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3. Invite an agricultural economist to your class to discuss shifts in the United States from farming to
agribusiness and the historical role of subsidies in agriculture.
4. Invite a representative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (or some other informed source) to your
5. Invite a county agricultural agent to your class to discuss local agricultural problems and opportunities.
What major changes in agricultural practices are likely to occur in the coming decades? With what
consequences? What types of farming activities are carried on in your locale? What is the balance between
large and small farms? What are the major products? How much of the produce is used in local areas? How
much is shipped out and where does it go?
7. Invite a county agricultural agent to address your class on the subject of pesticide use and abuse in your
8. As a class, plan a daily menu for a family of four receiving minimum welfare payments (consult local
9. As a class exercise, determine what percentage of your diet—as individuals and as a group—consists of
meat. What are some ecological implications of this amount of meat in the diet? What are the health
implications? What are the alternatives?
10. Arrange a class debate on the proposition that food-exporting nations should use population control and
11. With the help of a chemist or other appropriate consultant, have your students evaluate the ingredients,
uses, and warning labels of a representative sample of pesticides sold for home and garden applications.
Are the instructions for use, storage, and disposal adequate? How much additional information should be
supplied to further reduce the likelihood of harm to people and wildlife?
12. Are people generally aware of and concerned about the hazards of using pesticides on a large-scale, long-
term basis? As a class project, conduct a survey of students or consumers to address these and related
13. Have your students interview the college landscaping staff about which pesticides, if any, they use on
campus. What tradeoffs did they consider when deciding to use those pesticides?
14. View the film Super Size Me, and use a McDonald’s nutrition guide to calculate several values from a 24
Chapter 10: Food, Soil, and Pest Management
Attitudes and Values Assessment
1. Have you ever fasted? For how long? If so, what was your experience?
2. Do you feel everyone has a right to a healthy diet? Do you believe there are people in your local
community that suffer from hunger?
Laboratory Skills
Wells, Edward. Lab Manual for Environmental Science. 2009. Lab #4: Biomagnification Through a Food
Chain.
News Videos
Kalahari Desert Could Double in Size, The Brooks/Cole Environmental Science Video Library 2009, ©2011,
DVD ISBN-13: 978-0-538-73355-7
Additional Videos
American Experience: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (PBS Documentary Series)
“Her warning sparked a revolution in environmental policy and created a new ecological consciousness.”
Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
Fed Up! Genetic Engineering, Industrial Agriculture and Sustainable Alternatives (2002)
Using interviews and archival footage, this documentary provides an overview of current American food
production.
http://www.wholesomegoodness.org/movies.html
Frontline: World, Tortillanomics (Web-based slide shows with audio, 2008, Online)
NOVA/Frontline: Harvest of Fear (Video series, PBS, 2001)
This episode explores the debate over genetically modified foods.
Web Resources
U.S. Government
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program funded by the Cooperative State Research,
Education and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Digital Integration
Correlation to Global Environment Watch
Aquaculture
Biosecurity
Biotechnology
Community-Supported Agriculture
Desalination
Deserts and Desertification
Fisheries
Fishing
Food Safety
Chapter 10: Food, Soil, and Pest Management
Food Security
Genetic Engineering
Global Environmental Ethics
Indigenous Peoples
Industrial Agriculture
Industrialization
Poverty
Seed Banks
Soil Erosion
Correlation to Explore More
Aquaculture Pesticides Urbanization and Urban Planning
Food Resources Soil Erosion
Suggested Answers to End of Chapter Questions
Answers will vary but these represent phrases from this chapter. The following are examples of the material that
should be contained in possible student answers to the end of chapter questions. They represent only a summary
overview and serve to highlight the core concepts that are addressed in the text. It should be anticipated that the
students will provide more in-depth and detailed responses to the questions depending on an individual
instructor’s stated expectations.
Review
Core Case Study
1. Summarize the benefits that the Growing Power farm has brought to its community. How does the farm
showcase the three scientific principles of sustainability?
On this small urban plot in Milwaukee, Will Allen developed Growing Power, Inc., an ecologically based
farm and a showcase for forms of agriculture that apply all three scientific principles of sustainability. It is
powered partly by solar electricity and solar hot water systems and makes use of several greenhouses to
capture solar energy for growing food throughout the year. The farm produces an amazing diversity of
Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
Section 10-1
2. What are the two key concepts for this section? Define food security and food insecurity. What is the root
cause of food insecurity? Distinguish between chronic undernutrition (hunger) and chronic malnutrition
and describe their harmful effects. Describe the effects of diet deficiencies in vitamin A, iron, and iodine.
What is overnutrition and what are its harmful effects?
• Concept 10-1A Many people in less-developed countries have health problems from not getting
enough food, while many people in more-developed countries suffer health problems from eating too
much.
• Concept 10-1B The greatest obstacles to providing enough food for everyone are poverty, corruption,
political upheaval, war, bad weather, and the harmful environmental effects of industrialized food
production.
• Today, we produce more than enough food to meet the basic nutritional needs of every person on the
earth, and thus to provide them with food security. But even with this food surplus, one of every six
people in less-developed countries is not getting enough to eat. These people face food insecurity—
living with chronic hunger and poor nutrition, which threatens their ability to lead healthy and
productive lives.
Section 10-2
3. What is the key concept for this section? What three systems supply most of the world’s food? Define
irrigation. Distinguish among industrialized agriculture (high-input agriculture), plantation agriculture,
traditional subsistence agriculture, traditional intensive agriculture. Define polyculture and summarize its
benefits. Define organic agriculture and compare its main components with those of conventional
industrialized agriculture. What is a green revolution? Summarize the story of industrialized food
production in the United States.
• Concept 10-2 We have used high-input industrialized agriculture and lower-input traditional
agriculture to greatly increase food supplies.
Chapter 10: Food, Soil, and Pest Management
• Industrialized agriculture, or high-input agriculture, uses heavy equipment and large amounts of
financial capital, fossil fuel, water, commercial inorganic fertilizers, and pesticides to produce single
crops, or monocultures.
• Some traditional farmers focus on cultivating a single crop, but many grow several crops on the same
plot simultaneously, a practice known as polyculture. Such crop diversity reduces the chance of losing
most or all of the year’s food supply to pests, bad weather, and other misfortunes.
• In organic agriculture, crops are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, synthetic inorganic
fertilizers, and genetically engineered varieties, and animals must be raised on 100% organic feed
without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones.
• Modern industrialized agriculture violates the three principles of sustainability by relying heavily on
fossil fuels, reducing natural and crop biodiversity, and neglecting the conservation and recycling of
nutrients in topsoil.
• See Science Focus: Soil Is the Base of Life on Land.
o Soil is a complex mixture of eroded rock, mineral nutrients, decaying organic matter, water,
air, and billions of living organisms, most of them microscopic decomposers. Soil formation
begins when bedrock is slowly broken down into fragments and particles by physical,
chemical, and biological processes, called weathering.
• Soil, on which all terrestrial life depends, is a key component of the earth’s natural capital. It supplies
most of the nutrients needed for plant growth and purifies and stores water, while organisms living in
the soil help to control the earth’s climate by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and
storing it as organic carbon compounds.
• Since 1950, about 88% of the increase in global food production has come from using high-input
industrialized agriculture to increase crop yields in a process called the green revolution.
4. Distinguish between crossbreeding through artificial selection and genetic engineering. Describe the second
gene revolution based on genetic engineering. Summarize the growth of industrialized meat production. What
are feedlots and CAFOs? What is a fishery? What is aquaculture (fish farming)? Explain why industrialized
food production requires large inputs of energy. Why does it result in a net energy loss?
• Traditional crossbreeding is a slow process, typically taking 15 years or more to produce a
commercially valuable new crop variety, and it can combine traits only from species that are
genetically similar. Typically, resulting varieties remain useful for only 5–10 years before pests and
diseases reduce their effectiveness. But important advances are still being made with this method.
• Today, scientists are creating a second gene revolution by using genetic engineering to develop
genetically improved strains of crops and livestock animals. It involves altering an organism’s genetic
Section 10-3
5. What is the key concept for this section? List two major benefits of high-yield modern agriculture. Define
soil and describe its formation and the major layers in mature soils. What is topsoil and why is it one of our
most important resources? What is soil erosion and what are its two major harmful environmental effects?
What is desertification and what are its harmful environmental effects? Define soil salinization and
waterlogging and explain why they are harmful. What is soil pollution and what are two of its causes?
Chapter 10: Food, Soil, and Pest Management
• Concept 10-3 Future food production may be limited by soil erosion and degradation, desertification,
irrigation water shortages, water and air pollution, climate change from greenhouse gas emissions, and
loss of biodiversity.
• Modern industrialized food production has yielded huge amounts of food at affordable prices.
• Soil erosion is the movement of soil components, especially surface litter and topsoil, from one place
to another by the actions of wind and water.
• Soil erosion has two major harmful effects. One is loss of soil fertility through depletion of plant
nutrients in topsoil. The other is water pollution in nearby surface waters, where eroded soil ends up as
sediment. This can kill fish and shellfish and clog irrigation ditches, boat channels, reservoirs, and
6. Summarize industrialized agriculture’s contribution to projected climate change. Explain how
industrialized food production systems reduce biodiversity. What is agrobiodiversity and how is it being
affected by industrialized food production? List the advantages and disadvantages of using genetic
engineering in food production. What factors can limit green revolutions? Compare the benefits and
harmful effects of industrialized meat production. Explain the connection between feeding livestock and
ocean dead zones? Compare the benefits and harmful effects of aquaculture.
• Agricultural activities, including the clearing and burning of forests to raise crops or livestock, create a
great deal of air pollution. They also account for more than 25% of the human-generated emissions of
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which during this century are projected to sharply reduce
crop productivity in some areas that currently have high crop productivity.
• Industrialized livestock production alone generates about 18% of the world’s greenhouse gases that
can build up in the atmosphere and change the climate. This is more than all of the world’s cars, trucks,
Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
new allergens in food, lower nutrition, increase in pesticide-resistant insects, herbicide-resistant weeds,
and plant diseases, can harm beneficial insects, and lower genetic diversity.
• Several factors have limited the success of the green revolutions to date and may limit them in the
future. Without huge inputs of water and synthetic inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, most green
revolution and genetically engineered crop varieties produce yields that are no higher (and are
sometimes lower) than those from traditional strains. These high-inputs also cost too much for most
subsistence farmers in less-developed countries.
• Proponents of industrialized meat production point out that producing meat by using feedlots and other
confined animal production facilities increases meat production, reduces overgrazing, and yields
higher profits. But environmental scientists point out that such systems use large amounts of energy
(mostly fossil fuels) and water and produce huge amounts of animal waste that sometimes pollutes
surface water and groundwater and saturates the air with their odor. In 2008, the FAO reported that
overgrazing, soil compaction, and erosion by livestock have degraded one-fifth of the world’s
Section 10-4
7. What is the key concept for this section? What is a pest? Define and give two examples of a pesticide.
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using synthetic pesticides. Describe the use of laws and
treaties to help protect us from the harmful effects of pesticides. List seven alternatives to conventional
pesticides. Define integrated pest management (IPM) and list its advantages.
• CONCEPT 10-4 We can sharply cut pesticide use without decreasing crop yields by using a mix of
cultivation techniques, biological pest controls, and small amounts of selected chemical pesticides as a
last resort (integrated pest management).
• A pest is any species that interferes with human welfare by competing with us for food, invading lawns
and gardens, destroying building materials, spreading disease, invading ecosystems, or simply being a
nuisance. Worldwide, only about 100 species of plants (“weeds”), animals (mostly insects), fungi, and
Chapter 10: Food, Soil, and Pest Management
• Alternatives:
o Fool the pest.
o Provide homes for pest enemies.
• Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program involves evaluating each crop and its pests as parts of an
ecological system. Then farmers develop a carefully designed control program that uses a combination
of cultivation, biological, and chemical tools and techniques (Concept 10-4). The overall aim of IPM is
Section 10-5
8. What is the key concept for this section? What are the two main approaches used by governments to
influence food production? How have governments used subsidies to influence food production and what
have been some of their effects? Describe the system used by Jennifer Burney to help people grow crops in
parts of sub-Saharan Africa. What are two other ways in which organizations are improving food security?
Explain three of the benefits of buying locally grown food. How can urban farming help to increase food
security?
See pages 225–226.
• CONCEPT 10-5 We can improve food security by reducing poverty and chronic malnutrition, relying
more on locally grown food, and cutting food waste.
• Governments use two main approaches to influence food production. First, they can control prices by
putting a legally mandated upper limit on prices in order to keep food prices artificially low. This
makes consumers happy but makes it harder for farmers to make a living. Second, they can provide
subsidies by giving farmers price supports, tax breaks, and other financial support to keep them in
business and to encourage them to increase food production.
Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
Section 10-6
9. What is the key concept for this section? What is soil conservation? Describe six ways to reduce topsoil
erosion. Summarize the history of soil erosion and soil conservation in the United States. Distinguish
among organic fertilizer, synthetic inorganic fertilizer, animal manure, green manure, and compost. How
does crop rotation help restore topsoil fertility? What are some ways to prevent and some ways to clean up
soil salinization? How can we reduce desertification? Describe three ways to make aquaculture more
sustainable. What are some ways to make meat production and consumption more sustainable? Summarize
three important components of a more sustainable food production system. List the advantages of relying
more on organic polyculture and perennial crops. What are five strategies that could help farmers and
consumers to shift to more sustainable food production? What are three important ways in which individual
consumers can help to promote more sustainable food production?
• Concept 10-6 We can produce food more sustainably by using resources more efficiently, sharply
decreasing the harmful environmental effects of industrialized food production, and eliminating
government subsidies that promote such harmful impacts.
• Soil conservation involves using a variety of ways to reduce soil erosion and restore soil fertility,
mostly by keeping the soil covered with vegetation.
• To completely restore nutrients to topsoil, both inorganic and organic fertilizers should be used.
o Organic fertilizer from plant and animal materials or commercial inorganic fertilizer produced
from various minerals. There are several types of organic fertilizers. One is animal manure:
the dung and urine of cattle, horses, poultry, and other farm animals. It adds organic nitrogen
and stimulates the growth of beneficial soil bacteria and fungi. Another type, called green
manure, consists of freshly cut or growing green vegetation that is plowed into the topsoil to
Chapter 10: Food, Soil, and Pest Management
• Reducing desertification is not easy. We cannot control the timing and location of prolonged droughts
caused by changes in weather patterns. But we can reduce population growth, overgrazing,
deforestation, and destructive forms of planting, irrigation, and mining, which have left much land
vulnerable to topsoil erosion and thus desertification. We can also work to decrease the human
contribution to projected climate change, which is expected to increase severe and prolonged droughts
in larger areas of the world during this century. We can also restore land suffering from desertification
by planting trees and other species of plants that anchor topsoil and hold water, by growing trees and
crops together, and by establishing windbreaks.
• Ways to make aquaculture more sustainable and to reduce its harmful effects include:
o Restrict locations of fish farms to reduce losses of mangrove forests and estuaries.
• A more sustainable form of meat production and consumption involves shifting from less grain-
efficient forms of animal protein, such as beef, pork, and carnivorous fish produced by aquaculture, to
more grain-efficient forms, such as poultry and herbivorous farmed fish, as many people are doing.
• The main reason for shifting to organic farming and 100% organic food is that it sharply reduces the
harmful environmental effects of industrialized farming and our exposure to pesticide residues.
o Also, research indicates that some people buy 100% organic food because it encourages more
humane treatment of animals used for food and is a more economically just system for farm
workers and farmers.
o A drawback of organic farming is that it requires more human labor to use methods such as
integrated pest management, crop rotation and cultivation, and multi-cropping than
conventional industrial farming requires. However, it can be an important source of jobs and
income, especially in less-developed countries, and for a growing number of younger farmers
• Figure 10-29. Environmental benefits of organic farming over conventional farming:
o Improves soil fertility.
o Reduces soil erosion.
o Retains more water in soil during drought years.
Instructor’s Manual for Environmental Science, 15th edition
• An important component of more sustainable agriculture could be to rely less on single-crop organic
agriculture and more on organic polyculture—in which a diversity of organic crops are grown on the
10. Explain how making the transition to more sustainable food production such as that promoted by the
Growing Power farm (Core Case Study) will involve applying the six principles of sustainability.
• Will Allen, in demonstrating how organic food can be grown more sustainably at affordable prices, is
showing how to make the transition to more sustainable food production while applying the three
Critical Thinking
1. Suppose you got a job with Growing Power, Inc. (Core Case Study) and were given the assignment to turn an
abandoned suburban shopping center and its large parking lot into an organic farm. Write up a plan for how you
would accomplish this.
2. Do you think that the advantages of organic agriculture outweigh its disadvantages? Explain. Do you eat or
grow organic foods? If so, explain your reasoning for making this choice. If not, explain your reasoning for
some of the food choices you do make.
Answers will vary but should focus on some of the following points:
• Emphasizes prevention of soil erosion and the use of organic fertilizers such as animal manure and
compost, but no sewage sludge, to supply plant nutrients
3. Food producers can now produce more than enough food to feed everyone on the planet a healthy diet. Given
Chapter 10: Food, Soil, and Pest Management
this fact, why do you think that nearly a billion people are chronically undernourished or malnourished? Assume
you are in charge of solving this problem, and write a plan for how you will accomplish it.
4. Explain why you support or oppose greatly increasing the use of (a) genetically modified food production and
(b) organic perennial polyculture.
• Supporting or opposing GMOs or organic perennial polyculture will depend on student
perspectives.
• Some points include:
o GMOs
▪ Concern about health issues
▪ Ethical concerns
(a) The target pest could develop resistance to the pesticide. All the susceptible members would be killed,
but a small number may be genetically resistant to the pesticide, and over several breeding generations
could become a bigger problem than the initial outbreak. This is called a resurgence of the pest.
5. What might happen to industrialized food production if oil prices rise sharply? How might this affect your life?
How will it affect the lives of any children or grandchildren you might eventually have? List two ways in which
6. You are the head of a major agricultural agency in the area where you live. Weigh the advantages and
disadvantages of using synthetic pesticides and explain why you would support or oppose the increased use of
such pesticides as a way to help farmers raise their yields. What are the alternatives?
7. If the mosquito population in the area where you live were proven to be carrying malaria or some dangerous
virus, would you want to spray DDT in your yard, inside your home, or all through the local area to reduce this
risk? Explain. What are the alternatives?
Answers will vary. One possible answer: Probably not, because the DDT would cause a human health and
ecological risk for many years. Use mosquito nets to sleep under in bedrooms, put screens on all doors and
8. According to physicist Albert Einstein, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances of survival
of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” Explain your interpretation of this statement. Are
you willing to eat less meat or no meat? Explain.
Answers will depend on the student—the argument to eat less meat (or different types of meat) however
Global Environment Watch Exercise
In the Soil Erosion portal, look for information on causes of soil erosion and how it affects soil fertility. Write a
report on your findings. If you were to overhear a group of farmers complaining about how much money they
must spend on fertilizers, what suggestions would you give them for saving money? Include your answer to this
question, along with your reasoning, in your report.
The intensive use of soil for agriculture purposes often increases its erosion and, therefore, its sedimentation. In
farming, soil erosion signifies a loss of the most fertile part of the soil, which contains most of the organic
matter, and that means lost agricultural productivity. Moreover, agricultural irrigation techniques can contribute
to soil salination because water contains salts that are left behind in the soil. In regions where overirrigation is
practiced, these salts accumulate and concentrate, which causes soil degradation.
Ecological Footprint Analysis
1. Use the world fish harvest and population data in the table to calculate the per capita fish consumption
from 1990–2003 in kilograms/person. (Hints: 1 million metric tons equals 1 billion kilograms; the
Chapter 10: Food, Soil, and Pest Management
human population data is measured in billions; and per capita consumption can be calculated directly
by dividing the total amount consumed by a population figure for any year.)
Completed chart is given below.
World Fish Harvest
Years
Fish Catch
(million tons)
Aquaculture
(million tons)
Total (million
tons)
World Population
(million tons)
Per Capita Fish
Catch (kilograms)
1990
84.8
13.1
97.9
5.27
18.58
1992
85.2
15.4
100.6
5.44
18.49
1994
92.1
20.8
112.9
5.60
20.16
1996
93.8
26.6
120.4
5.76
20.90
1998
87.6
30.5
118.1
5.92
19.95
2000
95.5
35.5
131.0
6.07
21.58
2002
93.0
40.0
133.0
6.22
21.38
2. Has per capita fish consumption generally increased or generally decreased between 1990 and 2003?
3. In what years has per capita fish consumption decreased?
1991
