global is at ion of food production

8/6/2019 Global is at Ion of Food Production

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Food crisis

Food prices are skyrocketing

More people are going below the

breadline The very fabric of modern society is

being threatened

What is going on?


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Industrial revolution and use of

hydrocarbons

Pre-industrialisation: Slave labour

provided energy for production.

Industrialisation: Coal and then Oil. Our industrial revolution was based on

the supply of abundant, cheap, high-

content energy from fossil fuels.


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Globalisation of food production

Specialisation has led to monoculture

farming.

Food from different parts of the world areshipped / flown around.

If food shipments are to stop tomorrow,

we would no longer be able to feed

ourselves.


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Dependence on fossil fuels

The abundance of food production were

brought about by the availability of

cheap, abundant fossil fuels. Fertilizers

Pesticides

Seeding, maintaining, harvesting,processing and transporting.


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What are hydrocarbons?

Millions of years ago, algal mats in the

ocean were formed.

Single celled plant life that dedicateditself to self-replication receiving energy

from the sun converting solar energy to

carbohydrates.

This dead algae rained down on the

ocean floor and was covered by organic

material.


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Hydrocarbons

This organic ooze was compacted and

heated over long periods of time, until

carbohydrates were eventually transformedinto what we call fossil fuels.


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Crude oil and natural gas

Where the ooze became compressedover millions of years the heat energywas transformed into crude oil.

Where it mixed with natural vegetationfrom coastal areas, it became naturalgas.

Man has managed to put them to gooduse and base all development on thesupply of this material. Fossil fuels didmake life easier for humans.


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The reasons for increasing food

prices

Large increase in population

Agriculture dependent on fossil fuel Running out of fossil fuel

Top soil loss

Water shortage Loss of soil fertility


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The green revolution

Began in the 1960s

Transformed food production into an

industry- from subsistence farming toagrobiz corporations, increased 250%.

Achieved through dependence on fossil

fuels

In response population grew far in

excess of carrying capacity.


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What happened to soil?

Intense monoculture agriculture strip soil

of nutrients.

Depleted water supplies Hydrocarbon based inputs dependent

Without this input most land is

unproductive.


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Land degradation

Soil depletion

Desertification

Destruction of tropical forests


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Land some numbers

Each year 10 million hectares are lost

5 million hectares must be added to feed

the extra 84 million born every year. In all 15 million hectares are needed

yearly to make up for losses and

increased population.


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Landsome numbers

It takes 500 years for nature to replace 1

inch of topsoil.

3000 years are required for naturalreformation of enough topsoil for

agriculture.

Globally 75 billion tons of soil is lost per

year through wind and water erosion.


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Food production without fossil fuels

Top soil loss, water table depletion,

monoculture etc has drastically reduced

capacity of land to produce food

naturally.

It is totally dependent on external inputs

from fossil fuels.

Fossil fuel is running out. We will starve

to death if we do not change.


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What about water

Modern agriculture is dependent onsecure water supply. Therefore, weirrigate.

Competition between cities andagricultural needs.

Industrial agriculture is water thirsty.

I7 % of the worlds cropland is irrigated,they produce 40 % of the harvest; two orthree crops can be produced per year.


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Watersome numbers

70 % of the Earths surface is covered in

water.

97.5% of this is salt water and only 2.5%is fresh.

Of the 2.5%, 70 % is frozen in the artics.

Only 0.007% is available for human use. 85% of all available fresh water is used

for agriculture.


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Irrigation the problem

Damage to irrigated land from:

Salinization

Waterlogging Rising cost of power to move water;

dependent on fossil fuel.

Not possible to increase land underirrigation.


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Water and urbanisation

Urbanisation competes with agriculture

for water.

Urban usage predicted to double in thenext 10 years.


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Water salinization

Artificial fertilizers in water lead toincreased algae in lakes, rivers, seasand estuaries.

Oxygen depletion takes place leading todead zones where fish, shrimp and othercreatures cannot survive.

Pesticide run off, including DDT, intoground water poses a serious threat toall life forms.


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Fossil fuel in agriculture

Agriculture needs fossil fuels for

fetilizers, irrigation, pesticides,

machinery, drying, transportation,

electricity, construction of maintenance

of farm buildings.

After production energy is needed for

packaging, delivery, refrigeration andcooking.


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Use of fossil fuels in agriculture

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Total Energy Directly and Indirectly Consumed on

U.S. Farms in 2002 was 1,7 Quadrillion Btu

Series1 8.3 2.9 3 4.6 27.3 8.6 20.7

pestici Fertiliz natural LP diesel gasoli electri

In the United States, the equivalent

of 400 gallons of oil is expended

annually to feed each US citizen.


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Fossil fuels in agriculture.

1000 litres of oil required to produce food

from one hectare of land.

6 billion pounds of pesticide(manufactured from crude) is used in the

USA every year

Fertilizer (derived from natural gas) is the

main input necessary for agriculture.


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Fossil fuels for transport

Food miles is the distance food travels from

farms to tables.

As a result of globalisation and specialisation,

food has had to travel far distances aslocalised agriculture became specialised.

In 1996, trucks in the USA alone used 6658

billion gallons of fuel.

More is used as more food is transported

across the world by air and sea transport.


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Are we eating fossil fuels?

In the last two decades, use ofhydrocarbon based pesticides andfertilizers have increased thirty-fold.

Tests showed residues of 13 pesticidesin the human body.

Our entire agricultural system is based

on the availability of fossil fuels. Fossil fuel availability is declining. Will

we survive?


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Declining supply of fossil fuels

Prediction that oil production will reach

peak by 2010.

Impact of this will be felt not only in gaspumps,

It will affect the basic component of

human life- food.


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Population and food production

The Green revolution brought about a250% increase in food production.

This led to a world population increaseto 6 billion.

We can hope that there will be a gradualdecline in population with more equitable

distribution of wealth. The earth can only sustain 2 billion

people.


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If not???

Nature can and have at intervals taken

care of reducing population. Eg. The

black plague of the 14 century that

claimed 1/3 of the European population

and nearly half of Asia.

If not, the end of the decade could see

massive starvation such as neverexperienced before.


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Food production per capita

.


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people going hungry


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global is at ion of food production

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