ENVS10011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Agronomy
17 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
WEEK 2: FOOD PRODUCTION
• Food production environments: hunter/gatherers, agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture
Agriculture
• Agronomy: study of agriculture
1st Agricultural Revolution
• About 10,000 years ago, changed societies globally, done in diff areas separately
• Domestication of plants + animals
Agriculture v Hunter/Gatherers
• Agri: can sustain more people (100x more people per area)
• Agri: ate more plants, less calories, less meat
• 50% of terrestrial surface: used for agri (crop production + grazing)
Global Agriculture + Food Production
• Uses 93% of all human water consumption
• Uses 30% of global energy use (if transport + food processing is included)
• Produces 10-20% of global GHG emissions (leading in methane + nitrous oxide)
Agro-Ecosystems
Ecosystem Aspects of Agro-Ecosystems
• Defined/characterised by human inputs
Document Summary
Week 2: food production: food production environments: hunter/gatherers, agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture. 1st agricultural revolution: about 10,000 years ago, changed societies globally, done in diff areas separately, domestication of plants + animals. Agriculture v hunter/gatherers: agri: can sustain more people (100x more people per area, agri: ate more plants, less calories, less meat, 50% of terrestrial surface: used for agri (crop production + grazing) Global agriculture + food production: uses 93% of all human water consumption, uses 30% of global energy use (if transport + food processing is included, produces 10-20% of global ghg emissions (leading in methane + nitrous oxide)
