Agriculture and the Green Revolution

Food: Agriculture

• Sacramento Valley Case Study (1916): Manual Massa's rice farm faced weed competition, leading to reduced yields. Mechanization, fertilizers, and pesticides increased productivity but were capital-intensive.
• Historical Agriculture: Farming practices focused on family sustenance with manual seed planting. Crops were grown for internal use.
• Green Revolution (1940s-1960s): Shifted towards lower-income countries, utilizing mechanization, irrigation, and plant breeding. Norman Borlaug's work significantly increased food production globally.
• Drawbacks of Green Revolution Techniques: Increased soil acidity due to nitrogen fertilizer use, reduced organic matter and nutrients in the soil, leading to long-term soil depletion.
• Challenges to Soil Health: Irrigation can increase salinity; intensive agriculture removes organic matter and nutrients faster than they replenish. This negatively impacts soil health and its capacity to sustain crops. Insecticide resistance also leads to needing stronger, and more toxic pesticides. Monoculture crops lack genetic diversity increasing risk of disease.
• CAFOs and Nutrient Pollution: Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) generate significant waste products. This waste, removed from areas it's produced and transported, often leads to nutrient pollution in bodies of water.
• Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification: Toxic substances accumulate in organisms' bodies (bioaccumulation) and increase in concentration along trophic levels (biomagnification).
• Possible Solutions: Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) offer pest resistance, drought resistance and enhanced nutrient production in crops (e.g., Golden Rice).
• GMO Concerns: Seed patenting concerns, limited seed control, and potential contamination risks exist.

Sustainable Agriculture: Agroecology Case Study

• Takao Furuno's Approach: A Japanese rice farmer who integrated ducks, loaches, and other elements into his farming methods. This method managed pests and naturally fertilized the rice patties.
• Advantages of Furuno's Approach: Reduced reliance on fertilizers and pesticides, increased biodiversity, and higher productivity.
• Transferability of Furuno's Approach: While successfully used in Asia, the duck and loach method was not easily replicated in the USA due to different land and management needs.
• Regenerative Farming: A broader sustainable farming approach that emphasizes soil health and maintaining an overall healthy ecosystem.

Food: Fisheries

• Socio-cultural Impacts of Fisheries: Fisheries are more than just an economic sector, they're intertwined with societal well-being. Fishing communities often have strong ties to their livelihoods based on fishing activity with significant consequences to communities when fisheries decline.
• Nova Scotia Fisheries Collapse (1992): Cod stocks collapsed due to overfishing, imperfect science and management, and inappropriate incentives.
• Factors in the Collapse: Overfishing by foreign vessels and within Canada's jurisdiction and international agreements.
• Imperfect Science and Management: Mismanagement of fisheries stocks due to inaccurate biomass models and lack of other information.
• Inappropriate Incentives: Subsidies/tax incentives for fisheries contributed to unsustainable fishing practices.
• Changing Environmental Conditions: While not the primary driver, colder water and predators (e.g., seals) may have influenced the cod population decline.
• Fishing Down the Food Chain: The shift to other species when primary targets are depleted. This is often not sustainable as secondary catches can also decline.
• Lack of Recovery: Even with protective measures, the cod population has not yet fully recovered despite management and recovery programs.
• Sustainable Fisheries Management: Implementing a precautionary approach that involves setting health status zones and rebuilding programs for fish populations is needed.