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GEC Elect 21.2 PEOPLE AND THE EARTH’S ECOSYSTEM

PEOPLE, RESOURCES, AND

ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

Food and Water Resources

3
3.2 Environmental Impacts of Food Production • Water Resources Problems and Management • Soil and Water Pollution
There is more than enough food produced in the world
to meet our global needs.

― FAO (2002)
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

World Food Problems

Malnutrition
Our goals:
1) Undernutrition – An underconsumption 1) End poverty in all its forms everywhere
of calories or nutrients that leaves the 2) End hunger, achieve food security and
body weakened and susceptible to improved nutrition and promote
disease. sustainable agriculture
2) Overnutrition – An overconsumption of
calories that leaves the body susceptible
to disease.

Every day, 95 children in the Philippines

die from malnutrition. Some 27 out of
every 1,000 Filipino children die before
the age of five due to malnutrition.
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Food Security
A situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to
sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life.

FOUR COMPONENTS:
Availability – the amount of food that is present in a country or area through all forms of
domestic production, imports, food stocks and food aid.
Access – entails ensuring people have adequate access (physical, economic and social) to food
through either growing, purchasing, being gifted, bartering or trading for it.
Utilization – generally focuses on how the body uses the various nutrients in food to enable
that person performs his/her daily activities.
Stability – refers to the concept that food must be present always in terms of the other three
components in order for food security to exist.
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Food Insecurity
The lack of adequate
physical, social or economic
access to enough safe and
nutritious food necessary for
normal growth and
development and an active
and healthy life.

We refer to the immediate

effect of food insecurity as
HUNGER.
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Food Safety
The assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is
prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use.

FOOD HAS TO BE SAFE

FOR CONSUMPTION.

In the Philippines, we have RA No. 10611, “FOOD SAFETY ACT OF 2013.”

3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Our Progress
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Economic-driven Food Consumption

As people become more affluent they are deemed to
begin eating food that is richer in protein and other
nutrients and usually in higher volumes.

Food Loss and Food Waste

Materials intended for human consumption that are
subsequently discharged, lost, degraded or
contaminated.

Wasted food = wasted land, fertilizer, water and

associated environmental problems such as greenhouse
gas emissions.
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Challenges to Agriculture
Loss of Agricultural Land
conversion of agricultural land and urbanization

Global Decline in Domesticated Plant and Animal Varieties

replacing the local varieties of crops or domesticated farm animals with just a
few kinds

Increasing Crop and Livestock Yields

intensification of food production to meet the ever-increasing demand of
human population

Environmental Impacts
natural capital degradation
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Environmental Impacts
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Soil
The uppermost layer of Earth’s crust, which
supports terrestrial plants, animals, and
microorganisms.
Formed from parent material by
weathering processes.
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Soil Problems
Soil Erosion
The wearing away or removal of soil from the land.
A process caused by water, wind and other agents
but accelerated by human activities.

Soil Pollution
Any physical or chemical change in soil that
adversely affects the health of plants and other
organisms living in or on the soil.
Soil pollutants may include fertilizers and pesticides,
salts (salinization), petroleum products, and heavy
metals.
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Sustainable Soil Use

The wise use of soil resources,
without a reduction in the amount or
fertility of soil, so it is productive for
future generations.

We only have this.

3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Soil Conservation and Regeneration

Conservation Tillage
A method of cultivation in which residues from previous
crops are left in the soil, partially covering it and helping to
hold it in place until the newly planted seeds are
established.
Crop Rotation
The planting of a series of different crops in the same field
over a period of years.
Contour Plowing
Plowing that matches the natural contour of the land.
Strip Cropping
A special type of contour plowing that produces alternating
strips of different crops along natural contours.
Terracing
Creating ‘terraces’ or are small earthen embankments
placed across a steep hillside or mountain that curbs water
flow and reduces the amount of soil erosion.
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Sustainable Agriculture
Agricultural methods that maintain soil productivity and a healthy ecological balance while
having minimal long-term impacts. (also called alternative or low-input agriculture)
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Sustainable Intensification
OUR TARGET >> SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION
1) MORE FOOD: Intensification that meets the demand
2) SAME LAND AREA: Intensification without expansion
3) LESS IMPACTS: Intensification while lowering GHG emission
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Possible Solutions
1) Preserving the quality of agricultural soil
2) Organic Agriculture (with no pesticides) and Integrated Pest Management
or IPM (with limited use of pesticides)
3) Genetic Engineering, the manipulation of genes (for example, taking a
specific gene from one species and placing it into an unrelated species) to
produce a particular trait
4) Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO)
5) Aquaculture, the rearing of aquatic organisms, especially of marine
mollusks
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Trade-offs
3.2.1 Environmental Impacts of Food Production

Trade-offs

BUT production may not be enough.

3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

The Hydrologic Cycle

Water continuously circulates through the environment resulting to a balance

of the water resources in the ocean, on the land, and in the atmosphere.
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Water
Surface water – precipitation that
remains on the surface of the land and
does not seep down through the soil.
Runoff – the movement of fresh water
from precipitation and snowmelt to
rivers, lakes, wetlands, and the ocean.
Groundwater – the supply of fresh
water under Earth’s surface that is
stored in underground aquifers.
Aquifers – underground reservoirs in
which groundwater is stored.
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Aquifer and Groundwater

3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Water Resource Problems

3 Categories:
- too much water
- too little water
- poor-quality water
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Water Resource Problems

AQUIFER DEPLETION
the removal of groundwater
faster than it can be recharged by
precipitation or melting snow

SALT INTRUSION
the movement of seawater into a
freshwater aquifer near the coast
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Water Resource Problems

OVERDRAWING SURFACE WATERS
Removing too much fresh water from a river or lake can have disastrous
consequences in local ecosystems. Humans can remove perhaps 30 percent of
a river’s flow without greatly affecting the natural environment.
In some places, considerably more is withdrawn for human use. In the arid
American Southwest, it is not unusual for 70 percent or more of surface water to
be removed.

SALINIZATION OF IRRIGATED SOIL

The gradual accumulation of salt in soil, often as a result of improper irrigation
methods.
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Water Resource Problems

OTHER ISSUES
- Freshwater shortages
Water stress is a phrase
used to describe countries
where water consumption
exceeds by >20% the
available, renewable water
supply.
- Sharing water resources
among countries
Aral Sea
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Water Pollution
A physical or chemical change in water that adversely affects the health of
humans and other organisms.

Point source pollution – water pollution that can be traced to a specific spot.
Nonpoint source pollution – pollution that enter bodies of water over large
areas rather than being concentrated at a single point of entry

8 TYPES OF WATER
POLLUTION
Read page 257 of
Visualizing Environmental
Science 3rd ed. by
Berg et al. (2011)
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Groundwater Pollution
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Sustainable Water Use

The wise use of water resources, without harming the essential functioning of
the hydrologic cycle or the ecosystems on which present and future humans
depend.
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Dam and Reservoir

Main goals of a dam-and-
reservoir system:
- capture and store the
surface runoff from a river’s
watershed
- release it as needed to
control floods
- generate electricity
(hydropower)
- supply freshwater for
irrigation and for towns and
cities
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Water Conservation
Reducing Agricultural Water Waste
Microirrigation - a type of irrigation that conserves water by piping it to crops
through sealed systems
Reducing Water Waste in Industry
Industries may recapture, purify, and reuse water to reduce their water use and
their water treatment costs.
Reducing Municipal Water Waste
Recycle (gray water) or reuse water to reduce consumption. Also done by
providing consumer education, requiring water-saving household fixtures,
developing economic incentives to save water, repairing leaky water supply
systems and increasing the price of water to reflect its true cost.
3.2.2 Water Resource Problems and Management

Preventing Water Pollution at Your Home

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GEC Elect 21.2 PEOPLE AND THE EARTH’S ECOSYSTEM

END OF THE LESSON.

GOD BLESS YOU!

Jhunell A. Regala
AFFILIATE FACULTY • Department of Biology, College of Science • jaregala@bicol-u.edu.ph