Ch 12 student ppt

1. Chapter 12 – Agriculture
and the Environment

2. Soil
 Texture

3. Soil Erosion
 O - organic material
 A –
 (top)
 minerals (bottom)
 E - zone of leaching
 B – high in leached
minerals from above
 C – original parent
material
SOIL STRUCTURE

4. Goals of sustainable farming
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.

5. Sustainable farming practices
The following reduce soil erosion:
 Contour plowing:
 Terracing hill sides:
 Shelterbelts:
 Low or No Till Plowing (wind and water)

6. Crop Rotation (keeps nutrients)
Rotating heavy feeders, moderate
feeders with soil builders

8. Cover Crops
 Plant during fallow(off) season.
 Keep nitrates from leaching out of topsoil
 Also keep soil orgs healthy and “fed”
 Prevents excess N from runoff into water
supplies

9. Pest Management
 Broad spectrum
 Narrow spectrum
 Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

10. Integrated Pest Management
Cranberry and damage:
black headed fireworm:
Seasonal flooding to
control it
Left photo: predatory mite
(IPM) devouring a thrips, an
agicultural pest.
Right photo: the thrips by itself.

11. IPM
 Aims at control not elimination
 Uses a combo of methods incl:
 Biological control
 Certain insecticides
 Certain crop planting methods

12. GM Crops
 Superhybrid?
 Terminator Gene
 Gene transfer (transgenic crops)

13. Desertification
 Some Causes of Desertification
 Poor farming practices
 Overgrazing
 Chemical poisoning of the soil

14. Kesterson Wildlife Refuge
 Artificial wetlands
 Early 1980s
received
agricultural
drainage water
 Was supposed to
drain to sea, didn’t
finish it (oops!)
 Selenium
accumulated in
water
 Over-irrigating to
leach out salt
buildup caused the
problem

15.  Normal embryo
 Classified a toxic
waste site
Looking at plans
to continue
drainage to sea
No eyesNo feet

16. Desertification
 Other Causes:
 Diverting water –
 Cutting trees –
 Mining –
 Changing weather patterns/ Global climate
change

17. Desertification data
Who’s most immediately affected:
 70 percent of the world's drylands are degraded
 in the world are affected
to some degree by desertification.
 Globally it is estimated that the annual income
lost in the areas affected by desertification =

20. Important Legislation
 1985
 Conservation Research Program
 Food Securities Act
 1988
 Sustainable Agriculture Research and
Education Program
UNCCD: 1996
UN Convention to Combat Desertification
100 nations ratified
500 million dollars to fund projects to stop it

21. Factory Farming: Increasing
production
 Antibiotics are commonly used in animal
production
 Animals are bred to grow faster and to be
more desirable for market.
 E.g chickens with more breast meat.
 Synthetic hormones are approved for use
 Growth hormones
 Milk production hormones

22. Beef Production
 Feedlots
 Fed corn instead of grass
 Confined in a small area
 Fecal material accumulates.
 Disease spreads readily
 Chemicals used to control disease

23. Waste Production...
 Water contamination
 Treatment required
 Odor/airborne problems
 Waste treatment regulations are more lax
than for waste from people.