SOCECOL E8 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Pesticide, Wicket-Keeper, Red Meat
2 Aug 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Professor Zanotto/Whiteley
Social Ecology E8
Course Code: 50000
4 units
2019 Spring Quarter
● Food
○ What are the elements of a food system?
■ Production
■ Processing
■ Distribution
■ Preparation
■ Consumption
■ Waste
○ Why is our global food system broken?
■ Unequal access
■ Waste
■ Obesity
■ Undernourishment
■ Unsafe
■ Environmental impact
○ What causes the serious problems of hunger?
■ Not caused by unavailability of food
■ Caused by political and/or market reasons
○ Who suffer most from hunger?
■ Asia pacific by region
■ Small-scale farming by households
○ What are the trends in obesity in the United States?
■ Becoming more and more obese over time
○ What are the problems with food waste?
■ 30 to 50% of the total food produced is wasted
■ Much more food wasted in industrialized world than in developing
countries
● Food can be wasted due to quality standards
● Insufficient purchase planning, expiring “best before dates” and
careless attitudes of consumers lead to waste
○ What are the environmental impacts of agriculture?
■ GHG emissions
● Agriculture produces about 26% of anthropogenic GHG emissions
■ Farmland use
● Agriculture is resource intensive
○ Covers about 43% of the world’s ice and desert-free land
● 87% of this land is used for food
● 13% is used for biofuels and textile crops or is allocated to
nonfood uses
■ Water use
● About 75% of freshwater withdrawals are used for irrigation
Document Summary
Becoming more and more obese over time. 30 to 50% of the total food produced is wasted. Much more food wasted in industrialized world than in developing countries. Food can be wasted due to quality standards. Insufficient purchase planning, expiring best before dates and. What are the environmental impacts of agriculture? careless attitudes of consumers lead to waste. Agriculture produces about 26% of anthropogenic ghg emissions. Covers about 43% of the world"s ice and desert-free land. 87% of this land is used for food. 13% is used for biofuels and textile crops or is allocated to nonfood uses. About 75% of freshwater withdrawals are used for irrigation. Adverse human effects (workers and consumers) including cancer and reproductive issues. May kill plants, bees, butterflies, fish, birds, and other animals. Requires more feed, more land, releases ghg. Produce methane gas and nitrous oxide which is heavily more detrimental to the our climate than carbon dioxide. We consume avg 3 burgers per wk.
