Biotech Agriculture (cont.

The increase in milk production requires skilled work and huge costs. Poor
countries will not afford this.
Developing countries will still depend on big countries corporations to supply
them with the needed materials.
Improving the quality of tropical food might create a laboratory substitute
and the industry will be destroyed and unemployment may occur.
It may relocate the production of food away from the developing countries
which may hinder their development.

Why pursue Biotechnology?

The demand on food is continuously increasing with the population.

In 30-40 years the present techniques in farming will hardly meet the food
requirement.
The world needs a more efficient way to produce food.

Future Fields of Plenty

Microindustrial Era

A transformation in production of goods and foods that will remove the threat
of scarcity.
Contradicts the Malthusian Prediction.
o A prediction that as population increases exponentially, the food
requisites increases linearly and someday food production will not be
enough.
o Did not consider the increase in productivity of land.

Food Supply Revolution

Innovation in production and increase in productivity removed the threat of

Malthusian prediction.
From 1981 to 1991, the world output of rice, wheat, corn and other grains
increased by 260 Million metric tons.
5 Major Factors of Food Supply Revolution
o Hybridization of corns
o The use of chemical insecticide, herbicide and fungicide.
o The spread of high yield rice and wheat seeds to the Third World.
o The 9x increase in fertilizer use from 1950 to 1984.
o The near 3x of irrigated areas in the same period as above.
Indias Case
o In 1943, 1.5 million of Indias citizen starved to death.
o But by 1977, India doubled its population and became a grain exporter.
By 1990, the improvements in food productions allowed importers of grain to
be self sufficient.
By 1993, the increase in productions changed the importers and exporters of
food.
The Green Revolution shows the extent to which humans are able to
control nature and its products.
Researchers says that the farmers are only using less than half of the earths
farmable land.
And a lot of dry lands can be irrigated with a huge supply of water.

How large of a population can the Earth support?

Colin Clark of Oxford University

o Claimed that if all farmers are to use best growing methods 35.1 Billion
American type diet can be supported. Thats 5x our population today.
Roger Revelle of Harvard University
o Claimed that agricultural resources today will be able to support
adequate diet for 40 billion people.
o Less developed countries can feed over 6 times their population
o Also believes that food production in Asia can be greatly increased, and
India even has the potential to feed the whole world.

The Expanding Land Base for Farming

The largest capital for food production is land.

The food revolution was accompanied with an increase in farm lands.
For example, humanity is literally greening the desert.
Canal named Indira Gandhi Canal irrigated 1.5 million acres of land in India
and enabled it for farming.
o In 1989, 370,000 tons of crops were produced in this land.
The distribution of newly cultivated land to the landless.
Saline agriculture
o Halophytes plants that are resistant to salt water.
o Enabled the use of land that are irrigated using saline water.
o Removed the requirement to use fresh water for places that lacks it.
o Pakistanis grow specially bred tomatoes and cotton with saline water.
o Mexican farmers grow salicornia a plant that thrives in saltwater and
produces safflower-type oil.
The Food and Agriculture Organization study estimates that there are nearly
8 billion acres of farming land lying idle in the world.
o This is 4x the land that is being cultivated today.

What stops the expansion of land base for farming?

The increase in the size of cities decrease the size of land that is used for
agriculture.
o Facts shows that the increase in city sizes is miniscule.
o Roughly only 3% of land of US is composed of city.
o Francis P. Felice, a biologist, states that the sum total of the world
population can be placed in Texas with population thickness less than
some of the cities today.
Another factor is the natural spread of deserts to formerly farmable lands.
o The expansion of the deserts are being solved today. An example will
be the Great Green Wall that will halt the advance of Sahara desert.