BIOL 2041 Agriculture, the Fast Food Nation(s), and Genetically Modified Organisms.
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Transcript of BIOL 2041 Agriculture, the Fast Food Nation(s), and Genetically Modified Organisms.
Agriculture, the Fast Food Nation(s), and Genetically
Modified Organisms
Outline
• Fast Food– Fries– Big Macs– Chicken Nuggets
• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)– Risks and benefits– Types– New Areas
Fast Food Nation
• The Jungle - Upton Sinclair (1906)
• Super Size Me• Fast Food Nation by Eric
Schlosser– More money on fast food than
higher education
• How has fast food changed agriculture??
French Fries
• The potato: a brief history
• Became popular in the 1920s in NA
• Important to the early success of McDonalds
• Potato and NA/European diet
• $0.30 -> $$6.00 (Profit!!!!)
• Of $1.50 worth of fries, $0.02 goes to farmer->corporate farms
Impact
• Fast food needs– Uniformity “One world, one taste”– Constant supply
• Increased productivity (Idaho)– Tonnage of potatoes (doubled)– Yield/acre (increased 30%)– Increased inputs, I.e. mechanization, fertilizer,
irrigation, pesticides– Need for larger farms and less farmers
Big Macs and you
• Cattle– Soil compaction– Overgrazing– Erosion– Loss of biodiversity– BSE?
Big Macs and you
• Feedlots, – Aesthetics– Runoff
• slaughter houses and meatpacking– Then: A respectable, well-paying union job– Enter the “disassembly line”– Now: A job for illegal, illiterate, immigrants
• Very dangerous
The Chicken Nugget
• History
• Health – very poor choice
• “Bulk agricultural commodity into a manufactured, value-added product”
• Business– Ensure constant supply – Tyson Foods
• Chickens
Genetically Modified Organisms
Food supply– 15 crop species and 8 livestock species =
90% of world’s food supply
• Artificial Selection
• What is a GMO?– Reduced breeding cycles– New and improved agricultural varieties
Pest control
• Insect control– Bacillus thruringiensis (Bt)– Gene for Bt toxin introduced to plants– Benefits: Decreased pesticide use– Costs: Resistance?
Weed control and herbicide resistance
• 275 million kg of herbicide/year in US• Damage crops and increase
pests/pathogens• Herbicide resistant crops
– Heavy use of herbicide– Less use: the timing must be right– Rapid break down of pesticide
• Transfer genes to wild species = super weed
New areas
• Pest control– 2000 plants have insecticidal properties– 700 substances in bacteria and fungi have
fungicidal properties– What about super bugs??
• Disease resistance (less fungicides)• Vaccines for livestock• Drought resistance
– 5 million l of water for 1 ha of corn
New Areas (cont)
• Salt tolerance
• Nitrogen fixation in crops
• Perennial grain crops
• Improve recycling of toxic wastes
• Improved palatability of fruits
Questionable areas
• Bovine Growth Hormone
• Native organisms
• Crops to weeds?
GMO,ethics, and the real world
• GMOs are very expensive
• Yields are no better than existing varieties
• Banned in Europe
• Patenting life?– The Monsanto case
• Is it playing God?
• Alternatives: Integrated Pest Management!!