Know the significance of each term Food Anthropocene a term given by the geological society of London regarding the end of the Holocene epoch We are now in the anthropocene meaning that humankind is foregrounded as a major geological force or agent population growth current population The population of humans on earth has been growing at an extremely fast rate we are currently above 7 billion people carrying capacity This is a maximum capacity for humans on the earth which has been calculated using facts and equations demographic transition model This is a graph which breaks up the process of becoming industrialized into stages 1 4 This graph displays the level of technology the population growth and the birth and death rates associated with the different stages neolithic revolution the transition from hunter gatherer anthropological society to a society of agriculture and settlement subsistence agriculture farming only to support yourself and or your family small scale Jared Diamond s article The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race what problems did agriculture bring to human society Polyculture an agricultural method focused on planting several different crops in the same plot of land rather than large amounts of the same crop on the same plot of land monoculture Through the use of polyculture it was found that some plants are better or produce more when planted with ally plants plants that go well when planted next to others industrial revolution The industrial revolution was a time of invention and discovery regarding machines After the industrial revolution agriculture was affected with the inclusion of automated machines in farming however this may not have been a good thing topsoil erosion a major environmental concern which occurs when the top soil layer is blown or washed away or overgrazed making it extremely difficult for any kind of plant life to take place Sustainable techniques aimed at slowing the process include planting cover crops in order to build organic matter in the soil Slide notes topsoil is being eroded at 10 20 times the rate it is replenished northeastern US and great planes had 6 20 feet more topsoil before the Europeans came 30 of the world s cropland have become unproductive in the last 40 years Monoculture planting masses of the same crop on big plots of land Highly in use for commercial mass agriculture Heirloom seeds a cultivar that has been nurtured selected and handed down from one family member to another for many generations Most of them are really old plant varieties These seeds are not tampered with but rather selected specifically for their appearance taste or genetic advantages for the environment Hybrid seeds seeds produced by cross polination these are still not as bad as GMO s These varieties are carefully selected and breeded inorder to increase yield or whatever They are better for large scale agriculture Slide notes for heirloom and hybrid seeds many hybrid crops are grown for durability for traveling long distances If you pick up an organic tomato at Earth Fare it will be a hybrid At the farmer s market you re likely to get heirloom varieties if you buy right from the grower They taste better and tend to be more nutritious GMO seeds seeds which have been genetically modified inorder to increase certain nutrients yields produce natural pesticides etc They require specific pesticides herbicide and fertilizer inputs produced for the specific seeds by agribusiness Ex Roundup ready crops are resistant to glyphosate a strong herbicide pest resistance what happens when you use herbicides and pesticides Pests will gain a resistance to the chemicals and then breed with other survivors making a new strain of pests which the herbicides and pesticides won t work on Green revolution Ushered in by Nobel peace prize winner Norman Borlaug this was a series of research development and technology transfer initiatives occurring between the 1940s and late 1960s which drastically increased agriculture production worldwide particularly in the developing world This included the development of highly yeilding varieties of cereal grains expansion of irrigation infrastructure modernization OF MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES DISTRIBUTION OF HYBRIDIZED SEEDS SYNTHETIC FERTILIZERS AND PESTICIDES TO FARMERS Thomas Malthus concluded that our means of subsistence will not meet the demands of our overall population Malthusian principal indicates that the green revolution is unsustainable and that we will overshoot our population and people will starve Malthus stated that population growth is exponential 1 2 4 8 while food supply was arithmetical 1 2 3 4 Norman Borlaug a Nobel peace prize winner he was a plant breeder with a determination to stop world hunger He began his journey to becoming the father of the green revolution with his shuttle breeding of wheat varieties combating the disease plant rust He then made the breed of wheat called semi dwarf drastically increasing agricultural productivity and ultimately leading mexico to become self sufficient in wheat production This also helped india s and Pakistan s productivity Agribusiness the business of agricultural production It includes crop production seed supply agrichemicals breeding farm machinery distribution processing marketing and retail sales Inputs any sort of substance used by a producer for pest control or for soil fertility management Inputs may include anything from phosphorous fertilizer an off farm input which is a finite resource and is expected to hit limits by 2030 to compost and even animal by products such as emulsion fishmeal bloodmeal bone meal or meat meal The difficulty with inputs and another reason why they are important for this class is because they can be certified organic approved or not So as an organic producer you must use only approved inputs In general synthetic substances are prohibited This makes being an organic farmer especially on a big scale difficult and also very expensive industrial agriculture the system of chemically intensive food production developed in the decades after WWII featuring enormous single crop farms and animal production facilities organic agriculture agriculture which is grown organically or naturally The USDA defines organic as grown without synthetic inputs or genetically modified organisms However they also offer the title of certified naturally grown for small organic farms The problem with Organic agriculture is that it is again expensive and