Food and Agriculture Agricultural Revolutions What is Agriculture The purposeful tending of crops and raising of livestock in order to produce food and fiber It is a science an art and a business directed at the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance and profit Intentional planting of crops and raising of domesticated animals It s not synonymous with food production We can use biofuels rubber trees minks for coats We do get a lot of food from methods other than agriculture hunting fishing synthetic production How did agriculture begin And where People had to hunt and gather to provide sustenance but we suspect in the Middle East in the Fertile Crescent agriculture came across naturally They harvested it then they had some left over so they kept it and it germinated naturally and they started growing their own food and they started cultivating the bigger grains so then when they planted it they would produce a lot more food THey didn t have to hunt or gather anymore because they had enough food that they were growing for themselves This spread across the middle east and into Asia Most percentage of arable land is in India Eastern Europe US is Agriculture is a major factor in environmental change at all scales local regional adequate and global Green Revolution Up until the 40s and 50s Malthus was looking to be proved correct The development of high yielding crops along with fertilizers pesticides and other technologies to increase agricultural production in the developing world during the 60s and 70s He is credited with saving millions and millions of lives Teamed with the Rockefellers to go to Mexico The grain would grow too high and fall over so he incorporated a hybrid Japanese seed that caused dwarfing so they could increase yield Hybrid crops High yielding varieties Mature faster than conventional seeds so farmers can grow an extra crop each year Withstand less than ideal environmental conditions respond better to chemical fertilizers and provide more nutrition Require high levels of chemical fertilizers and pesticides irrigation frequently required Increase in erosion Criticism Vulnerability to pests they become resistant soil erosion water shortages dependency on chemicals for production loss of control over seeds question of genetic diversity loss Biorevolution Food is still portrayed as being made by farmers wth little farms but now it comes from factories We didnt want to use a bunch of pesticides we wanted food that is naturally resistant It uses living organizsms or parts to make or modify products improve plants and animals or to develop micro organisms