Lecture 4 – Agriculture, Food security and Climate change

Question 1

When and why did food security become more of a global topic?

Answer 1

after the food price spike in 2007/2008

Question 2

Which countries does food security occur in?

Answer 2

occurs in all countries to some extent

Question 3

Would increasing food production solve food insecurity?

Answer 3

Increasing food production would not necessarily solve this problem

Question 4

What are the three pillars of food security?

Answer 4

Food availability, access to food and foot utilization, not any one thing

Question 5

What influences food availability?

Answer 5

Production, distribution and exchange of food

Question 6

What influences access to food?

Answer 6

Affordability, allocation and preference (religious or cultural preferences)

Question 7

What influences food utilization?

Answer 7

Nutritional value, social safety and food safety

Question 8

How long has malnutrition been rising for?

Answer 8

Since 2014

Question 9

What proportion of people experience severe food security?

Answer 9

One in ten (about 750 million)

Question 10

How many people don’t have access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food?

Answer 10

2 Billion

Question 11

How will Covid19 affect global malnourishment?

Answer 11

could increase undernourished to 900 million by 2030

Question 12

What is the current global trend with adult obesity

Answer 12

on the rise everywhere in the world

Question 13

What proportion of the world is affected by moderate or severe food insecurity?

Answer 13

25%

Question 14

In North America and Europe what proportion of people are obese?

Answer 14

One in three

Question 15

What is the negatives effects of obesity?

Answer 15

Bad for health, and increases pressure on food system to produce surplus – effects the environment

Question 16

How has the proportion of people who are malnourished/have stunted growth changed in the last 20 years?

Answer 16

Roughly halved worldwide

Question 17

How has the proportion of people who are obese changed in the last 20 years?

Answer 17

Has doubled worldwide

Question 18

For the land to support food security what do we need?

Answer 18

Biodiversity and healthy land

Question 19

Why does the atmosphere retain heat?

Answer 19

To warm the planet

Question 20

What are small concentrations of gas in our atmosphere responsible for?

Answer 20

maintaining temperatures to make the earth habitable by trapping heat to create a natural greenhouse effect

Question 21

How does the enhanced greenhouse effect work?

Answer 21

The sun gives off energy in the form of shortwave radiation of mainly ultraviolet and visible wavelengths, which is absorbed by the earth, which then emits heat as infra-red radiation, which has longer wavelengths.
Greenhouse gases trap this infra-red radiation emitted from the earth to the atmosphere

Question 22

How much do greenhouse gases influence our climate?

Answer 22

A lot

Question 23

What are the main greenhouse gases?

Answer 23

Carbon Dioxide
Methane
Nitrous Oxide
Hydrofluorocarbons
Perfluorocarbons
Sulfur Hexafluoride

Question 24

How can we reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?

Answer 24

by either increasing biomass, or reducing distribution

Question 25

What mainly emits methane?

Answer 25

Cows

Question 26

What causes more than a third of global methane emissions?

Answer 26

microbial breakdown of organic matter under anaerobic conditions

Question 27

Where does microbial breakdown of organic matter under anaerobic conditions take place and to grow what?

Answer 27

mostly due to ride, produced in floods (anerobic)

Question 28

Why is nitrous oxide released?

Answer 28

during the reduction of nitrate to dinitrogen

Question 29

What is the problem with nitrous oxide?

Answer 29

Doesn't have a significant terrestrial sink

Question 30

What is the problem with greenhouse gases?

Answer 30

The problem is, most greenhouse gases last a very long time in our atmosphere, which means that they accumulate over time

Question 31

How many gigatonnes of carbon do we release yearly?

Answer 31

50

Question 32

What is the relationship between income and meat?

Answer 32

As income increases in countries all over the world, they consume more meat

Question 33

Does India follow the trend of increasing income correlating with increasing meat consumption and why?

Answer 33

No, because it has a very high population of vegetarians (cows are sacred animals for them)

Question 34

How much more meat do Americans eat than other people?

Answer 34

Approximately 3 times more

Question 35

Who is the largest beef producer worldwide?

Answer 35

America

Question 36

How much of the Earth's land area is used for cows?

Answer 36

30%

Question 37

How much more land do we use for animal food compared to human?

Answer 37

8 times more

Question 38

How much more climate change power does methane have compared to carbon dioxide?

Answer 38

21 times

Question 39

Cows produce more greenhouse gases than ? million cars per year in america?

Answer 39

22

Question 40

How much manure is create by animals yearly?

Answer 40

Approx 5 million tons

Question 41

What do we use for fertilizer?

Answer 41

Nitrous oxide

Question 42

How much nitrous oxide do we use yearly?

Answer 42

17 billion pounds per year

Question 43

What effect does nitrous oxide have in rivers?

Answer 43

Runoff into rivers and oceans create huge algae blooms | Takes oxygen from water, killing everything

Question 44

What proportion of greenhouse gases do direct emissions from agriculture account for?

Answer 44

50%

Question 45

What are empty calories?

Answer 45

foods that do not offer any nutrients

Question 46

What is the trend with empty calories?

Answer 46

Increasing worldwide trend of people eating ‘empty calories since 2009’

Question 47

What would the effect of everyone being pescatarian/vegetarian?

Answer 47

If everyone was pescatarian or vegetarian then there would be no increase in global emissions Additionally, it’d save land usage

Question 48

Who have the highest greenhouse emission intensity?

Answer 48

Africa and India

Question 49

Why do Africa and India have the highest greenhouse emission intensity?

Answer 49

mainly because of poor management and lack of resources, which means companies move there

Question 50

What is life circle analysis?

Answer 50

Analyzing the life of a cow and looking at where it was most environmentally damaging Using the information, we can adapt our processes, so that they’re more friendly for the environment

Question 51

What are direct atmospheric inputs?

Answer 51

Gas emissions Aerosol generation Thermal pollution

Question 52

What are the changes to land surface that occur on earth?

Answer 52

Albedo change (deforestation, afforestation, intensive grazing, dust addition to ice caps) Roughness change (deforestation, afforestation, urbanization) Extension of irrigation Reservoir impoundment

Question 53

How much of the world's food is reliant on fertilizer boosted agriculture?

Answer 53

Half

Question 54

How does nitrous oxide and phosphorous affect infection and non-infectious diseases?

Answer 54

Can indirectly increase the abundance of them