Energy and Industrialized Agriculture Essay

Over the next forty years, global population is expected to reach nine billion people. This increase in population, combined with expected economic growth, will cause an increase in food demanded and inevitably drain the resources we use for food production. So far, agriculture has been able to respond positively to the rising demand for crop and livestock products. However, farmers are already faced with many new challenges associated with feeding an expanding global population. Farmers must now meet strict new emissions requirements and produce more food on fewer acres while minimizing their environmental footprint. The demand for food is expected to grow substantially in the next couple decades. Some of the factors affecting an increase in food demands are population growth, rising incomes of individuals, food supply factors, and biofuels.

Humans have been altering the genetic makeup of plants for millennia, keeping seeds from the best crops and planting them in following years, breeding and crossbreeding varieties to make them taste sweeter, grow bigger, last longer. In this way we've transformed the wild tomato, Lycopersicon, from a fruit the size of a marble to today's giant, juicy beefsteaks. From a weedy plant called teosinte with an "ear" barely an inch long has come our foot-long (0.3-meter-long) ears of sweet white and yellow corn. In just the past few decades plant breeders have used traditional techniques to produce varieties of wheat and rice plants with higher grain yields. They have also created hundreds of new crop variants using irradiation and mutagenic

Robert Paarlberg examines the rapidly growing Western obsession with organic food in his article “Attention Whole Foods Shoppers” published in Foreign Policy magazine in 2010. In his article, Paarlberg addresses the current issues of global hunger and food crisis, particularly in Africa. He argues, contrary to popular belief, that slow, organic, and sustainable agriculture is an ineffective method to correct these issues. Paarlberg instead states that conventional and modern farming techniques, along with industrialized food production, are the solutions to solving this epidemic of hunger. In his article, Paarlberg uses the combination of ethos, and presenting one-sided evidence (i.e. stacking the deck) in an attempt to convince his audience of the ineffectiveness of the slow agricultural movement as a solution to end the world hunger crisis.

As the growth rate of the population steadily increases, a surge in consumption of commodities will additionally increase . One basic commodity that will have an escalated demand would be food. Innovation within technology has allowed the process of mass production of goods. Production of goods on a large scale allows farmers to meet the needs of the majority of consumers capitalizing on market share. In order to meet consumers forever growing needs, land must be acquired in order to generate new farms for agriculture. Although the needs of consumers are being meet, the act of mass production of agricultural is contributing to the destruction of our planet. Consumers need to be aware of the repercussions of mass production on a global scale, in order to create a sustainable outcome while still continuing to let needs be met. With contributing factors of global warming , the population needs to be informed of harmful processes through agricultural farming such as deforestation, livestock, and crop emissions.

Due to the escalation in prices of the conventional sources of energy such as fossil and nuclear fuels and their harmful effects on the environment, there is a strong motivation to develop and utilize an alternative energy resources such as solar, wind, hydro and geothermal sources... etc cite{Karki2001}- cite{Fialho2015}-cite{Zhou2007}. In 2014, renewable energy overall expanded significantly in terms

This industrial agriculture system developed during the twentieth century. At this time there were important technological innovations in the industry, including the development of “high-yielding varieties.” These crops, which are commonly referred to as HYVs, are genetically engineered varieties of grains, like wheat, that have been created to have higher yield. Because HYVs require more soil nutrients, this lead to the development

Population is expected to reach 9 billion in 2030. At the same time agricultural land is becoming scarcer and poorer in quality. Furthermore, the environmental impact of intensive agriculture and the effects of climate change are threatening food security in many regions of the globe. Further, shortage of fossil fuels will have dramatic effects on the performance of intensive agriculture. There is an urge to develop more ecological agricultural practices both to meet the need to preserve agroecosystems health and to deal with the reduced availability of “cheap” energy from fossil fuels. (Gomiero, T., Paoletti, M., & Pimentel, D. 2008).

In the guest lecture about food systems, there were multiple costs mentioned regarding “more oil dependant large scale farms producing huge amounts of one thing, which over-saturate local markets, secondly the emissions let out by the transportation of these foods” (Koch, March 12, 2015)

Over the past century, corn has become the world’s largest crop, being used in over 3,500 applications. Corn is one of the most versatile plants in the agricultural community. It can be employed as a source of feed for animals, processed into byproducts such as sweeteners, flour, and corn meal, can be converted into fuel sources such as ethanol and more. The United States is the world leader in corn production, though it is produced on every other continent except Antarctica. In total, 88 percent of corn produced in the United States is actually grown from genetically modified seeds. Of that amount, Monsanto Company controls roughly 80 percent of the genetically modified seeds used to produce the corn.

Welcome to the age of an agricultural revolution as everyday biotechnology continues to bring innovation to human’s most basic needs – food. Food is essential to any living organism, providing energy for our production and nutrients for our protection. Without this fundamental element, life cannot exist. Our lack to produce our own energy, like plants, causes us to become dependent on others for survival. Humans existence is attributed only to the million years of evolution our food source underwent to sustain our survival. Changing the primary nature of our food source, whether it is plant or animal, directs mankind in a dangerous future if our food dependency is permanently hampered. Welcome to the age of an agricultural devolution

The world is depended on oil and soon oil will become more valuable than gold and could lead to a worldwide war. Price for oil could soar to above two hundred fifty dollars per barrel. Oil and other fuel cell also cause green house gases which contribute to global warming. China is consuming two times more petroleum than 1996 and India is projected to consume three times the oil it currently does by 2050. Global house gas emission has increased by twenty percent from 2003 to 2006. Energy consumption has increased exponentially throughout the globe. The U.S. department of energy projects energy consumption will increase seventy percent from 2003 to 2030. The world has agreed to reduce emission by twenty five percent before 2020 and by over

We often forget where our food comes from and how much time and energy goes into what we eat. Our awareness doesn’t stray far from grocery stores and their orderly aisles of products ready for consumption. With this ease of availability, It’s hard for most to imagine the lengthy process that goes into something like a simple sandwich. On a larger scale, agriculture is an important industry all over the globe. And the effects it has on the environment and consumers are seen everywhere from inefficient water usage, harmful herbicides, soil nutrient depletion, to deforestation and harmful or unregulated produce, which is why sustainable agriculture is so important. It makes senses for us as customers to understand the effects our food industry has, because whether or not you’ve stepped foot in a field, your money is the driving impact on which farms and their techniques will continue or cease.

One way environmental damage can be reduced is by decreasing pesticide use. According to Monsanto, Bollgard" cotton, a variety resistant to bollworms, was used in 13% of the total cotton crop in 1996. Sixty percent of those growers used no insecticide, most others only used one application. This is compared to an average of 4 to 6 applications. The reduced applications saved a quarter million gallons of insecticide. Monsanto has also developed potatoes with resistance to the Colorado potato beetle. Farmers using this new variety reported eliminating 1-5 insecticide applications. The total reduction in applications of insecticides was between 33%-42% over conventional methods (Biotech Benefits).

By the end of this century, the planet world will be home to more than 11 billion people. Feeding all of them in a truly sustainable way remains undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges of this generation. The population boom is sometimes feared as one of the major leading problems to the food security and malnutrition issue; this essay analysis shows that the reasons many suspects are not entirely true; it’s not the number, nor is it about enough land. The world has already what’s required to produce enough food, but doing it at an acceptable cost to the planet will depend on dramatic changes from how we eat, what we grow and how we do it. There is a need driven by the global political will to adopt and incorporate best ideas and strategies from successful existing and previous practices; green revolution, small-large agriculture, organic and local agriculture all combined with new innovations systems that focus on sustainable food production.

The global population has reached a tipping point. Currently it stands at 7.2 billion people, and that number is only expected to go up; by 2050 the global population is expected to hit 9.6 billion (United Nations). In order to feed this multitude of people, the current food production must increase by 100% (Simmons 1). Something must be done to prevent mass starvation, and two different methods of crop production have been offered to alleviate the problem – genetically modified crops (GM) and organic farming. In order to determine which farming method will maintain a stable supply for a growing global population, one must consider the cost effectiveness, environmental friendliness, health of