A) 50,000
● B) 150,000
● C) 350,000
● D) 1,000,000
2. Of the 350,000 plant species in existence, how many are edible?
● A) 5,000
● B) 35,000
● C) 80,000
● D) 200,000
3. Of these, how many are actively cultivated, directly for human food or as feed for
animals?
● A) 150
● B) 500
● C) 1,000
● D) 5,000
4. How many plant species make up 95% of human calories and protein?
● A) 3
● B) 30
● C) 100
● D) 300
5. How many plant species make up about 60% of the human diet?
● A) One
● B) Four
● C) Ten
● D) Twenty-five

But Why Care?

● Field-level Benefits
○ Promote higher functioning agroecosystems
● Household-level Benefits
○ Buffer against risk, enhance food security, and provides market opportunity
● Societal-level Benefits
○ Promote ecosystem services, preserve cultural heritage, and provides public goods
Case Study: Vermont – A farmer experienced high rates of damage from aphid (an insect pest)
attacks to her cabbage crop last seasonal. This season, she decided to plant buckwheat, a cover
crop whose flowers attract ladybugs, which are natural predators to aphids. On another piece of
her land, the farmer also decided to implement a five-year crop rotation plan in which she
planted corn in consecutive years, followed by three years of alfalfa, a legume that fixes nitrogen
in the soil.

Field Benefits Household Benefits Societal Benefits

- Reduces crops susceptibility - Higher crop yields from - Reduction of pesticides and
to pests and pathogens reduced pest infestation fertilizers prevents
- Crop rotations cna improve - More diversity in the downstream effects
soil produce - If it works, she can scale her
- Cover crops can reduce - Takes away from needed ideas to other farmers
runoff pesticide use, making crops - Use of other crops will fix
________________________ healthier for consumption as carbon and nitrogen in soil to
well as reducing health risks help mitigate climate change
- Makes more organic matter that can be a cause of - Preserving more crop
available applying pesticide diversity
- Promotes nutrient cycling - Reduced startup costs ________________________
- Reduces incidence of pests - More diversity means better
and diseases dietary quality - Global food and nutrition
- Encourages pollinators - Promoting health of security
agroecosystem promotes - Climate change adaptation
stability of household and mitigation
________________________ - Preserves cultural heritage
- Promotes high functioning
- Reduces risk (e.g. weather, ecosystems
market, pest)
- Provides more market
opportunity
- Enhances food security
- Contributes to healthy
farming systems

Why Crop Diversity Matters

1. Ensuring food security
2. Adapting to Climate Change
3. Safeguarding biodiversity
4. Protecting nutritional security
5. Reducing poverty
6. Ensuring sustainable agriculture
What is Biocultural Heritage?
- Vital for the wellbeing of society → the inter-linked biological and cultural diversity of
indigenous peoples and local communities, from seeds to landscapes and from knowledge
to spiritual values, handed down from generation to generation

And yet…agrobiodiversity is under threat

Biodiversity Hotspots: Locations within high levels of biodiversity under high threats of habitat
loss

As many as 44% of all plant species worldwide and 35% of vertebrate species but covers just
1.4% of land surface (formerly 11.8% and has already experienced 88% loss in vegetation.

Threats to Crop Diversity

Threats Include:
● Climate Change
● Agricultural Modernization
○ And part of modernization is new technologies

Academic Capitalism
- Converting advanced knowledge into materials for commercial products and services

Strategies: Ex Situ (Off site) Conservation

● International Seed Banks
○ Global Crop Diversity Trust
● In Peru, over 4,000 native varieties of potatoes in existence, the vast majority of which
are cultivated and maintained by farmers in the Andean highlands

Syrian War leads to 1st withdrawals from Svalbard seed bank

● Wheat, Barley, and Grasses replace collection destroyed in war

So how do we promote agrobiodiversity in conservation?

● Non-market Methods
○ Seed Fairs
○ Seed Saving
○ Participatory Plant Breeding
● Market Methods
○ Developing markets
○ Payments for Agrobiodiversity Conservation Services

Something to ponder:
● What might be the challenges and even pitfalls to trying to create markets for crops that
do not demand high market value?

11/17/22 - Seed Systems

● What is a seed
○ Holds all the genetic material to create a plant
 ○ Seeds are embedded in many cultural processes
● Why care?
○ Biodiversity conservation
○ Climate adaptation
○ Food security
○ Livelihood security
○ Cultural heritage
○ individual/ community self-determination
● Seed system structures and trends
○ Informal seed systems
■ Farmers managed
■ Farmer-farmer exchanges
■ Saved seed
○ Formal seed systems
■ Organized, embedded within a formal economy
■ Commercial companies, NGOs, governments
● Differences in seed characteristics
○ Informal systems (90%)
■ Diverse, locally adapted seed
■ Heirloom, landrace, or traditional varieties
○ Formal systems (10%)
■ Distinct, uniform, and stable varieties
■ Commercial varieties
■ Hybrids, GMOs, conventional varieties (though not necessarily)
■ High mowing seeds is based in vermont
● Seed system stakeholders
○ Regulatory authority (RA)
■ Institution responsible for controlling market and enforcing laws and
regulations
○ NGOs (NGO)
■ Organizations that safeguard societal interests (environmental, health,
welfare)
○ Farmers (F)
■ Seed and crop producers and small-farmers
○ Trade associations of private companies and enterprises (TA)
■ NGOs which safeguard the interests of the for-profit sector
○ Private companies (CO)
■ Breeder and seed trader companies
○ Market support services (MSS)
 ■ Private and state organizations and institutions that contribute to seed
system operation
○ Education research institutions (ERI)
■ Institutions where new agricultural technology is developed and where
people in agriculture are educated
○ Legislative institutions (LI)
■ Institutions that have a power to set the rules of the game and distribute
the state budget
● High-yielding hybrid varieties
○ Hybridization of raise in the 1930s
○ Can’t be planted back
● Seed policy: the development of IPR
○ 1930: plant patent act
■ Allowed patents on asexually reproducing plants
○ 1970: plant variety protection act
■ Patent-like protections for sexually reproducing plants
○ 1980: diamond v. chakrabarty
■ Transgenic organisms patentable
■ Set precedent for patents of living organisms
● The green revolution
○ The proliferation of hybrid seed varieties (at least in name) or MVs
○ Concurrent disincentivization of seed-saving practices
○ Seed companies become more powerful
● One result: crop diversity loss
○ Dwindling availability of non-commercially viable seeds
○ Increased focus on hybrids as opposed to open-pollinated varieties
○ Farmers are incentivized to purchase more of one variety as opposed to a diversity
○ Difficulty for small companies to access or sell resilient varieties
● A second green revolution
○ Goals:
■ Founded in 2006 with the goal of bringing high-yeild agricultural practices
to 30 million smallholder farming households
■ Similar basic approach: promoting the adoption of new high-yeild seed
varieties fed with inorganic fertilizer
○ Reality/critiques
■ Seed companies benefit from seed and fertilizer subsidies
■ Heavy focus on maize and rice as opposed to other important crops such
as millet, sorghum, cassava, and legumes
■ Lack of evidence that AGRA varieties are more productive than local
verities- especially with insufficient fetilizer usage
 ● Conservation
○ Ex-situ- off-site/in storage
■ gene/seed banks
■ Seed libraries
○ In-situ- in-site/on plots
■ Small holders
■ Indigenous people
■ Women
● Seed system movements
○ Seed sovereignty
■ Farmer-centered and community control over seeds and seed trade
○ Alternative seed companies
■ Micro and small-scale seed companies selling regionally adapted, organic,
heirloom, etc. varieties
○ Seed-saving and sharing networks
■ Horizontally distributed approaches to seeds and knowledge with the goal
of creating seed commons

11/29/22 - Corporate Consolidation

Objectives
● To identify the degree of market concentration in the food and beverage industry
● To define and understand key terms:: monopoly and oligopoly
● To trace these trends in the seed industry
● To consider if and how corporate consolidation affects sustainable development

**Anheuser-Busch Inbey: The result of a 2004 and 2008 merger between Anheyser-Busch
(U.S.), Interbrew (Belgium), and AmBev (Brazil)

Market Concentration
● Four-firm concentration ratio (CR4): A ratio ranging from 0-100 with the number
representing the percentage that four firms control the marketplace for a particular good.
● So for the U.S. beer market, as of 2012:
In the 1800s: Trust U.S.
● Between 1897 and 1904 over 4,000 companies were consolidated down into 257
corporate firms
Trust-busting in the Early 1900s
● 1877: Munn v. Illinois upholds “Granger Laws” – states can regulate companies
● Federal efforts: Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914
“The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts
are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them,
but it is in duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is
shown.”
- Teddy Roosevelt
Neoliberalism (Reaganomics)
● Neoliberalism is the resurgence of ideas associated with laissez-faire economic
liberalism beginning in the 1970s and 1980s whose advocates support extensive
economic liberalization, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order to
enhance the role of the private sector.
○ Free Trade
○ Liberalization
○ Privatization
○ Austerity

- Weakening of antitrust laws…

Oligopoly Examples in U.S. → large firms that dominate the trade industry with little
competition
● Car industry
● Supermarket industry
● Makeup industry
● Cell phone services and cell phones
● Gas
● Food
● Banking

But Why Should We Care About Monopolies?

● Consumers paying higher prices
● Suppliers receiving lower prices
● Reduced innovation
● Negative externalities on communities, human health, animal welfare, and/or the
environment
● Lobbying power against regulations
 - When we look at companies’ performances with lots of market power, we can understand
their contribution (or not) to sustainable development
- General Mills (Betty Crocker, Cheerios, Green Giant, Old El Paso, and others)

A Case Study: The Seed Industry

● Seed was a common resource for the great majority of history since the neolithic
Revolution (the beginning of agriculture)

Green Revolution: World grain yields 1961 - 1985

Data from FAOSTAT - UN FAO Statistics database

- Much of the work that was carried out by the Green Revolution was done by public
entities

Governance during Neoliberalism

● Civil Society → State Governments/IGOs
● Civil Society → Market (Private Sector)
● State Governments/IGOs → Market (Private Sector)

Key Questions to Consider

● To what extent does corporate consolidation serve the public interest?
● Is it the technology itself that’s problematic or who owns the technology and how it’s
used?
● Are corporate consolidation and sustainable development mutually exclusive?
12/1/22 - Food Consumption

Overview
● To understand food consumption trends
● To identify consumption habits/preferences and relevant tradeoffs
● To ascertain how consumer choices affect sustainable development.

Currently, food availability is not the problem…

● The United States government states that the average man needs 2,700 kcal per day and
the average woman needs 2,200 kcal per day. Not everybody needs the same number of
calories each day.

However:
● Need to produce between 25-70% more food by 2050 and restore proper ecosystem
functioning (Hunter et al. 2017)
● Global obesity rates are increasing
● Increasing focus on diets and food consumption

Daily per capita food waste (U.S.)

**Fruits and vegetables are wasted the most (most common type of food groups to waste)
Total food waste by Healthy Eating Index-2015 quintile
● “Higher quality diets were associated with greater amounts of food waste and greater
amounts of wasted irrigation water and pesticides.”
Global Food Waste
● Food loss refers to food that is spilled or becomes spoiled before reaching its final stage.
● Large quantities of food are wasted due to quality standards that overemphasize
appearance.
○ So how much is wasted…?
■ Fruits and vegetables → 45%
■ Roots and tubers → 45%
■ Fish → 35%
■ Cereals → 30%
■ Meat → 20%
■ Dairy → 20%
■ Oilseeds and pulses → 20%

Food Waste and Food Security

● ¼ to ⅓ of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted
Food Waste and Climate Change
● If global food was a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter after the
US and China

Malnutrition is a major challenge globally as well

● Prevalence of anemia in low- and middle-income countries in children 0-5 years
● In addition approximately one billion people have inadequate protein intake

Foods High in Protein and Iron

● Chicken
● Liver
● Broccoli
● Dried beans/green peas
● Pork
● Beef
● Potatoes with skin
● Spinach
● Egg yolk
● Clams
● Iron fortified cereals
● Raisins
● Shrimp
● Dried apricot
● Watermelon

Lower impact, high protein options

*Guinea pigs are twice as efficient as cows at turning food, like hay and compost scraps, into
meat; To render a pound of meat, a cow may require 8 lbs of feed. A guinea pig only requires 4
lbs.

Lab grown meat…? Insects…?

**There are human impacts to consider too – THINK ABOUT IT – Do you know how your
favorite goods are made? Items you use every day may be produced by child or forced labor.

What does 100% Natural mean? – 31% of U.S. consumers believe “100% Natural” is the most
desirable eco-product label. 62% believe “Natural” implies no pesticide use.
● The label means nothing.
● FDA only regulates the word “natural” in meat and poultry to exclude foods containing
“artificial substances” (GMO is A-OK)
Similar labeling mysteries
● “Made with Whole Grains”
● “Lightly Sweetened”
● “Free-Range”
● “Local” ?

Strategies to minimize harm of our consumption choices: Information

● Fairtrade
● Minimal ethical standards

What is Fair? How do we measure successful fair trade?

USDA Organic:
● Organic production and marketing looks like…
○ Local farms that are biodiverse offering a plethora of products
○ Monoculture cropping with a lot of irrigation
■ Earthbound Farm
○ Machinery used
● Local farms
○ Cows grazing in pasture
○ Cows eating hay in a barn
○ There’s nothing normative about local

Key Question: What are the most effective strategies to enhance ethical consumption?

12/6/22 – Social Movements

Goals
● Scan the major social, economic, and environmental challenges we are confronting as a
society and how they are interconnected
● Consider how to engage constructively and productively in ways that address these
challenges
● Think about what all of this means for us individually, locally, nationally, globally
● Empower you all to have the information to make a difference as consumers and citizens