Task
Assess the challenges facing agriculture and devise plans to address them. You can choose one of them.
Wild biodiversity loss: Monocultures
• The specialized monocultures characteristic of U.S. industrial agriculture also contribute to the loss of wild biodiversity.
• Growing monocultures replaces biodiverse habitats with fields of genetically uniform organisms.
• In places where monocultures are grown in place of a variety of flowering plants, pollinators may be left without enough forage (nectar) to survive.
Domestic biodiversity loss
• The extent to which U.S. agriculture specializes in producing a narrow range of crops and animals has lessened the genetic diversity of our food supply (domestic biodiversity).
• Roughly half of U.S. cropland, for example, is dedicated solely to growing corn and soybeans.
• Globally, 90 percent of the food supply is derived from only 15 plant and eight animal species.
Domestic biodiversity and food security
• With farmers relying on only a few crop varieties, the stability of our food supply is more susceptible to pest invasions and other shocks.
• The Irish potato famine of the mid-1800s illustrates these dangers. Ireland’s poor (one-third of its population) depended on a genetically uniform food source—potatoes—for the bulk of their sustenance. This set the stage for a devastating food crisis. The plant disease P. infestans wiped out potato crops, crippling the food supply and contributing to the deaths of an estimated 1 million people.
Resource depletion
• Natural resources, including fertile soil,2,42 groundwater,43,44 fossil fuels45 and phosphate46 (a mineral used in the manufacture of some chemical fertilizers), are being depleted at rates faster than natural processes can restore them.
• Many of these resources are nearing or have passed the point at which their rate of extraction begins to decline, prompting the use of terms like peak oil45 and peak phosphorous.
• In its current form, agriculture is dependent on all of these resources and is a major contributor to their decline. The possibility that they may no longer be easily acquired raises concerns about the long-term price and availability of food, which may disproportionately impact the poor.
• Graph: Projected liquid petroleum production. Many authorities believe we are at or near peak oil—the point at which oil production begins to decline.
Loss of farmland
• Arable land is another natural resource that calls for conservation efforts.
• Every minute, more than an acre of American agricultural land is lost to sprawling suburbs and other developments.
• Paving over farmland diminishes natural ecosystems, local economies, scenic and cultural landscapes, and the nation’s ability to supply ourselves and other nations with food.
• Well-managed agricultural land can offer many ecosystem services, including providing habitats for wildlife, helping to control flooding and maintaining air quality
Evaluation
Project.
It is allowed to do this task in pairs.
You may prepare a presentation to the preferable point.
Credits
80-100 - completly done
60-80 - good
40 - 8- satisfactory