Module 32: Food production
Mod 32: Industrial Farming (and fishing)
Agribusiness:
- just what it sounds like, the larger conglomerates taking over instead of smaller privately owned family farms.
- Often use monoculture crops to increase profits (economy of scale), as well as patented seeds and herbicides (e.g. "roundup ready corn")
Hybrid crops vs. GMO crops:
Started as a good thing:
Hybrid crops"Selective breeding" works for animals (dogs, etc.) and crops called "hybrid crops" created by mixing pollen from one breed of plant (e.g. large kernel corn) with another breed of the same plant (e.g. short stalk corn) to form a "hybrid".
Green Revolution, Norman Borlaug-Mexican famine averted by development of hybrid (not GMO) wheat, called dwarf wheat (large kernel, short stalk).dwarf wheat
GMO crops:in the beginning were just to withstand frost, now into a larger patent issue with GMO seeds and "round up ready crops"What is the impact on lesser developed countries of this business model?
Genetically modified organisms (GMO) are different: they are done by splicing one part of a gene from an organism (like a frost resistant bacteria) into a totally different species (like a tomato) to make it frost resistant."IP" means intellectual property
- Monsanto spends money creating GMOs, so they patent the process, meaning using their seeds requires an IP license from them (just like software).If your farm has these seeds, intentionally or by accident, you have to pay them.
- You also cannot "re-use" seeds in the next season without paying for them.
- This is just like software in that you could buy the software or pay a monthly fee to use it.
- Which makes more money for the company?
- What is the impact on poorer countries?
Roundup ready corn: seeds genetically modified to resist roundup (a herbicide)
- Result: plant their seeds, spray their herbicide and save money on weeding, more crops, more money (to whom?)
- Issue: exposure to roundup (a carcinogen) and possible impacts of mutated food
- Labeling? Where is this done so far?
GMO from Food inc.
High Fructose Corn Syrup: HFCS
- Corn Lobby is very powerful (Iowa=presidential primaries)
- Corn: HFCS (food, meat, fish) and Corn Ethanol (energy, fuel)
- HFCS is in everything
- Corn is used to feed cattle, pork, poultry, even fish
- Cattle are not used to metabolizing corn, it makes them sick
- Bad for humans, increases incidence of diabetesHFCS from Food inc.
Main farming problems:
- Irrigation-desertification
- Pesticides-persistent organic pollutants (POPs)-like in your water hunt
- Fertilizers-eutrophication
Pesticides and herbicides:
- can be persistent or not (DDT, round up)
- Invented during WWII to kill humans (nerve gases, nazis), ("homicides")
- Modified to kill pests ("pesticides") or insects ("insecticides")
- Special cases include rodent poisons ("rodenticides") and others, like plants ("herbicides")
- Pesticide resistance-much like COVID: genetic variation in a rapidly multiplying pathogen will eventually overcome the stress (recall evolution) by replicating only those with immunity to the stress (vaccine, pesticide, drug resistant TB)
Fishing:
- Aquaculture means fish or other water animal farmed in the ocean
- Hydroponics means growing plants in a water/air medium
- Fisheries: population of fish, look up Atlantic Cod fisheries collapse in 1990
- Bycatch: unnecessary death of animals caught in fishing nets/traps (dolphins, sharks, etc.)
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