Chapter 1

Critical Thinking
-A process by which we use our knowledge and intelligence to arrive at the most
reasonable and justifiable positions on issues, and which endeavors to identify and
overcome the numerous hindrances to rational thinking.
Steps involve in the process of critical thinking
Step 1: Adopt the attitude of a critical thinker
>Open-mindedness
To investigate in viewpoints different from our own
>Healthy skepticism
Doubt claims and examine the issues
>Intellectual humility
Adhering tentatively to recently acquired opinions
>Free thinking
Independent mind
Restrain ones desire to believe because of social pressures to conform
>High motivation
Do necessary studying to reach a sufficient level of understanding before making
judgments.
Step 2: Recognize & avoid critical thinking hindrances

Step 3: Identify and characterize arguments

Argument = Reason + Conclusions
>Argument
-Deductive argument: if one thing follows necessarily from another
-Inductive argument: proof to a degree of probability or certainty
>Reason and conclusions are usually:
-Premises
-Evidence
-Data
-Propositions Proofs
-Verifications
Step 4: Evaluate information sources
When doing critical appraisal, evaluate the credibility, accuracy and look for potential
biases.
Consider the questions below for the evaluation
1. Does the information source have the necessary qualifications or level of
understanding to make the claim (conclusion)?
2. Does the source have a reputation for accuracy?
3. Does the source have a motive for being inaccurate or overly biased?
4. Are there any reasons for questioning the honesty or integrity of the source?
-Statistical information may not necessarily a good source to support argument
(Were the samples taken representative of the entire target population?)
Step 5: Evaluate arguments
Assess whether:
1. Assumptions are warranted
(Warranted assumption is one that is either known to be true or it is reasonable to
accept without requiring another argument to support it.)
According to: (i) ones own knowledge and experience (ii) the information source for
the assumption (iii) the kind of claim being made
2. Reasoning is relevant
Assess:
(i) Relevance

(ii) Sufficiency
3. Relevant information has been omitted
-Seek opposing arguments on the subject could help reveal omissions

Critical Appraisal Checklist

1. Identify the key arguments presented in the document
-List sub-argument and the main argument
2. Evaluate the quality of the argument
Argument Evaluation
1. Any ambiguity, vagueness or obscurity?
2. The arguments embody any hindrances?
3. Any excessively emotional or manipulative language?
4. Credibility, relevancy, sufficiency of the reasons
3. Evaluate the quality of the evidence provided
4. Assess the potential for bias
5. Draw on course material to support your assessment and evaluation
6. Make an overall statement about the quality and strength of the document and
evaluate in general the credibility of the article

GGR107H1 - Environment, Food and People - Reading Note

Week 2 - September 21st 2012 - Chapter

1: A Practical Guide to

Critical Thinking
Defined as: a process by which we use our knowledge and intelligence to effectively
arrive at the most reasonable and justifiable positions on issues, and which tries to
identify and overcome the numerous hindrances to rational thinking
- critical thinking is about how we use our intelligence and knowledge to reach objective
and rational viewpoints
-- critical thinkers may be better equipped to make decisions and solve problems
- critical thinking = to think rationally/objectively
to think critically...
1. adopt attitude of a Critical Thinker

2. Recognize and Avoid Critical Thinking Hindrances

3. Identify and Characterize Arguments
4. Evaluate Information Sources
5. Evaluate Arguments
What Critical Thinking is Not:
- not thinking negatively with a predisposition to find fault or flaws
- not intended to make people think alike
- not threatening one's individuality or personality
- does not discourage or replace feelings or emotional thinking
- does not blindly support everything based on science
- arguements based on critical thinking may not always been the most persuasive
(1) Adopt the Attitude of a Critical Thinker
- you want the attitude - you want to be open minded, have healthy skepticism,
intellectual humility, free thinking, and high motivation
-- must be willing to investigate viewpoints different from his or her own, but at the same
time, recognize when to doubt claims that do not merit such investigation
-- intellectual humility: means adhering tentatively to recently acquired opinions; being
prepared to examine new evidence and agruments even if such examination leads one
to discoover flaws in one's own beliefs; think in terms of 'degrees of certainty' - must
have independent mind; must not fold to pressures from society to conform - must
have a natural curiousity; seek to further understanding and work sufficiently to
evaluate multiple sides of an issue
(2) Recognize and Avoid Critical Thinking Hindrances
- everyday we become exposed to things that hinder our ability to think clearly,
accurately and fairly
- a critical thinker must understand how to recognize and avoid deception of everyday
life a) Basic Human Limitations: applies to everyone, we can never be completely
objective - confirmation bias/selective thinking: one tends to notice and look for what
confirms one's beliefs
- false memories: unconciously fill in gaps
- ignorance: lack of essential background knowledge
- testimonial evidence: relying on the testimonies and vivde ancedotes of others to
substantiate one's own beliefs (ie. dramatic stories of Bigfoot sightings do not prove the
existence of Bigfoot)
b) Use of Language: relates to choice of words; can conceal the truth, mislead, confuse
or deceive
- ambiguity: a word/expression that can be understood in more than one way
- assuring expressions: disarm you from questioning validity (ie. As everyone knows..)
- doublespeak jargon: technical language used to make the simple seem complex vagueness: less precise language than the context requires c) Faulty Logic or
Perception

- Ad Hoc Hypothesis: a hypothesis which cannot be independently tested to refute

theory/claim
- Forer Effect: accepting vague personality descriptions that could fit anyone Apophenia and Superstition: errorneous perception of the connections between
unrelated events
d) Psychological and Sociological Pitfalls
Ad hominem Fallacy: criticizing the person making the argument, not the
argument itself
communal reinforcement: a claim becomes a strong belief through repeated
assertion by members of a community
evading the issue: someone whose been accused trying to divert attention to an
irrelevant issue
(3) Identify and Characterize Arguments
- recognize, construct, and evaluate arguments
- argument = presentation of a reason to support a conclusion (ie. dont trust john
(conclusion) because (indicator) hes a politician (reason))
- there must be one or more reason statements and one or more conclusion statements in
every argument
-- reason(s) may be synonymous with: premises, evidence, or data, proof, verification -sometimes arguments have indicators, like because, thus, therefore, hence, which must
be picked up on
Arguments may be divided into two categories: inductive or deductive
- deductive: if one thing follows necessarily from another (ie. All bachelors are
unmarried
--> John is a bachelor --> deductively reach the conclusion that John must be unmarried )
-- deductive goes from looking at a theory, hypothesis, observations, then conclusion (most commonly encountered) inductive: can never prove its conclusion, but can only
support it with a degree of certainty; given the premise the conclusion is probable
-- inductive goes from looking at observations to formulating a theory
-- do not provide conclusion with necessity; they are based on reasonable grounds for
their conclusion
(4) Evaluate Information Sources
- most arguments reference facts to support conclusions (errorneous facts --> errorneous
conclusions reached)
- must have a sound approach to evaluating the validity of facts
- sources typically cited in media or published
-- finding unbiased/objective information is often difficult
--> look for sources that are credible, unbiased, and accurate
--- depends on the source's qualifications, integrity and reputation *stats
are an easy way to fool people - ask yourself, were the samples taken
representative of the entire target population?

(5) Evaluate Arguments (3) Step Process 1.

assess whether assumptions are warranted:
- assumption: reasons implied in an argument that are taken for granted to be true warranted assumption is: known to be true, or is reasonable to accept without requiring
another argument to support it
^ unwarranted if it fails to meet these requirements
2. assess whether reasoning (evidence) is relevant and sufficient:
- relevance can be thought of as 'quality' of the reasoning, and sufficiency as the
'quantity' of the reasoning
^good arguments should have both
-- sufficiency can be thought of in terms of 'reasonable doubt'; understand how you
determine reasonable doubt --> maintain attitude of critical thinker, be aware of
hindrances to critical thining, ask yourself the purpose or consequences of the
argument, become aware of the contemporary standards of evidence for the subject,
and finally the evidence should be as strong as the conclusion being asserted 3. assess
whether relevant information has been omitted - omissions:
- a cogent argument is one which presents all relevant reasoning (evidence), not just
evidence that supports the argument
- arugments that omit relevant evidence can appear to be stronger than they really are
- so, determine if important evidence has been left out
-- can be unintentionally, or done purposely
Week 2 - September 21st 2012 - Chapter

2: Geography: It's
Developments, Research Themes, and Concepts
- our world is becoming intimately more interconnected via internet, the media, greater
access to improved transportation networks -- geography helps provide a deeper
understanding of how and why difference exist, how poeple and goods move from
place
to place, and how people relate to each other and with their environment
*ozone depletion, droughts, global warming etc
- humans place high demands on the environment, especially those in urban areas - core
of human geography: looks at how human needs are met and the networks required for
transportation of goods
- the Canadian Council for Geographic Education defines geography in terms of what
geographers do, and what they study; geography is a discpline devoted to answer
questions related to the biophysical world and to human systems
- ask questions like: why is it there? where is something? how did it get there? how does
it interact with other things? what alternative location exist to situate this activity? what
might be expected in the future? how can benefits be best distributed?
- we are interested in how thigns are interrelated in different regionss over space and
time
--> provide evidence of spatial systems

- geography is often referred to as the spatial science; description of earth, study of

spatial variation (how and why)
- geography matters on a personal scale (being able to get around campus,
neighbourhoods etc) and on a larger scale (corporations being able to make decisions
about where to locate manufacturing plants/warehouses in relation to transportation
routes/target market)
- United Nation's Secretary-General, Kofi Annan: believes work of UN is similiar to
work of geographer -- many of the problems facing humanity (climate change,
population, consumption, poverty, and sustainable development) require attention be
paid to importance of peole, borders and science
(4) areas where geographers could make meaningful contributions:
1. the classroom - put students in contact with a world beyond their immediate
community
2. geographic technology - GIS could allow for the creation of warning systems for
natural disasters --> better planning
3. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment - maps the health of the planet
4. Database by the Geographic Information Working Group
- geography is about space, and the content of space in the past, present and in the future
- geography is concerned about human aspects and biophysical (human/physical geo) content of an area has physical and cultural aspects, and geography is always concerned
with understanding both (ie. The Alps; thinking of this place brings to mind skiing and
mountains)
Evolution of the Discipline
- first - early greek philosophers
- geography's name was coined by Greek scientist Eratosthenes over 2200 years ago
- geo ' the earth' and graphein 'to write'
*from the start, writing focused on the physical structure of earth, and the nature and
activities of the people who inhabited the different lands of the known world
Strabo (ca. 64bce to ace 20) on the tasks of geograpghy: to describe the several parts of
the
world, to assess the countries of the world and to treat the differences between
countries
-- Greek, and later Roman geographers measured the earth, devised the global grid of
parallels and meridians and drew upon that grid maps of their known world
**looked at latitudinal variations in climate
*attention placed on what humans did in home and distant areas -- looked at language,
religion, custom, how they used, altered and destroyed the lands they were on etc. -Strabo cautioned against the assumption that the nature and actions of humans were
determined by the physical environment they inhabited -- he believed we were active
elements in a human-environment partnership
In Europe...

modern geography as we know it came from Europe during the surge of scholary
inquiry in the 17th century
-- political and social trends influenced what geographers did, and how technological
developments influenced how geographers applied their knowledge
--> Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) - philosophical foundation: a German scholar - felt
geography was an important discipline because it provided spatial and historical
perspectives
also felt it important to understand how events occured and changed over time
and space
--> Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and Carl Ritter (1779-1859) - developed
geography as an indepedent branch of study: Humboldt wrote a paper describing the
physical geography of many regions of the world, with a focus on the interactions
between humans and nature, and made comparisons about people and places -comparability and detailed observations gave scientific credibility to his work --> Carl
Ritter: keen observer of the landscape, looked at the interconnections and
interrelationships that defined regions
* Ritter and Humboldt's writings furthered geographic studies by comparing different
parts of the world with each other in order to provide general statements or laws
--> Renaissance Period (1350-1750): european exploration prompted governments to
map new territories
- Gerardus Mercator developed a map that allowed explorers to maintain a compass
bearing
along a straight line drawn on his projection
- major developments in surveying and mapping at this time --> allowed for more
accurate maps to be produced
*maps became important with trade among nations
- map making (cartography) became dominant aspect of the discipline at this time
- 19th century (1800s): introduction of census data and trade statistics to give a firmer
foundation to human geographic investigation
- at this time, saw active participation by influential individuals and government officials
in independent geographic societies, which promoted exploration and held meetings to
hear about far away places from guest speakers
*during this time, geography was largely concerned with mapping, and providing
descriptive inventories of newly explored and colonized places
- growing importance of geography recognized in late 1800s
-- importance highlighted by the Prussian (now German) government's decision in 1874
to establish permanent chairs of geography at all its universities --> geography as an
academic discipline
- Britian has first department in 1900
- USA has first department in Chicago 1903

*differences exist among nations about how geography should be practised

ie. British geographers were committed to regional geography & physical
geography vs. Americans who did not share this level of interest
** this difference may be attributed to 'excesses of environmental determinism' -Environmental Determinism: a belief held in the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s which
held that the environmental largely determined human activities and landscapes
- 1950s; a sense of disappointment emerged and grew among geographers in North
America that realized that much of their work was becoming irrelevant and provided
only superficial analysis
-- Fred Schaefer (1904-1953): challenged the discipline to adopt more scientific
approaches. His view: geographers should be developing laws that explained location
that might differentiate regions, rather than providing endless descriptions of the world
- 1960s; systematic geography become more popular in response ^^ in Britian, USA, and
Canada
- systematic geographers studied the processes of systems - human and physical
-- worked on regional level provide solutions to problems/understand problems better developed a way to get systematic data via reliable published sources; census or traffic
records
- statistical techniques improved with technology ; able to simulate models of systems to
predict future
- mainstream human geography was concerned with urban and economic geography:
focus on the measure of direction, distance, and connectivity = spatial interaction generalizations reached via combining geo information with economic theories
- late 1960s to 1970s; quantitative approach to geography was criticized because many of
its theories provided for poor explanation and/or prediction of actual human use of and
patterns on the landscape
-- shortcomings reflect assumptions made like: people would always make money based
on economic gain
- a new development: geographic research should combine decision making theories
from psychology and sociology with geography's spatial concepts
- since 1970s - two important influences - social and technological - can be identified as
drivers behind developments since the late 1960s
- 1960s: public concern for issues like poverty, civil rights, women's rights, Vietnam
War, sexual freedom etc were rising
-- Radical geography: promoted a greater understanding of why and how problems were
evident in space and radical geographers wanted to redress many of the inequities that
were present in socities, particularly those in many developing countries
*term radical applied to these ideas because in most instances, some form of socialism
was seen as the solution to problems emanating from capitalist economies

-- socialism: a form of economic and social organization based on common ownership of

means to produce and distribute products
*we now realize that political and economic systems can influence human impact on the
environment
Technology
- new techonology has influenced the discipline, particularly those related to mapping
and analysis
- satellite use vs. labour intensive exercise by surveyor
- computer based analysis provides more detailed insights and for the manipulation of
large data sets; GIS and remote sensing are big in geography at the moment
Development of Geography in Canada...
- the Canadian Association of Gepgrahers was started in 1951 in MTL; 65 people
attended meeting
- the CAG directory 2003 identified 46 departments of geography across the country, 21
having Ph. D. programs
-- in early development, there was a strong relationship between CAG and the public
service, particularly the Geographical Branch and the Defence Research Board -- this
relationship primarily focused on military geography, the development of Canada's
north, and mapping and analyzing the spatial distribution of populations, cities, and
economic activities
--- Putman suggested that the 'duty of Canadian geographers should be to pursue Canadia
population, Canadian unity, and Canadian outlook on the world
*Canadian geography focuses on large size of country, and challenges posed for
transportation, communication, resource development, cultural diversity and populationn
distribution
- between the 1960s and 1990s, the focus of research shifted from economic
considerations to ones that were often informed by social theory and political economy - Wheeler (2002): the use of maps, which had been the traditonal centrepieced of
geographic analysis, has declined
- human-environmental relations have moved beyond environmental determinism,
possiblism and probablism to include --> political ecology, international development,
sustainable development, environmental management, and issues related to human
health
Primary Geographic Research Themes
- according to the Canadian Councial for Geographic Education, there are 6 themes
forming the core
1.
World in Spatial Terms: refers to the use of maps and other geographic
representation, tools and techniques to acquire, process and report information
2.
Places and Regions: study of a region, the physical and human characteristics of
it; interconnections between society and environment in a specific location

3.
Physical Systems: study of the plants/animals in the world 4. Human Systems:
examines spatial organization of society
5. Society and the Environment:
6. Uses of Geography
Human Geography: deals with the world as it is, and with the world as it might be made
to be
emphasis is on people: where they are, what they are like, how they interact over
space, what kind of landscpaes of human use do they erect on the natural landscapes they
occupy
human geography serves the objectives of a liberal education; helps us to
understand the world, appreciate circumstances affecting people/countries other than our
own, clarifies the contrasts in societies and cultures and in the human landscapes they
have created in different regions of the earth
* generates better informed citizens, better able to problem solve
Background Basics - Core Geographic Concepts
- asking questions like: what is it, where is it? how did it come to be what and where it
is? where is it in relation to other things that affect it or are affected by it? how is it part
of a functioning whole? how does it's location affect people's lives and the content of
the area in which it is found
- space: implies areal extent and may be understood in both and absolute or relative
sense
- absolute - objectively and physically real with measurable extend and definable
boundaries
- relative - perceptual and variable, not permanent over time; space can be seen as
socially
produced
- place: companion concept to space, synonym for location or in terms of human
geography, relates to the attributes and values we individually associate with a location
(ie. hometown and neighbourhood, the university we attend, the highschool we
graduate from)
*my sense of place will not be the same as someone else's who cannot form the same
relationships to an area as I can
- placelessness: reduction in the uniqqueness of formerly separated locales and cultures spatial: used by geographers as a modifier in framing their questions and forming their
concepts - geography is a spatial science they say, cocerned with spatial relationships
between people and the earth, spatial behaviour of people, and spatial processes that
create/maintain spatial behaviours in people
* the geographers space: the earth space, the surface area occupied or available to be
occupied by humans
...basic observation about location and nature of a space can be important;
- places have location, direction and distance with respect to others
- a place has a size (so scale is important)
- a place has both a physical and cultural structure

- attributes of a place change and develop with time

- elements of a place interrelate with other places
- content of places is structured and explainable
- places may be generalized into regions of sim. and diffs.
^ means by which geographers express fundamental observations about the earth spaces
they examine
Location, Direction and Distance
- everyday ways of assessing space around us and identifying our position in relation to
other items and places of interest
- also essential in understanding the processes of spatial interaction that figure so
importantly in the study of human geography
-- location of places/objects is starting point for all geographic study
- absolute location; identification of place by some precise and accepted system of
coordinates (global grid of parallels and meridians)
- unique to a described place, independent of any other characteristics or observations,
and has value in the legal description of places (say in measure distances between
separating places, or
in finding directions between places on earth's surface)
- relative location; position of a place in relation to that of other places/acitivities; shows
interconnections/interdependence -- direction is the second universal spatial concept
- can also be expressed in absolute or relative terms; absolute direction is based on the
cardinal points of north, south, east, west while relative direction references are often
culturally based and locationally variable, despite reference to cardinal compass points
(ie. saying out West, down South, Far Eastern)
-- distance is the third universal spatial concept
- can also be expressed in absolute or relative terms; absolute distance refers to the
spatial separation between two points on the earth's surface measured by some accepted
standard unit
* people often think of distance in time; 20 minutes by bus, 5 minutes walking
**psychological transformation of distance; sometimes a walk may seem longer than it is
for whatever reason
Size and Scale
when we say that a place may be large or small, we speak both of the nature of
the place itself and of the generalizations that can be made about it
-- geographers use scale on different levels --> you may want to look at population or
agriculture on a local scale, regional scale or global scale
*scale may relate to the size of the units being studied
-- more technically, scale tells us the mathematical relationship between the size of an
area on a map, and the actual size of the mapped area of the surface of the Earth
*scale is an essential feature to every map
-- scale implies the degree of generalization represented (ie. at a national scale stats
Canada reports the median income of Canadians in 2000 was $55000, however, on a
provincial scale, the median income varied from province to province

Physical and Cultural Attributes

all places have physical and cultural attributes that distinguish them from other
places and give them character, potential and meanings
geogrphers are concerned with identifying and analyzing the details of those
attributes, and recognizing the interrelationship between the physical and cultural
components of area: the human-environmental interface
-- physical characteristics = climate, soil, the presence or absense of water supplies and
mineral resources, terrain features etc
*such natural landscape attributes provide the setting within which human actions
occurs; they shape, but don't dictate how people live (ie. a resource base is physically
determined, though how the resources are preceived and utilized is culturally conditioned
- the natural environmental simultaneously presents advantages and drawbacks with
which humans must deal
-- however, in occupying a place, people modify it's environmental conditiosn
*Environment Canada <-- existence reminds us that humans are active and frequently
harmful agents in the continuining interplay between the cultural and physical worlds the visible expression of that human activity is the cultural landscape (ie. differences in
agricultural practices and land use between Mexico and California)
The Changing Attributes of Place
- physical environmental around us is always changing
- change is continuous and pronounced
- geologic time is long, but the forces that give shape to the land are timeless and
relentless
Interrelations Between Places
- places interact with other places in structured and comprehensible ways
-- sound also look at accessibiliy and connectivity when looking at how places affect one
another
Tobler's First Law of Geography - in a spatial sense, everything is related to everything
else but that relationships are stronger when items are near one another
**therefore, based on observation of this point, interaction between places diminishes in
intensity and frequency as distance between them increases; more likely to visit
somewhere closer
- consideration of distance implies assessment of accessibility - how easy or difficult is it
to overcome the 'friction of distance' ?
- accessibility suggests the idea of connectivity: a concept implying all the tangible and
intangible ways in which places are conntect: by pyhsical telephone line, street and
road systems, pipelines and sewers, unrestrained walking, by TV and radio
*networks: determine the efficiency of movement and the connectedness of points where routes are fixed and flow is channelized

- spatial diffusion: the process of dispersion of an idea or an item from a centre of origin
to more distant points with which it is directly or indirectly connected
*rate and extent influenced by distance separating origin and centre which later adopt
practices/technology
** rates also influenced by population density, means of communication
- geography's study of dynamic spatial relationship recognizes that spatial interaction is a
fundamental organizing principle of human life on earth (globalization)
-- globalization: implies the increasing interconnection of peoples and societies in all
parts of the world as the full range of social, cultural, political, economic, and
environmental processes become international in scale and effect
The Structured Content of Place
- how are objects distributed in an area - placement of schools or grocery stores in a town
^ questions such as these carry the conviction that the contents of an area are
comprehensibly arranged or structured
-- arrangement of items of earth's surface is known as spatial distribution, and may be
analyzed by the elements common to all spatial distributions: density, dispersion, pattern
--> density: a measure of the number or quantity or anything within a defined unit of area
*a count of items in relation to the area in which they are found
- arithmetic density: absolute relationship, population per square km
-- sometimes it is more meaningful to relate item numbers to a specific kind of area -->
Physiological density is a measure of the number of persons per unit area of arable land
* densities are normally employed comparatively, relative to one another
--> dispersion: a statement of the amount of spread of a phenomenon over an area
- tells you how far things are spread out
- close together = clustered = agglomerated
- spread out = dispersed = scattered
*something that might be clustered at one scale may be considered dispered at another
scale
--> pattern: geometric arrangement of objects in space
- a term refering to distribution, but emphasizes design over spacing
- centralized pattern: items concentrated around a single node
- random pattern: unstructured irregular distribution
Place Similarity and Regions
1. no two places on the surface of Earth can be exactly the same
2. the physical and cultural content of an area and the dynamic interconnections of
people and places show patterns of spatial similarity

- recognizing the existence of spatial regularities allows use to define regions -- regions
are earth areas that display significant elements of internal uniformity and external
difference from surrounding territories
- regions are devised; they are spatial summaries designed to bring order to diversity of
the earth's surface
Types of Regions
- may be formal, functional ad perceptual
-- formal region: one of essential uniformity in one or a limited combination of physical
or cultural features (ie. home province)
-- the formal region is the largest area over which a valid generalization of attribute
uniformity may be made
-- functional region: may be visualized as a spatial system; its part are interdependent,
and throughout its extent the functional region operates as a dynamic, organizational unit
-- perceptula regions: less rigorously structured, they reflect feelings and images rather
than objective data and because of that may be more meaningful in the lives and actions
of those who recognize them
GGR107 CHAPTER 2 - Geography:

Its Developments,

Research Themes and Concepts

Geography literally means description of the earth
Definition: The study of spatial variation, of how - and why - physical and cultural
items differ from place to place.
Decisions made by corporations about the locations of manufacturing plants or
warehouses in relation to transportation routes and markets are spatially rooted
- on an even grander scale, judgements about the protection of national power, or
the claim and recognition of spheres of influence and interest among rival
countries are related to the implications of distance and area
Four areas where geographers can make significant contributions:
1. The geography classroom should put students in contact with the world beyond
their immediate community in order that they learn about distant people and
places
2. Geographic technologies, i.e. Geographic information systems, could allow for the
development of early warning systems about natural disasters and
environmental threats, and better plan our cities, especially in the developing
world
3. Geographers could contribute to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, which
will map the health of the planet
4. The development of a common UN Geographic Database by the Geographic

Information Working Group is another specific geographically oriented initiative

Greek, and later Roman geographers measured the earth, devised the global grid of
parallels and meridians (marking latitudes and longitudes), and drew upon that
grid surprisingly sophisticated maps of their known world. They explored the
apparent latitudinal variations in climate and described in numerous works the
familiar Mediterranean basin and the more remote, partly rumoured lands of
Northern Europe, Asia and equatorial Africa.
Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) - German scholar
- Influenced the early development of geography by suggesting that disciplines that
provided temporal (history) and spatial (geography) perspectives were just as or
more important than disciplines such as economics and sociology, which focused
on specific considerations
- He also implied that history and geography were not merely about memorizing
dates and place names respectively. It was important to understand how events
occurred and changed over time and space. Since everything occurs in time and
space, geography and history are defined by the perspective they provide and not
by the subject matter (people, groups, culture, trade)

Environmental determinism - Between the mid 1800s and mid 1900s, many
geographers in Europe and North America, studied how humans interacted with
their environment, assumed that the environment largely determined human
activities and landscapes
Possibilism - Did not deny that the environment placed some limits on human
activities, it promoted that a more important factor to consider were the choices
made by people in response to the opportunities and constraints provided by the
environment
Probabilism - Lies between environmental determinism and possibilism - suggests
that based on the nature of the environment, humans will be more likely to make
certain decisions over other ones. For instance, if forests are in relatively scarce
supply, homes may be more frequently constructed from clay or stone rather than
wood.
Systematic geographers studied the processes of systems - human, (economic,
transportation, political, cultural) and physical (water, geomorphic, climatic) - often
operating within functional and administrative regions in order that problems
could be understood and solutions provided
- A key focus was the measurement of direction, distance and connectivity - the
geometry of space or what is termed spatial interaction

Development based on traditional measures such as the accumulation of wealth or

a rise in a nations gross national product (GNP), was being questioned. Radical
geographies, which include the philosophies of Marxism and structuralism,
adopted a progressive social agenda and provided two contributions to geography.
1. As a body of knowledge, radical geographies promoted a greater understanding
of why and how social problems were evident in space. Ex. Examining why
people moved to specific houses, behaviouralists and logical positivists would
focus attention on issues of choice, preference and/or cost. A radical geographer
would question the role of land developers and urban planners/managers in
determining which sites were built upon, the style of housing available and
location relative to undesirable land uses.
2. As a social movement, they wanted to redress many of the inequities that were
present in societies, particularly those in many developing countries. The term
radical was applied to these ideas because in most instances, some form of
socialism was seen as the solution to problems emanating from market-driven
(capitalist) economies.
3. Socialism is a form of economic and social organization based on common
ownership of means to produce and distribute products. It contrasts capitalism,
based on private ownership of production, as the dominant form of economic
and social organization in the world.
Primary geographic research themes:
1. World in Spatial Terms - the use of maps and other geographic representations,
tools and technologies to acquire, process and report information. In this way,
the spatial variation and interrelationships among people, places and
environments are communicated
2. Places and Regions - The physical and human systems, their spatial relationships,
interactions between society and environment in specific locational settings
3. Physical systems - biophysical systems - physical processes shape Earths surface
ad interact with plant and animal life to create, sustain and modify the cultural
and natural environment
4. Human systems - Spatial organization of society, which is a mosaic of population
movements, settlement patterns, economic activity, transportation,
communication, and political organizations
5. Society and the Environment
Core Geographic Concepts:
1. Space - implies areal extent and may be understood in both and absolute and a
relative sense. Absolute space - objectively and physically real with measurable
extent and definable boundaries. Space is fundamental to areal relationships
between physical and cultural features on the earths surface and is basic to such
geographic interests as making maps, analyzing distributions, and conducting
spatial analysis of locational patterns.

2. Relative space - perceptual, not objective, and variable, not permanent, over
time. In this relative sense, space can be seen as socially produced, reflecting
activities and the interrelationships between activities. Since activities and
relationships are constantly changing, relative space adjusts in size and form in
response to developing socioeconomic processes and the passage of time.
3. Place - synonym for location - attributes and values we individually associate
with location. The attributes and culture of places shape the lives and outlooks of
those who inhabit them in ways basic to the socioeconomic patterning of the
world. The sense of place is reinforced by recognized local and regional
distinctiveness. It may be diminished or lost and replaced by a feeling of
placelessness.
Places have location, direction, and distance with respect to other places
A place has size, it may me large or small. Scale is important.
A place has both physical structure and cultural content
The attributes of places develop and change over time
The elements of places interrelate with other places
The content of places is structured and explainable
Places may be generalized into regions of similarities and differences
Location:
- Absolute location - Identification of place by some precise and accepted system
of coordinates; it therefore is sometimes called mathematical location (global grid
of parallels and meridian - with it absolute location can be accurately described by
reference to its degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude and longitude) Relative
location - the position of a place in relation to that of other places or activities spatial interconnection and interdependence and may carry social and economic
implications - on a larger scale, relative location tells us that people, things, and
places exist not in a spatial vacuum but in a world of physical and cultural
characteristics that differ from place to place

Chapter 2- Introduction Geography: Its

Developments. Research Themes, and Concepts

Geography is often referred to as the spatial science, that is, the discipline
concerned with the use of earth space. In fact, geography literally means

"description of the earth ," but that task is really the responsibility of nearly
all the sciences.

Geography might be better defined as the study of spatial variation, of how

and whyphysical and cultural items differ from place to place on the
surface of the earth. It is, further, the study of how observable spatial
patterns evolved through time.

There are simple examples of the observation that "space matter" in a very
personal way. You cannot avoid the implications of geography in your
everyday affairs. Your understanding of your hometown, your
neighbourhood, or your campus is essentially a geographic understanding.

United Nations` Secretary of General Kofi Annan believed that the work of
the United Nations and the work of geographers shared a great deal in
common because of the many of the problems facing humanity climate
change, population, consumption, poverty, and supporting the achievement
of sustainable development for all people of the world required attention
to be paid to the importance of people, borders, and science.

In 2001, Kofi Annan identified four areas where geographers throughout the
world could make a meaningful contribution`:
First the geography classroom should put students in contact with the
world beyond their immediate community in order that they learn
about distant people and places.
Second, that geographic technologies, such as geographic information
system, could allow for the development of early warning systems
about natural disasters and environmental threats, and better plan
our cities, particularly in the developing world
Third, geographers could contribute to the Millenium Ecosystem
Assessment, which will map the health of the planet.
Fourth, the development of a common UN Geographic Database by
the Geographic Information Working Group is another specific
geographically oriented initiative.

Spotlight Box 2.1

Modern geography is both a physical and social sciences, and fosters a wealth
of technical skills
2.2 Evolution of the Discipline
Geography`s name was reputedly coined by the Greek scientist
Erathosthenes from the words geo, "the earth" and graphein, "to write."

Greek (and , later, Roman) geographers measured the earth, devised the
global grid of parallels and meridians (marking latitudes and longitudes),
their grid was sophisticated of their known world. They employed modern
concepts, they described river systems, explored causes of erosion, pattern
of disposition, cited dangers for deforestation, described areal variations in

the natural landscape, and noted the consequences of abuse on the

environment.
2.3 The Evolution of Geography in Europe
Immanuel Kant, a German scholar, influences the early development of
geography by suggesting that disciplines that provided temporal (history)
and spatial (geography) perspectives were just as or more important that
disciplines such as economics and sociology which focus on specific
considerations. In his view it was important to understand how events
occurred and changed over time and space.
2.4 Primary Geographic Research themes
According to the Canadian Council for Geographic Education, 6 themes form
the core of the discipline:
The first element is the "World in Spatial Terms"- which refers to the
map and the use of other geographic representations, tools and
technologies to acquire
The second element is the "Places and Regions"- the physical and
human system, their spatial relationship, interactions between
society and environment in specific locational settings.
The third element is "Physical Systems" or "Biophysical System" the
study of plants and animals that inhabit the world with us
2.6 Some Background Basics
2.6.1 Core Geographic Concepts
Absolute space is objectively and physically real with measurable extent
and definable boundaries
Relative space is perceptual not objective, and variable, not permanent,
over time.

Place is the companion concept to space. Place is a synonym for location.

2.7.1 Location
Absolute location-- is the identification of place by some precise and
accepted system of coordinates; it is sometimes called mathematical location

Relative location the position of a place in relation to that of other places or

activities

Site an absolute location concept, refers to the physical and cultural

characteristics and attributes of the places itself. It is more than the
mathematical location, for it tells us something about the internal features of
that place.

2.7.2 Direction
Direction is the second universal spatial concept. Like location it has more
than 1 meaning.

Absolute directionis based on the cardinal points of north, south , east and
west.

In Canada we commonly use Relational direction, we go "out West" or "down

South"

2.7.3 Distance
Absolute distance refers to the spatial separation between two point on
the earth`s surface measured by some accepted standard unit such as miles
or kilometres for widely separated locales, feet or metres for more closely
spaced points

Relative distancetransforms those linear measurements into other units

more meaningful for the space relationship in question.

2.11 Interrelation between places

Spatial Interactionplaces interact with other places in structured and
comprehensible ways.

Connectivity A broader concept implying all the tangible and intangible

ways in which places are connected: by telephone lines, street and road
systems.

Spatial diffusion the process of dispersion of an idea or an item from a

centre of origin to more distant points with which it is directly or indirectly
connected.

Globalizationimplies the increasing interconnection of peoples and

societies in all parts of the world as the full range of social cultural, political,
economic, and environmental processes becomes international in scale and
effect.

2.12 The Structured Content of Place

The arrangement of items on the earth's surface is called Spatial Distribution
and may be analyzed by the elements common to all spatial distributions:
density, dispersion, and pattern

2.12.1 Density
The measure of the number or quantity of anything within a defined unit of
area is its density.

It is not the counts of items but of items in relation to the space in which they
are found.

Physiological density is a measure of the number of person per unit area of

arable land.

2.12.2 Dispersion
Dispersion (or its opposite, concentration) is a statement of the amount of
spread f a phenomenon over an area. It tells us not how many or how much
but how far things are spread out.

If they are close together spatially, they are considered clusters or

agglomerated. If they are spread out, they are dispersed or scattered.

2.12.3 Pattern
The geometric arrangement of objects in space is called pattern.
A centralized pattern may involve items concentrated around a single node.
A random pattern may be the best description of an unstructured irregular
distribution
2.13 Place Similarity and Regions
The distinctive characteristics of the places in content and structure
immediately suggest two geographical important ideas. The first is that no
two places on the surface of the earth can be exactly the same. Not only do
they have different absolute locations, but as in the features of the human
face -- the precise mix of physical and cultural characteristics of a place is
never exactly duplicated.
-

Chapter 3: Agricultural Systems

3.1 Introduction
Agriculture or farming is rearing animal and harvest crops
It involves the interaction between people and the environment
It has lasted over 10,000 years
Plants and animals spread from the near east into southern-eastern Europe
Methods of trading began with the Greek and then was adopted by the
Romans
Agriculture is from the Latin word agar and Greek word agros meaning field

3.2 The agri-ecosystem

Unlike many aspects of economic activity the contributions of the physical
environment can contribute to nature
Humans are now able to modify plants and crops
The purpose is to harvest the greater number of crops
Farmers use harmful technologies and chemical to produce these crops
3.3 Climate and agriculture
The greatest limitations can be soil type, nutrient availability, topography
and drainage
Even modern plant breeding has its limits
3.3.1 Temperature
Both plant and animal growth needs to be grown in at a certain temperature
There are also different growing seasons for crops
There is usually an optimum yield
Each crops has a critical temperature range (C3 and C4 crops)
The minimum amount is where there is insufficient heat
The optimum at rates of metabolic processes are at their maximum
The maximum beyond growth ceases
Some crop require different amounts of times; some grow during the day
while others at night
4 different types of crops
Short day, long night: with a photoperiod of under ten hours e.g. soybean,
sweet potatoes, millet. These occur at low latitudes where spring and
autumn are warm enough to allow their harvest cycle to be completed
Long day/ Short night with a photoperiod of over 14 hours e.g. small grains,
timothy, sweet clover. High latitudes
Intermediate day, with a photoperiod of 12-14 hours and an inhibition of
reproduction either above or below these levels
Day-neutral unaffected by day length
This is important to farmers because they can use their time and space
correctly
There are different growing seasons based on geography
3.3.2 Water
Water is important for agriculture
Water provides nutrients for plants
Water can also carry pesticides and chemical from plants causing health
concerns
Irrigation impacts crop productivity
The salt and alkaline levels of the water can cause problems

3.4 Agricultural Soils

Primary agricultural management practice is the cultivation of soil
Soil can vary due to structure, depth, nutrient content and acidity
Deeper the soil the better it is at storing minerals
Soils that are less deep are not able to store soils
Soil texture is also important for the draining of water
Acidity can also decide whether or not the plant will thrive
3.4.1 Soil Classification
V.V. Dokuchaev developed a method for classifying soils
Three basic types of soils are zonal, intra-zonal and azonal
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) produced a
classification known as the seventh Approximation
This recognized 12 different soil orders
The worlds soil map shows trends i.e. unproductive soil in in the northern
hemisphere
3.5 Energy
A range of physical factors that effect agricultural distribution
Energy can be created through photosynthesis
Fertilizers can be used to reduce the amount of energy humans put in
Energy is transferred through a cycle (Figure 3.3)
Energy yield differs fro different crops
The energy ratio: the edible amount of energy produced in net form
The gross energy productivity (GEP): total food energy produced per system
The surplus energy income: energy not consumed by people e.g. crops fed to
animals
The energy yield can come in net food output per hectare
Increase the amount of energy by replacing man power with machines
3.6 Climate change and agriculture
Climate change affects the distribution of crops
Out predictions for the future lead to reduction in crop yield
Long term effects of sea levels rising could destroy crops
Tropical regions that have fertile land can be affected causing unfertile soil
Crop yield analysis can be used to determine growth factors
Different strategies for different farmland systems
Highlighted the role of technological innovations to improve the workplace
It allows us to perform research on areas

3.7 Classifying agricultural systems

Variation in the type of farm management have been summarized: biological
diversity, intensity of human management, net energy balance, and
management responsibility
Differences in the agricultural systems allows for classification
3.7.1 Land Classification
Based on the physical properties of the land
E.g. the topography, soils and vegetation
UK has a land classification method
Depending on the area certain land is suitable for growing crops on
3.7.2 Land use classification
Focuses on what the land could be used for
It was popularized by J.C. Weaver when he realized that certain crops could
be grown in the same region, crop-combination regions
Classifications may omit crops that are important in financial terms
3.7.3 Type of farming regions
Type of farming depends on crops, livestock, intensity of land use,
processing and disposal of farm procedures, methods and degree of farm
mechanisms and types of building and other structures associated with
agriculture Applying this method is important for statistical analysis
3.8 Conclusion
Physical factors can control agricultural activity, but socio-economic and
political factors are more influential in the decision
Other important factors also include tenure, landownership, farm size,
marketing, transport and labour supply and social and cultural variables

Chapter 3 Notes

GGR107:
Giovanni Sacco

Agriculture is the rearing of animals and the production of crops through

cultivating soil
Agriculture geography includes; spatial distribution of crops and livestock,
the systems of management employed, the nature of links to the broader
economic, social, cultural, political and ecological systems, the spectrum of
food production, processing, marketing and consumption.
6 key factors influence the distribution of farming types, they are:
1. Biological 2.
Physical
3. Economic

4. Political
5. Socio-cultural
6. Marketing (food trade)
Reciprocal relationship between environmental factors/agricultural activity
(environment affects the nature of farming, and farming affects the
environment)
Agri-ecosystems are simpler, less diverse and not as complex as natural
ecosystems
Constraints on agriculture:
1. Average temperatures
2. Amount of precipitation
3. Annual distribution
Each crop has an optimal temperature for growth, the critical temperatures
are:
1. The minimum, below this there is insufficient heat for biological
activity
2. The optimum, metabolic processes at their maximum
3. The maximum, beyond which growth stops, higher temperature
can be harmful or lethal
Some crops are photoperiodic, meaning they need different amounts of
daylight for optimal growth, there are four main groups:
1. Short-day/long night (low altitude)
2. Long-day/short night (high altitude)
3. Intermediate day (photoperiod of 12-14
hrs)
4. Day-neutral (unaffected by different day
lengths) Water is necessary for agriculture, mainly through
precipitation, but farmers can work around problems with
natural water supplies using irrigation methods
Cultivation is the primary method for agricultural management, soil is where
water, minerals and nutrients are stored that enable plant growth
Soil texture is important, it influences moisture/particle size
Depth in soil also important, greater depth allows for more deposit of water
and minerals
Acidity is another important factor in soil, measures on the PH scale:
-------------------------|-----------------------
0(most acidic)
7(neutral)
14(most alkaline)
A way of classifying soils and understanding the relations between soil
properties and environmental factors:
o Climate o
Parent
material o

Biotic factors
o Relief
o Time the
factors have
operated
3 basic soil classes (table 3.2 on page 54)
1. zonal
2. intra-zonal
3. azonal
U.S soil taxonomy shows soil orders based on 12 orders, each with distinct
characteristics (table 3.3 page 55)
Solar radiation provides the fundamental energy source to support plant and
animal growth, this energy drives the cycling of nutrients through
agriecosystems, aspects of this are the carbon and nitrogen cycles
Ways to keep nitrogen levels suitable in soil were invented in order to
enable optimal land use, for example the Norfolk crop rotation was
developed for this purpose, the whole idea behind it was to allow for the soil
time to regenerate its nitrogen levels.
Key technologies mediating climate variations are mechanical innovations
(irrigations) and biological science (hybrids)
Effects of global warming would ultimately be hindered by both structural
resistance and hindered by both structural resistances and farmer
decisionmaking behavior
Farm management has been summarized with four main parameters:
1. Biological diversity
2. Human management
3. Net energy balance
4. Management responsibility
Land classification regions are based on physical properties and land
capability, physical properties include; topography, soils and vegetation
Soil characteristics are especially important
Land use classification is based on the way land is used, popularized by J.C
Weaver who had the idea of crop-combination regions which showed
regional productions usually includes combinations of crops as apposed to
only one
Type-of farming classifications, based on individual farms that have many
variables including production and management, and information on yields,
crops and livestock
Modern type of farming classifications are based on 5 criteria:
1.
Crop/livestock association
2.
Intensity of land use
3.
Processing/disposal of farm produce

4.
Methods/degree of farm mechanization
5.
Type association of buildings and structures associated
with agriculture 7 types of enterprise:
1. dairy cattle
2. beef cattle
3. sheep
4. cash crops
5. fruit
6. vegetables
7. pigs/poultry
Although physical factors can exert controls on agricultural activity, it is
socio-economic/political factors that determine detailed characteristics of a
farm enterprise
According to farmers the nature of land at their disposal is influenced by ecological
factors such as population pressure, technological innovation, structures of social
organizations and societal val

Chapter 4 Exam Review

Soil and Agriculture

Soil-is a complex plant supporting system consisting of disintegrated rock,

organic matter, water, gases, nutrients and microorganisms
Soil consists roughly of half mineral matter with organic matter and the other
half pore space taken up with air, water and soil gases
The organic matter in soil consists of living and dead microorganisms as well as
decaying plant and animal matter
The composition of soil can have as great an effect on a regions ecosystem as
does climate or temperature
Formation of soil
Parent material- is the base geological material in a particular location. It can
include lava or volcanic ash; rock or sediment deposited by glaciers
Bedrock-the continuous mass of solid rock that makes up the earths crust
The process responsible for soil formation are weathering, erosion and the
deposition and decomposition of organic matter
Weathering- is the physical, chemical, biological processes that break down
rocks and minerals turning larger particles into smaller [articles.
Physical weathering-breaks down rock without changing the parent material
Chemical weathering- results when water or other substances chemically
interact with parent material (example acidic ground water)

Biological weathering-occurs when living things break down parent material

through physical or chemical means (example trees root rubbing against rock
causing erosion
Weathering produces particles and in the first step in soil formation. The second
step is erosion
Erosion- the movement of movement of soil from one area to another.
Biological activity contributes to soil formation through the deposition,
decomposition, and accumulation of organic matter.
Particle decomposition of organic matter creates humus, soils with high humus
content hold moisture very well and are productive for plant life. Soils that are
dominated by partially decayed, compressed organic material are called peat
There are five factors that influence soil formation (figure 4.1 pg. 76)

i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

Climatesoil forms better in warm wet climates, heat speeds

up chemical reactions and promotes weathering
Organismsearthworms and other burrowing animals mix
and aerate soil
Topographical reliefhills and valleys affect exposure to sun,
wind and water, influencing how soil moves
Parent materialchemical and physical attributes of the
parent influence the properties of the soil
Timesoil formation takes a very long time; the four factors
change over time.

Soil Profile

Each layer of soil is known as a horizon, from surface to bedrock is known as a

soil profile.
There are five major horizons known as O, A, B, C and R.
O-horizon- is the upper layer consisting mostly of decomposing branches,
leaves, and animal waste. Also known as the litter layer
A horizon- consisting of inorganic mineral components with organic matter and
humus from above mixed in. also known as topsoil
B horizon- minerals and inorganic material that are leached from the topsoil
move down into this level. Also known as subsoil
C horizon- consists of parent material unaltered or slightly altered by the
process of soil formation.
R horizon- contains rock particles that are larger and less weathered than those
above it. The r stands for rock.
Characteristics of soil (grouping of soils 10 characteristics pg. 78)
Soil colorthe color of soil can indicate its composition and its fertility. Black or
dark brown soils are rich in organic matter where paler soils usually are leached
Soil textureis determined by the size of the particles and is the basis on which
soils are categorized as clay, sand or silt. A mixture of all three is known as loam.
Silty soils with medium-sized pores or loamy soils are best for crop and plant
growth
Soil structureis a measure of the organization of clumpiness of soil
Soil pHthe degree of acidity or alkalinity influences a soils ability to support
plant growth. Plants can die in soils that are to acidic or alkaline, plants need a
neutral pH.
The characteristics of soil affect its ability to provide plants with nutrients.
Cation exchange is a useful tool in measuring soil fertility

Agriculture-the practice of raising crops and livestock for human use and
consumption
Cropland-land we use to raise plants
Rangeland-land we use for grazing livestock
Due to mismanaged agriculture we have turned grasslands into deserts and have
removed ecologically precious forests
Soil degradation-damage or loss of soil as a result of forest removal, over grazing
livestock, and industrial contamination
Domestication
Domestication began 10,000 years ago, in several places but largely in the Fertile
Crescent. Did not occur on purpose but was an accident. Hypothesis state that it
could have began with seed dispersal through fecal matter, and by dropping
seeds and having them grow near the settlement. Domestication brought on
selective breeding (a process in which natural selection is done through human
intervention)
Agriculture is an intensification of the productivity of a given unit of land
The development of agriculture gave birth to major changes in human history,
commerce, increases in technology, urbanization and social stratifications
Traditional farming (preindustrial farming)also known as subsistence
agriculture, families farmed to feed themselves, used animal and human labor
Intensive traditional farminguses significant quantities of irrigation water and
fertilizers, does not use fossil fuels. Provides for family but sells excess to
markets
Industrial farmingthe industrial revolution introduced large-scale mechanisms
and combustion of fossil fuels, advancements in irrigation, fertilizing, and crop
yield, the demands that vast fields be planted with a single crop (monoculture).
This is widely spread due to the Green Revolution (refer to chapter 5)
Soil degradation
The most desirable soil for agriculture is a loamy mixture with a pH close to
neutral. Common problems affecting soils productivity include erosion,
desertification, waterlogging, nutrient depletion, and pollution.
Deposition is the arrival of eroded material at its new location. Erosion and
deposition are neutral processes that in the long run help create soil. However
erosion can be a problem because it takes place much more quickly than soil is
formed, it tends to move topsoil, which is the most valuable soil layer.
People have increased the vulnerability of fertile lands to erosion by
1. Over cultivating fields through poor planning or excessive
ploughing
2. Over grazing rangeland with more livestock than land can
support

3. Clear cutting forests

There are several types of erosion, water erosion, rill erosion, wind erosion,
however humans are the number cause of erosion
Desertification
Desertification is the loss of more than 10% of productivity because of erosion, soil
compaction, forest removal, over grazing, drought, and climate change.
Arid and semi-arid lands are prone to desertification because their precipitation
is to meager to meet the demands of growing human populations
The Dust Bowl
Page 88 4.3.6
Protection against erosion
Crop rotation: the practice of alternating the kids of crops that are grown in a field from
season to season to return nutrients to the soil.
Contour farming: consists of ploughing furrows sideways across a hillside,
perpendicular to its slope, to help prevent formation of rills and gullies.
Intercropping and agroforestry- intercropping helps slow erosion by providing more
complete ground coverage than does a single crop. When crops are interplanted with
trees its called agroforestry.
Terracing: on extremely steep terrain, terracing is the most effective method of erosion
prevention. Terracing transforms slopes into a series of steps to help famers cultivate
hilly land without losing huge amounts of soil to water erosion.
Shelterbelt: a widespread technique to reduce erosion from winds. These are rows of
trees that are planted along the edges of fields to slow wind.
Reduce tillage: a tractor pulls a drill that cuts long shallow furrows through the O
horizon of dead weeds and crop residue of the A horizon. The device drops seeds into
the furrows and closes the furrows over the seeds. There are direct and indirect
benefits of this method includingsustainability of high yield crops, shelter and winter
food for animals, reduction of silt deposition in reservoirs, lowers costs of drinking
water. Example to read- Brazil pg. 93
Irrigation
The artificial provision of water to support agriculture is known as irrigation.
Some crops require lots while other require very little irrigation.
Through irrigation people have managed to turn unsuitable dry land into fertile
farmland.
Over irrigation is an issue as soils can become waterlogged. Another problem is
salinization of the soil due to dry lands.
To fix salinization of land s very expensive and difficult. The best way to avoid
salinization is to avoid planting crops that require a lot of water, a second way is
to use water with very little salt content
Over applying fertilizers can also damage soils.

 There are two types of fertilizers, organic and inorganic

Organic fertilizers: consist of natural minerals and organic materials compost
Inorganic fertilizers: synthetically manufactured. Inorganic fertilizers are generally
more susceptible to leaching and are likely to cause off-site unintended impacts.
Over grazing: can also impact soils and alter their structure. Soil compaction makes it
harder for water to infiltrate, harder for soils to be aerated, harder for plants roots to
expand, harder for roots to conduct cellular respiration. Over grazings soil degradation
is equal to cropland agriculture but is a great cause of degradation.
Central Case: Mer Bleue: A Bog of International Significance
The Mer Bleue Conservation Area is 35 km2 provincially protected wetland
situated just east of Ottawa, Ontario o Located in an ancient, now abandoned
channel of the Ottawa River
Hosts a number of unusual plat species that are specially adapted to moist,
boggy, acidic conditions, including Sphagnum moss, bog rosemary,
blueberry, cottongrass, cattails, and tamarack
Provides a specific type of soil peat that has been accumulating in many
northern areas since the end of the last ice age
Northern peatlands are extremely important storage reservoirs for carbon,
and they are thought to hold about one-third of all carbon stored in soils
Through decomposition, peat produces soil gases, such as CO2 and CH4,
which function as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
The storage of carbon in peat depends on the balance between net primary
production and decomposition, with plant storing or sequestering carbon as
a result of photosynthesis, then contributing the stored carbon to the peat
soil where it accumulates in the form of plant litter
Temperature, light levels, and moisture are important to this balance
The Peatland Carbon Study (PCARS) was initiated by a group of Canadian
scientists in 1997 o Work continues today as part of the Fluxnet Canada
Canadian Carbon Project research networks, to measure and model the
influence of climatic and seasonal changes on the carbon balance of a
peatland
4.1 Soil as a system
Soil is often used as the equivalent to dirt, but this is not true
Soil is not merely loose material derived from rock; it is a complex
plantsupporting system consisting of disintegrated rock, organic matter,
water, gases, nutrients, and microorganisms
It is also fundamental to the support of life on this planet an the provision of
food for the growing human population
It is renewable if managed carefully, but its currently at risk in many
locations around the world

Soil consists very roughly of half mineral matter with varying proportions of
organic matter, with the rest of the pore space being taken up by air, water,
and other soil gases
The organic matter in soil:
o Living and dead microorganisms, decaying material derived from
plants and animals
4.1.1 Soil formation is slow and complex
Formation of soil plats a key role in terrestrial primary succession
Parent material is the base geological material in a particular location
Bedrock the continuous mass of solid rock that makes up Earths crust
Weathering describes the physical, chemical, and biological processes that
break down rocks and minerals, turning large particles into smaller particles
o Physical weathering (or mechanical weathering) breaks rocks down
without triggering a chemical change in the parent material
o Two main forces of physical weathering are rain and wind
Chemical weathering results when water or other substances chemically
interact with parent material o Warm, wet conditions accelerate chemical
weathering
Biological weathering occurs when living things break down parent material
by physical or chemical means
Weather produces fine particles and is the first step in soil formation
Erosion is another process often involved the movement of soil from one
area to another o Sometimes helps form soil in one locality by depositing
material it has depleted from another
Erosion is generally perceived as a destructive process that reduces the
amount of life tat a given area of land can support
Biological activity contributes to soil formation through the deposition,
decomposition, and accumulation of organic matter
Partial decomposition of organic matter creates humus a dark, spongy,
crumbly mass of material made up of complex organic compounds o Soils
with high levels of humus are productive for plant life
Soils that are dominated by partially decayed, compressed organic material
like the soil at Mer Bleue are called peat o Characteristics of northern
climates because cool temperatures slow the decay process, allowing great
thickness of organic material to accumulate
4.1.2 A soil profile consists of layers known as horizons
Distinct layers of soil develop which is known as a horizon and the cross
section of as a whole, from surface to bedrock, is known as a soil profile o
Layers are divided by characteristics and the process that take placed
within them 5 layers:
o O Horizon (O for organic)

 Uppermost layer consisting mostly of organic matter o A

Horizon (topsoil)
Just below the organic horizon consisting of inorganic
mineral components with organic matter and humus from above mixed
in
Minerals are carried downwards as a result of leaching (like coffee
grounds in a drip filter), the process whereby solid particles suspended or
dissolved in liquid are transported to another location o B Horizon
(subsoil)
Where minerals and organic matter that are leached from the
topsoil move down
o C Horizon
Below the B horizon and consists of parent material
unaltered or only slightly altered by the processes of soil formation o R
Horizon (R stands for rock)
o Sits directly below the C horizon, certain soils are characterized by
the presence of a distinct layer of water, called the W horizon
permafrost (constantly frozen ice)
4.1.3 Soil can be characterized by its colour, texture, structure, and pH
Soil colour o The colour of soil indicate its composition and sometimes
its fertility o Colour variations occur among sol horizons in any given
location and also among solids from different geographic locations
Soil texture o Determined by the size of particles and is the basis on
which soils are assigned to one of three general categories
o Clay consists of particles less than 0.002 mm in diameter o Silt
consists of particles 0.002-0.05 mm in diameter o Sand consists of
particles 0.05-2mm in diameter
o Soil with a relatively even mixture of the three particle sizes is known
as loam
o Texture influences the soils porosity (measure of the relative volume
of spaces within the material) as well as its permeability (measure of
the interconnectedness of the spaces and the ease with which fluids
can move around in the material)
Soil Structure o Measure of organization or clumpiness of soil o Soil
clumps that are too large can discourage plant roots from establishing if
soil particles are compacted too tightly together
Soil pH o Degree of acidity or alkalinity influences a soils ability to
support plant growth
o Plants can die in soils that are too acidic (low pH) or alkaline (high
pH)
4.1.4 Cation exchange is vital for plant growth
The characteristics of soil affect its ability to provide plants with nutrients

Plants gain many nutrients through a process called cation exchange (plan
roots donate hydrogen ions to the soil particles then replenish by exchange
with soil water)
Cation exchange capacity expresses a soils ability to hold cations
(preventing them rom leaching and thus making them available to plants)
and is a useful measure of soil fertility

4.2 Soil: The foundation for feedings a growing population

Healthy soil is vital for agriculture, for forests, and for functioning of Earths
natural systems

Productive soil is a renewable resource, but if we abuse it through careless

or uninformed practices, we can greatly reduce its productivity
Like other renewable resources, if soil is degraded or washed away at a rate
that is faster than the rate at which it can be renewed, it effectively becomes
nonrenewable because the supply or stock of the resource is being depleted
Agriculture practice of raising crops and livestock for human use and
consumption is 38% of the Earths land surface
Cropland land used to raise plants for human use
Rangeland land used for grazing livestock

4.2.1 As population and consumption increase, soils are being degraded

If we are to feed the worlds rising human population, we will need to change
our diet patterns or increase agricultural production and do so sustainably
without degrading the environment and reducing its ability to support
agriculture
We cannot simply keep expanding agriculture into new areas the
spreading or extensification of resource extraction because land suitable
and available for farming is running out
Today, many lands unsuitable for farming are being farmed, causing
considerable environmental damage
Soil degradation damage to or loss of soil, around the globe has resulted
from roughly equal parts of forest removal, cropland agriculture, and
overgrazing of livestock, with a much smaller contribution from industrial
contamination
This has direct impacts on agricultural production
4.2.2 Agriculture began to appear around 10 000 years ago
Agriculture most likely began as hunter-gatherers brought back to their
encampments wild fruits, grains, and nuts
Agriculture is a form of intensification a way to increase the productivity of
a given unit of land
Intensification can increase the carrying capacity of a land area (up to a
certain point)
For thousands of years, the work of cultivating, harvesting, storing, and
distribution crops was performed by human and animal muscle power,
along with hand tools and simple machines
This biologically powered agriculture is known as traditional agriculture
In the older form of traditional agriculture, known as subsistence
agriculture, farming families produce only enough food for themselves and
do not make use of large-scale irrigation, fertilizer, or teams of laboring
animals

4.2.3 Industrialized agriculture is newer still

The Industrial Revolution introduced large-scale mechanization and fossil
fuel combustion to agriculture just as it did to industry, enabling farmers to
replace horses and oxen with faster and more powerful means of cultivating,
harvesting, transporting, and processing crops
Industrialized agriculture demands that vast fields be planted with single
types of crops
The uniform planting of a single crop, terms monoculture, is distinct from
the polyculture approach of much more traditional agricultural
Industrialized agriculture spread from developed nations to developing
nations with the advent of the Green Revolution
4.3 Soil degradation: Problems and solutions
Limits to productivity are being set by human impact that has degraded many
once-excellent soils
4.3.1 Regional difference in soil traits can affect agriculture
The characteristics of soil and soil profiles can vary from place to place
The traditional form of agriculture in tropical forested areas is swidden
agriculture, in which the farmer cultivates a plot for one to a few years and
then moves on to clear another pot, leaving the first to grow back to forest
4.3.2 Erosion can degrade ecosystems and agriculture
Erosion is the removal of material from one place and its transport toward
another by the action of wind or water
Deposition is the arrival of eroded material at its new location
Erosion and deposition are natural processes that in the long run can help
create soil
Erosion can be gradual and hard to detect
4.3.3 Soil erodes by several mechanisms
Several types of erosion can occur, including wind and water
The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was developed as a tool for
estimating erosion losses by water from cultivated fields, and to show how
different soil and management factors influence soil erosion
Wind, like water, is a moving fluid
Wind often flows very quickly over the surface, but it typical does not have
the same ability to pick up and transport large particles that water had
4.3.4 Soil erosion is a global problem
In todays world, humans are the primary cause of erosion, and we have
accelerated it to unnaturally high rates
Erosion of agricultural soil has been a significant concern in Canada for the
past 25 years or more, but improvements are occurring

4.3.5 Desertification reduces productivity of arid lands

Much of the worlds population lives and farms in arid environments, where
desertification is a concern
This term describes a loss of more than 10% of productivity because of
erosion, soil compaction, forest removal, overgrazing, drought, salinization,
climate change, depletion of water sources, and other factors
Desertification is a type of land degradation that occurs in arid and semi-arid
areas and can result from various factors, including climatic variations and
human activities
Land degradation is defined as the reduction or loss of the biological or
economic productivity of a land
4.3.6 The Dust Bowl was a monumental event in North America
Prior to a large-scale cultivation of the Prairies and the Great Plains, native
prairie grasses of this temperate grassland region held erosion-prone soils in
place
Starting in the early 1930s, a prolonged period of drought in the region
exacerbated the ongoing human impacts on the soil from overly intensive
agricultural practices
Strong winds began to carry away millions of tones of topsoil, and often
newly planted seed
Dust storms travelled up to 2000 km, blackening skies and coating the skins
of farm workers
The affected trigon in the Prairies and Great Plains become known as the
Dust Bowl, a term now also used for the historical event itself
The black blizzards of the Dust Bowl destroyed livelihoods and caused
many people to suffer a type of chronic lung irrigation and degradation
known as dust pneumonia
4.3.7 The Soil Conservation Council emerged from the experience of drought
In 1935 the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) was set up;
interestingly, however, it was not until the early 1980s that the issue of soil
erosion and degradation of agricultural soils really took centre stage in
Canada on a nationwide basis
The Soil Conservation Council of Canada was established in 1987 following
another serious drought in the late 1970s
4.3.8 Farmers can protect soil against degradation in various ways
Several farming techniques can reduce the impacts of conventional
cultivation on soils
Crop rotation o Practice of alternating the kinds of crops grown in a
particular field from one season or year to the next
o Rotating crops can return nutrients to the soil, break cycles of disease
associated with continuous cropping, and minimize the erosion that
can come from letting fields lie fallow
o Reduces insect pests

Contour farming o Consists of ploughing furrows sideways across a

hillside, perpendicular to its slope, to help prevent formation of rills and
gullies
o Most effective on gradually sloping land with crops that grow well in
rows
Intercropping and agroforestry o Farmers may also gain protection against
erosion by intercropping planting different types of crops in
alternating brands or other spatially mixed arrangements

o Intercropping slows erosion by providing more complete ground

cover than does a single crop
o Intercropping offers the additional benefits of reducing vulnerability
to insect and disease incidence
o When crops are interplanted with trees, in a practice called
agroforestry, even more benefits can be realized
Terracing o Most effective method for preventing erosion on extremely
steep terrains
o Transforms slopes into series of steps, like a staircase, enabling
farmers to cultivate hilly land without losing huge amounts of soil to
water erosions
o Common in ruggedly mountainous regions
Shelterbelts o A widespread technique to reduce erosions from wind is to
establish shelterbelts of windbreaks
o These are rows of trees or other tall, perennial plants that are planted
along the edges of fields to slow the wind
o Have also been combined with intercropping in practice known as
alley cropping
Fields planted in rows of mixed crops are surrounded by or
interspersed with rows of trees that provide fruit, wood, or
protection from wind
Reduce tillage o To plant by using the reduced-tillage or no-till method, a
tractor pulls a drill that cuts long, shallow furrows through the O horizon
of dead weeds and crop residue an the upper levels of A horizon
o Has been widely adopted in Canada but not with unmitigated success
4.3.9 Erosion control practices protect and restore plant cover
Farming methods to control erosion make sue of the general principle that
maximizing vegetative cover will protect soils, and this principle has been
applied widely beyond farming
4.3.10 Irrigation boosts productivity but can cause long-term soil problems
Erosion is not the only threat to the health and integrity of soil
Soil degradation can result from other factors as well such as impacts causes
by the application of water to crops
The artificial provision of water to support agriculture is known as
irrigation
Overirrigation is poorly drained areas can cause of exacerbate certain soil
problems
Soils too saturated with water may become waterlogged o When this occurs
the water table is raised to the point that water bathes plant roots,
depriving them of access to gases and essentially suffocating them
An ever more common problem is salinization (or salination), the buildup of
salts in surface soil layers

4.3.11 Salinization is easier to prevent than to correct

The remedies for mitigating salinization once it has occurred are more
expensive and difficult to implement than the techniques for preventing it in
the first place
The best way to prevent salinization is to avoid planting crops that require a
great deal of water in areas that are prone to this problem
4.3.12 Agricultural fertilizers boost crop yields but can be overapplied
Salinization is not the only source of chemical damage to soil
Overapplying fertilizers can also chemically damage soils
Fertilizer any various substance that contain essential nutrients
There are two main types of fertilizers o Inorganic fertilizers are mined or
synthetically manufactured mineral supplements
Cant provide benefits o Organic fertilizers consist of
natural materials (largely the remains of wastes of organisms)
and include animal manure, crop residues, fresh vegetation (or
green manure, and compost, a mixture produced when
decomposers break down organic matter, including food and crop
waste
Can provide benefits
4.3.13 Grazing practices and policies can contribute to soil degradation
As long as the livestock populations do not exceed a ranges carrying
capacity and do not consume grasses faster than grasses can be replaced,
grazing may be sustainable
However, when too many animals eat too much of the plant cover, impeding
plant regrowth and preventing the replacement of biomass, the result is
overgrazing
Overgrazing causes a number of impacts, some of which give rise to positive
feedback cycles that exacerbate damage to soils, natural communities, and
the lands productivity for grazing
Soil erosion makes it difficult for vegetation to regrow, perpetuating that
lack of cover and giving rise to more erosion
Soil compaction makes it harder for water to infiltrate, harder for soils to be
aerated, harder to plants roots to expand, and harder for roots to conduct
cellular respiration
As a cause of soil degradation, overgrazing is equal to cropland agriculture,
and it is a greater cause of desertification
4.4 Conclusion
Many of the policies enacted and the practices developed to combat soil
degradation in Canada and worldwide have been quite successful,
particularly in reducing the erosion of topsoil. Despite these successes,

however, soil is sill being degraded at a rate that calls into question the
sustainability of industrial agriculture
Our species has enjoyed a 10 000-year history with agriculture, yet despite all we
have learned about soil degradation and conservation, many challenges remain. It
is clear that even the best0conceived soil conservation programs require research,
education, funding and commitment from both farmers and governments if they are
to fulfill their potential. In light of continued population growth, we will likely need
better technology and wider adoption of soil conservation techniques if we hope to
be ale to feed the 9 billion people expected to crow our planet in mid-centu

Chapter 5 - Biotechnology and Food Resources

5.1 - The race to feed the world human population swelled to 9 billion, feeding
50% more mouths than a century from now while protecting our environment requires sustainable agriculture Ex: organic farming, genetically modified
crops
5.1.1 - We are producing more food per person our ability to grow food has
grown even more quickly than global population political obstacles and
inefficiencies in distribution - only 850 million people in developing countries
still do not have enough to eat
Food security: the guarantee of an adequate, reliable, and available food supply to
all people at all times
making food supply sustainable depends on maintaining healthy soil, water, and
biodiversity
26% of the population in 1970 (did not have enough to eat) now 13% of the total
population
Increasing our ability to produce food: devoting more
energy (fossil fuel energy) to agriculture planting and
harvesting more greatly increasing the use of
irrigation fertilizer and pesticides
increasing the amount of cultivated land
developing (through crossbreeding and genetic engineering)
productive crop and livestock varieties
-no guarantee that food source will outgrow population
In terms of grain, were already producing less food per person each year
worlds soil is in decline , all of plants arable land has already been claimed

5.1.2 We Face undernourishment, over nutrition and malnutrition

Undernourishment - who recieve less than 90% of their daily calories needs, mostly
who live in the developing world reason: economic
1/5 of the worlds people live on less than $1 per day
1/2 + lives on less than $2 per day
Developed world: Over nutrition, receiving too many calories each day
Canada - people live with with too little exercise
48% of adults exceed healthy weight standards, and 14% are obesed
food insecurity: the inability to procure sufficient food when needed is a facotr in
10.2% of canadian households, affecting well over 3 million people
Availability - food must be produced in sufficient quantity and not diverted for
other uses, such as the production of biofuel
Affordability: Poverty is the reason for most food bank visits in Canada
Accessibility - it doesnt whelp if the food is available but you cant get to it
Acceptability - Do you think you would eat anything if you were really hungry?
Religious restrictions? personal preference?
Adequacy - the nutritional quality of food, as well as its abdundance , must be
sufficient to maintain a persons health, or they will slowly waste away, just as the
quantity of food a person east is
Malnutrition - shortage of nutrients the body needs, including a complete
complement of vitamins and minerals can occur in both undernourished and
overnourished
Kwashiorkor - people eating high-starch diet but not enough protein or essential
amino acides
Marasmus - protein deficiency together with a lack of calories which causes wasting
or shrivelling among millions of children in the developing world
5.1.3 The green Revolution led to dramatic increases in agricultural
production Green Revolution - desire for greater quantity and quality of food
for the growing human population led in the mid and late twentieth century
farmers could not go on indefinitely cultivating more an dmore land to increase
crop output , agricultural scientist created methods and technologies to increase
crop output pre unit of existing cultivated land
GR switched the view of agricultural production from Extensification to
Intesification , and is characterized by both
Extensification - increasing resource productivity by simply bringing more land
into production to Intensification - which new technologies permit greater resource
productivity from each unit of land
1940s - NOrman Borlaug, US. Agricultural scientist - innovated techniques to
increase yields and introduced through out the world
5.1.4 - The Green Revolution has caused the environment both benefits and harm
Modern Industrialized Agriculture:large amount of synthetic fertilizer and

chemical pesticides to their fields, irrigating crops with generous amounts of water,
using heavy equipment powered by fossil fuels (allow farmers to harvest more in
developing nations, especially more corn, wheat, rice and soybeans from each
hectare of land)
saved millions in India from starvation, and turned the nation into a net exploiter of
grain
development had effects on the environment and social
+: intensified use of already cultivated land removed pressure into convert
additional lands for new cultivation
GR prevented some degree of deforestation and habitat conservation in countries,
was seen as beneficaial for biodiversity and natural ecosystems
-: environmental negative impacts, pollution, salinization , desertification
monocultures, large expanses of single crop type, made it easier for harvesting but
much serious series of negative biodiversity effects
reduced biodiversity over areas, fewer wild organisms are able to live in
monoculture than native habitats or polycultures
plants in monocultures are all susceptible to viral diseases, fungal pathogens , insect
pest that can spread quickly
narrowing of the human diet, we now only 15 crop species and 8 livestock species
8.1.5 Biofuels are having a significant impact on food availability huge amount of
energy input (chemical and mechanical) to allow huge increase in production,
characterized the modern industralized agriculture
biofuels, organic materials that are converted into liquid or gaseous fuels for use in
internal combustion engine as replacement for oil and natural gas cause a higher
demand for corn, led to higher prices and scarcities worldwide, its clearly a
conflict of interest
accelerated deforestation, ex: Indonesia
5.2 Pest and Pollinators pest - any organism that damages crop
that are valuable to humans weed - any plant that compets with
oru crops
nothing wrong with either of them, just trying to survive and reproduce but it
affects what we also consumes
5.2.1 - Many thousands of chemicals pesticides have been developed
development of artificial chemicals to kill insect
insecticides herbicides fungicides pesticides
alot of $ investments in pesticides in Canada, New acts such as Pest control product
act , regulating products and products needs to be reaccessed after 15 years toxic
to organisms and that the toxic effects may not be limited to the targeted organism
, ex: workers who are using these chemicals are being affected also
5.2.2. - Pest evolve resistance to pesticides

usefulness declines as pest gets use to the chemicals after long period of use
(immunity)
evolutionary arm race - racing to increase or retarget the toxicity of their
chemcials while the armies of pest evolve ever-stronger to resistance to their
effectors pest have grown stronger due to evolutionary arm race , not only
pest but also herbs
5.2.3 - Biological control pits one organism against another
BIological control / biocontrol - pesticide resistance and health risks of some
synthetic chemicals, agricultural scientists increasingly battle pest and weeds with
organisms that eat or infect them
the enemy of ones enemy is ones friends
ex: parasitoid wasps natural enemy of many caterpillars, outcome killer of
caterpillars
Cactoblatis cactorum - introduction of cactus moth , control invaisve prickly pear
cactus that was overrunning rangeland
bacillus thuringienis - naturally occurring soil bacterium that produces a protein
that kills caterpillars and larvae of some flies
5.2.4 biological control agent themselves may become pest introducing an animal or
microbe into foreign ecosystem, ensure that target pest has not already figured
ways to counter this pest it may start affecting non-targeted organism
cactus moth - affected native and economically important species of prickly pears
and other cacti @ another location
permanent damage , removal of the species is much harder than implicating it into
an ecosystem
5.2.5 - Integrated pest management combines biocontrol and chemical methods
Integrated pest management (IPM), numerous techniques are integrated to achieve
long term suppression of pest , including biocontrol, use of chemicals , close
monitoring of population, habitat alteration, crop rotation, transgenic crops,
alternative tillage methods and mechanical pest removal
IPM - popular through out the world ex: Indonesia
country subsidized the use of pesticides for years but came to the understand that it
made the worse. The pesticides were also killing off natural enemies that helped the
situation
5.2.6 - We depend on insects to pollinate crops
Pollination: process by which male sex cells of a plant (pollen) fertilize female sex
cells of another plant
we depend on insect to pollinate crops, they are not just pest so conserving them
is vital pollination by wind distribution / animal distribution Pollinating insects
at risk from:
habitat loss

land degradation
habitat fragmentation
pesticide use invasive
species climate
change
5.2.7 - Conservation of pollinator is vital conserving native pollinator is
important because domesticated workhorse of pollination, european
honeybee, being devastated by parasites
farmers and homeowners can help by reducing / eliminating pesticide use
5.3.1 Genetic Modification of Organisms depends on recombinant DNA
promises of increased nutrition, efficient agriculture and lessening impacts of
agriculture on environment however risk are not yet well understood
Genetic engineering - whereby scientist directly manipulate an organisms genetic
material in the lab by adding, deleting or changing segment of its DNA (genetic
modification of crops /livestock one type) genetically modified organism: made by
extracting genes from DNA of one organism and transferring them into the DNA
of another (technique referred to as recombinant DNA technology)
Transgenic organism contains DNA from another species
GM crops engineered to resist herbicides, resist insect attacks and that make them
more economical for large scale farms
most produce in the world is transgenic (Crops such as soybean, corn, cotton, and
canola)
Too early to dismiss all concern with further research debate over GM food involve
more than science (ethical issues of GM crops being so widespread and lack of
control over one own food)
GM crops have not lived up to promise of feeding worlds hunger crops with
traits that might benefit poor small-scale farmers of developing countries not
widely commercialized, corporations have less economic incentive issues
regarding GM crops are often ethical and political
5.4.1 Crop Diversity provides insurance against failure
- cultivar - the wild relative of crop plant gives us the genetic diversity that may
include ready-made solution to unforseen problems
monoculture make it so that one single thing could wipe out entire cultivation / crop
diversity provides solution to unforeseen problems we already lost a great deal of
diversity, markets discourages diversity appearance of fruits and veggies 5.4.2 Seed Banks seed/gene bank: institutes that preserve see types like a living museum
of genetic diversity
6 million seed samples
5.5 Raising animals for food
people not not necessarily need meat but we eat it

5.5.1 - Consumption of animal product is growing wealth and global commerce

have increased in our consumption of meat, milk, eggs and fish
Domesticated animals - animals raised in captivity
the number of DA has increased
5.5.2 High consumption has led to feedlot agriculture
traditional agriculture livestock were allowed to graze the grassland
Feedlots/ concentrate animal feeding operations: hugely designed lots that allow
many of animals to live, allow many animals to be produced, prevent over
grazing however there is a lot of waste products by the animals in feedlots could
lead to an outbreak in diseases
crowded conditions can lead to the bird flue or mad cow disease
5.5.3- Our food choices are also energy choices we choice certain
foods that have energy impacts on the environment eating meat
requires more energy than eating fruits and vegetables
scientist have calculated the amount of energy required for food to be made, growth
of meat requires the consumption of plants
5.5.4 - We also raise fish on farms we reply on aquatic animals for
food wild fish population have decreased and now we raised them on
farms Aquaculture: raiing aquatic organisms in a controller
environment there are ponds and tanks used to grow fish
5.5.5 - Aquaculture have some benefits conducted at
small scale fish population can be controlled
when conducted small scale families or villages aquaculture helps to ensure people a
reliable protein
it can be reduced the effects of over fishin g
5.5.6 Aqua culture have some negative effects too dense
fish areas can increase diseases
competition can result in the fish that genetically modified
GM fish will likely kill non GM fish
5.6 Sustainable agriculture
- farmers have tried to promote sustainable agriculture: agriculture that does not
deplete soil faster than they form
Post GR - allowed food production to keep pace with growing population, involves
many
5.6.1 - Organic agriculture is on the increase
organic products must beet certain standards products
that are represented as organic must be certified

sales for OF are increasing , consumers prefer the favor and the health benefits will
pay more for organic products
organic agriculture succeeds because the problems introduced by conventional
agriculture
The Science behind the story: Organic Farming put to the test
fields of wheat and potatoes that are been grown organically and soem that
used chemicals have been tested in switzerland there is more food production
with the chemically produced foods organic farmers keep yields higher to deal
with conserving soil quality organic soils had richer top soils
The science behind the story: Alisa Smith an James Mackinnon
Smith an MacKinnon were expecting company but they found out it was food
potatoes, garlic, dandelion leaves and wild mushroom
they wanted to know were the food came from and how long it took to travel to
their dinner table they were surprised it took 100 miles to transport their food.
5.6.2 - Locally supported agriculture is growing
Community-supported agriculture - consumers partnering with local farmers
consumers are guaranteed seasonal fresh foods
5.6.3 - Organic agriculture can even succeed in cities
urban places can also benefit from cites
cuban agriculture has changed to more organic methods
5.7 Conclusion
many to consider when thinking about agriculture, how
can we feed everyone without harming the environment
Environment, Food and People

Chapter 5: Biotechnology and Food resources

Key Words
Food Security
The guarantee of an adequate, reliable and available food supply to all
people at all times
Function of the 5 As:
o Availability: Food must be produced in sufficient quantity,
not diverted to the use of, for example, biofuels
o Affordability: Poverty is the reason for most food bank visits
in Canada

Accessibility: Lack of transportation, unrest in your region,

etc. preventing you from accessing available food
o Acceptability: Ensuring available food is not conflicting with
religious/cultural practices/etc. o Adequacy: Nutritional
quality of food is as important as the quantity of available food
Undernourishment
Receiving less than 90% of their daily caloric needs
Mostly live in the developing world
Overnutrition
Receiving too many calories each day
Many people in the developing world suffer from over nutrition due
to a sedentary lifestyle and abundant exposure to food
Malnutrition
A shortage of nutrients the body needs
Can occur in both undernourished and overnourished indiviudals
Green Revolution
Mid-late 20th century
Born out of the desire for greater quantity and quality of food for the
growing population coupled with realization that farmers could not
keep expanding their land for more production
Agricultural scientists created methods and technologies to increase
crop output per unit area of existing cultivated land Seemingly the
answer to hunger in developing countries Switched agricultural
focus from:
o Extensification: increasing resource productivity by bringing
more land into production To:
o Intensification: New technologies permit greater output
productivity from each unit of land
Green revolution characterized by both practices
Transfer of new agricultural technology to the developing world
began in the 1940s o U.S agricultural scientist Norman Burlaug
introduced Mexican farmers to a specially bred type of wheat that
was resistant to wind and diseases, and produced high yields
o Within 20 years, Mexico tripled its wheat production and
began exporting wheat
o Borlaug took this specially bred wheat to India and Pakistan
and helped transform agriculture there, many developing
countries soon began increasing crop yields by using
selectively bred strains of wheat, rice, corn, etc.
Enormous inputs of energy (chemical and mechanical) allowed for
the huge increases in production that carried agriculture into the
modern industrialized world

Industrialized agriculture
Application of large amounts of synthetic fertilizers and chemical
pesticides to fields
Irrigation with generous amounts of water
Use of heavy equipment powered by fossil fuels
From 1900-2000, humans expanded the worlds cultivated area by
33%, yet increased energy inputs into agriculture by 800%
Intensive agriculture saved millions in India from starvation and
turned the nation into a net exporter of grain Mixed effects on
environment:
o Positive:
Intensification of land reduces pressure to convert
additional natural lands for new cultivation, to some
degree preventing deforestation and habitat
conversion in many countries at a time where they
were experiencing their fastest population Growth
rates o Negative:
Intensive use of water, fossil fuels, and chemical
fertilizers and pesticides had negative impacts on the
environment in terms of pollution, salinization and
desertification
Negative impact on small scale farmers in the
developing world who could not access or benefit from
these new technologies
Negative aspects on biodiversity and mixed
consequences for crop yields and monoculture
Monocultures
Large expanses of single crop types o Has made planting more
efficient = increased output o Monoculture has reduced biodiversity
in many areas, because many fewer wild organisms are able to live in
monocultures than in natural habitats or traditional small scale
polycultures
o If plants are all the same, they will be equally susceptible to
diseased, which is a high risk for food security
o Monocultures has contributed to narrowing of human diet
90% of food the world consumes comes from only 15
crop species and 8 livestock species
Biofuels
Organic materials that are converted into liquid or gaseous fuels to
replace oil and natural gas
Replacing limited, non-renewable fuels i.e petroleum, with renewable
energy sources are ideas founded on the principles of sustainability

Production of corn-derived ethanol (efficient alcohol fuel that can be

mixed with normal gasoline) is soaring in many countries, especially
the United States
Controversy: There is something fundamentally wrong in
growing a crop that provides food in order to fuel
cars/trucks/machines.
o U.N calls it a conflict of interest
o Land that was once used for growing food now produces fuel,
has led to deforestation in agricultural nations such as
Indonesia
Pests & Weeds

Pest: An organism that damages crops that are valuable to people

Weeds: Plants that compete with crops
Pests and weeds have always posed problems for traditional
agriculture
They pose an even greater threat to monoculture through adaption to
specialize on a particular crop, leading to easily destroying full crops
Pests and Weeds are subjective categories that we define by our own
economic interests, nothing inherently malevolent in the nature of
pests and/or weeds
Development of artificial chemicals in order to prevent pest
outbreaks and reduce competition with weeds results in:
o Insecticides (to kill insects) o Herbicides (to kill plants) o
Fungicides (to kill fungi) o Collectively termed Pesticides
Many ingredients in pesticides have not been evaluated for
environmental and health effects since the 1960s
Pest Control Products Act: Requires products to be reevaluated 15
years after they are approved
More than $32 billion spent globally on pesticide use, $1.5 million in
Canada
Resistance to pesticides: Despite toxicity of chemicals, through natural
selection, crop pests frequently evolve resistance to the poisons we
apply to kill them. Surviving population reproduce with genes
resistant to poison.
Scientists are at an evolutionary arms race to retarget the toxicity of
chemicals to stronger species

Bio(logical)control
The enemy of ones enemy is ones friend

Introducing an animal or microbe into a foreign ecosystem, in order

to ensure that the target pest has not evolved enough to deal with the
agent.
Biocontrol have resulted in some success in pest control and have led
to steep reductions in chemical pesticide use

o Example: Biocontrol agent the Cactus moth applied to invasive

prickly pear cactus freed up rangeland in a matter of years
o Bacillus thuringienis (Bt) : naturally occurring soil bacterium
that produces protein to kill caterpillars and larvae of some
flies and beetles. If used correctly, Bt can protect crops from
pest-related losses
Biocontrol agents have become pests o Unintended consequences of
biocontrol have produced biocontrol agents that have become
invasive and begun affecting nontarget organisms Benefits and
risks:
o If biocontrol works as planned, it can be a permanent solution
o However if the agent has non-target effects, the harm done
may become permanent, as it is much harder to remove an
agent from an eco system than it is to stop chemical use

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Combination of biocontrol and chemical methods as well as close
monitoring of populations, habitat alteration, crop rotation,
transgenic crops, alternative tillage methods, and mechanical pest
removal.
IPM has become very popular in other parts of the world o Ex.
Indonesia: Encouraged and subsidized pesticide use until it was
realized that it was killing important natural enemies of pests and
devastating rice fields. Indonesia banned importation of many
pesticides replaced them with IPM
methods. Rice yields eventually rose 13%
Pollination
Process by which male sex cells of a plant (pollen) fertilize female sex
cells of another plant.
Without pollination, no plants could reproduce, which means they
wouldnt persist for long
Many plants achieve pollination through wind distribution of millions
of miniscule pollen grains
Plants with showy flowers are typically pollinated by animals like
hummingbirds, bats and insects
Although our staple grain crops are derived from grasses and are
wind-pollinated, many other crops depend on insects for pollination
o The economic value of pollination services rendered by insects in
Canada each is $1.2 billion
o 800 species of cultivated plants depend on bees (73% of
cultivars), flies (19%), wasps (5%), beetles (5%), moths and
butterflies (4%), bats (6.5%) and birds (4%)

Many pollinating insects are at risk of habitat loss, land

degradation, habitat fragmentation, pesticide use, invasive
species and climate change.
The European Honeybee o Domesticated workhorse of pollination
becoming devastated by parasites, decimating hives and pushing
many beekeepers to financial ruin
Genetic Engineering
Process in which scientists manipulate an organisms genetic material
in the lab, by adding deleting or changing segments of its DNA o
Genetically Modified Organism
Extraction of genes from the DNA of one organism
transferred into the DNA of another
Technique is called Recombinant DNA technology (DNA
that has been patched together out of the DNA of other
organisms) o Genomes (Genetic Makeup)
Scientists use Recombinant DNA technology to promote
certain desirable traits such as rapid growth and
disease resistance, into the Genomes of organisms
lacking in those traits
o Transgenic organism
An organism that contains DNA from another species
The genes that have moved between them are called
transgenes o Biotechnology
The material application of biological science to create
products derived from organisms.
Creation of transgenic organisms is one type of
biotechnology o Biotechnology and Recombinant DNA
have helped us develop medicines, clean up pollution
and understand the causes of diseases like cancer

Genetic engineering vs. Traditional agricultural breeding o We have

been influencing the genetic makeup of livestock and crop plants for
thousands of years
o Proponents of GM crops often stress this continuity with our
past in asserting the safety of GM food.
o Biotech critics point out that G.E differs from traditionally
selective breeding in important ways:
Selective breeding generally stays within the species,
whereas with G.E scientists mix DNA from different
species (i.e spiders and goats =spygoatkidding)

Selective breeding deals with whole organisms in the

field, whereas G.E involves lab experiments dealing
with genetic material apart from the organism
Selective breeding changes organisms through process of selection, whereas G.E
is more like genetic mutation
Most GM crops are engineered to resist herbicides, others to resist insect
attacks, or both
Makes it more economical for large scale commercial farmers to do their
jobs = sales of GM seeds have risen quickly
More than half of the worlds soybean harvest is transgenic, as well as a
quarter of cotton plants, a fifth of canola, and a sixth of corn plants.
Just six countries, four crops, and two controlled traits account for 99%
of the area devoted to the production of transgenic crops worldwide
Impacts of GM crops
Fear among the public, scientists and policy makers of dangerous
unexpected consequences of GM crops
Unanticipated allergic reactions to transgenes in GM crops
GM DNA to escaping and polluting ecosystems, and damaging
non-target organisms
Superpests: Pests would evolve to resist GM crops
Superweeds: Genes would leap onto plants and create superweeds
that would be overly competitive with other plants
It is still too early too dismiss all concerns about GM food without
further scientific research We should adopt the Precautionary
Principle: One should not proceed until the ramifications of an
action are understood
Ethics of GM foods
For many people, the idea of tinkering with the food supply seems
dangerous and morally wrong
The genetic modification to dietary staples forces people to eat GM foods
or go through great lengths to avoid them
Perceived lack of control over ones own food choices is driven by
concern over domination of the global food supply by a few large
businesses
Giant agrobiotech companies like Monsanto, DuPont,
Bayer CropScience etc. create GM technologies
GM food products have not lived up to their promise to feed the worlds hungry
With GM crops being developed with resistance to pests and weeds,
Agribiotech companies couldnt sell their pesticides to farmers in the
developing world
Crops that could help poor farmers in developing countries (increased
nutrition, drought tolerance, salinity tolerance) have not been widely

o
o

commercialized, because the companies dont have an economic

incentive to do so
Golden Rice = limited success o Monsanto
Company worked hard with consumers and environmental advocates
who they feared would oppose the product
When the company changed leadership, GM products were pushed
aggressively reaching out to opponents, resulting in the company losing
the publics trust
Monsanto against Percy Schmeiser supported the companys tarnished
public image
o The Future of GM foods
Hinging on social, economic, legal, political and science factors
European Union placed a moratorium on GM foods from 1998-2003,
prompting the US to bring the case before the World Trade Organization
claiming the ban was hindering free trade
Europeans widely demand that GM foods be labeled as such, critic US for
not signing the Cartegena Protocol on
Biosafety
Canada has been on the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity
since 1992, but has never ratified the Cartegena Protocol
India, Brazil and China are expanding use of transgenic crops
Countering that is Zambia, one of several African Nations that refused US
food aid meant to relieve starvation during the drought in 2002 because
they were worried the GM corn seed would establish itself in the country
if the farmers planted the seed
Because of Africas economy depending on exporting food to
Europe and Europes restrictions of GM food, they found GM crops
undesirable
o Preserving crop diversity
Preserving the integrity of native variants protects us
against commercial crop failure
As monocultures essentially put all of our eggs in one
basket, having available cultivars, domesticated
varieties, and wild relatives of crop plants provides the
genetic diversity that might protect un from unforeseen
problems
We have lost a great deal of crop diversity already
Number of wheat varieties in China have dropped
from 10 000 in 1949 to 1000 in the 70s,
Mexicos maize varieties have decreased by
70%

 Loss of crop diversity primarily caused by the market

discouraging diversity in appearance in fruits and
vegetables
Seed Banks

Another way to protect diversity is to collect and save seeds of native

crop varieties and plant them periodically to maintain a diversity of
cultivars
Seed/Gene Banks: Institutions that preserve seed types as a kind of
living museum of genetic diversity
In total, Seed banks keep roughly 6 million seed samples
$300 million in global funding is not enough for proper storage and
labor, it is questionable how many of these 6 million seeds are
actually preserved
The Royal Botanic Gardens Millennium Seed Bank holds more than 1
billion seeds, construction of a doomsday vault seed bank in Arctic
Norway has begun

Raising Animals for Food

World population of domesticated animals raised in captivity for food
=20.6 billion in 2000
Livestock and other farm animals can be at a risk of biodiversity loss
(During the first six years if the 21st century, 62 livestock breeds
became extinct, almost a breed per month)

Feedlot agriculture o Feedlots, factory farms or Concentrated animal

feeding operations
o Essentially huge warehouses or pens designed to deliver energy-rich food to
animals living in extremely high densities More than half of the worlds pork and
poultry come from feedlots, as does much of its beef
o Feedlots allow for greater production of food; are probably necessary to keep up
with the amount of meat consumption in
Canada o One benefit for environmental quality: Taking
livestock off the land and concentrating them in feedlots reduces
the impact
(i.e- too much overgrazing, degradation of soil) o
Contributions to water and air pollution
Waste from feedlots can pollute surface and
groundwater, due to huge amount of feces and urine

produced by animals o Poor waste containment can

lead to outbreaks of disease
Pfiesteria, microbe that poisons fish
E. coli from runoff water from factory farms has
caused deaths and illness in Ontario o Conditions
Crowded and dirty conditions of feedlot
agriculture necessitate the use of antibiotics to control
disease, and can exacerbate outbreaks of diseases like
bird flu and mad cow disease, which have been proven
to be transferable and deadly to humans
o Management

Impacts of feedlots can be minimized when properly

managed; Canadian federal, provincial or territorial
governments regulate feedlots
Practices include using feedlot manure as fertilizer
reduces need for chemical fertilizer

Food choices = Energy choices o

Thermodynamics and Trophic Levels
Whenever energy moves from on trophic level to the
next, as much as 90% is lost
If grain is fed to a cow, most of the energy from the
grain is lost from the digestion system and metabolism,
so people dont benefit from the grain
Eating meat is far less energy efficient than a vegetarian
diet
The lower in the food chain from which we take our
food sources, the greater the proportion of the Suns
energy we put to use as food
Food choices = Environmental choices
o The growth in meat consumption requires that forested land worldwide be
converted to rangelands to support livestock production
o The Hamburger Connection by purchasing a hamburger made from South
American beef contributes to the deforestation of tropical rainforests in their
conversion to rangelands
Aquaculture o Raising aquatic organisms for food in controlled
environments o Many species are grown in open water in large,
floating netpens
o Aquaculture is the fastest growing type of food production;
provides a third of the worlds fish for human consumption

Most common in Asia

Domestic and Exporting markets o Aquaculture has the
benefit of reducing fishing pressure on overharvested
and declining wild stocks
o GM fish
Transgenic fish have become a part of the food
production system: Genetic engineering of Pacific
Salmon has resulted in a fish weighting up to 11 times
as non transgenic
o Negative aspects
If farmed organisms escape into ecosystems where
they are not native, they might spread disease and
overly compete with native organisms for food and
habitat
Transgenic salmon may contribute to the extinction of
their wild counterparts, partly because the larger GM
fish have better odds in mating successfully
Sustainable Agriculture o Agriculture that does not deplete soils
faster than they form, and can be practiced in the same way far into
the future
o Closely related to Low-input agriculture: uses smaller amounts
of pesticides, fertilizers, growth hormones, water, fossil fuel
energy than is currently being used in industrial agriculture
Organic Agriculture o The meaning of organic has been debated for
many years o Federal Organic Products Regulations came into effect
in
Canada in 2006 as a new part of the Canadian Agricultural
Protections Act
Organic certification logo only appears on food that
meets the standards for organic production, such as using natural
fertilizers and raising animals in conditions that mimic nature as
much as possible

 To bear the legend, products must have organic content

greater than 95%, as well as bear the name of the organization
that had certified the product o The market for organic foods has
grown from a niche market o Sales of organic foods are increasing
by about 20% annually o Two motivations for organic food
lifestyle:
Concern over pesticide consumption
Reduction of chemical pollution and soil degradation o
Although it is growing in popularity, many other consumers will
not buy organic food because it is too expensive and not
aesthetically uniform
o In addition to organic food products, textile makers like GAP
and Levis are increasing their use of organic cotton
o Falling prices and availability suggests that organic agriculture
will continue to increase, will become the rule rather than the
exception
The Science Behind the Story: Organic farming put to the test
Experimental conventional and organically grown fields of wheat and
potatoes are side by side in an experimental farm in Switzerland
Although conventional farms receive up to 50% more chemical
fertilizer, they only produce around 20% more food than organically
farmed fields
Organic fields had more organic matter in their soils, better soil
structure and more living microbes than conventional fields
Organic farms also have nutrient rich topsoil and greater earthworm
activity- signs of soil healthy enough to produce crops without the
help from synthetic chemicals o Organically managed soil supports a
diverse range of microbial and plant life, which translates into
increased biodiversity, self sustaining fields and higher crop yields
Canadian Environmental Perspectives: The 100-Mile Diet
Food travels almost 2000 km to reach the average North American
home
100-Mile Diet is one of the growing aspects of the Slow Food
Movement
Advocating local food = Locavore (unofficial)
Locally Supported Agriculture
Farmers Markets are becoming more popular as consumers
rediscover the joy of fresh, local produce

Consumers also have a wide choice of organic items and unique local
varieties (which supports diversity in agriculture!)

Community Supported Agriculture (CAS)

Consumers pay a farmer in advance for a share of their yield, usually
in the form of weekly deliveries of produce o Consumers get fresh
seasonal produce, farmers get steady income stream upfront to invest
in their crops instead of taking
out loans and being at the mercy of the weather
Urban Agriculture
Many urban areas now offer community gardens in which residents
can grow small plots of fruits and vegetables Cuba:
o Organic agriculture is entrenched in both cities and rural areas
in Cuba
o Farmers had no choice but to go organic due to huge losses in
imports of oil and fertilizer/pesticides when the USSR
dissolved
o More than 8000 thousand community gardens in Havana o
Cuban farmers use IPM methods, oxen instead of tractors o
Cubas low input farming have led to complete control to a
significant pest insect and record yields in 1996-97
Conclusion
Although industrialized agriculture has many negative aspects, there
are many positive aspects in terms of relieving certain pressures on
land and resources
If we want to sustainably support the growing population (9 billion
by the mid-century) individuals, governments, and corporations must
rework their interests and agendas to include sustainable agriculture
and development

Ch. 5 Notes- Biotechnology and Food Resources

Corn is the staple grain of the worlds food supply. In 2002 Canada became the
first nation to prohibit patents on higher organisms.
5.1 The Race to Feed the World

Over the past half century, our ability to produce food has grown even more
quickly than the global population.

Political obstacles and distribution inefficiencys leave 850 million people in

developing countries without enough food to eat.

Agriculturalists pursue food security (guarantee of adequate, reliable, and

available food supply at all times. To do so we must maintain healthy soil, water
and bio-diversity).

Already with grain crops, the worlds staple foods, we are producing less
food per person each year.

Since 1985 the world grain production per person has fallen by 9 percent.
Moreover the worlds soils are in decline, and all of the planets arable land
has been claimed.

Food Security is a Function of 5 AS

Availability: Food must be produced in sufficient quantity and not diverted for
other resources.
Affordability: Poverty is the reason for most food bank visits in Canada.
Accessibility: It matters not if food is available if you are unable to get to it.
Acceptability: The food has to be at an acceptable standard if individuals are
expected to consume it.
Adequacy: The nutritional quality of the food is important along with its
abundance.
Malnutrition: a shortage of nutrients that the body needs, including vitamins
and minerals. It can occur in both under as well as over nourished individuals.
5.1.3 The Green Revolution

The green revolution was characterized by both extensification and

intensification of agricultural production.

The transfer of technology to developing countries is what started the green

revolution in the 1940s

The U.S. agricultural scientists introduced Mexican farmers to a specialty

bread type of wheat.

Within two decades Mexico tripled its what production and began exporting
the crop as well.

This scientist, Borlang, brought his disease resistant grain to India

and Pakistan to increase their crop yields. Pros & Cons of the GR

Along with new grains, developing countries imported the methods of

industrialized agriculture. i.e. more pesticides and irrigation with dangerous
amounts of water.

From 1900 to 2000, humans expanded the worlds cultivated area by 33%
but increased energy inputs into agriculture by 800%.

Intensive agriculture saved millions from starvation in the 1970s and made
India into a net exporter of grain.

The Green Revolution was beneficial for biodiversity and natural

ecosystems.
(did not need to cultivate extra space)
However; the intensive use of water, fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers and
pesticides has extensive negative impact on the environment.
Monocultures

Large expanses of single crop types are susceptible to viral diseases, and run
the risk of catastrophic failure.

The GR was all about inputs (both chemical & mechanical) which allowed
for huge increases in production that characterized the transition to modern
industrialized agriculture.
Biofuels: Organic materials converted into liquid or gaseous fuels for use in
internal combustion engines.

The purpose of using renewable energy sources to replace limited,

nonrenewable fuels (petroleum) is found in the principles of sustainability.

The production of corn ethanol is now soaring in many countries, most

notably the U.S.

All grain prices, not just corn, have gone up as there is a much greater
demand for it.

It is fundamentally wrong to take a crop made for feeding humans and livestock
and burn it in cars and machines.
5.2 Pest and Pollinators

Pests cut crop yields and make it harder for farmers to make a living. For
example, rodents, fungus, viruses and weeds eat or compete with crops.
Pest: Damage crops
Weed: Compete with crops.
To prevent pest outbreaks and limit weeds, people have developed artificial
chemicals to kill insects (insecticides), plants (herbicides), fungi (fungicides)
and pest organisms (pesticides)
5.22
Over time, pests evolve resistances to these pesticides
5.2.6 Insects Pollinate Crops

Pollination- The process which occurs when male sex cell of a plant fertilize
female sex cells of a plant.

Without pollination, no plant species would persist for long.

Animals pollinate of the worlds staple crops.

5.2.7 Conservation of Pollinators

Conserving the biodiversity of native pollinators is imperative especially in the

honey bee who is being devastated by insecticides.

All insects including honey bees are vulnerable to the vast arsenal or
insecticides that are used in modern agriculture.

5.3 Genetically modified Food

The green revolution enabled us to feed a greater number of people but

relentless population growth still demands more.

GMOSs- Extracting genes from the DNA of an organism and transferring them
to another. This technique is called recombinant DNA. Transgenic organism
one that contains DNA from one or more species Much of the food/produce on
the world market is transgenic.

Precautionary Principal The idea that one should beot proceed, until the
ramifications of an action are well understood.

Chapter 6 Notes
Harleen Kahlon

Food is something we can all relate to

-Atkinson coins food as a liminal substance that links humans and nature
and reveals important social, cultural and economic geographies

Social inequalities on the basis of access, nutrition (i.e. obesity) and inequalities
in wealth and education

Food deserts: places without access to healthy, affordable food (usually urban
areas)

Food defines us-different places have different behaviours associated with

them
-i.e. eating at Burger King has different behaviour than eating at Red Lobster

Cultural associations between different cultural groups and ethnic cuisines

Economic significance=investment and number of people involved in the

production, processing and retailing

Drinking coffee has lots of social and geographic implications

-symbolic: day to day drug: there is caffeine in coffee, but coffee
drinkers are not considered addicts economic: global trade links

Food chain: routes traced from initial production to consumption (farm to

fork)
-significant production, distribution, and consumption and demonstrates
how food is mobilized
-can be used as an overall organizing framework to explore the changes from
production to consumption

Some argue that world diets are becoming homogeneous

-i.e. dominated by a single food
-mostly in developing countries

-industrial companies are the opposite; they have more animal food than plant food

Shortages are a problem for developing countries but expansion of food trade,
improvement of global communications and new markets are having an effect on
diets

Food choices in developed countries are significantly influenced by branding and

advertisements
-global food industry spend $40 billion on advertisement
-some companies rely heavily on branding

Consumers buy organic because:

-environment and health risks of certain types of farming
-people with more money have the choice of spending more on organic food

Fast food: accessible way to eat food

-In America, 3 major types=McDonalds, Burger King, Tricon (Pizza Hut, KFC) -fast
food is:
-efficient: easy way from going from hungry to full; drive thrus make it even more
efficient
-calculatability: large portion, low cost, and minimal time, feels like a good deal
-predictably: you know what to expect anywhere you go
-control: limited menus, so they basically control what you order

Jackman proposes a counterargument by saying that monopolies have to adjust

their products to the culture
-McDonalds in India is different because it caters to their culture, so it is less
homogenized
-same with China who changed Cadbury recipe to have less sugar and cocoa

Slow food: movement from the 1980s

-anti-fast food
-central objective decelerate fast food so efforts can be made to keep alternative
options open
-encourages and supports differentiation and openness

Globalization: integration of systems among places across the world

-transnational corporations guide the dispersal
-even though there are inequalities developed and developing countries are linked
together
Food regimes:
Pre-Industrial (1870-1920): settler colonies supplying processed and
unprocessed foods to North American and Western European cities
-mainly grain and wheat

-stopped when agriculture production increased and trade barriers set Industrial (1920-1970): brought production systems of developing and
developed countries together
-based on grain-fed livestock
-agriculture surplus and environmental issues stopped this -Post-Industrial
(1980s-):
-crisis of industrialized farm systems
-production of fresh fruits and veggies
-supply for elite in developing countries
-dominated by TNCs
Transnational Corporations (TNCs) : primary agents of globalization in agrifood systems
-link farming, processing, and marketing
-also play a role in industrializing to keep control over industrialization the
supply of key foods
Industrialized agriculture in the developed world
-In response to food shortages and the need to raise productivity after World War
II, governments encouraged industrial farming which has dominated agriculture in
the EU and North America since the 1950s.
- The industrial model of farming (assembly-line production) lead to three
important trends, 1) concentration of agricultural production on a limited number
of large-scale farms, 2) increase in capital expenditure on agricultural inputs (like
chemicals) 3) growth in the processing and manufacturing of food. -Today, the
production sector is linked with various upstream (input supplies) and
downstream (processing, distribution and marketing) industries.
-Food supply system also dominated by agribusinesses
-Agribusinesses: the sum of all operations involved in the manufacture and
distribution of farm supplies. Agribusinesses often develop commodity chains
beyond national boundaries.
-Often, the non-farm sectors of the agri-food system have become most
industrialized and dominated by TNCs. This occurs through 2 processes -1)
Appropriationism certain agricultural inputs are replaced by industrial
alternatives. (eg. Chemicals replace manure).
-2) Substitutionism focuses on outputs rather then inputs and is concerned with
the increased utilization of non-agricultural raw materials and the creation of
industrial substitutes for food and fibre.
-Essential aim for appropriationism and substitutionism is to replace nature. Overall key pattern of agricultural industrialization is concentration in particular
sectors characterized by large farm businesses that have adopted intensive farming
methods and become integrated into global food networks. -Agricultural

industrialization is increasingly global in scale, where food commodity chains

lengthen and producers and consumers get more and more distanced.
-Another key feature of TNCs & major retailers is that they both attempt to relocate the
production function of the agrifood system to new agricultural spaces, often in less
developed countries and in association with intensive production of high-quality, highvalue food commodities.
Developing-World Agriculture
-Goodman and Watts argue that classic export commodities (coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa)
made in less developed countries have recently been complimented by high-value
foods (fruits, veggies, shellfish)
-growth in high-value food exports reflects: technical changes in the food industry,
dietary changes in the developed world, liberaliz-ation of world trade, satisfaction level
of customers.
-Agribusiness TNCs interested in high-value food production in newly agriculturalizing
countries because of low-cost labour, government support. Good global communication
links and the ability to produce high quality/value products for the developed world
market.
Ex. Chile salmon farming is an industry inserted into a buyer driven commodity chain,
major distributors and retailers in export markets shape the nature of production.
Power is at the retail end of the chain.
-Global food production raises questions on who truly benefits, workers get
poverty wages, unsafe conditions, long hours Problems
Associated with Industrialized farming
-questions are being asked in the developed world economies, about the logic and
impacts of industrial systems:
-1) food productionintensive food production hits public imagination in large part
because of mad cow disease, mad cow is a direct consequence of the largescale
industrialization of food production and also represents a direct threat to human
health.
2) Fair trade and environmental responsibility 8 of the wealthiest countries
accounted for almost half of all agricultural exports.
-World Trade Organization (WTO) promoted trade liberalization through
reductions in agricultural subsidies, tariffs and import quotas. -Trade-related
transportation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
-foodmiles distance food travels
-mode of transportation is also a concern (air fright vs. sea freight) -we need to
begin to adopt more sustainable methods of food production -ex. Milk provides a
useful example of unnecessary food trade. Possible solution: establish
alternative food networks (AFNs) including consumer initiatives like the Slow
Food Movement and fair trade, farmers markets, home deliveries.
-See table 6.2 for distinctions between conventional and alternative food systems.
Main easy to remember distinction=alternative refers to fresh and natual and
modern refers to processed and manufactured.

-Alternative geographies of foodrevolves around changing production and

consumption relations that give risk to new regional and local food complexes Alternative geographies of food may be associated with agriculturally peripheral
regions because such regions have for a variety of reasons, failed to fully engage
with the productivist conventions that have predominated of the 20th century.
1. Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs)
-foods reach the final consumer having been transmitted through a supply chain
embedded with value-laden info concerning the mode of production, provenance
and distinctive quality assets of the product.
-Two further types of SFSC:
1) Spatial Proximate: products are sold through local outlets in the region,
consumer is fully aware of the locally embedded nature of the product at the point
of retail.
2) Spatially Extended: products sold to customers who are located outside the
region of production, have no personal knowledge of the area (e.g. via the internet)
Page 158-164
2. Social Embeddedness
- economic behaviour is mediated by social relations
- economic and social relations are vital for success
- social embeddedness doesnt just apply to alternative food systems, its embedded in
all food systems
- social interaction between producer and consumer is essential (e.g. respect,
friendship, attention, etc.)
3. The turn to quality
- local foods are higher quality than products produced farther away
- quality is linked to proximity
- quality is socially constructed idea therefore the definition varies between people
- the recent focus on quality has increase Quality Assurance Schemes
4. Defensive Localism
is has been argued that buying local food is more important than focusing on
quality
in a study of rural England and Wales, it was found that people preferred local
over organic
this shows support for local farmers, not support for conventional or alternative
methods of farming
6.4.1 Quality Food
- linking the product and the place it was grown is an attempt to add value to the
product
- known as relocalization
- an example of this is the :
- Protected Designation of Origin Label (PDO)
- Protected Geographical Indication Label (PDI)
- Both labels introduced by the EU in 1990s

- labels act as a marketing device

- this change in labelling has been seen as a turn to quality
- special cheeses dominate in the use PDO labels
- drinks dominate in the use of PDI labels
- must be awarded the status in order to use labels
- regional/specialty food is more important to some regions of the EU than others
6.4.2 Virtual Food
- online retailing
- people now buy and sell food online
- My Veggie Patch people could have vegetables grown for them and delivered to
them
- Adopt a Sheep people adopt a sheep, decide how to is raised, received the sheeps
products like cheese, socks, etc
- However, these people do all of this online and they never actually have to physically
take care of the sheep
6.4.3 Direct Food
- Direct interaction between producers and consumers
-e.g. Farmers market
- An example is an Organic meat producer in Northumberland Uplands
- Business supply chain on page. 163
- Inputs into the farm come from local suppliers, sells largely to local butcher shops,
markets and caterers
- Over the internet meat sales are minimal
6.4.4 Community Food
- attempts to relocalize food do not exist solely in a farm-based context
- Example: Kansas City Food Circle
- began 1994
- They want to educate people about the dangers of the industrialized agriculture
system
- Argue that the industrial food system had:
- eroded soils
- contaminated water
- increased pesticide use
- In response they tried to create an organic food system which supports farmers who
use sustainable practices
- keeps the control in the local communities
6.5 TOWARDS CRITICAL FOOD GEOGRAPHIES
- It has been argued that a 3rd food regime exists- flexible, focused on supply of
highvalue food, for elite consumption
- This emphasises food inequalities in the world
- Inequalities reflect the capitalist and industrial mode of agriculture and food
production

- International competition in food production continues to intensify

-TNCs becoming more dominant
- Consumers are beginning to demand alternative food systems (e.g. Organic)
- There is extensive debate about the benefits and consequences of alternative food
systems
- There may not be only ONE alternative food system that exists
- food consumption and production- the construction of complex, changing and
multiple sets of relationships
GGR107 Chapter 6 Notes Changing geographies of food consumption and production
6.1 Thinking about Food

...the food we eat becomes part of us - Nigel Slater food reflects who we are

Food is a luminal substance that links humans and nature Atkinson

Food reveals important social, cultural and economic geographies

Social
Inequalities in terms of: food access, good nutrition, and reported problems
with obesity and diet
Often tied to socio-spatial inequalities in terms of wealth and education
Cultural
Food is a type of expression
Different places are associated with eating food and different behaviours
associated with them we are WHERE we eat
Association between cultural groups and ethnic/national cuisines
Cultural images used to market and sell foods
Economical
Investment and number of people involved in the production, processing and
retailing of food
FOOD DESSERTS places where access to affordable, health food is poor (prominent in
urban areas)
FOOD CHAIN/NETWORK
Routes traced by particular foodstuffs from farm to fork
Significant production, distribution and consumption nodes, and the connecting link
between them, together with social, cultural and natural conditions involved in
commodity movements
Spotlight Box 6.1
Offering small-scale producers the potential to develop short food chain supplies would
better capture the value added and connect with end consumers
6.2 Culinary journeys: contrasting cultures of food consumption Overall
patterns of global food consumption
Five trends
i. Changing diets
Diets vary around the world
Some may argue that world diets are becoming increasingly
homogeneous
Diets in developing countries have traditionally been dominated by a
single staple food

In industrialized societies, the variety of food is great and diets

usually contain more food of animal origin and less food of plant
origin
Nutrition transition affects urban populations in many developing
countries as an expansion of food trade, improvements in global
communications and the penetration of new markets by food
corporations are creating changes that have significant health
impacts, leading to an increase in diet-related diseases
ii. Role of retailers
Influences the types of food we eat
Hypermarket economics lead by a small number of large
companies
As a result of dominance, most people in developed market
economies buy their food from supermarkets
iii. Branding and advertising
Most often, it is branded and processed products that are heavily
advertised
Brands are moulders and reflectors of mass consciousness
Advertising make products recognizable and desirable iv. Growth of
organic food sales
Less predictable
Organic food is demanded because it is partly a reaction to growing
awareness about the environmental and health issues associated with
certain types of farming and also because higher disposable incomes
enable people to make lifestyle choices about what they eat
v. Eating out
Increased numbers of people eating out, which reflects lifestyle
changes (especially in the increased numbers of women in paid
work)
In particular, fast food is becoming available worldwide and offers a
quick and accessible way to eat food
6.2.1 Culinary journey 1: fast food culture
Fast food is part of all consumer cultures
Usually eaten out of the home and out of our hands
Fast food is central to the American way of life
In others places other than America, the numbers of people consuming fast food is lower than
that of America but the trend is going upward
RITZERS VIEW Cultures and traditions have become homogenized as a result of the
extended read of global, standardized products
McDs has succeeded because it offers consumers, workers and managers four key things
1) Efficiency
The ability for efficiency to satisfy hunger is very attractive because of
peoples busy lives (people lack time)
2) Calculability
Puts emphasis on the quantitative aspects of products sold (portion size,
cost) and the time it takes to get the product
Attractive as things feel like a good deal

The comparison and time saved when going for fast food versus preparations
at home
3) Predictability
Assurance that products and services will be the same over time and in all
locales (products always the same, everywhere)
Behaviour of workers, in terms of what they saw and do, is also high
predictable
4) Control
Exerted over the people who enters the restaurants through limited menus,
few options, queue lines and uncomfortable seats designed to control
behaviour and encourage customers to eat quickly and leave
Workers are also controlled by performing a limited number of jobs in
precisely the way they are told to do them
JACKSONS VIEW local consumption cultures are quite resilient to global forces
Rather than simply rolling out their existing products across a geographically
undifferentiated market, producers have had to adapt their global brands to a variety
of local conditions.
Places thus create specific consumption cultures and local cultures still influence the
style of food on offer in each country and, in some, use food to defend that sense of
local identity
6.2.2 Culinary journey: slow food culture
Emphasises the importance of place
Slow foods is a consumer movement that was devoted to the promotion of an anti-fast food
culture because of its possibility of threatening traditional eating habits
Main elements of the Slow Foods movement
Celebration of cultural connections surrounding local cuisines and traditional
products was held
Movement targets discerning consumers in order to heighten their awareness of
forgotten cuisines and the threats that they are currently facing
The central objective of Slow Food is to decelerate the food consumption experience
so that alternative forms of taste can be reacquired
Movement has spatial significance: it wishes to embed food in territory and bring
consumers closer to these foods, reasserting also the natural bases of food production
and the role of culture context
Its prime concern is for typical or traditional foods, although increasingly
recognizing that some regional foods are disappearing because they are too
embedded in local food cultures
Contrasting core elements between the two culinary journeys:
Fast food
Slow food
Efficiency
Slowness
Calculability
Typicality
Predictability
Differentiation Openness
Control
built on an appreciation of diverse/open
Simple formula
food cultures
There two journeys represent contrasting styles of food consumption and the value of place in terms
of understand their construction. They also represent different ways of producing and processing
food.

6.3 Agrarian questions: farming, food chains and globalization

Two processes are significant: the industrialization of farming and the globalization of food
supply
GLOBALIZATION the integration of systems among geographically dispersed places
Despite inequalities, developed and developing countries are reportedly linked together in
global networks of institutions and products which constitute an agri-good system
The global food economy is not new, but has been developed for an extended period of time
In reality, the globalization of agriculture is more unstable because the primary agents of
globalization in the agri-food sectors are few who are the centres of the web, ensuring the
dominance over the supply of key food products.
Table 6.1
First regime: preindustrial
Supplying unprocessed and semi-processed foods and materials
Main products were grains and meats
The regime slowly disintegrated when agricultural production in developed countries
competed with cheap imports and trade barriers were erected
Second regime: Industrial
Development of agri-industrial complexes based around grain-fed livestock production
Intensive forms of capital accumulation, incorporating developed and developing nations
into commodity production systems
Agricultural surpluses and environmental disbenfits undermined this phase of production
Third regime: Post Industrial
Crisis surrounding industrialized farming systems
Involves the production of fresh fruit and vegetables for the global market, the continued
reconstitution of food and the supply of inputs for elite consumption in developed
countries
Flexible form of capital accumulation
Dominated by the restructuring activities of agribusiness and corporate retailers
6.3.1 Industrialized agriculture in the developed world
Industrial model of farming, includes: specialization of labour, product specialization, and
intensification, and assembly-line type production
Industrial model farming led to three important trends in the developed world in terms of
food production:
1. Concentration of agricultural production on a limited number of large-scale farms
2. Increase on capital expenditure on major agricultural inputs, like chemicals
3. Growth in the processing and manufacturing of foods
UPSTREAM INDUSTRIES: input supplies
DOWNSTREAM INDUSTRIES: processing, distribution, marketing
The food supply system is dominated by large agribusinesses: the sum of all operations
involved in the manufacture and distribution of farm supplies, the production operation of the
farm, storage, processing and distribution of farm commodities and items made from them
It is often the non-farm sectors of the agri-food system that have becomes most industrialized
and dominated by transnational corporations, which happened through two processes
1. Appropriationism
Certain agricultural inputs are replaced by industrial alternatives
2. Substitutionism
Focuses on outputs rather than inputs

Concerned with the increased utilization of non-agricultural raw materials

and the creation of industrial substitutes for food and fibre
Agri-food systems are different from other production systems because agriculture is bound
by biological processes and cycles, and the essential aim of appropriationism and
substitutionism is to replace nature
Transnational corporations also attempt to increase their influence over farming directly
through a process of formal subsumption, where arrangements or contracts are made with
farmers to provide raw materials for their value-adding food manufacturing activities
The overall key pattern of agricultural industrialization is concentration by large farm
businesses
This all lengthens commodity chains, making producers and consumers more distant
Transnational corporations attempt to relocate the production functions to less developed
countries to produce high quality and high value food commodities, in response to the issues
in developed-world market
6.3.2 Developing-world agriculture
There is a growth in the high value food exports from less developed countries reflects
various things, including:
Technical changes in the food industry
Liberization of world trade
Dietary changes in the developed world with high-value foods produced to satisfy
consumer tastes
Agribusinesses are attracted to high-value production in less developed countries because of
low-cost labour, government support, good global communication links and the ability to
produce high quality/value products for the developed world market
6.3.3 Salmon farming in Chile
This is an example of a buyer-driven commodity chain, where major distributors and retailers
in export markets shape the nature of production
Power is at the retail end of the chain rather than the production end
Increased concentration of productive by foreign and domestic firms, where wages are low
and the working conditions are poor
6.3.4 Problems associated with industrializing farming Two
areas of concern
1. Food production
Diseases (such as mad cow) arising as a direct consequence of the large-scale
industrialization of food production, also representing a direct threat to human life
2. Fair trade and environmental responsibility
Concerns about unfairness of global trade because of the continued use of subsidies
and tariffs
Transportation causes a rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions
The distance food travels is expressed in terms of food miles
6.4 Alternative geogprahies of food: Concepts and case studies
In order to regard the concerns, alternative food networks are established, which includes
consumer initiatives supporting the Slow Foods movement
This is often seen as a response to the environmental and socio-economic disbenefits
associated with agricultural industrialization and global food supply
There is debate concerning what is conventional, and what is alternative
1. Short food supply chains

Foods reach the final consumer having been transmitted through a supply
chain embedded with value-laden information concerning the mode of
production, provenance and distinctive quality assets of the product
He number of nodes between the primary producer and the dinal consumer
will have been minimized
Two types
i.
Spatial proximate o Products are sold through local outlets in the
region, locality or place of the production, so that the consumer is
immediately aware of the locally embedded nature of
the product at the point of retail
ii.
Spatially extended o Products are sold to consumers who are
located outside the region of production and/or have no personal
knowledge of the area
2. Social embeddedness
Economic behaviour is embedded in, and mediated by, a complex and
extensive web of local social relations
All economic relations are socially embedded in a tange of contrasting ways
and so there are different degrees of embeddedness in all food supply
systems
Social interactions between producer and consumer can make the difference
between success and failure for local food businesses
This can take the form of acknowledgement, attention, respect, friendship
and sociability, often subsumed within the concept of regard
3. The turn to quality
Local (alternative) foods are of higher quality than products produced under
more conventional farming systems
Quality and locality are inextricably linked
Quality is socially constructed, therefore meaning different things to
different people
Product labelling is also an important dimension of marketing quality and
labels tend to focus on different combinations of the product, process and
place
4. Defensive localism
The turn to local is not just about alternative food systems, instead it can
cover different forms of agriculture (including conventional) and a range of
consumer motivations
6.4.1 Quality of Food
Relocalization: the process in which locally distinctive quality food products are transferred
to regional and national markets as a mechanism to provide a valuable economic stimulant
and reduce the deleterious impact of subsidy reforms and increasing trade liberation
Regional specialty food products have been linked to particular places in his way, especially
via a formal system of quality food labels and the establishment of regional specialty food
groups
PDO label: product that originates from a specific place and is linked to its natural
environment
PGI label: linked to place, but not necessarily in terms of raw materials
These labels protect producers from attempted copies and act as a marketing device
6.4.2 Virtual Food

 Online retailing: a virtual space that also gives access to a material food product
Offers closeness-at-a-distance
6.4.3 Direct Food
Direct nature of the supply chain and the important social and economic benefits which
accrue from these types of food transactions
Direct interactions between producers and consumers
Most of the inputs coming into the farm are from local suppliers
Constructed to add and retain value from primary production, the business sources from
other organic farms in the region
Producers adjusts the business supply chain in a bid to establish as much control of the
chain as possible
6.4.4 Community Food
Attempts to relocalize food production and establish alternative supply chains also
extend beyond farm based production
In order to persuade people to participate in local, sustainable alternatives, people argued
that industrial agriculture had eroded soils, made water unfit for drink, and increased
pesticide resistance in insects
6.5 Towards critical food geographies
Farmers and other produces are embarking upon more sustainable and alternative forms
of agriculture, based on territorial association and direct consumer contact

Chapter 7: Worlds apart: Global difference and

inequality

The term development refers simply to good change, progress and is

typically viewed in terms of increased living standards, better health and wellbeing and other forms of common good that are seen to benefit society at large.

Third World or the Global South, to be somehow lesser developed,

underdeveloped, or even backward in some way. In this way labels are about
power and politics, they can impose boundaries and can be incredibly
bureaucratic.

Constructing categories of peoples places is often seen as an efficient way to

manage resource allocation and for tracking whether disadvantaged people are
benefiting from development.

Labelling whole regions and spaces as developing or developed reduces and

overlooks the political, economic, social and cultural diversity of the places and
communities included within these gross generalizations, simplifications and
aggregations.

Regional Case Study 7.1: The United Kingdom and Uganda

A comparison of the UK and Uganda is useful here in allowing us to evaluate the relative
value of global indicators of inequality.
They both clearly do not have the same levels of access to water, health services or
education.

These statistics clearly suggest massive inequalities between the two countries such that
UK citizens have a life expectancy of 79 yrs compared to 53 yrs for their Uganda
counterparts.

The UK- infant mortality 5.08 per 1,000 live births, 99% access to safe water& health
services

Uganda- infant mortality 66.15 per 1,000 live births, 99% access to safe water,49 %
health services

Ultimately simple measures like these tell us very little about wider social and economic
differences within societies or about how these national international inequalities are
produces or experienced.

7.1 Geography and Third World development

Third World sets negative assumptions, and negative infirmity is imposed.

The geographical boundaries of the Third World are thus incredibly vague and
openended.

The three worlds schema was a Cold War conceptualization due to political conflict
between USA and USSR.

Third world made up of the countries that remained and is undoubtedly linked to the
formation of mental maps and imagined geographies of inequality that are often
created where people have no direct experience of encountering the regions or people
they are describing or referring to.

Travel can be understood as one important means by which youth identities stretch
out beyond the local to draw in places from around the globe

Imagined geographies of the Third World is stereotypical of common features

such as overpopulation, environmental degradation or political chaos.

Subscribers to North and South and the three worlds scheme, have been criticized for
the simplicity of these divisions and their failure to recognize diversity and difference
within these spaces; the world does not consist of a series of individual national
economies in the way often suggested in UN and the World Bank reports.

A big part of the economic development and wealth of the rich countries is wealth that
has been directly imported from the poor countries.
Development equality partly represents a geographical imaging, a representation of a
better world, and a belief in the idea of correctable inequalities/injustices between
nations, states and regions and within existing global economic orders.

Given its amoeba like nature, development has taken numerous forms in numerous
locations and is still very much relevant in societies which proclaim themselves to be
developed.

Human Development Index (HDI) assumes that development can be depicted in a

single measure, the UNDP Index combines data on life expectancy, literacy, income,
environmental quality and expectancy, literacy, income, environmental quality and
political freedom.

Development is defined here as a series of numerical stages with a linear progression

indicated (statically) as degrees of departure from Western norms and ideals.

As in the case of DNP per captia, the HDI does in many way point to growing gaps
between different areas of the world.

However effective statistical measurement of development can become generalized, it is

necessary to be critical of the way in which statistics are collated and definitions
formulated and to be careful in the assumption and prescription made as a result.

It is through the amassing of statistics and surveillance by global development agencies

that the image of an underdeveloped, primordial, traditional and war-ravaged third
world is reproduced.

Thematic Case Study 7.2: The Strategic Interests of Foreign Aid

Two- thirds of this is government-to-government or bilateral aid and the remainder is
multilateral aid disbursed by agencies like the World Bank Group, the UN bodies and the
EU.

Many critics of foreign aid have sought to highlight the strategic interests at work in its
distribution as well as the inequality and unpredictability of aid provision.

UN Development Decades have recognized that economically advanced states like the
USA have a responsibility to contribute to the financing of development.

Aid involves (1) Financial Services, (2) A technical service industry, (3) a feel-good &
image industry that can relieve guilt, (4) a political tool shed (5) a knowledge & ideology
industry (6) an industry that sets policy agendas.
Thematic Case Study 7.3: Hurricane Katrina and the USA as Third World
One of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes in the history of the USA, Hurricane Katrina
devastated much of the north central coast of the USA in 2005, killing 1,836 people and
causing 81.2 billion worth of damage.

Over 60 countries pledged monetary donations.

When you break down key economic development indicators by income group and race
you find that conditions for poor Americans rival those in developing countries.

The disaster illustrated some of the ways in which media shapes and constructs an
imaginary third world but also how the concept of three worlds can produce a kind
of distancing where problems of poverty, hunger and forced migration are seen to be
worlds away.

Hurrican Katrina also cruelly exposed the myth of the USA as a fully developed
country and highlighted the inequality and poverty that ecists within US cities.

7.2 Conceptualizing Development

Conceptualizing development is thus partly about the negotiation of what constitutes
progress and improvement and the definition of what constitutes appropriate
intervention in the affairs of poor or lesser developed countries.
The formation of development theories therefore depends on different perceptions of
development challenges at different times.

Regional Case Study 7.4: Bandung, Non-alignment and the Third World
The Bandung conference was a meeting of representatives from 29 African and Asian
nations, held in Bandung (Indonesia) in 1955.

The aims of the 29 nations what attended included a desire to promote goodwill and
cooperation among Third World nations, to explore and advance their mutual as well as
common interests.

The conference was especially successful in hastening the arrival of new international
institutions explicitly dealing wytith development.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was then founded (among the 29 states most of
which were former colonies) in 1961 on a principle of non-alignment with either the
USA or the USSR in the Cold War.

Now NAM has some 115 member nations.

7.2 The modernization school: an anti-communist manifesto
With the end of the Second World War and after the UN was established,
conceptualization of development received a decisive stimulus. Between 1945 and 1981,
UN membership rose from 51 to 56 nation states.

Friedmanns core-periphery model suggests that a number of stages exist in the national
development of countries or cities leading to a final stage that represents the culmination
of the development process.

Rostow predicted that nations would take off like an airplane into development having
gone through five stages.

Rostows model devalues and misinterprets traditional societies which represent that
lowest form or stage of development. The advanced state of modernization is always
represented as Western modernization; traditional societies seem like distant, poor
relations.

dGeographies of inequality and development cannot be neatly summarized as a set of

prescriptive stages.

In the modernization schema, it is implied that there is nothing before the beginning of
development in a developing country that is worth retaining or recalling, only a series
of deficiencies, absences, weaknesses and incapacities.

Implying that the process could be brokered by states or development institutions rather
than emerge from the grass-roots struggles of Third World peoples as had been
called for in some more radical approaches.

Dependency approaches- identify exploitation between statilities and metropoles.

Drawing upon Marxs writing about the unevenness of capitalist development.

Dependency on a metropolitan core (ex. Europe, North America) increases the

underdevelopment of satellites in the periphery. Dependency theorists sought to view
development in historical contexts, and argued for example, that colonialism helped to
put in place a set of dependent relations between core and periphery.

These peripheral satellites, it was argues, were encouraged to produce what they did not
consume (primary products) and consume what they did not produce (manufactured or
industrial goods).

The obstacles to development equality were structural, arising not from lack of will or
poor weather conditions but from entrenched patterns of global inequality and
dependent relationships.
Neither represents a singular commonly agreed approach and both are complex and
varied.

7.1 Development practice (1): The historical geography of development

It is particularly important to examine the significance of empire in the making of
international development.
In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, European states thus added 10 million
sq miles of territory and 150 million people to their areas of control or 1/5 of the earths
land surface and 1/10 of its people.

Colonialism has been variously interpreted as an economic process of unequal exchange,

as a political process aimed at administration and subordination of indigenous peoples,
and as a cultural process of imposing European superiority.

The origins of humanitarian concern lay partly in response to the practices of slavery in
the transalantic world in the age of empire.

Imperialism was viewed as a cultural and economic necessity where colonies were
regarded as the national property of the metropolitan countries and thus needed to be
developed using the latest methods and ideas. This came missionary zeal to civilize &
modernize the colonies.

Globally, development would have its trustees, guiding civilized nations that had
the capacity and the knowledge or expertise to organize land, labour and capital in the
South on behalf of others.

Mnay post-colonial states continue to maintain important political, cultural and

economic ties with their former colonial rulers.

In the process of decolonization, development became an overarching objective for

many nationalist movements and the independent states they tried to form.

The colonial state was also the dominant economic actor, creating a currency, levying
taxes, introducing crops, developing markets, controlling labour and production.

Colonial state administration sought the integration of the colonial economy into the
wider economies of empire, to make linkages with the metropole and to establish flows
of peoples and resources. After the former states have had to formulate alternative
methods of garnering legitimacy for their authority.

Imperial rule created the very idea of an imperial centre and a colonized periphery and
established a whole variety of important binaries, divisions and constructed boundaries
between civilized and non-civilized, between the West and the rest.
The West is much more of an idea than a geographical reality.

Development was not a simple gift following contact with Europeans but predates the
age of discovery (1400-1550) and the age of empires (1875-1914).

7.4 Development practice (2): Subjects of development

General failure to consider the implications of development policies for individuals,
households and communities
Development strategies often assume that people and communities are homogeneous
and passive rather than differentiated and dynamic, bypass local cultural traditions and
histories.

Three major agents of development have dominated the literature on development:

nation-states, international development institutions and NGOs.

Many international development organizations have often made erroneous assumptions

about the distribution of power and decision-making within nations and communities
when they operate.

The household has been and likely to remain the basic living unit in many parts of the
global South, the key to controlling and organizing production, consumption and
decision-making.

It is important for international development organizations to understand the different

roles and responsibilities of men and women within these diverse households.

The contribution of women to the development process, of their knowledge, time, labour
and capital, has often been underestimated by development experts.

Women are often not defined as productive contributors to their societies, as it was
abstractly assumed that women were largely confined to the private, reproductive or
domestic sphere.

Access to credit, rural extension services, land ownership and farm technology has often
been denied to women, despite the fact that women produce more than half the worlds
food.

South have become subject to enormous pressures from the societies within their
borders, becoming sites of protest and contention when their activities impinge on the
lives of their subjects and citizens.

World Development Reports (WDRs) often view an effective state almost exclusively
through the lens of economic efficiency\.
Behind neoliberalism is the core assumption that the economy should dictate its rule to
society rather than the other way around.

The World Bank attaches a great deal of importance to the impacts of globalization and
the increased interconnectedness of the world economy and the ease of travel and
communication that characterize the contemporary world.

The World Bank has claimed to have shifted policy focus towards sustainable
development and poverty alleviation in recent years, but neoliberal policy
prescriptions continue their dominance within the international development industry
whilst the Bank has been able to maintain many aspects of its core policy focus by coopting critics and cloaking itself in the guise of green environmentalism.

The ideals of empowerment and popular participation and their increasing acceptance in
development circles is partly a consequence of the rising influence of NGOs which have
often been highly localized and focused on particular issues.

NGOs can provide an effective link between state and society, often working in very
practical ways.

The relationship between the state and NGOs is crucial to the prospects of inclusive
democratic development. Particularly in situations of political instability or conflict,
NGOs can provide critical linkage in the absence of effective or disputed state
administration.
7.5 Conclusions: geography, unevenness and inequality
The phrase little d development, however, points to the development of capitalism as a
geographically uneven profoundly contradictory set of historical processes.

Global corporations and global marketing activities have resulted in the availability of
standardized projects and products, and communications have significantly improved,
creating new regimes of interconnectedness.

Globalization is highly uneven process that has not affected all areas of the so-called
Third World in the same way.

International development instituations have often overlooked local perspectives and

knowledges of development and state approaches have often been heavily centralized
and top-down.

The World Bank and the IMF claim to be leading the campaign to eradicate world
poverty, but a wide variety of anti-capitalist and anti-globalization protests in revent
years have shown that these prescriptions are inflexible and ignorant of the particularities
of place and country specific contexts.
Improvishement and inequity is constructed as somehow unique or exclusive to the
Third World.

Radical development geography must be liberated from the tyranny of dualism and the
constant stratification of the globe into three distinct worlds.

It is important therefore to allow for variation between states and to move beyond the
tragic stereotypes of a single condition of third world poverty and a single geography
of the third world.

Chapter 7 Worlds Apart: Global Difference and Inequality

Key notes:
The power and politics of labeling and categorizing poor peoples, places and the
spaces of development
The role of IMF, World Bank and other NGOs
Introduction
The term Third World has lots of tragic stereotypes of famine, poverty, and
droughts to animate it and make it seem coherent and defined
The term development is hard to define, often refers simply to good change, a
positive world that in everyday parlance is practically synonymous with progress
and is typically viewed in terms of increased living standards, better health and wellbeing and other forms of common good that seem to benefit society at large
A major problem with geographies of development produced from these statistics is
that they have allowed some observers to label whole areas as Third World or
lesser developed
Understanding Development and Dependency
The principal problem with labeling vast regions as less developed is that sets of
negative assumptions are often made and a negative uniformity is imposed.
Rather than seeing poor people as objects of study we need to attend to the ways in
which poor people themselves understand and make sense of their experiences of
poverty
We need to encourage a diversity of ways of enframing he problems of
development and resist the temptation for neat categories and easy quantification
Geography and The World Development

The picture of unevenness and injustice in the contemporary world that comes to
us through these labels is not always a sharp, coherent and precise one and often
this unevenness is not effectively conveyed in the statistical measures that are
taken as indices of what constitutes development.
All too often the developing world has been defined as a problem for
Western governments that can only be resolved with the intervention of Western
experts
The definitions of development have been contested, these imagined
geographies of the Third World often overstate a set of tragic stereotypical and
supposedly common features such as overpopulation, environmental
degradation or political chaos,
It is difficult to generalize about the people and places of the Third World since
relations between different regions of the world are imagined and simplified by
geographical expressions like North/South, rich/poor,
developed/underdeveloped and First World/Third World
The Three World scheme have been criticized for the simplicity of these
divisions and their failure to recognize diversity and difference within these
spaces
Our task is to think critically about the uneven and unequal geography of the
world economy and the ways in which the global capitalist economy actively
produces inequality and uneven development
A big part of the economic development and wealth of the rich countries is
wealth that has been directly imported from the poor countries
Development equalitycatching up with the wealthy through economic
activity is increasingly seems likely at the start of the 21 century and as evidence
grows of widening and deepening global inequality
The term Third World development partly represents a geographical imagining,
a rep. of a better world, and belief in the idea of correctable inequalities/injustices
between nations, states, and regions
Escobar argues that the idea of Third World also gives enormous power to
Western development institutions to shape popular perceptions of Africa, Asia or
Latin America
US President Harry Truman explained the need for modern scientific and
technical knowledge as a pathway to overcoming this handicap of
underdevelopment and announced the beginning of a bold new program within
the developed world to resolve inequality and remedy impoverishment in
backward areas.
Development have varied but usually have claimed the best of intentions
The idea of development is often discussed in relation to developing countries
but given its amoeba like nature, development has taken numerous forms in
numerous locations and is still very much relevant in societies which proclaim
themselves to be developed

Conceptualizing Development
Seeking to become developed has been constructed as an objective that is
unquestionably positive and beyond reproach
Conceptualizing development is thus partly about the negotiation of what
constitutes progress and improvement and the definition of what constitutes
appropriate intervention in the affairs of poor or lesser developed countries
Modernization Approach
Modernization school, which was often dualistic, opposing traditional to
modern life-styles, indigenous to westernized, as if no country or citizen
could belong to both categories
Forces of concentration (polarization) will trickle down from the core to the
periphery at national, regional and global scales.
This model suggests that a number of stages exist in the national development of
countries or cities leading to a final stage that represents the culmination of the
development process
The msg from these modernization geographies was that underdeveloped
countries could move briskly into the modern temp of life within a few years
Rostow, predicted that nations would take off into development, having gone
through give stages o Stage one: Traditional society o Stage five: the age of
high mass consumption
o The theory takes our faith in the capitalist system for granted since
Rostow assumes that all countries will be in a position to take off into
development
o Rostows model devalues and misinterprets traditional societies which
represents the lowest form or stage of development
Modernization approaches have also largely failed to address the importance of
gender o Assuming that men and women occupied equal positions in terms of
power relations and decision-making
The trickle-down effect has often failed to materialize among those who have
been the subjects of modernization projects o This approach seemed to suggest
that development could be mimicked, copied and replicated and that
underdeveloped countries should try to reproduce the development paths of richer
developed nations
In modernization, it is implied that there is nothing before the beginning of
development in a developing country
Major weakness of this approach was the notion of a trickle-down diffusion of
development implied that there were precise separation available of where the
core ends and the periphery begins when this have never been the case
Dependency Approach
Emerged in the 1960s-70s challenged the notion of positive core-periphery
relations

Dependency scholars drew attention to the mode of incorporation of each country

into the world capitalist system, identifying this as a key cause of exploitation
the development of underdevelopment;
o views the development and underdevelopment as opposites sides of the
same coin
o the development of one area often necessitates the underdevelopment of
another
dependency theorists sought to view development in historical contexts, and
argued, that colonialism helped to put in place a set of dependent relations
between core and periphery
argued that they were encouraged to produce what they did not consume (primary
products) and consume what they did not produce (manufactured goods)
dependency school argued many underdeveloped areas have been stalled due to
the history of colonialism and were denied of being modern/industrialized

Historical geography of development

colonialism has been variously interpreted as an economic process of unequal
exchange, as a political process aimed at administration and subordination of
indigenous peoples, as a cultural process of imposing European superiority
colonial developed was associated with an unconditional belief in the concept of
progress and the makeability of society, being heavily conditioned by the
dominance of the evolutionary thinking that was popular in Europe at the time
imperialism was viewed as a cultural and economic necessity where colonies
were regarded as the national property of metropolitan countries and thus
needed to be developed using the latest methods and ideas
globally, development would have its trustees guiding civilized nations that
had the capacity and the knowledge or expertise to organize land, labour and
capital in the South
a paternal and parental style of relationship was established through imperial
encounter between colonizer and colonized
many post-colonial states continue to maintain important political, cultural, and
economic ties with their former colonial rulers
in the process of decolonization, development became an overarching objective
for many nationalist movements and the independent states they tried to form
colonial states had a role to define the rules and boundaries of community o also
dominant in economic sector: creating currency, taxes, controlling labour and
production
the structures before colonialism were often radically remade
the emergence of the term neo-colonialism have undermined attempts to meet
promises made in the early post-colonial era
Subjects to Development
development strategies often assume that people and communities are
homogenous and passive rather than differentiated and dynamic

Nation-states, international development institutions and NGOs are considered to

be brokers of development o i.e., nation states are primary focus of the United
Nations
o i.e., NGOs often try to work at the interface between national
governments and international governmental institutions
the contribution of woman need to be examined more carefully o
development policy assumes that the household in global South
corresponds to the Western model of then nuclear family, yet these
households are different
o women contributes to the development process, time, labour and capital
o women are often not defined as productive contributors to their
societies o for example: women produce more than half the worlds food
but they have been denied farm technology or credit
again, we see the problems created by trying to draw on a universal set of
standards based on the experiences of Western liberal democracies
we ignore or overlook he diversity of peoples and places
neo-liberalism promotes and normalizes an economic growth-first strategy where
social and welfare concerns of citizens are seen less of a priority o also
naturalize an image of international markets as fair and efficient and deregulation
and the removal of state subsidies
o they narrow the ideological space in which it is possible to think outside
the development box
often it is not clear in these debates is what role is there for people of the South to
shape their own destinies and the specific impacts on places, territories and
communities
the World Bank often describes their commitment to decision-making for
development but some development agencies have manipulated this agenda in
order to present themselves to be more positive and to suit their own ends
NGOs have been highly localized and focused on particular issues o NGOs have
particular geography of power
o Closeness of their contact with local cultures and knowledge o Observers
have argued they can provide and effective link between state and society
o The state and NGOs relationship is crucial to the prospects of inclusive
democratic development
Conclusion
It is necessary to reformulate a view of development that focuses on the
relationships to households and communities and not just on formal institutions
like the states, NGOs, and transnational corps.
It is important to allow for differences between states and to move beyond the
stereotypes of Third World Poverty and Geography of the Third World

Chapter 8: What is Nutrition?

Randa Shickh
What drives our food choices?
We make many decisions during the day about food (from when to eat, how
much to eat, what to eat, etc.)

Many factors drive our food choices

What you choose to eat is both personal and complex, and not solely driven by
the need for sustenance (fuel)

Taste and Enjoyment

Research has found that when making food choices, taste is the most important
consideration o Not a surprise because we have more than 10,000 taste buds
Our enjoyment of food changes as we age:
o Infants and children prefer extremely sweet flavours o Adults enjoy more
subtle sweet flavours
Texture affects our likelihood of enjoying foods
Culture and Environment
What you choose to put on your plate is often influenced by your culture
A cultures cuisine is greatly influenced by the environment in which its people
live
Foods that are more available and accessible are more likely to be regularly
consumed than foods that are scarce o For example: individuals that live near
coastal waters are more likely to eat fresh seafood than those living in landlocked
areas

Our food environment the variety of food choices available, the size and shape
of plates and glassware, the packaging of foods, and the types and amounts of
food visible also has a strong influence on what and how much we consume
Environment cues also effect eating patterns o More likely to linger over a meal
when the light is dimmed
o More likely to finish a meal quickly when others at the table stop eating

Social Reasons and Trends

Eat is an important way to bond with others o Ex: social interaction between
family and friends during holidays
Eating dinner with others increases the size of the meal
For many people, activities such as watching a football game with fellow fans or
going to a movie with friends involve particular foods o Ex: more pizzas are sold
during Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year
Food choices are also affected by popular tends o Ex: today, shoppers pay a
premium for bags of fresh veggies, like carrots, that have been prewashed and
peeled, sliced, or diced, and they pay even more of a premium if the food is
labeled organic
Weight Concerns, Body Image, and Health Benefits

Individuals may choose certain foods because they perceive them as being
healthy, or avoid other foods that are associated with weight gain or loss
Your perception of foods can be influenced by your current state of health o
Ex: if you are overweight, you are more likely to be aware of the kilocalorie
content of foods and avoid foods that are high in fat and sugar This can
have a positive effect on health

The more aware you are of the effects of food choices on health, the more likely
you will make an effort to improve your eating habits o Americans are eating
less saturated and trans fats because of the perception that these foods damage
health
Americans have also been consuming functional foods improve their health
since the late 1920s o Functional foods: foods that may provide additional
health benefits beyond the basic, nutrient value
o Todays functional foods include: oatmeal, genetically modified foods,
and foods that have been fortified with phytochemicals or added
nutrients
Phytochemicals: non-nutritive plant compounds, found in fruits
and vegetables, that may play a role in fighting chronic diseases

Advertising
Manufacturers spend $10 billion to $15 billion annually on food advertising
Food companies spend these large sums on advertising for one reason: they work,
especially on young people o American children view up to 40,000 TV
commercials annually o Most of the ads they see are for items such as candy,
soft drinks, chips
Commercials for fruits and veggies, and healthy food is rare o That is why the
dairy industry launched the Got Milk? campaign
Celebrities wore milk moustaches and were told to make drinking
milk sexy, and it worked

Time, Convenience, and Cost

When it comes to putting together a meal, time is often at a premium, and
Americans, especially working women with families, want to spend less than 15
minutes preparing a meal
Supermarkets are now offering more prepared and partially prepared foods o Can
buy uncooked chicken in the supermarket or you can go to the deli and buy it
cooked

Convenience has become more of a factor in food selection o Many decades ago,
coffee was typically brewed at home, now Americans are more likely to get it
from a coffee shop
Because of time and convenience, people are eating out more often today than
they did a few decades ago
o Cost is often an issue when considering where to eat out, so most meals
that are consumed away from home are fast food
Fast food is often cheaper and quicker than nutritious meals
Fast food is taking a toll on the health of Americans
Epidemiological research suggests that low-cost, high kilo-calorie
diets, such as those that incorporate lots of burgers, fries, etc.
increase the risk of obesity
Although, cheaper food does not always mean fast food o When healthy foods
are offered at lower prices, people buy them o Researchers have found that
lowering the cost of healthy foods improves the consumption of them

Habits and Emotions

Your daily routine and habits often affect both when you eat and what you eat o
Ex: ready to eat cereals are the number-one breakfast food choice among
Americans, and citrus juice is their top juice in the morning o Many
people regularly snack when watching television or sitting at the
computer
For some, emotions can drive food choice (feeling happy or sad) o In some
cases, eating is suppressed during periods of sadness or depression
o For many, it is used as an emotional crutch during times of stress,
depression, or joy

What is Nutrition?
Nutrition: the science that studies how nutrients and compounds in foods
nourish the body and affect body functions and overall health o The study of
food and the nutrients we need to sustain life and reproduce
The study of the relationship between food and health began as early as the 1600s
The term limey was coined after one of the earliest reported nutrition
discoveries; that lime juice prevent scurvy o A disease caused by the lack of
vitamin C

During the 1700s, scientists recognized the value of what we ate in treating
disease o So by the early 1900s the concept of essential nutrients have been
widely accepted
o By the late 19th century, nutrition was becoming more quantitative

Addressing the question of how much of each nutrient Is required

as well as accepting that individuals vary in nutrient requirements

Nutritional epidemiology have been developed by the end of the 20th century

o Dietary surveys conducted by the government were used to further the

science
o The biochemistry of nutrition has exploded since the Human Genome
Project in 2000 o British sailors began this in the 1600s and today it
involves nutrition professionals, the government, and the food industry
as they strive to develop new functional foods and nutraceuticals, and
design diets

Since the beginning, the science of nutrition has explored how food is digested,
absorbed, transported, metabolized and used or stored in the body o Nutritional
scientists study how much of each nutrient we need, the factors that influence our
needs, and what happens if we do not consume enough
A chronic deficiency of even one nutrient may impact the bodys
ability to function in the short-term, and over time, etc.

Good nutrition reduces the risk of four of the top ten leading causes of death in
the US, including the top three heart disease, cancer, and stroke as well as
diabetes
Good nutrition can also play a role in preventing other diseases and conditions
that impede ones lifestyle o A healthy diet can keep bones strong and reduce the
risk of developing osteoporosis
o Eating well improves body weight, this in turn reduces the risk of
developing obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure

What Are Nutrients?

The body is one large organism made up of millions of cells that grow, age,
reproduce and diet, all without you noticing
As cells die, nutrients from food provide the building blocks to replace them
Nutrients: compounds in foods that sustain body processes o They provide the
energy we need to perform all body functions and processes, from maintaining
heart beat to playing tennis
o There are six classes of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats (lipids), proteins,
vitamins, minerals, and water

About 10% of plant foods are made up of carbs, fats, protein, vitamins, and
minerals o The rest is typically water, and they contain more water (90%) than
do animals foods (60%)
o The other 40% of animals foods consist of protein, lipids, vitamins and
minerals
o Animal foods do not contain any carbs by the time we consume them

A healthy human body is 60% water o The other 40% is protein and fat, and a
small amount of stored carbs, minerals in the bone, and small amounts of
vitamins
o Therefore the saying, we are what we eat is true because the six
biochemical ingredients needed to sustain life are all provided by the
foods in our diets

Most Nutrients Are Organic

Carbs, proteins, lipids and vitamins are organic
Organic: compounds that contain carbon or carbon-carbon bonds
Organic nutrients also contain the elements hydrogen and oxygen (in the case of
proteins and vitamins, nitrogen is also part of the molecule)
Minerals are the least complex of the nutrients and are inorganic because their
chemical structure does not include carbon
Most Nutrients Are Essential
In general, nutrients are essential and must come from foods because:
o Either they cannot be made in the body or they cannot be made in
sufficient amounts to meet the bodys needs
A few nonessential nutrients can be made in sufficient quantities in the body o
Ex: vitamin D, it is synthesized in the skin upon exposure to sunlight
Under some circumstances, nonessential nutrients can become essential o In the
case of vitamin D, if you are not exposed to enough sunlight, you need to obtain
vitamin D from foods

Some Nutrients Provide Energy

Energy: the capacity to do work, providing a source of heat
The body gets energy from certain nutrients in foods, which store energy in their
chemical bonds
Carbs, lipids (fats), and proteins are defined as the energy-yielding nutrients
because they contribute energy to the body

Energy Is Measured In Kilocalories

Kilocalorie: refers to the amount of energy found in food
It is not the same as a calorie, which is a much smaller unit of measurement
The term calorie is used on nutrition labels to express the energy content of foods
and is often used in textbooks to reflect calories

Calculating The Energy In Foods

Each energy-yielding nutrient provides a set number of kilocalories per gram

o Therefore the number of kilocalories in one serving of a given food can
be determined based on the amount (weight, in grams) of carbs, protein
and fat in the food

Energy In The Body

Energy in foods and in the body is trapped within the bonds that keep the
molecules together o When the bonds are broken, such as during the process of
metabolism, a significant amount of energy, including some heat, is released
o The energy is then used to digest and absorb the meal, contract muscles,
fuel the heart, etc.
Peoples energy needs vary according to age, also males generally need more
energy because they weigh more and have more muscle mass o Younger people
require more energy than an older adult because they are still growing
o Physically active people need more energy than sedentary people
Energy that is not used to fuel the body will be stored as fat for later use

What Are The Primary Roles of The Individual Nutrients?

They supply energy, regulate metabolism, and provide structure

Some nutrients, including carbs, lipids, proteins and water are called
macronutrients (macro = large) because they are needed in much larger
amounts to support normal functions
Vitamins and minerals are equally important to health, but are considered
micronutrients (micro = small) because they are required in smaller amounts to
perform their key roles

Carbohydrates Are The Primary Energy Source

They are the bodys main source of energy
They are composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen
Carbs supply the simple sugar, glucose, which is the primary source of energy for
several body cell types, including red blood cells and brain cells
They are found in most foods
Animal products do not provide significant amounts of carbs
Lipids also provide Energy
The term lipids refers to a diverse group of organic compounds, including fats,
oils, phospholipids, and sterols that are insoluble in water
They also contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen
Lipids in the form of triglycerides are an important energy source for the body,
especially during rest and sleep o Also the form in which the body stores excess
energy

o Triglycerides are found in margarine, butter, oils and animal products

Proteins Provide The Building Blocks For Tissue Synthesis

Can be used for energy, but not the primary energy source
Contain hydrogen, oxygen and carbon as well o All proteins contain nitrogen and
some contain sulphur
Proteins contribute the basic building blocks, known as amino acids o Amino
acids synthesize, grow and maintain tissues in the body
Proteins act as enzymes in chemical reactions
Proteins are found in many foods, including meats, dairy products, and legumes
such as soy, nuts and seeds

Vitamins And Minerals Play Vital Roles In Metabolism

They do not provide energy, but they are involved in many key functions
They are essential to help regulate metabolism o Without them we would not be
able to use carbs, fats and proteins for energy, or to sustain many chemical
reactions
A deficiency can result in ill health, ranging from fatigue to stunted growth, weak
bones and organ damage.
Many vitamins function as coenzymes, that is they help enzymes catalyze
reactions in the body

There are 13 known vitamins, each with a unique chemical structure o Grouped
into classifications based on solubility
o Water-soluble vitamins, which include vitamin C and the eight
Bcomplex vitamins are easily absorbed and excreted by the body
Need to be consumed daily o Fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E and
K, are stored in the liver and other organs, so they do not need to
be consumed daily

Minerals are inorganic substances that help in body processes and are essential to
the structure of hard tissues, such as bone, and red blood cells o A deficiency of
any of the minerals can cause disease symptoms o Minerals are classified by the
amount needed in the diet and total content found in the body
o Major minerals are needed in large amounts per day
Ex: calcium and magnesium
They help in the structure of bones and teeth, some help maintain
fluid balance, energy production, etc.
o Trace minerals are needed in small
amounts per day
Ex: iron and zinc

They transport oxygen and carbon dioxide, participate in cell

growth and development, control metabolic rate, etc

Water Is Critical For Numerous Functions

Water makes up the majority of all body fluids, including digestive secretions,
blood, urine, and perspiration Water is a part of every cell in the body
It is vital to many key body functions:
o It is essential during metabolism because it provides a medium in which
metabolic reactions take place
o Also functions in digestion and absorption o Helps maintain body
temperature

What Is Credible Nutrition Research?

Diets keep changing so it is difficult for people to lose weight

Although diet trends, and popular wisdom seem to change frequently, basic
scientific knowledge about nutrition does not
Only when multiple affirming research studies have been conducted is a
consensus reached about nutrition advice

Sound Nutrition Research Begins With The Scientific Method

Sound research studies begin with a process called the scientific method
Scientists observe something in the natural world, ask questions, and propose an
explanation (or hypothesis) based on their observations
They then test the hypothesis to determine if their idea is correct
Many steps are involved in the scientific method before a conclusion is reached
Scientists today share their finding by summarizing and submitting their research
to a peer-review journal
Other scientists (peers) look at the researchers findings to make sure that they
are sound
If so, the research is published in the journal

Research Studies And Experiments Confirm Hypotheses

Scientists use different types of experiments to test a hypothesis
A laboratory experiment is done within the confines of a lab setting
Research conducted with humans is usually observational or experimental o
Observational research involves exploring factors in two or more groups of
subjects to see if there is a relationship to a certain disease or other health
outcome

o An type of observation research is epidemiological research

This looks at populations of people
It does not answer the question of whether one factor directly
caused the other

o Experimental research involves at least 2 groups of subjects

One group, the experimental group, is given a treatment
Another group, the control group, isnt
A placebo, an inactive substance, such as a sugar pill maybe be
given o the control group during an experiment, while the
experimental group was given the actual pill
If neither of the 2 groups knew which pill they received, then the
subjects were blind to the treatment
If the scientist who gave the pills did not know which group
received which treatment, this would be called a double-bind
placebo controlled study
Considered the gold standard of research because there would be no bias from
the researcher or subjects
The scientists must make sure all the variables were the same or
controlled for both groups

What Is Nutritional Genomics?

Nutritional genomics: an area of nutrition research that may have far-reaching
effects on health and disease o A science that studies the relationship between
gene expression, nutrition, and health
Recent advances in nutritional genomics have already yielded potential clinical
applications o For example: research has shown a relationship between chronic
inflammation and certain bioactive compounds
Adding foods to the diet that contain these compounds may regulate
the genes that cause the inflammation
Nutritional genomics may have great potential to provide personalized dietary
recommendations based on an individuals genetic make-up o Can be used by
dietitians to recommend diet modifications that are specific to a patients DNA

What Is Nutrition Assessment And What Does It Involve?

Individuals may go to a Registered Dietitians (RD), to determine current
nutrition status o The RD will conduct an assessment to find out if a client is
getting too much, too little or the right amount of a nutrient
The first step in assessing nutrition status is to provide the basis for making any
dietary recommendations o A persons state of nutrition is usually described as
either healthy or malnourished

o A person who lacks a specific nutrient, or isnt consuming enough

energy, is undernourished
The person is at risk of losing too much weight or developing a
disease related to a nutrient deficiency
o In contrast, an individual who overconsumes a particular nutrient, or eats
too many kilocalories is described as being overnourished
Runs the risk of becoming overweight, developing diseases such
as diabetes or heath disease, etc.
Nutrition Assessment Includes Examining A Patients Health And Diet History
Part of evaluating a persons nutrient status, it is important to look at their health
history o Including any experiences with acute or chronic illness, and diagnostic
procedures, therapies, or treatments that may increase nutrient needs or induce
malabsorption
A detailed diet history is conducted by a skilled researcher who knows just what
types of questions to ask to help a patient remember current and past food intake
2 tools used to collect dietary intake data are interviews and questionnaires o
Interview will reveal data about lifestyle habits, such as how many meals are
eaten daily, where they are eaten, etc. o Food frequency questionnaires (FFQs)
can be used to gather information about how often a specific food is eaten for
example

Food Frequency Questionnaire

One of the easiest ways to determine an individuals intake of nutrients
It provides consumption patterns over time
Food Record
A food record is a diary of what foods and beverages are eaten, how much, and
when they are eaten over a defined period of time
Often kept for 3 to 7 days and is considered to be one of the best methods to
collect diet information
The drawback is that it depends on the individuals skill and commitment to
keeping a valid record
Twenty-Four-Hour Dietary Recall
This method is a quick assessment conducted by a trained interviewer who asks a
patient to recall all the food and drink, including snacks, eaten the previous day

Anthropometric Data Is Used To Help Assess Nutritional Status

This type of data measures body size or body composition

In adults, this usually means measuring height, weight, body mass index (BMI),
waist-to-hip ratios and waist circumference o BMI is a measure and weight
relative to height, and waist circumference measures abdominal fat
o Body composition measurements provide data on an individuals lean
body tissue and the percent body fat
For children, growth charts have been developed that compare height to weight
Data collected from this type of measure is compared with reference standards o
Combining the results of BMI and waist circumference, an individuals risk of
certain diseases (such as diabetes) can be determined

Conduct A Physical Examination

A person who is malnourished will exhibit physical symptoms (whether lack of
or over accumulation of nutrients) o Therefore many parts of the body can be
inspected for evidence of poor nutrition
o Observing the hair, skin, eyes, fingernails, tongue and lips
Collect Laboratory Data
Lab tests based on body fluids, including blood and urine can be important
indicators of nutritional status o Also influenced by non-nutritional factors

How Do We Assess The Nutritional Status Of A Population Group?

Dietary intake information on a large scale must be collected o This information
allows researchers to determine the adequacy of the current recommendations for
different population groups, to evaluate and develop food assistance programs
Usually done through surveys
Conduct Or Review National Surveys
Many surveys have been developed by agencies to assess the health and
nutritional status of Americans
Some of the surveys include: The National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey (NHANES), The Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System
(BRFSS), The Framingham Heart Study

What is Healthy People 2010?

The U.S. Surgeon General issued a call for a nationwide health improvement
program since 1979
The latest edition of this report is Healthy People 2010 o It contains a set of
health objectives for the nation to achieve over the first decade of the twenty-first
century

o It focuses on 2 goals: (1) to help all Americans increase their life

expectancy and improve their quality of life and (2) to eliminate health
disparities among different segments of the population
Under these goals, there are 28 areas of focus
One focus area, Nutrition and Overweight has been set to
promote good health and reduce the chronic diseases associated
with poor diet and excess weight
The first objective was for 60% of Americans to be at a healthy
weight by 2010
o Current research has shown that Americans body weights are not
decreasing
How Does The American Diet Stack Up?
The food supply in the US provides a wide range of nutritious choices to meet
the dietary needs of Americans

The Quality of the American Diet

In general, Americans eat too much protein, sugar, sodium, saturated fat and too
little fibre, and some vitamins and minerals o The low fibre intake is due to
inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables
o Only about 40% of Americans eat the minimum five fruits and vegetables
per day
o While dietary fibre intakes are low, sugar accounts for almost 30% of
carbohydrate intake (soft drinks and other sugary drinks)

Fat intake of Americans ranges at the high end of the recommended, 33% o The
diet has too much saturated fat

American men meet their recommendations for most vitamins and minerals, but
women fall short of many nutrients (iron, for example) o Americans eat too
much sodium, but not enough vitamin A, vitamin E, and calcium
Because of this, 40% of American take at least 1 vitamin of mineral
supplement a day

The lack of a healthy diet may be because many Americans (90%) eat their meals
away from home o Only 1/3 of Americans eat family meals at least twice a week
o One positive habit is that almost 85% of Americans eat breakfast

Rates Of Overweight And Obesity In Americans

Overweight and obesity rates in the U.S. are high o This is because people take
in more kilocalories than they burn, usually due to sedentary lifestyles

o Over 65% of American adults and 15% of children aged 6-19 are
currently overweight and 34% of adults over the age of 20 are obese
Whats The Best Dietary Strategy For Health?
Better to consume the 6 classes of nutrients through food rather than supplements

The Best Way To Meet Nutrient Needs Is With A Well-Balanced Diet

Eating a variety of whole foods is best to maintain nutritional health o Because
many foods provide a variety of nutrients
For ex: low-fat milk is high in carbs and proteins, and provides
small amount of fat
Milk is also a good source of vitamin A, D, and riboflavin, as well
as the minerals potassium and calcium
o Whole foods and a well-balanced diet provide other dietary compounds,
such as phytochemicals and fibre, which have shown to help fight many
diseases
o Whole foods almost always contain more than one beneficial compound
Some foods, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables that are
high in fibre, are also phytochemical powerhouses
Studies have shown that diets rich in these foods fight disease
Some Nutrient Needs Can Be Met With A Supplement
Individuals with diet restrictions or higher nutrient needs may benefit from taking
a supplement o For example, someone who is lactose intolerant has to meet his
or her calcium needs from sources other than dairy products
A calcium-fortified food, such as orange juice, or a calcium
supplement would be an option o Pregnant women should take an iron
supplement because their increased need for this nutrient is unlikely to be
met through diet alone
A well-balanced diet and dietary supplements arent mutually exclusive, together
they can sometimes be the best nutritional strategy for good health

Chapter 8 - What is nutrition?

Lynn Sang

Food choices
Taste and Enjoyment
Most important consideration
10,000 taste buds in the mouth
Genetics play a part in our decisions
Texture 30% of adults dont like slippery foods

Preferences start in early life and people become resistant to change

Culture and Environment
What foods are available/accessible to us in certain environments
influence what we regularly eat or not eat
Variety of food choices, size and shape of plates, packing, type and
amount visible
Social Reasons and Trends
Eating dinner with other people increases the size of your meal by
40%
More people present makes you eat more
Treads increase certain food intakes
2005 Americans spent $51billion on organic/natural food
Weight concerns, body image and health benefits
Perception of food can be influenced by your state of health
The more award you are of health effects of food, the more likely you
will try to improve your eating habits
Functional foods oatmeal, salt, GMO foods with added nutrients,
phytochemical fortified foods (orange juice with calcium)
Advertising
$10-15 billion on food advertising annually - $700 million on
breakfast cereal, candy and gum. $500 million on soft drinks.
Advertising can increase consumption 1994 Got Milk commercial
featured celebrities drinking milk and boosted sales by 1.5billion
pounds
Time, convenience, cost
Working American women spend less than 15mins preparing a meal
17, 000 coffee shops, carts and kiosks across US
1970ss Americans spent 25% on eating out. Today 45%
Fast food leads to weight gain problems that have long term costs 36% of annual health care
Lowering the cost of fresh fruit, vegetables and lower fat snacks
improve consumption of nutritious foods.
Habits and emotions
Emotional food intakes stress, depression or joy

Nutrition

Study of food and the nutrients needed to sustain life and reproduce
Explores the way food nourishes the body + affects health
1900s concept of essential nutrients
How food is digested, absorbed, transported, metabolized and stored in the
body
How much we need of each nutrient, factors influencing needs, what
happens if we dont consume enough

Good nutrition reduces risk of 4 of the top 10 leading causes of death in

US Heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes

Nutrients
Nutrients are building blocks needed to replace dead cells
6 categories
Carbohydrates, lipids, protein, vitamins, minerals and water

10% of plant foods are made of carbohydrates, lipids, protein, vitamins and
minerals - the other 90% is water

Animal foods contain 60% water 40% protein, lipids, vitamins and
minerals
Carbohydrates, lipids, protein, vitamins
Most complex
Organic nutrients they contain carbon
Minerals, water
Not organic no carbon

Nutrients are essential and must come from food they cannot be made by
the body
Non-essential nutrients eg vitamin D comes from sun exposure instead
Carbohydrates, lipids, protein
Energy yielding nutrients
Energy capacity to do work, source of heat
During digestion and metabolism the bonds are broken to release
energy
Energy used for digestion + absorption of food, muscle contractions,
fuel for heart, synthesize new cells etc
Energy not used is stored for later
Alcohol provides energy but is not a nutrient

Carbohydrates (4 kilocalories per gram), lipids (9 kilocalories per gram),

protein (4 kilocalories per gram), alcohol (7 kilocalories per gram),
Kilocalorie
Amount of energy in food
Amount of energy needed to raise temperature of one kilogram of water
C
Same as the Calorie (C) found on labels
Calorie(C) =/= calorie (c) 1000 calories (lower case) is equivalent to 1
kilocalorie

Carbohydrates, lipids, protein, water

Macronutrients larger amounts to function

Vitamins, minerals
Micronutrients smaller amounts to function
Carbohydrates
Main source of energy
Found in glucose primary source of energy for red blood cells and brain
cells
Bread, cereal, legumes, nuts, fruits, vegetables and diary products
Lipids

Fats (triglycerides), oils, phospholipids, sterols

Insoluble in water
More concentrated than carbohydrates
Contains less oxygen and water
Body stores excess energy in triglycerides makes up adipose tissue
beneath the skin and around organs
Margarine, butter, oils, animal products

Proteins
Amino acids synthesize, grow and maintain tissues in body
Muscles, bone and skin tissues
Communication between brain and the body
Immune system
Enzymes
Meats, dairy products and legumes
Vitamins + minerals
Help regulate metabolism
Without these we arent able to use the other ones (Carbohydrates,
lipids, protein)

Vitamins coenzymes chemical reactions in body

13 vitamins classified via solubility

Water soluble vitamin C + 8 vitamin B absorbed and excreted,
consumed daily
Insoluble Vitamin A, D, E and K stored in liver and organs not
need to be consumed daily
Building bone and muscle, energy production, fighting infections.
Maintaining healthy nerves + vision
Minerals bone, soft tissue, red blood cells
Classified by amount needed
Major minerals 100 milligrams per day, at least 5 grams in body
calcium, magnesium bones and teeth, fluid balance, participate in
energy production, muscle contractions
Trace minerals less than 100 milligrams per day, less than 5
grams in body iron, zinc transport oxygen, carbon dioxide,
participate in cell growth + development, control metabolic rate, role
as antioxidant

Water
Digestive secretions, blood, urine, perspiration
Essential during metabolism Maintains body temperature

Digestion and absorption, transport medium that delivers nutrients

+ oxygen to cells
Waste through urine
Lubricant for joints, eyes, mouth + intestinal tract Cushions for
injuries

Nutritional credibility

Consensus of multiple studies

Experiments through scientific method hypothesis, observation and
questions
Media based studies gain publicity; trends that change a lot
Laboratory experiment
Lab setting
Observational/experimental
Exploring factors in two or more groups any relationship between
disease and health
Epidemiological research looking at a population of people
Experimental group given treatment; control group isnt
Placebo is given to the control group inactive substance

Blind - If neither of the groups know which they are taking

Double-blind placebo-controlled study neither the group nor
the scientists knows which treatments were taken
Larger samples = more confident researchers are about datas
reflection on population

Nutritional genomics

Gene expression with nutrition and health

Understand interaction between genes and nutrients
Used to make personalised dietary recommendations based on genetic
makeup

Nutritional assessment

Professional advice from a Registered Dietitian (RD)

Describe if person is healthy or malnourished
Undernourished not enough nutrients or energy
Overnourished over consumes too much of something or too
many kilocalories
Evaluating acute or chronic illness experienced by person
Food frequency questionnaire
Determines individuals intake of nutrients consumption patterns
Reliable, accurate and inexpensive
Doesnt measure exact amounts or always accurate intakes
Food record
Dairy of foods and beverages taken, amount and when they are eaten
Based on routine of person to keep it updated result may be loss in
interest/forgetting to do it
May lie or avoid writing some because embarrassed
Twenty-four-hour dietary recall
Quick assessment by trained interviewer to recall food and drinks +
snacks in one day
Skill of interviewer and persons memory
Diet varies on day to day basis so not accurate
Anthropometric data
Body size/body composition
Adults measuring height, weight, body mass index, waist-to-hip
ratios, waist circumference

Children height + weight compared to age

Provide info on lean body tissue + percent body of fat depending on
tools

Physical examination
Observing hair, skin, eyes, fingernails, tongue and lips

Laboratory data
Body fluids blood and urine tests

Quacks
Professional - Registered Dietitian (RD), licensed dietitian took
supervised practice Public health nutritionists not qualified Most
common deceptive statements
Most Americans are undernourished
Everyone should take vitamin supplements
Supplements are needed to relieve stress and boost energy
You can lose weight in a short amount of time
Their products will do great things and cure you
Your behaviour is influenced by your diet
Herbs are safe because they are natural
Sugar will poison you
Hair samples can identify nutrient deficiencies
Your RD is a quack, dont believe in them
There is no risk, get your money back

American diet

Eat too much protein, sugar, sodium and saturated fat

Too little fiber, vitamins and minerals
Only 40% eat minimum of five fruits and veges a day
40% take at least one vitamin or mineral supplement a day
90% of Americans eat meals away from home
50% never eat with family
Many eat in front of the tv which results in high fat and soft drinks
85% eat breakfast breakfast provide 25% of vitamin A + C, folate,
calcium and iron needed in a day, 18% of fiber and energy
Over 65% of adults and 15% of children aged 6-19 are overweight,
34% over the age of 20 are obese

Way to meet nutrient needs

Milk is good for vitamin A, D, riboflavin, calcium, potassium, walk

900 different phytochemicals in food - disease fighting
Cannot be extracted from foods and put into pills to produce the same
effect best way is to eat a balanced diet and not rely on pills etc
Whole grains, fruits and veges provide a lot of phytochemicals
Well balanced diet and dietary supplements are not mutually
exclusive

GGR107

Chapter8 - Nutrition
Understanding food choices
Taste and texture
= Genetic predisposition
- Most people prefer the taste of salty or sweet foods, but the degree varies. It is partly
because of genetics.
- Our taste for fat is genetically linked. Although a gene has not been found to support
this theory.
= Early childhood
- Breast-fed babies whose mothers eat a wide range of foods are more likely yp
embrace new food as adults, and formula-fed infants remain tolerant of bitter and
sour at age 4-5.
- Sweetness, high fat, and specific textures may have begun early in life which is
resistant to change.
= Emotional response
- Want to eat more sweet when you feel upset.
- Want to eat more when you depressed, stressed.
= Texture
- It affects the likelihood of enjoying food.
- e.g. 30% adults dislike slippery food. (such as oyster, etc)
Socio-culture environment
= Food embedded in social relations
- What you choose is always influenced by your culture.
-

Cultures cuisine is greatly influenced by environment in which its people live.

Foods that are available and accessible are more likely to be regularly consumed than
foods that are scare.

Food environment affects how much food we consume.

e.g. eat more when the serving plates are larger, drink less when it is served in a
taller glassware.
- Environment cues affect eating patterns
e.g. quickly finish your meal when others at the table stop eating.
= Social reasons and Trends
- Eating is important to bond with others.
- E.g. Thanksgiving: social interaction between family and friends at holiday meals.
People more likely to eat more.
- Eating dinner with others has been shown to increase the size of the meal by 40%.
The more the people present, the more you eat.
- Activities, such as watch movie and football game, always involve particular food.
e.g. hotdog and pizza in Super Bowl, popcorn for watching movie.
p.s. moviegoers are more likely to buy snacks if theyre with group of friends. Trends: healthy meal in less time.
More people pay premium for bas of fresh veggis that have been prewashed, peeled,
and sliced. People even pay more if the food is labeled organic. - Plants-based
product, grown farmers market, foods with added benefits. = Ideas about beauty and
health American -> afraid of obesity.
They choose certain foods because they perceive them as healthy, or avoid gaining or
losing weight from foods.
- Perception of food can be influenced by current state of health.
e.g. Americans eat less saturated and trans fat foods as they perceive that these foods
damage health.
It decreased the consumption of red meats, packaged snacks, processed food, and
increased the consumption of whole grains, whole fruits and vegetables.
- Functional food: improve health.
e.g. oatmeal, GM food that are developed to have higher content, foods that have
been fortified with photochemical or added nutrients.
= Habits
- Daily routine and habit. E.g. regularly snacks when watching TV.
Making tradeoffs
Time, convenience and cost, and quality.
- Time is always a premium. People want to spend less than 15minutes preparing a
meal.
- Supermarkets are offering more prepared and partially prepared food.
- Convenience + time = people are eating out more.
Cost is always an issue when considering where to eat out. Therefore, fast food is the
most common choice for people as it quick and cheaper.
- Price reduction: a great strategy to increase the consumption of healthy food.

 Nutrition
The study of food and the nutrients we need to sustain life and reproduce. It explores
the way food nourishes the body and affects health.
- Limey: lime juice prevented scury ( disease caused by lack of vitamin C).
- Good nutrition reduces the risk of four of the top ten leading causes of death in the
U.S. : heart disease, cancer and stroke (top3)
- lay an important role in preventing disease and conditions that can impede ones
lifestyle.
Nutrients
As cells die, nutrients from food provide the building blocks to replace them. It also
provide the energy we need to perform all body functions and process, from
maintaining heart beat to playing tennis.
- Healthy human: 60% water, 40% protein and fats, small amount of carbohydrates.
= Most nutrients are organic.
- Carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins are the most complex of 6 classes of nutrients.
- Their chemical structure contain carbon Contain the elements hydrogen and
oxygen.
= Minerals -> inorganic.
- Does not include carbon
- Each element is individual element.
- Its atom are exactly the same whether found in food or body.
= Most nutrients are essential.
- Must come from food. It cannot be made in the body.
- Few nonessential nutrients can be made in sufficient quantity in the body. (E.g
vitamin D).
= Some nutrients provide energy
- Energy is defined as the capacity to do work, also provides a sources of heat. Energy-yield nutrients: Carbohydrates, lipids (fats), proteins
- Alcohol also provides energy, but its not nutrients. = Energy in the body.
- Males generally need more energy because the weigh more and have more muscle
mass.
- Younger person requires more energy than older adult as they are still growing and
synthesizing more new issues.
- Physical activity individuals require more energy,
What are primary roles of the individual nutrients.
- Macronutrients: are need in much larger amounts to support normal functioning.
- Micronutrients: smaller amounts.
Carbohydrates
- Supply of sugar, glucose.
-

The primary source of energy for several body cells. (red blood cells, brain cells)

The only food which does not provide carbohydrates is animal product other than
dietary.
Lipids
- In the form of triglycerides are an important are an important energy source for the
body, especially during sleep and rest.
Protein
- Usually not the primary energy source
- Contribute basic building blocks for tissue synthesis - Play an important role in the
immune system. Vitamins and minerals -> vital in metabolism Vitamin is
classified according to their solidity.
- Water-soluble vitamins: easily absorbed and excreted by the body, need to be
consumed daily. ( Vitamin C,B)
- Fat-soluble vitamins: stored in the liver or other organs. Need not to consumed on
daily basis. ( vitamin A,D,E,K)
- Minerals: essential to the structure of hard issues (bone) and soft issues (red blood
cells)
- It is classified by the amount needed in diet and total content found in the body.
Major minerals: at least 100 milligrams per day and 5 grams in the body. (calcium,
magnesium, etc)
Trace minerals: vice versa. (less than ..) (Iron, zinc, etc)
Water
- Makes up majority of all body fluids.
- Function in digestion
- Maintain body temperature
- Acts as lubricant for the joints, eyes, mouth.
*** ( More information in Lecture9 slide 10)
What is credible nutrition research
Sound nutrition research
- Begin with scientific methods observe!
- Then test their ideas if they are correct.
Research studies and experiments confirm hypotheses
= laboratory experiment
- Observational (epidemiological) / experimental (experimental or control group)
Nutrition genomics:
A science that studies the relationship between gene expression, nutrition, and health.
- Interaction between genes and nutrients. Nutrient responding gene (nutrigenetics) or
nutrient influence gene (nutrigenomics)
What is nutrition assessment and what does it involve?
Registered Dietian (RD) : nutrition professional
= a persons state of nutrition: healthy / malnourished.

- Malnourished: someone lacks of specific nutrients.

- Undernourished: consuming not enough energy
- Overnourished: overconsumes a particular nutrients or eats too many kilocalories.
Nutrition Assessment includes examing a patients helth and diet history.
Persons health history.
Dietary intake ( interviews and questionnaires)
- Food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) -> shows the consumption patterns - Food
record: a diary of what food and beverages we are eaten.

CHAPTER 9: CONSUMPTION AND ITS GEOGRPAHIES

pg 232-249
9.1 CONSUMPTION MATTERS
Main arguments:
- everyday practices of consumption, i.e. drinking Starbucks or going
shopping, are significant for economic and cultural reasons
- we both produce and understand our geographies through our everyday,
mundane activities as consumer
- consumption forges different, localized experiences of the global and
incorporates and produces cultural and geographical difference rather than
eliminating it
- consumer worlds are simultaneously local and global
Main points:
- Consumption depends on production, but it also works the other way
around
- Economic production isnt just about manufacturing material goods
anymore o for e.g. Nike doesnt make sportswear itself, it just sells the
brand name and the logo; they spend more on advertising and promoting
their brand than on actual capital expenditure; they are very consumption
based

some say the consumer has become like a global dictator (Danny Miller)
because if the consumer demands something, like better quality bananas,
then action is almost always taken to respond to this demand
- we have to remember that not everyone in the world is an affluent
consumer; a challenge for the 21st century is to also address exploitation and
inequality when analyzing consumption
- Consumption is not just an economic act; it is embedded in social and
cultural relationships. Two different arguments about consumption:
1. we have turned into consumers because we are bombarded by a wider
consumer culture o Paints the picture that producers are the ones who
dominate in the consumer culture, because they create this sense of
false needs through advertising ads make you feel like you need to
buy products that arent absolute necessities
o Consumer is an irrational slave
2. Consumers use things for their own ends
a. Consumer culture is not as passive or subordinate as in #1; consumers
buy things not for the sake of buying them but to actually make use of
them in their own way
9.2 GLOBAL GEOGRPAHIES OF CONSUMPTION
- some argue that our modern consumption patterns, born out of N. America
and Europe, are eroding local culture and traditions and are thus making
the world increasingly homogenized with respect to landscapes and social
systems o this is evident in the way that even McDonalds and Coco-cola
have now received attention in academic literature, and people who travel
to far places for its distinctiveness are become disappointed when they
find people there doing the same things or eating/drinking same kind of
food they might in their home country
- some argue that consumption is a form of cultural imperialism o critics
are wary of how 1st world American Multinational companies dominate in
third world markets, and how products that promote 1st world
ideals/values are predominant; also worried about how real or
indigenous cultures of places might be lost to these 1st world products
o theres also concern about the ability of consumption to satisfy real
needs as opposed to false needs of consumers; we need to focus on
real needs
Consumerism represents the triumph of economic value over all other
kinds and sources of social worth Slater
Indigenization over homogenization
- Marshal McLuhan argues that consumer culture takes root in particular
places and times and thus is uniquely shaped by its locations; the local

incorporates global facets of consumer culture in its own way o E.g.

McDonalds is often seen as a primary example of homogenization and
uniformity, but in reality different places view McDonalds in different ways
o In the West we might see McDonalds as cheap quality fast food, but in
China it is a hip place to eat for mid-class families, because it
represents something stylish, exotic and foreign; people hang out
there for leisure instead of going there just to eat quickly and run out
(what fast-food was created for)
There is a shift away from seeing the modern world as a singular universal
entity and recognizing many specific modernities being forged through
consumption practices
Consumption of non-local products does not necessarily destroy indigenous
cultures; this consumption might even benefit the production of authentic
local cultures
Whats more important is how something is used, not where it comes from
Through consumption, ideas of the global and the local are actively
produced, not eradicated

9.3 LOCAL GEOGRAPHIES OF CONSUMPTION

- consumption doesnt create a homogenous globe; it involves a complex
relations between global and local
- one important site where consumption takes place on a local level is the
shopping mall o specifically designed to attract consumers; usually have
one big generator store to lure people out, and several magnet stores to
keep their attention
o everything from lack of water fountains to the location of escalators is
pre-planned in order to entice consumers into spending more money
- more recent shopping malls have been designed to create a cozy
atmosphere so people stay longer (because then they will likely spend
more) o emphasizes creation of an internal and closed off space that is
privately owned but is supposed to act as a public space; malls have
replaced public spaces of the street or outdoor markets
malls arent just about spending money now though; they have become a
social space, e.g. elderly and teens often go to the mall because its a way
for them to get out of their homes; they go there just to hang out if there is
nowhere else to go
- All of these examples about shopping show how place matters to
consumption

9.4 MAKING CONNECTIONS

- Sack claims that consumers are largely ignorant of the geographical context
of the goods they buy from production to consumption
- It is difficult for consumers to make responsible purchases and choices,
because they are often not presented with the information about the
production, processing or distribution of a particular commodity and who
or what it affects at each step of the chain
- Marx commodity fetishism o Veil is draped over things we consume so
that consumers dont know the truth about what they are buying

o Products are advertised in such a way to create a fantasy image; e.g.

Nike ads with famous athletes who are paid millions (but we dont
see or hear about the workers making less than $3 manufacturing
those nike sneakers)
Another e.g. of this is Starbucks coffee o Only 25 percent of retail price
returns to country that produced it o Coffee is sourced by women working
long hours, among pesticides

Conclusions
- Need to make consumers aware of realities of harsh conditions of
production
- But need to be cautious so as not to demonize consumption in general o E.g.
Ethical consumerism isnt against consumption, it is about buying a product
or service that considers the effects on producers and the environment (e.g.
fair trade, vegetarianism, green consumerism)
- Most realistic approach for improving the system would be to reconstruct
advertising to promote ethical forms of consumption, and reconstructing
the pleasures of consumption (instead of condemning consumption
altogether)
- we consumers are both global dictators and local freedom fighters o
Important to keep thinking about the how these two roles are connected

Chapter 9: Consumption and its Geographies

9.1 Consumption Matters
Everyday consumption (watching TV, eating fast food, shopping etc) have a
great significance economically & culturally, and theyre fundamentally
geographical
- Consumption does depend on production, but production obviously depends
on consumption

Consumption is neither the inevitable, final stage of a unidirectional

economic production chain nor simply a by-product of monetary circulation.
Retail Capital consumption plays a central role within many economies.
This accounts for an increased portion of paid employment, while exercising
great powers of manufacturing through the organizational power of retailers
over their suppliers
Economic production has been reconfigured towards the fashioning of signs
and spaces
Companies that are market led, and consumption focused include Nike.
Consumers are constantly being evoked as the reasons why actions are
undertaken elsewhere in the economy
Fundamental challenge of 21st century is to fashion economic forms that
fulfil those attractions of consumption, but deal too with its consequences.
Consumption plays a central role in our social and cultural lives and society
& culture inflect our consumption practises; its not purely economic
There are two main ideas of what social and cultural processes are
implicated in our consumption practices. The first is that consumption is
socially & culturally produced; that we are made to consume by being put in
a wider consumer culture. The other idea emphasizes the consume as being
less passive, less controlled and subordinate; though consumers are made to
consume- though they use things for their own ends

9.2 Global Geographies of Consumption

92.1 Consumption, Cultural Imperialism and the End of Geography
- Consumption seen as central to the cultural fate of the world as it
produces and reflects a profound erosion of cultural traditions and
differences, homogenizing the world into similar landscapes, people &
social systems
- World-wide spread of products & brands like McDonalds to an extent
where theyve entered the academic language (McDonaldization of
society) as bywords for a consumerist homogenization.
- Ways that consumerism destroys all culture as we have traditionally
understood it
- Suggested that consumption represents contemporary dominance of
consumer culture; some suggest its all about the political economy of

market shares, niches & profit-opposing to the intrinsic values of cultural

meaning and communication. Uniformity is doubly problematic as it
entails conformity
92.2 Consumption and Cultural Indigenization
- McLuhan argues that consumer culture doesnt float above the world in
some abstract space of capital or modernity; it lands and takes root in
particular spaces and times; impacting its surroundings and shaping its
locations
- Within anthropology, exploring how globally distributed facets of
consumer culture are locally incorporated0 be it particular goods, styles,
or cultural orientations,
92.3 Consuming Difference
- Deals with a further set of qualifications of the cultural imperialist thesis,
concerning the assumption that the goal of these promoting consumer
culture is simply to eradicate cultural and geographical differences,
viewing them as unhelpful encumbrances to the smooth operation of
consumption.
- Global arrays of cultural and geographical difference are produces and
sold within consumer culture
- Rather than eradicating cultural & geographical difference and producing
the end of geography, the world of consumption (re)produces
geographies, framing certain local places of consumption as global
centres. Then the issue becomes; what sort of new geographies are
taking its place and the kinds of understandings of people and place
being circulated through consumer culture.
-Types of geographical understandings and know ledges are being produced
through this facet of consumer culture; conceptualizations of people, place and
culture are being mobilized.
9.3 Local Geographies of Consumptions
Shopping and Place
- We are being manipulated into behaving in certain ways, especially into
buying things, by the power of the shopping centre as a place
- These shopping centres are in part designed according to a merchandise
plan that tries to maximize the exposure of consumers to goods.
- In more recent shopping centres, the manipulation may be more subtle. -We
see a pseudo-public space symbolizing the enacting claims for consumption to
be all there is to civic life, making citizens consumers in a very concrete way.
Yet, on a smaller scale, trivial instances that people enact, their refusal to be just
consumers in the sense of purchases, to use this place for their own ends.

9.4 Making Connections

- An emergent concern with reconnecting the local contexts of everyday
consumption with the global commodity flows and production that make them
possible.
- Connection emerges as a fundamental intellectual, political and personal
challenge in the field of consumption studies
- Consumers are (Miller) profoundly ignorant of the geographies of provision that
brings goods to them
- When reconnecting practices and places of consumption and production
demands, we somehow articulate play and morality, pleasure and exploitation,
creativity and responsibility
- Marx perspective: commodity fetishism Consumers are blinded by a veil that is
draped over the things we consume. Task is then to puncture these fantasies
with some sharp shafts of reality
- A way to reconnect wolds of consumption and production is to acquaint
consumers with the harsh realities of commodity production. Consumption just
becomes inherently bad
- There is ethical-consumerism, green consumerism, fair trade, vegetarianism,
and other animal welfare concerns highlighting the main strands
- Consumption is not only a way in which we make geographical entities such as
the global and local, its also an arena for the production, circulation, and
reception of geographical know ledges.
- As consumers, we are both global dictators, and local freedom fighters.

Chapter 10:
Rural can be put into context in the social and geographical sense which means it
might be define differently depending who you are asking and where you are asking
In poor area it might be categorized as poor infrastructure, absence of
electricity, grinding poverty, chiefly and patriarchal governance system,
vulnerable housing and environmental deterioration.
In developed countries, poverty is also increasing recognized to be part of
rich-world rurul areas
For example, global south the Chilean concept of rural might be explained
as unkempt green fields, horseback riders, unpaved roads
But in sub Saharan Africa, drought and dessert can be imagined

With this being said, the point made here is that realities of the concept rural can be
widely different across culture, time, space in how it is defined, interacted with , in
habited, interpreted and socially reconstructed.
In the rich world, there are approximately 50% of the population that are rural in
habitants, where in richer countries only 26 % of the populations represent rural
inhabitants.
101. Words and Worlds: What is rural?
At a general level, there are two way that we can generally define the term.
1. Empirical: incudes functional approach like measuring land use
characteristics and demographic approaches such as population density
measures
2. Concepts: Does not include any quantifiable approaches but draw directly
on social constructs, which have to do with how we imagine the countryside
Why is only using empirical not good enough for measuring the degree of rural?
Government in fact have their own generally empirical methodologies of
how they define what it means by rural, which are very important for
planning and development purposes.
If only empirical is use, a functional definition might be that what is urban is
not rural but because the degree of population and vegetation are widely
different across countries, only using demographic, empirical and other
quantitative measures might be questionable. The point here is that the
definition of rural is not a precise science.
Human geographers have realize the rural and urban in fact sometimes over
lap each other a lot and seeking for ways to separate them might be the most
useful approach. Therefore
Conceptual definitions of rural are also important
This might include economic opportunities, planning, infrastructure
development and many other concrete outcome as predicted how
government, individuals and collectives would imagine rural
In summary, Cloke defines rural as o Areas which are dominated by
extensive land uses such as agriculture and forestry, or by large open space
of underdeveloped land, which contains small, lower order settlements
demonstrating a strong relationship between buildings and extensive
landscape and which are perceived as rural by most resident. o The
emphasis on perception of rural as rural geographers have come to think of
rurality as much as a state of mind as one based on a specific configuration of
functions
o He argues that while some rural areas are still defined based on
functionally, rural is more of a socially constructed and culturally
constructed and therefore contested category

o This point is also more relevant to richer countries where the

blurring between urban and rural is increasingly pronounced and
where cultural commodification of the countryside and the
construction of the rural concept are widespread
o As we can see here that rurality in the global south generally has very
different connotations
10.2 Changing rural geographies:
Rural geography is defined as the study of the relationship between humans and
the environment in rural areas, the nature of rural localities, economies, societies,
cultures and environment and how this varies across the space
The topic has been very much neglected until very recently as rural is a
minority
The topic is generally more well-research recently especially in the AngloAmerican-Australian (AAA) culture o Rural areas in the global north are
seen as spaces where general cultural and economics processes can be
researched and understood, in fact rural geography are becoming
increasingly interdisciplinary
o On the other hand, rural geographies of the poor are tended to be more
on the development side and very little cultural studies in the area of
global south
The development of rural geography:
1960s
Mainly focuses on studies of agriculture as rural and agriculture were
used interchangeable at that time.
1970sDescribed as the functionalists, concerned with issues like rural
1980s
planning, land-use changes and urban encroachment. This is seen as
uncritical and theory-free
1980s
Some scholars questions the contribution of the discipline in a broader
society. Distinctiveness of the countryside it ignored processes that cut
across the increasingly blurred rural-urban divide

1990s

Most
recently

Geography based on political-economic concept, this focused in

particular on a critique of the role of he restructuring impacts of
globalization and neoliberalism
Neoliberalism are application of concept from the neo-marzist
and world systems perspectives and was focus on how flow of
capital was focused on the nature of rural space in different
locations and how the state intervened in such flows
In the global south, such concepts were also applied in particularly for
the commodity chain analysis, which might not necessarily under the
title of rural geography.
Themes that were considered include:
Diversification, environmental changes, international food chain
and deregulations as well as concerns to bring together social
and political issues with economic concerns
Latter work include commodification, gentrification, accessibility
and counter-urbanization
Much of these work in agri-food systems have continued until
the present
General cultural turn in human geography was simulated by the
shift to postmodern ideas in the social science
The cultural studies again are less applicable in the global south
Knowing that it is less applicable in the global south, the
cultural approach then break down old binaries and structure,
explore rurality as a social construct, which is participated by
persons of shared social, moral and cultural values.
For example they have more to do with the social construction
of categories, this include rural women, the young, the old and
those in poverty
There has also been a number of contemporary geographies
exploring other things including rural sexuality, feminism,
travellers
Linking he new cultural rural geography and political economy
rural studies is an important challenge.
Building an empirical input outside of US and UK is also very
important, therefore more research on the rural geography are
very important

10.3 Shifting rural worlds

Land use and identifying all other aspects of rural change in the north must be tied
into changes in the south. The forces that cut across these boundaries can be
summarizes as modernization and its latest in carnates, neoliberalism and
globalization

10.3.1 Dynamic rural demographics

demographic across rural is high dynamics and has been conditioned
there are two trends in general including o urbanization: the shifting
conomic base of countryside away from agriculture combined with the
rolling out of neoliberalism and shifting cultures in rural areas
o Depopulation: in the countryside, universal trend since the
industrial revolution in the global north
o in general, the rural populations across the world are both in relative
decline and ageing
o rates of urbanization are most rapid by far in the global south
Counter ubanization o Largely presented in te diseconomies of scale in
urban licing o Sought out the idyll of rural life, closer community and many
other stereotypes that were arised in the global North
o Looking in to a more time and place specific approach: o Germany,
UK, Australia has seen this phenomenon in different periods where
Canada, Spain, Europe Sweden and NZ has not occurred at all on a
national level
o Rural depopulations is a dominant pattern in richer countries, people
are seeking settlement closer to their place of work but the
ruralurban shift has been slowing down in the past few periods
o Recently, rise of communication in the internet suggested a new way
of counter urbanization
o People can work further away from their place of employment o
Although not happening all around the world, it contribute an
unimportant diversion form the principle of depopulation
Rural-urban drift o A number reasons can explain this phenomenon, for
example, development theory and policy that see such modernization as
beneficial and desirable
o aggravated by the legacy of unequal landholding structure in rural
areas
commercialization of agriculture also lead to fewer
opportunities for smaller scale farmer o In short, rural area
has become poorer and less attractive economically
o In some cases, there has been severe environmental decline because
of over-exploitation, rapid commercialization or climate changes
An example of drift in rural and city population is in the severe
drought that has increased rapidly over recent years in the
Saharan rural zones
There might also be other reasons including political
circumstances (wars), neo liberal economics policies such as
export orientation which have often trigger environmental
issues leading to food shortages and famine

The problems in rural areas in the south are made all the more
significant when one consider relative rapid relative
population loss in the south

10.3.2 Dynamic rural polities

Power in the countryside has both been shifting in the global North and
south in terms of how it is gained and how it is exercised
Governance of rural space is becoming increasingly complex and contested
Has been traditionally over-represented in parliamentary politics and
national affairs of state as well as democratic government to escape
argument of urban biases
The democratic side of politics has created space for various countryside,
interest groups, alliance, political parties and social movement to make their
cases
Because these interest groups often only represent part of the population
without necessarily addressing other things like tourism, it has been
criticized of stereotypical interpretation of the countryside that might not be
even commonly desirable in the first place o Argument about rural identity
are sometimes raised to gained boarder political gains
o Like France where they have used the identity of rurality to make the
case of maintaining subsidies for agriculture, where they claim these
funds would help sustain the lifestyles and landscapes which make a
boarder contribution to the character of the European countryside
o Some see this as multifunction where it is protecting the environment
while allowing subsidizing agriculture development but some see this
as only a form of protectionism
o At the same time, this is opposed by global financial institutions that
insist on the adoption of free market, non-subsidized, neoliberal
policies in poorer countries, a situation which discriminates against
millions of inhabitants of rural areas.
Global South:
Development has often been described as urban-biased, neglecting of rural
development initiatives in favor of industrial urban policy
They are criticized as over centralizes, especially in Latin America and Africa
They often favor opening of economies to foreign capitals which exploits
cheap labors pool in urban areas during the recent phase of neoliberalism
(an liberal political group favoring economics growth)
There are numerous examples that shows resistance in the rural are towards
neoliberalism
But in some country, there are population outflow but effective control of
resource still remain in urban areas internal colonialism (a notion of
structural political and economic inequalities between regions within a
nation state)

However, in the south rural population has to suffer the double effect of over
centralized and urban-biased government, and the economics control of
large corporation based in capital cities and sometimes outside the boarder
of the country itself

10.3.3 Dynamic Rural Culture:

Traditional rural culture has been altered drastically, mainly caused by the shifting
relationship between urban and rural
Postmodernist has argued that todays world is a simulacrum where symbols
or signifiers of an event replace direct experience.
This means that the reality is experience through the representation of it
It might be argued that the case of the perception of the rural by urban
consumers who wish to experience the stereotyped rural side, which they
imagined it with the countryside
The idea that we are in a post rural condition probably takes the argument
way too far; it certainly don't apply in the case of the global south where
such notion are at best not applicable.
There is little doubts that cultural meanings associated with the rural have
caused a shift in the relationship between society and geographical space
and between culture and nature
Cultural commodification can be said to be occurring, this includes
consumers seeking out from something different from the masses o in rural
area, it is seen as more important, especially in the advertising world where
rural area lifestyle is constantly being made as the
selling point for its product when in fact they might be just like any to
other MNE in the global North
o while cultural commodification can bring economic gains, there is
also fossilized cultural representations that might possibly lead to
damaging stereotyping
o but some do argue that it helps to rejuvenating rural indigenous
culture
There is also a trend towards place making in rural areas across global north
for the purpose of creating niche tourism o This is like the recreation of the
story similar to what it is like in the past
o Bypassed by the establishment of large highways to become the best
of rural life to attract many travellers
On the other hand, the phenomenon linked to cultural consumption is the
creation of rural spectacle where the market place is fresh and natural
for example, adventure tourism in Australia and New Zealand o These are
interesting examples of how rural areas have reconfigured their economics
bases
In general in the global south, culture is much stronger when compared to
global North there are vibrant and varied as quoted in the book

Across the third world, the peasantry (A poor farmer of low social status
who owns or rents a small piece of land for cultivation)is declining which
lead to the rapid change in the cultural life of rural dwellers.

Marketization of the countryside increases tourism and is rarely practiced in the

global south. There are exceptions to this rule for example, wine tourism in rural
Argentina where its popularity is increasing.
10.3.4 Dynamic rural economies
Rural localities in the past was essentially just agriculture but nowadays the term
agricultural economy and rural economies are no longer interchangeable
This involves large shift away from agricultural to industrial and services
activities
Tendency towards pluriactivities (diversified livelihoods in rural areas)
To understand this transition, we have to consider productivist culture as well as
post-productive and multifunctional rural spaces
Agribusiness is driven by industrialization and the globalization of
agriculture, where it can be conceptualized as the interlink between global
buyers, markets and consumers
This shift the focuses form selling food locally to delocalization of activities
and the creation of long network o We are also seeing food and products
oriented from other countries o This pushes the global economy forwards
o At the same time, concerns such as sustainability of the farming
system had been raised especially in large scale commercial and
export-oriented agriculture
Productivist rural economies:
Highly intensive production of a limited collection of primary commodities
Argri-business has expanded through vertical and horizontal integration,
forming conglomerates that link to the supermarkets
This new political economy of agriculture production is also referred as
Fordist agriculture
Given the liberalization to do business, agribusiness have increasingly
invested abroad
Cheap labor and land as well as less restricted environmental regulations, all
these attracts MNEs to produce in poorer countries
This causes vulnerability economically socially and environmentally based
on the seasonal export in fruits and vegetation as well as channeling of
profits to richer countries
Post productive agriculture and rural worlds:
With the resistance in small scale agriculture to globalization of the industry, we
can observe the post productive agriculture emerging where goals, aside form
maximizing agricultural yields including agriculture preservation, optimizing
ecological value and simulating niche-based agriculture

The transition to post-productive agriculture is linked to the perceived cost

and falling productivity as well as regulatory crisis it is facing
This also forms part of the broader evolution of global capitalism
Consumers demand has transform the western consumption patterns and
food quality and safety issues, which leads to a world-wide rise of organic
farming

General trend n the industry:

It means sense to think that productivist would locate in poorer countries
because of locational comparative advantages while niche agriculture would
become more common in the northern countries
But the trust is that we see little evidence in some countries such as NZ and
USA, they are still heavily productivist.
Therefore, we are seeing a shift towards productivist based on the influence
of neoliberalism
On the other hand, GM and its diffusion is likely to highlight this trend
Therefore, we might have to visit older ideas including dependency and
structuralism to explain these differentiated outcomes within one global
system
Wilson and Rigg argued that the concept is flawed and unsound and perhaps
the world multi-functionalism would be able to better explain the
phenomenon
Multifunctional rural worlds?
It reders to the notion that rural and non-commodity use values
simultaneously and the policy ought to try and recognize and protect the
entire range of values
Implies that countryside across the world is used for both productive and
post-production purposes and that the combination of uses
There are criticism to this concept as its board and its doesn't tell us much
about what exactly is happening
Other critics has also criticism that some countries use this to promote
protectionism where agriculture create positive social externalities by
supporting other, often less tangible
Meanwhile it does not really apply to countries in the south because they are
mainly dominated by neoliberalism and monoculture
Conclusion:
Rural is a relative term and it shifts from time to time
There are diverse categories and it is difficult to make generalization about it
as well
It is increasing hard to define the term
In short, rural space are increasingly dynamic in the perspective from
environment, economics, cultural and politically

In the global north where It is becoming increasing multifunctional and

shifting away from fordist agriculture
In the south, we are seeing erosion of multi-functionality and pluriactivities

Geographers are shifting focuses to the south where studies are more relevant to
the changes that it is going throu

King Corn Notes

Arun Nijhawan
For the first time, life expectancy of our generation less than the previous.
Moving to Greene, Iowa to plant an acre of corn.
Farm Program - without a government payment, a farmer would lose $ on growing corn.
As of the movie date, $28 is paid to the farmer for each acre of corn.
The fertilizer anhydrous ammonia is widely used. With its use, 4X as much corn is
produced as in the time of the great-grandparents.
Farms are growing larger, smaller ones disappearing. They produce up to 200 bushels
per acre, or 10,000 pounds.
Pollan: its an industrialized corn thats being grown, from over past 30-40 years, with
one goal in mind: YIELD. Make plants tolerate living closer together.
#1 nemesisweeds. Seeds are genetically modified to resist an herbicide (Liberty)
kills the weeds without killing the corn.
However, this is commodity corntastes awfulno one can eat it! (The two guys tried)
It must be processed before eating. Its a raw material a feedstock for all these other
processes. Pollan: The irony is an Iowan farmer can no longer feed himself.
In fall corn harvested, taken to a town elevator, where it is weighed, dumped in with other
corn. 32% of the one acre produced will be exported and turned into ethanol. 490 pounds
will become sweeteners, e.g. high-fructose corn syrup. Over (5500 pounds) will be fed
to animals to become meat.
60% of cattle ration is corn. Its a good thing theyre slaughtered when they are because
theyd be dead in six months anywayit kills them to make the meat like that. (with all
the grain fed).

Where is it like this? Every major confinement feed lot, everywhere.

To see where corn goes, our heroes must leave the Corn Belt. They go to Colorado, to
the finishing operation. At this particular operation, they also grow corn, which is used
for animal feed. Corn has replaced grass as the principal feed for cattle. {45 min. here}
The mass production of corn drives the mass production of animal protein in confined
operationsMust have cheap feed to do the confinements. In Sues (a cattlewoman)
operation, cattle eat grass before going to the feedlot. Cattle spend more and more of their
lives in feedlots. In total confinement, they eat continuously, and therefore they get to
market faster and into the food chain.
BUT, cattle werent meant to be on a corn fed diet this long. After more than 3 months
they start getting sick. Corn feed has low doses of antibiotics to help the cattle combat
the acidosis that accompanies the high corn diet. Livestock now consume 70% of the
antibiotics in the U.S!
Reason for the feedlot system: economic. Great economic efficiency to use corn. Over
past 30 years corn harvests have increased dramatically, while price of corn has dropped.
The meat produced now in a feedlot is grain fed meat. We produce a characteristically
obese animal, an animal whose muscle tissue looks more like fat tissue than it does the
lean meat of wild animals.
T-bone steak may have up to 9 grams saturated fat; comparable steak from a grass-fed
animal would have 1.3 grams of saturated fats. Americas favorite meat, hamburger, is fat
disguised as meat. 65% of its calories are from fat.
If the American people wanted grass-fed beef, wed produce grass-fed beef for them
its more expensivebut America wants and demands cheap food.
CORN SWEETENER INDUSTRY-developed after farmers told to grow as much corn
as they could. The two subjects of the film tried to get permission for filming in a corn
syrup plant, which was denied to them. They do go into a description of how it is done.
Before 1970 no one ate high-fructose corn syrup (too expensive to make). Today the
prominent sugar in the Western diet comes from corn. It makes a lower cost sugar
substitute for processors. (1 hour here)
In past 30 years our sugar consumption has declined though our increased consumption
of sweeteners has increased over 30% due to increased consumption high-fructose corn
syrup.
Iowa corn bred for high volume production, but in doing so, nutritional value has been
given uplead to degradation of nutritional value, with decreased amount of protein (in

the germ) and increased amount of starch (in the endosperm). The acre of the two guys
is essentially an acre of sugar. The corn syrup has essentially no nutritional value, only
empty calories with adverse metabolic effect. 70% chance the corn will end up
sweetening a beverage.
Explosion of obesity probably the most obvious sign of the nutritional crisis, with
increased risk of diabetes. (Diabetes strongly linked to environmental factors of food and
exercise).
Soda is liquid candydrinking one soda daily doubles the risk of diabetes.
Pollan: At McDonalds everything on your plate is corn.
Poorest quality crap the worlds ever seen is what were growing. (the corn)
It costs the two guys $349 to raise their one acre, which they sell for $330 at the elevator,
a loss of nearly $20. However, they then get a $28 direct payment from Government and
several other subsidy payments. Corn grower in Iowa: But you make money off the
government and thats what its all about. In Greene, IA, government payments the
biggest industryotherwise the corn would not be grown.
Pollan: Only in the past 30 years our subsidy system rewards the over production of
cheap corn. A lot of that cheap, surplus corn goes onto our bodies. We subsidize the
Happy Meals but we dont subsidize the healthy ones.
1970sEarl ButzWhat we want is more production and in his era the increased
production began. The two guys visit Mr. Butz in a retirement center (hes now quite
elderly) and interview him. Butz speaks of how as a kid, farmers were paid NOT to
produce and when he became Secretary of Agriculture (?) he stopped that system. He
defends cheap food16-17% of our pay to feed ourselves. Dont see much room for
improvement.
Lot more spent on food in our great-grandparents days. Way we farm was transformed.
Butz: Now its a commercial operation, not a family operation, consequently we feed
ourselves very cheaply now.
We spend less on our food than any generation in history, but ours may be the first
generation to lie in a time when abundance brings too much.