UM Panabo College

Department of Accounting and Business Administration Education

P.N. Arguelles St., San Francisco, Panabo City
Telefax # (084) 628-6437

Big Picture in Focus: ULOb. Explain the importance of food and

agriculture.
Metalanguage
The most essential terms below are operationally defined for you to have a better understanding of
this section in the course.

1. Food is a substance that basically consists of protein, carbohydrate, fat, and other nutrients used in an
organism's body to support growth and vital processes, and to provide energy. The ingestion and use of
food by the body is important to nutrition, and is facilitated by digestion. The primary food source is plants
that convert solar energy to food through photosynthesis. Animals which feed on plants also serve other
animals as food sources.
2. Agriculture is the method by which food, feed, fiber and many other desirable products are produced
by growing certain plants and raising domesticated animals (livestock).

Essential Knowledge

Ensuring that the land and water supplies of the planet will provide adequate food for the people of
the world has always been a problem in environmental sciences. Modern industrial agriculture has rewritten
the story of food and hunger as practiced in the American Midwest. Although developing areas continue to
practice small-scale subsistence farming, an increasing share of world food now comes from vast
operations, mostly thousands of hectares, increasing one or two crops with sufficient fuel and fertilizer
inputs for a competitive global marketplace.
Recent improvements have increased the demand significantly, providing inexpensive meat protein
worldwide, even in developing countries. Food production has so drastically increased that we are now
using maize, soy and sugar to drive our vehicles. The 2005 global food costs (in inflation – adjusted dollars)
were the lowest ever reported, less than a quarter of the cost in the mid-1970s, according to the International
Monetary Fund. Owing to overproduction in the U.S. and Europe, we 're paying billions of dollars to
farmers every year to take land out of development.
Fifty years ago, hunger was one of the world's most important and recurring concerns. About 60
percent of citizens in developing countries were chronically undernourished in 1960, and the world
population rose by over 2 percent that year. Some conditions have nowadays changed significantly while
others have changed very little. The world population has more than doubled, from 3 billion to more than
7 billion, but the food production has expanded even faster. Although the overall population increase in the
past 50 years has been 1.7 percent per year, food production has risen by an average rate of 2.2 percent per
annum. Food availability has risen to well over 2,200 kilocalories in most countries, which is the quantity
generally considered adequate to lead a healthy and productive life. Protein intake has increased also in
most countries, including China and India, the two most populous nations. Fewer than 20 percent of people
in developing countries are now suffering from serious food shortages, compared to 60 percent just 50 years
ago. Yet hunger is still with us. An estimated 900 million people on earth suffer from chronic hunger almost
one in every eight people. This figure is slightly higher than a few years ago, but the proportion of
undernourished people is still dropping because of population growth.
Around 95 percent of people who are hungry are in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa,
an area afflicted by political instability, hunger is extremely severe. They are gradually coming to realize
that food protection, or the ability to get adequate, nutritious food on a regular basis, is a combined issue of
cultural, environmental, and social conditions. Also, in affluent countries like the U.S. millions lack
adequate, balanced diets. Poverty, job losses, lack of social care and other factors contribute to persistent
 UM Panabo College
Department of Accounting and Business Administration Education
P.N. Arguelles St., San Francisco, Panabo City
Telefax # (084) 628-6437

hunger and even more to persistent poor nutrition, given the fact that we have more, healthier food in history
than almost every country.
Food security is important on many scales. An extreme drought, flood, or insect outbreak can affect
vast regions in the poorest countries. Human villagers often suffer from a lack of food security, a bad crop
year may devastate a family or a community, and local economies can collapse when farmers cannot
produce enough to eat and sell. Even inside families there may be unequal food security. Hungry people
can't keep themselves out of poverty. Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Fogel reported that in 1790,
20 percent of the population of England and France were practically eliminated from the labor force,
because they were too poor and hungry to work. He predicts that better nutrition could account for
approximately half of all economic growth in Europe during the 19th century. This study indicates that
cutting hunger in today's poor countries could produce more than $120 billion (US) in economic growth by
creating a safer, longer-lived, and more productive workforce.
Famines are food shortages on a large scale, with severe drought and social chaos (Figure 20).
Famines are often caused by drought or floods, but the root causes of extreme food shortages typically
include political turmoil, such as wars that displace people, drive farmers from their farms or make farming
too risky for field work. Economic inequalities are also driving peasants off the farm. For example, in
Brazil, wealthy landowners have in recent decades displaced hundreds of thousands of peasant farmers,
first to establish large cattle ranches and, more recently, to increase soybean production. The displaced
farmers frequently have little choice but to move when they lose the land to the already overcrowded slums
of major cities.

Figure 20. Children wait at a feeding station in Somalia for their daily ration of porridge. When starvation
or war forces people out of their homes, social structures crumble, disease spreads rapidly, and the
situation quickly becomes urgent. (Adapted from Cunningham, 2020)

More recently, multinational "land grabbing" in countries across Africa and parts of Asia have
displaced peasants. International land speculators, farm companies, and developers have agreed to lease
property that is controlled by traditional communities but legally owned by governments. The Harvard
University economist Amartya K. Sen has shown that while natural disasters often precipitate famines,
farmers have almost always managed to survive those events unless they are thwarted by inept or corrupt
governments or greedy elites. Professor Sen points out that the root of famine is almost always the armed
struggle and political injustice. No democratic country has ever had a major famine, with a relatively free
press.
A proper diet is key to keeping you safe. You need a food balance to provide the right nutrients, as
well as ample calories for a healthy and balanced lifestyle. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
 UM Panabo College
Department of Accounting and Business Administration Education
P.N. Arguelles St., San Francisco, Panabo City
Telefax # (084) 628-6437

of the United Nations estimates that nearly 3 billion people suffer from deficiencies in vitamins, minerals,
or proteins. Such shortages result in severe diseases and death, as well as a decrease in mental capacity,
developmental defects and stunted growth. Malnutrition is a general term for nutritional imbalances
resulting from a lack of particular nutrients. In conditions of extreme food shortage, a shortage of protein
can cause kwashiorkor in young children, which is characterized by a bloated belly and discolored hair and
skin. Kwashiorkor is a Western African term which means a displaced child. When a new baby is born, it
displaces a young child and is deprived of nutritious breast milk. Another severe condition is marasmus in
children who lack both protein and calories (from the Greek word to waste away). A child suffering from
extreme marasmus is normally small and shriveled. These conditions decrease disease and disease
resistance and children can encounter permanent mental and physical developmental disabilities (Figure
21).

Figure 21. Dietary deficiencies can lead to severe illness. Kwashiorkor is a form of severe protein
malnutrition with edema and a fatty infiltration swollen liver. Marasmus suffers from shortages in protein
and calories, which gives a wizened look which dry, flaky skin.
(https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/128634133083746101/)

For the world's thousands for edible plants and animals, only a handful supply virtually all of our
food. About a dozen types of grasses, three root crops, twenty or so fruits and vegetables, six mammals,
two domestic fowls, and a few species of fish make up almost all our food. Two grasses, wheat and rice,
are particularly important as they are the staple food for most of the developing countries' 5 billion people.
Corn (a grass, also known as maize) and soybeans have been our main products in the United States. We
rarely consume directly either maize or soybeans, but maize offers sweeteners; maize oil; animal feed for
our beef, chicken, and pork production; industrial starches; and several synthetic vitamins.
Meat consumption has risen worldwide largely as a result of significant increases in corn and soy
production. In developing countries, meat consumption grew from just 10 kg per person per annum in the
1960s to over 26 kg today. In the United States, meat consumption has increased from 90 kg per person per
year to 136 kg per year over the last 50 years. Meat is a high-value concentrated source of protein, iron, fats
and other nutrients that gives us the ability to lead healthy lives. Thanks to a number of technological and
breeding advances, this increased development became possible. One of the most important is the confined
 UM Panabo College
Department of Accounting and Business Administration Education
P.N. Arguelles St., San Francisco, Panabo City
Telefax # (084) 628-6437

animal feeding operation (CAFO), where animals are kept and fed for rapid growth mainly from soy and
corn. Such operations dominate livestock-raising in the U.S., Europe, and China and other countries
increasingly. Animals are kept in large enclosures, in a massive barn complex, of up to 10,000 hogs or a
million chickens, or 100,000 cattle in a feed lot.
Moreover, in the Philippines, those can find a fan in meat lovers make money from the meat
business. A businessman named Santiago Toledo fusses over a steak he says must have an inner temperature
of about 130 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, with its seared outside and a bit reddish in the center. "It's
what they call" rare, lovely medium, "he says. A part of a monthly pay is set aside so he can eat at
steakhouses at least once a month or six times a year — which was his average last year. The occasions he
was not dining in a steakhouse were the times he was in a "samgyup" spot or a "pares" house. "Samgyup"
is short for samgyupsal, the grilled pork belly served in Korean specialty restaurants. "Pares" is a stew of
beef cooked slowly in soy sauce and spices almost the entire day.
Over the past decade, gross meat imports have risen at least 9% by a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR). Players in the industry attributed this growth to higher domestic requirements driven primarily by
meat producers, food service industry and even local consumers. Data from the Bureau of Animal Industry
(BAI) showed that total meat imports reached a record high of 850,000 metric tons (MT) in 2018 which
was more than double the 390,000 MT reported in 2010. Stakeholders in the industry expect the meat
imports to stay flat in 2019.

Figure 22. Fresh longanisa, chicken, beef and pork at Commonwealth's local wet market, Quezon City
(BusinessMirror, 2020)

Knowing the constraints of the environment and feeding opportunities requires a knowledge of the
land we sustain. Soil is the basis of food production but there are also other important factors. Adequate
supplies of soil, nutrients, optimum temperatures and rainfall, viable crop varieties and the mechanical
resources required to tend and harvest the crops are also important. Strategies for applying these diverse
inputs differ greatly between regions and opposing agricultural strategies. Agriculture needs 2/3 or more of
all fresh water from rivers, streams, and groundwater. Although figures vary widely, about 15 per cent of
all croplands worldwide are irrigated.
Excessive use contributes not only to waste water but also to waterlogging. Waterlogged soil is
saturated with water, and plant roots are dying from oxygen deficiency. Salinization, in which mineral salts
 UM Panabo College
Department of Accounting and Business Administration Education
P.N. Arguelles St., San Francisco, Panabo City
Telefax # (084) 628-6437

accumulate in the soil, is often a problem when irrigation water dissolves on the surface of the soil, which
is lethal to most plants, behind a salty crust.

The Biodiversity International has release a module titled “Law and Policy of Relevance to the
Management of Plant Genetic Resources” which aims to help professionals in managing, conserving, and
using plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The module provides the following definitions:
biotechnology uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products
or processes for a specific use; genetic engineering is a technique that allows genes and DNA to be
transferred from one source to another that leads to the production of living modified organisms (LMO) or
genetically modified organisms (GMO); and modern biotechnology gives scientists molecular tools for
obtaining a better understanding of the structure and function of genes in living organisms. Modern
biotechnology paves the way for a new development on food and agriculture. Particularly, it aims to develop
new precision tools and diagnostics; speed up breeding gains and efficiency; combat salinity, drought, and
problems of agriculture; enhance nutritional quality of food; increase crop varieties and choice; reduce
inputs and production costs; and develop pest- and disease-resistant crops.
Genetic engineering, splicing gene from one organism into the chromosome of another, has the
potential to greatly increase both the quantity and quality of our food supply. Genetically modified (GM)
crops have borrowed genes inserted into their DNA, allowing them to produce or tolerate new kinds of
organic substances. The benefits are: Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) genes originating from soil bacteria
provide a natural insecticide to further protect crops; GM crops have allowed expansion of agriculture into
formerly unfarmed, Brazil’s rainforests and Cerrado region; and increased global soy production has raised
protein consumption rates in many regions, including China. The problems are: new varieties are expensive,
forcing poor farmers into debt; herbicides in drinking water have unknown heath effect.

Figure 23. Bt corn in the Philippines was designed to be resistant to the Asiatic corn borer (ACB),
Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenee), one of the nation’s most destructive corn pests. The crop also presents a
practical and ecologically sustainable solution for poor corn farmers everywhere to increase their yields
and decrease pesticide use, thus improving their health and livelihoods, alleviating poverty.
(https://edgedavao.net/agri-trends/2020/01/14/bt-corn-towards-food-security/)

Self-Help: You can also refer to the sources below to help you further
understand the lesson:
 UM Panabo College
Department of Accounting and Business Administration Education
P.N. Arguelles St., San Francisco, Panabo City
Telefax # (084) 628-6437

*Bueno, D. (2019). Environmental science. Mandaluyong City: Book Atbp. Publishing Corp.
ISBN: 978-621-409-112-6

*Cunningham, W. & Cunningham, M. A. (2020). Principles of environmental science: inquiry and

applications. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. 9th edition.

*Easton, T. (2016). Taking sides: clashing views on environmental issues. New York: McGraw-
Hill Education. 16th edition.

*Enger, E. & Smith, B. (2019). Environmental Science: a study of interrelationships. New York:
McGraw Hill Education. 15th edition.

*Miller, G. & Spoolman, S. (2019). Environmental science. Australia: Cengage Learning, Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-337-61275-3