The effects of modern food production on the environment

Question 1

🌾 Modern Agribusiness

Answer 1

🌾 Modern Agribusiness: Large-scale, industrialized food production aimed at maximizing output to feed a growing population. Characterized by monoculture, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and reliance on technology and inputs.

Question 2

🌿 Traditional Agriculture

Answer 2

🌿 Traditional Agriculture: Smaller-scale farming practices, often more diverse, with potentially lower environmental impact compared to agribusiness.

Question 3

🦋 Biodiversity

Answer 3

🦋 Biodiversity: The variety of life in a particular habitat or ecosystem, including the number of different species and the number of individuals within each species.

Question 4

🌽 Monoculture

Answer 4

🌽 Monoculture: The agricultural practice of growing a single crop species over a large area.

Question 5

🌲 Deforestation

Answer 5

🌲 Deforestation: The clearing of forests for other land uses, such as agriculture, often resulting in habitat loss and carbon release.

Question 6

💧 Overuse of Water Resources
eg.

Answer 6

💧 Overuse of Water Resources: The unsustainable extraction of water, primarily for irrigation in large-scale agriculture, leading to depletion of rivers, aquifers, and negative impacts on ecosystems (e.g., the Aral Sea).

Question 7

🌍 Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Answer 7

🌍 Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Gases in the atmosphere that trap heat. Agriculture contributes through livestock (methane), synthetic fertilizers (nitrous oxide), and transportation (carbon dioxide).

Question 8

🚛 Food Miles

Answer 8

🚛 Food Miles: The distance food travels from its production site to the consumer. Higher food miles generally indicate a larger carbon footprint due to transportation.

Question 9

🥩 Carbon Footprint of Food
ppptd

Answer 9

🥩 Carbon Footprint of Food: The total amount of greenhouse gases emitted throughout the entire lifecycle of food, including production, processing, packaging, transportation, and disposal.

Question 10

Why do agribuses exist

Answer 10

• Poverty levels has also been dropping significantly - this means people can afford more protein rich food such as meat.
• The only way to produce enough food for so many people is to change traditional farms into food producing factories, known as agribusinesses.

Question 11

Negative effects of global agribusiness on the environment - loss of biodiversity

Answer 11

• Loss of biodiversity - When an industrial farm replaces all the native plants in a prairie grassland with only one type such as wheat, the animals that had lived there don’t have the support of the rich range of life that more diverse farms do.

Question 12

Negative effects of global agribusiness on the environment - deforestation
- leading cause of decline

Answer 12

• Deforestation - Large-scale agriculture often leads to the clearing of vast areas of forests to make way for crops or livestock. This contributes to habitat loss, disrupts ecosystems, and releases large amounts of stored carbon into the atmosphere. Habitat loss is the leading cause of the decline of wildlife species. It is an even worse threat to plant and animal species than climate change.

Question 13

Negative effects of global agribusiness on the environment - Water pollution

Answer 13

• Water pollution - The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agribusiness can result in runoff, contaminating nearby water sources. This pollution can harm aquatic ecosystems, disrupt the balance of aquatic life, and even affect human health if the contaminated water is used for drinking or irrigation.

Question 14

Negative effects of global agribusiness on the environment - overuse of water resources

Answer 14

• Overuse of water resources - Large-scale agriculture often requires substantial amounts of water for irrigation. In many cases, this leads to over-extraction of water from rivers and aquifers, causing depletion of water resources and negatively impacting local ecosystems.

Question 15

Negative effects of global agribusiness on the environment - GHG emissions

Answer 15

• GHG emissions - Agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock, especially ruminants like cattle, produce methane during digestion. Additionally, the use of synthetic fertilizers releases nitrous oxide, another potent greenhouse gas.
• The food we eat are transported from all over the globe. Most transport (truck, ship, plane or train) requires the burning of fossil fuels which increases carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Summary:
- Livestock - methane
- Synthetic fertilizers - nitrous oxide
- Transport - fossil fuels

Question 16

Carbon footprint of food
%

Answer 16

• Food miles only look at the distance that food travels to your plate and the carbon dioxide that is produced by transportation. A better indicator is the concept of the carbon footprint of food.
• The entire food system – which includes the production, packaging, transportation and disposal of everything we eat – accounts for 21-37% of all human-produced greenhouse gas emissions