Agroecology

Assignment 1

How Might We Feed The World In The Next 100 and 1000 Years?

Each student will write one paragraph (no more than 1 page) on one of the component questions listed below or on a question related to the question above that you formulate.  The paragraph should be a summary of facts (with citations) that will objectively answer the question and present the questions or factors that limit the answer. List your literature citations at the bottom of the page.

1. How many people will there be on earth in 100 and 1000 years from now?

2. How much land is currently in crop and domesticated animals production for food?

3. How many people will current crop and animal production feed?

4. How much more land is available that could produce crops and animals, but is not under production?

5. How much land, now considered to be non-arable, can be turned into agricultural production with genetic engineering of crops and other technologies?

6. How much energy does a human require to survive and reproduce and be healthy?

7. How much human available energy do different crops and animal products provide?

8. How much will agricultural productivity be affected by soil erosion in the future?

9. How much will agricultural productivity be affected by pollution in the future?

10. How much will agricultural productivity be affected by global warming?

This assignment is due Monday (11-29-99) at class time.  We will grade each answer and choose the best ones to be presented by the student to the class on Monday (12-6-99) when we will discuss the results.

Examples of citation formats:

Heck, W. W., C.L. Cambell and G.R. Hess. 1991. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program Agroecosystem Monitoring and Research Strategy. EPA/ 600/4-91/013 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C. 160 pp.

Hoffman, C. A., C. R. Carroll. 1995. Can we sustain the biological basis of agriculture. Annual Review of Ecological Systematics 26, 69-92.

Jensen, M. E., W. J. Hann and R.  Keane. 1992. Ecosystem Inventory and Analysis Guide, Draft. U.S. Forest Service, Region One, Missoula, MT. 511 pp.

Karr, J. R. 1993. Measuring biological integrity: lessons from streams. In: Woodley, S., Kay, J., and Francis, G. (eds) Ecological Integrity and the Management of Ecosystems. pp.83-104. St. Lucia Press, Ottawa.

The Food Alliance. 1998. TFA-Approved Farms. [Online]. Available: http://www.thefoodalliance.org/farms.html.

Some places to start looking for information:

MSU Library

Environemental Science Textbooks

Can we feed China?

UN Food & Ag Org

US Ag Stats

USDA Economic Research Service

Can the Earth Afford to Feed you?

Example Paragraph for Assignment 1:

Issue: How Might We Feed The World In The Next 100 and 1000 Years?

Specific Component Question: How much water will be required to produce food to support a growing population?

Growing crops for direct consumption and forage for animals consumes water through transpiration and evaporation from plant and soil surfaces. Agriculture is estimated to use about 20% of the total world transpiration and evaporation, which is about 13,800 billion m³ of water per year (Pimentel et al., 1997). By 2025, assuming a population increase to 8 billion, food production will need to double from that in 1974, and agricultural water use could grow to 27,600 billion m³ (FAO, 1996). The increase in water required for agriculture plus that directly required for the increased number of people exceeds the total amount available.  However, if diets changed and shifted towards use of crops with lower water requirements these estimates could change, making it possible to support a larger population. In addition, irrigation has become (and potentially will become) more efficient which could increase the amount of time before all the water is exploited (Brown et al., 1998).

Literature Cited

Brown, L.R., M. Renner and C. Flavin. 1998. Vital Signs. W.W. Norton Pub., New York, NY.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 1996. Food For All. FAO Pub., Rome, Italy.

Pimentel, D., J. Houser, E. Preiss, O. White, H. Fang, L. Mesnick, T. Barsky, S. Tariche, J. Schreck and S. Alpert. 1997. Water resources agriculture, the environment, and society. Bioscience 4:92-106.

Assignment 2

The second assignment in this section will be for teams of students to write a 2 page paper that answers the broad question: "How might  we feed the world in 100 and 1000 years?"  The paper will include an assessment of the facts accumulated from the first Assignment and thus should have scientific citations and a literature cited section that can extend beyond the 2 pages. Each student will be assigned to a team to ensure a broad set of interests and backgrounds. Each team will be treated as a consulting company that we have contracted to give us an answer for the total sum of $100 per team.  Each team will submit their paper on Friday (12-10-99) at class time. Along with the paper, each student will submit a list of the student ID numbers for members of their team including themselves, and list the amount of the $100 that each member should be paid for their contribution to the project. The papers will be graded for quality then the grade given to each student will be adjusted depending on their relative contribution to the project. The evenness of team member's contribution as well as individual effort will be rewarded.