GEOG 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Urban Sprawl, Arable Land, Sea Level Rise

41 views5 pages
People are moving away from the land that food is grown on
Food security:
People, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient,
safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life
-
Agricultural land:
Losing agricultural land because of climate change (high
temperature, drought, rising water levels)
-
2010: 37.7% of world's total land was considered agricultural land,
10.6% considered arable
-
17.6 million sq km used to grow crops
-
Farmable:
Arable land: temporarily used for crops, meadows, or pastures,
including land purposefully left temporarily fallow, doesn’t
include potentially cultivable land
Agricultural land: arable land and land used for permanent,
long term crops that don't need to be replanted yearly,
permanent meadow and pasture land. Includes fruit and nut
trees, but excludes trees grown for timber
-
Factors affecting farmable land
Climate
Water
Soil composition and rockiness
Altitude
Urban development and sprawl, pollution and landfills
Deforestation
Soil salinization
Climate change (desertification and sea level rise)
-
Urban sprawl:
Growing cities sprawl over what once was mostly farmland, only 5%
of Canada's entire land base is suitable for growing food
-
Global connections:
Food production/cost effected by natural disasters
-
Food price index, monthly price changes for a food basket composed
of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat, and sugar
-
Facts:
About half the world's labor force is employed in agriculture
-
We rely on only about 20 crops for almost all of our food
-
About 870 million people are chronically malnourished
-
Total amount of land that is under cultivation is about 1.5 billion ha
-
95% of the world's farms are small-scale (less than 5 ha)
-
2 billion people depend on small farms for the livelihoods
-
1 billion people in rural areas live on less than $1.25/day
-
Small scale farmers produce 70% of the world's food on 25% of the
world's farmland
-
Small farms more productive than big farms
-
Most small farmers are women
-
Small farms squeezed onto less than a quarter of world's farmland
-
Types of agriculture:
Definition of agriculture: science, art, and business directed at
cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for sustenance and profit
-
Subsistence farming:
Grow enough food to eat, as well as some surplus for market
Fewer chemical inputs
Labor intensive
Polyculture (numerous crops are interplanted)
Smaller farms
Practiced mainly in poorer countries
-
Shifting cultivation:
Humid tropical forest regions
Rotational agriculture
Polyculture, mixed crops and trees
Fruit trees often planted in fallows
Supports relatively low population densities
-
Intensive subsistence cultivation:
Labor intensive
Raised fields or terraces common
Support large population
Two or more harvest a year possible
Rice (China, India etc...)
Flatlands needed because plant must be submerged for
much of time (river valleys/deltas and terraces(
§
Warm winters, 2 crops per year
§
Drier, colder parts, other crops grown in rotation
§
-
Pastoralism:
Cold and dry climates
Transhumance herding (horses, camels, goats, sheep, cattle,
reindeer depending on climate, vegetation tradition)
Traditional movement of nomadic pastoralists increasing
restricted (about 15 million)
-
Commercial agriculture:
Production for the market
Dominate type in core countries
Large agribusiness and small family farms
Number of small farms decreasing, but size of farms are
increasing
-
Industrial agriculture:
Farms that includes production, storage, processing,
distribution, marketing, and retailing
Regional or global in scope, depending on type of agriculture
Heavy reliance on agrochemicals
Synthetic fertilizers/pesticides
§
Monocultures, high yielding varieties
Highly mechanized
Larger farms/plantations
-
Permaculture?
-
Environmental factors that condition agriculture:
Climate and weather
Can be over come with greenhouses, irrigation
Most plants' optimal temp are between 18-25 degrees
Low temp: slow growth, short season (plant's don't reach
maturity, limits geographic range of crops)
Variability and predictability
-
Soil characteristics
Best soils have loamy texture, high organic matter content,
abundant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,
micronutrients)
-
Topography
Altitude temperature
Steep slopes, problems with erosion
Difficult to mechanize on steep slopes
-
Human factors that condition agriculture
Cultural traditions and preferences
-
Technologies
-
Distance from markets
-
Government policies
-
Economic globalization
-
Urban development and sprawl, pollution and landfills
-
Deforestation and soil salinization
-
Anthropogenic climate change (desertification and sea level rise)
-
Increases in production:
Hybrid crop varieties
Mature faster
Produce more food per plant
Some bred to respond better to fertilizers
Can reduce vulnerability to pests, but they continue to evolve
and monocultures allow rapid spread of pests
-
Irrigation
Increases yield, opens up new areas to allow more harvests
per year
Problems with irrigation:
Productive land not used effectively
§
Irrigation and fertilizer application efficiency could be
improved
§
Food still lost to pests and spoilage
§
-
Biotech (GMOs)
Resistance to insects without pesticides, resistance to
herbicides
Higher nutritional value, longer shelf life, altered flavor/color
Saves money, reduce use of fossil fuels
Problems:
No clear definition of what genetically modified is
§
Long germ effects on environment, animal, or people?
§
Major crops: maize, soybeans, cotton, canola
-
Environmental impacts:
Chemical inputs
-
Agricultural alternatives:
Local food
Improve local economies
More self-reliant and resilient food networks
Positive impact on local health, environment, community, and
society
-
Organic farming
No synthetic pesticides or fertilizers
No growth hormones or antibiotics in livestock
No GMOs
Consumers must be willing to pay more
-
Food and Agriculture
Monday, November 13, 2017
8:37 AM
Unlock document

This preview shows pages 1-2 of the document.
Unlock all 5 pages and 3 million more documents.

Already have an account? Log in
People are moving away from the land that food is grown on
Food security:
People, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient,
safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life
-
Agricultural land:
Losing agricultural land because of climate change (high
temperature, drought, rising water levels)
-
2010: 37.7% of world's total land was considered agricultural land,
10.6% considered arable
-
17.6 million sq km used to grow crops
-
Farmable:
Arable land: temporarily used for crops, meadows, or pastures,
including land purposefully left temporarily fallow, doesn’t
include potentially cultivable land
Agricultural land: arable land and land used for permanent,
long term crops that don't need to be replanted yearly,
permanent meadow and pasture land. Includes fruit and nut
trees, but excludes trees grown for timber
-
Factors affecting farmable land
Climate
Water
Soil composition and rockiness
Altitude
Urban development and sprawl, pollution and landfills
Deforestation
Soil salinization
Climate change (desertification and sea level rise)
-
Urban sprawl:
Growing cities sprawl over what once was mostly farmland, only 5%
of Canada's entire land base is suitable for growing food
-
Global connections:
Food production/cost effected by natural disasters
-
Food price index, monthly price changes for a food basket composed
of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat, and sugar
-
Facts:
About half the world's labor force is employed in agriculture
-
We rely on only about 20 crops for almost all of our food
-
About 870 million people are chronically malnourished
-
Total amount of land that is under cultivation is about 1.5 billion ha
-
95% of the world's farms are small-scale (less than 5 ha)
-
2 billion people depend on small farms for the livelihoods
-
1 billion people in rural areas live on less than $1.25/day
-
Small scale farmers produce 70% of the world's food on 25% of the
world's farmland
-
Small farms more productive than big farms
-
Most small farmers are women
-
Small farms squeezed onto less than a quarter of world's farmland
-
Types of agriculture:
Definition of agriculture: science, art, and business directed at
cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for sustenance and profit
-
Subsistence farming:
Grow enough food to eat, as well as some surplus for market
Fewer chemical inputs
Labor intensive
Polyculture (numerous crops are interplanted)
Smaller farms
Practiced mainly in poorer countries
-
Shifting cultivation:
Humid tropical forest regions
Rotational agriculture
Polyculture, mixed crops and trees
Fruit trees often planted in fallows
Supports relatively low population densities
-
Intensive subsistence cultivation:
Labor intensive
Raised fields or terraces common
Support large population
Two or more harvest a year possible
Rice (China, India etc...)
Flatlands needed because plant must be submerged for
much of time (river valleys/deltas and terraces(
§
Warm winters, 2 crops per year
§
Drier, colder parts, other crops grown in rotation
§
-
Pastoralism:
Cold and dry climates
Transhumance herding (horses, camels, goats, sheep, cattle,
reindeer depending on climate, vegetation tradition)
Traditional movement of nomadic pastoralists increasing
restricted (about 15 million)
-
Commercial agriculture:
Production for the market
Dominate type in core countries
Large agribusiness and small family farms
Number of small farms decreasing, but size of farms are
increasing
-
Industrial agriculture:
Farms that includes production, storage, processing,
distribution, marketing, and retailing
Regional or global in scope, depending on type of agriculture
Heavy reliance on agrochemicals
Synthetic fertilizers/pesticides
§
Monocultures, high yielding varieties
Highly mechanized
Larger farms/plantations
-
Permaculture?
-
Environmental factors that condition agriculture:
Climate and weather
Can be over come with greenhouses, irrigation
Most plants' optimal temp are between 18-25 degrees
Low temp: slow growth, short season (plant's don't reach
maturity, limits geographic range of crops)
Variability and predictability
-
Soil characteristics
Best soils have loamy texture, high organic matter content,
abundant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,
micronutrients)
-
Topography
Altitude temperature
Steep slopes, problems with erosion
Difficult to mechanize on steep slopes
-
Human factors that condition agriculture
Cultural traditions and preferences
-
Technologies
-
Distance from markets
-
Government policies
-
Economic globalization
-
Urban development and sprawl, pollution and landfills
-
Deforestation and soil salinization
-
Anthropogenic climate change (desertification and sea level rise)
-
Increases in production:
Hybrid crop varieties
Mature faster
Produce more food per plant
Some bred to respond better to fertilizers
Can reduce vulnerability to pests, but they continue to evolve
and monocultures allow rapid spread of pests
-
Irrigation
Increases yield, opens up new areas to allow more harvests
per year
Problems with irrigation:
Productive land not used effectively
§
Irrigation and fertilizer application efficiency could be
improved
§
Food still lost to pests and spoilage
§
-
Biotech (GMOs)
Resistance to insects without pesticides, resistance to
herbicides
Higher nutritional value, longer shelf life, altered flavor/color
Saves money, reduce use of fossil fuels
Problems:
No clear definition of what genetically modified is
§
Long germ effects on environment, animal, or people?
§
Major crops: maize, soybeans, cotton, canola
-
Environmental impacts:
Chemical inputs
-
Agricultural alternatives:
Local food
Improve local economies
More self-reliant and resilient food networks
Positive impact on local health, environment, community, and
society
-
Organic farming
No synthetic pesticides or fertilizers
No growth hormones or antibiotics in livestock
No GMOs
Consumers must be willing to pay more
-
Food and Agriculture
Monday, November 13, 2017 8:37 AM
Unlock document

This preview shows pages 1-2 of the document.
Unlock all 5 pages and 3 million more documents.

Already have an account? Log in

Document Summary

People are moving away from the land that food is grown on. People, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Losing agricultural land because of climate change (high temperature, drought, rising water levels) 2010: 37. 7% of world"s total land was considered agricultural land, 17. 6 million sq km used to grow crops. Arable land: temporarily used for crops, meadows, or pastures, including land purposefully left temporarily fallow, doesn"t include potentially cultivable land. Agricultural land: arable land and land used for permanent, long term crops that don"t need to be replanted yearly, permanent meadow and pasture land. Includes fruit and nut trees, but excludes trees grown for timber. Growing cities sprawl over what once was mostly farmland, only 5% of canada"s entire land base is suitable for growing food.

Get access

Grade+20% off
$8 USD/m$10 USD/m
Billed $96 USD annually
Grade+
Homework Help
Study Guides
Textbook Solutions
Class Notes
Textbook Notes
Booster Class
40 Verified Answers
Class+
$8 USD/m
Billed $96 USD annually
Class+
Homework Help
Study Guides
Textbook Solutions
Class Notes
Textbook Notes
Booster Class
30 Verified Answers

Related Documents