Food

Health Problems that diet can minimize
cancer
heart disease
adult and child diabetes
us has the highest obesity rate of any industrialized nations
exercise-sprawl + obesity

Omnivore's Dilemma
What to eat for dinner?

• The Industrial Agriculture, corn and meat heavy diet
• The Industrial Organic diet (whole foods, earthscan)
• The locally grown organic diet

The Local Food Movement: How and Why

• Number of Farmer's Markets
• 1755 in 1994
• 4,385 in 2006 source USDA
• Number of Community Supported Agricultures
• 50 in 1990
• 1,000+ in 2008
• Organics increasing in sales at 20% a year
• Wegmans, Whole Foods, Wild Oats
  

Malthus
predicted that pop would outstrip food supplies
food output increased WOOT WOOT
but increases in crop yields leveled off
overfishing is a major problem

Fish
save them with no fish zones

Moving on to Farmland and SHit

Conservation Reserve Program
36 million acres of highly erodible soils taken out of production
Conservation Compliance--Soil Conservation Plans reqired for highly erodible soils or no fed farm programs.

Water
Irrigation--salinization of soils and oerdrat of groundwater (Ogallala Aquifer)- use drip irrigation
In 1996, American farmers irrigated more than 53.3 million acres
Between 1982-1997, the amout of irrigated famrland in the Western states delined by 1.5 million acres, suggesting that cities and water districts are buyin up water rights from farmers
drought

fertilizers and pesticides

1996 Food Quality Protection Act set "acceptable risk" levels of chemical residues in food.

us exports about 50 billion a year but imports 38 billion

what are we exporting? corn, wheat, soybeans, rice. About one out of every four acres grown in the US groes to the export market

what are we importing? Apples, fruits, berries, some meat, fish, wine, beer, scotch, coffee, bananas

Geneticaly Modified Food
Pros: les fertilizer and pesticide, Increased production BGH
Cons: Long term effects uncertain, consumers don't know what they are eating,, europeans wont import our genetically modified grains

sewer sludge

limits to growing food

• competition of land between farmers and developers--2 million acres a year converted to no-farm uses, of which about 600,000 acres are prime farmlands
• Urban edge ag 35% of US food production but most of nation's fruits veggies and milk
• imported foods grown with DDT and other pesticides banned in US

if you are spending more than $10,000/acre on farmland, it is too much.