Food &

Agriculture

Copyright © 2014 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:

•How many people are chronically hungry, and why

does hunger persist in a world of surpluses?
• What are some health risks of undernourishment,
poor diet, and overeating?
• What are our primary food crops?
• What was the green revolution?
• What are GMOs, and what traits are most commonly
introduced with GMOs?
• Describe some environmental costs of farming, and
ways we can minimize these costs.

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We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of
thinking we used when we created them.

–Albert Einstein

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 7.1 Global Trends in Food
and Nutrition
• Food production has been transformed from small-
scale, diversified, operations to vast operations of
thousands of hectares, growing one or two
genetically modified crops, with abundant inputs of
fuel and fertilizer, for a competitive global market.
• Despite these changes, food costs have risen
recently. In general, global food supply problems
have more to do with distribution than with supplies.
• We continue to produce surpluses, but hunger
remains an urgent problem.
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 Food Security is Unevenly
Distributed
• Fifty years ago, hunger was one of the world’s most
persistent problems. Today, some conditions have
changed dramatically; others have changed very little.
• The world’s population has more than doubled, from 3
to 7 billion, but food production has risen even faster.
While the average population growth in the past 50
years has been 1.7 % per year, food production has
increased by 2.2 % per year.
• Food availability has increased in most countries to
well over 2,200 kilocalories per person per day.
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Changes in Dietary Energy and
Protein Consumption

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Hunger Around the World Has
Not Been Eliminated

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 Average protein
requirement of a person
per day

ⓘ Start presenting to display the poll results on this slide.

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 Changes in Number and Rate of
Malnourishment Across the World

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 What is Food Security?
• Food security is the ability to obtain sufficient,
healthy food on a day-to-day basis, is a combined
problem of economic, environmental, and social
conditions.
• Even in wealthy countries such as the United States,
millions lack a sufficient, healthy diet.
• In the poorest countries, entire national economies
can suffer from a severe drought, flood, or insect
outbreak.
• At least 6 million children under 5 years old die every
year of diseases exacerbated by hunger and
malnutrition.
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 Famines Usually Have Political
and Social Roots
• Globally, widespread hunger arises when political
instability, war, and conflict displace populations,
removing villagers from their farms or making
farming too dangerous to carry on.
• Famines are large-scale food shortages, with
widespread starvation, social disruption, and
economic chaos.
• Even when better conditions return, it often takes a
long time to recover because the people may have
consumed their seed grain and breeding livestock.
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Hungry Children in Somalia

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 Give an example of a
condition that will cause
famine in a country?

ⓘ Start presenting to display the poll results on this slide.

09/22/10
7.2 How Much Food Do We Need?

• A good diet is essential to keep you healthy.

• You need the right nutrients, as well as enough
calories for a productive and energetic lifestyle.
• The United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) estimates that nearly 3 billion
people (almost half the world’s population) suffer
from vitamin, mineral, or protein deficiencies.

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 Dietary Deficiencies Can
Cause Serious Illnesses
• Malnourishment is a
general term for
nutritional imbalances
caused by a lack of
specific nutrients.
• Lack of protein in young
children can cause
kwashiorkor and
marasmus occurs when
both protein and calories
are lacking.
• Iodine deficiencies can
cause goiters.
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The Harvard Food Pyramid

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 Overeating is a Growing World
Problem
• Today, there are now more overweight people than
underweight people.
• This trend isn’t limited to richer countries. Diseases
once thought to afflict only wealthy nations, such as
heart attack, stroke, and diabetes, are now becoming
the most prevalent causes of death and disability
everywhere.
• In the U.S., and increasingly in Europe, China, and
developing countries, highly processed foods rich in
sugars and fats have become a large part of the diet.
• Some 64% of adult Americans are overweight, up
from 40% only a decade ago. About 1/3 of us are
seriously overweight, or obese (more than 20 % over
the ideal weight for a person’s height and sex).
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Chronic Obesity is a Growing
Problem Worldwide

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 More Production Doesn’t
Necessarily Reduce Hunger
• An overabundance of food supplies in much of the
world suggests that answers to global hunger may lie
in better use and distribution of food resources.
• Even in developing areas, lack of food production is
not always the cause of hunger.
• Global food waste amounts to some 30 percent of all
food production—1.3 billion tons annually—as food
is spoiled in storage and transit, used inefficiently, or
thrown away after preparation.

09/22/10 7-19
 7.3 The Foods We Eat

• Only a few edible plants

and animals in the world
provide most of our food.
• In the U.S., corn and
soybeans have become
primary staple foods.
• Wheat and rice are also
important to many
countries.

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Production of Major Food
Crops in the U.S.

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 Genetic Engineering Could
Have Benefits and Costs
• Genetic engineering:
splicing a gene from one
organism into the
chromosome of another.
• Genetically modified
organisms (GMOs):
organisms with entirely
new genes, and even
new organisms, often
called “transgenic”
organisms.
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 Most GMOs are Engineered for
Pesticide Production or Pesticide
Tolerance
• The dominant transgenic crops are engineered to
tolerate high doses of herbicides—allowing fields to
be sprayed for weeds without affecting the crops
themselves—or to create their own insecticides.
• Leading among herbicide-tolerant (HT) varieties are
Monsanto’s Roundup-Ready crops—which withstand
treatment with Monsanto’s herbicide “Roundup”.
• Another widespread use of GM technology
is to insert genes from a natural soil bacterium, Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt), into plants. Bt crops produce their
own insecticides so farmers can spray less.
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 Growth of GMO Crops in the U.S.

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 Is Genetic Engineering Safe?
• Consumers have long worried about unknown health
effects of GM foods, but the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration argues that these new varieties are
“substantially equivalent” to related varieties bred
via traditional practices.
• Despite continuing debates, direct effects of GM
foods on human health remain unclear.
• The greatest worry about GM organisms is the
ecological effects if they escape and breed with the
wild relatives.
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 Sustainable farming
• Sustainable farming involves soil conservation,
crop rotation, and nutrient management.
• Soil conservation

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• Crop rotation

09/22/10
Shop at a Local Farmer’s Market

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 You Can be a Locavore

• A locavore is a person who consumes locally

produced food.
• Supporting local farmers can have a variety of
benefits, from keeping money in the local economy
to ensuring a fresh and healthy diet.
• Maintaining a viable farm economy can also help
slow the conversion of farmland into expanding
suburban subdivisions.
• Farmers’ markets are usually the easiest way to eat
locally
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 You Can Eat Low On The Food
Chain
• Because there is less energy involved in producing
food from plants than producing it from animals, one
way you can reduce your impact on the world’s soil
and water is to eat a little more grains, vegetables,
and dairy and a little less meat.
• This doesn’t mean turning vegetarian—unless you
choose to do so, but reducing your level of protein
and fat consumption could make a big difference for
the environment and for your health.

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 Conclusion
• Food production has grown faster than the human
population in recent decades, and the percentage of
people facing chronic hunger has declined.
• Increases in food production result from many
innovations in agricultural production like the green
revolution and the development of GMOs.
• These changes bring about environmental problems
such as soil erosion and water contamination from
pesticide and fertilizer applications.
• Consumers can influence farm production by
choosing what food they buy and where they buy it.
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