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Effects of Agriculture on our environment
The shift in agriculture
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Agriculture and Population Growth
The earth is increasing its population by 90 million people per year, and yet we still have 5.9 billion people left to feed and to give shelter (Mitchell, 1998). Along with the increase in the population, there are also more people on Earth who are living longer lives. The global population boom has coincided with the improvement of health, and of productivity, around the world. On average, the human population today lives longer, eats better, produces more, and consumes more than at any other time period in the past (Eberstadt, 1995). Agriculture feeds people, but will it be able to feed the expanding global population, especially with its exponential increase?
One way for the population of today and tomorrow to live in harmony in regards to nourishment provided by the environment is to be able to intensify agricultural yields. With a projected population of 10 billion people, an increase of global average grain yields from 2 to 5 tons of grain per hectare would ensure a per capita diet of 6,000 calories and would save a land area twice the size of Alaska (Waggoner, 1994). Most of the world’s increased output is no longer a result of expansion of area used in agriculture, but resulting from the intensification of production on existing agricultural areas.
In the last 50 years, agriculture has intensified and yields per hectare have been rising. Intensification has allowed for a reversal of destruction of land. More land has been spared due to increased intensities. In India, 42 million hectares of land have been spared, approximately the size of California and globally, the world has saved an area the size of the Amazon (Ausubel, 1996). Of all human activities, agriculture transforms the...
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... and supported in a sustainable manner, agricultural intensification might just be able to keep up with the demand. In the up-coming decades, we will soon find out.
Bibliography
Ausubel, Jesse H. 1996. Can Technology Spare the Earth? Scientific American 84; Pages 166-178.
Brown, Lester R. 1997. Can We Raise Grain Yields Fast Enough? Worldwatch 10(4): Pages 9-17.
Eberstadt, Nicholas. 1995. Population, Food, and Income: Global Trends in the Twentieth Century. The True State of the World. Pages 7-48.
Mitchell, Jennifer D. 1998. Before the Next Doubling. http://www.worldwatch.org/may/1998/98-1.html. March 1, 1998.
Vitousek, Peter M. et al. 1997. Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystems. Science. Vol. 277. Pages 494-499.
Waggoner, Paul. 1994. How Much Land Can Ten Billion People Spare for Nature? Council for Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa.
By exploring the past and its threats to human populations, the global modern mythology of sustainable agriculture can begin to be narrowed down as to the how and why rural communities may or may not have benefited from agricultural sustainability. By describing the dynamic analysis in the livelihoods of developing countries, the historical changes that had occurred in rural communities, can be understood. Halberg and Müller stated that globally “The world’s population was about 7 billion in 2010 and is expected to grow much more. The expected growth is highest in parts of the world that are vulnerable to hunger and adverse climate condit...
For more than 25 years, The Little Black Book of Project Management has been introducing project managers to the incredibly effective and logical project management skill and methods to help them achieve their goal. This book has been flooded with very nee project management techniques as well as the latest standards of the Project management body of Knowledge (PMBOK) .accepted by PMI (Project Management Institute).
By implementing new farming techniques provided with the new technological advances in machines we can see abundant harvest in even the poorest third world countries. For example, the Green Revolution has already showed admirable progress in the northern part of India ever since it took start in 1950. By 1997, northern India increased its grain production by 37 percent. This has proven that traditional farming methods are being rendered obsolete. And because by the year 2000, there will be half the land per person in developing countries as there was in 1970, we need to apply ultra-efficient methods to sustain the growing need. Not only does the Green Revolution enhances food output, it also preserves the environment.
First is to examine each of those projects to the corporate objectives, compare and contrasting project selection criteria and justify why a project meets the selection criteria.
One of the ongoing debates in the biomedical engineering field today is about the human genetic engineering. Imagine being able to design your own baby the way you want it to be or mean to say “perfect” before it is even born, or prevent your unborn child from an outrageous disease, or make your baby a smarter, stronger, or even an athlete. You can even decide the sex of your baby. With the advanced technology you can even choose the physical feature of your child. Although human genetic engineering might seem attractive for these reasons, it should not be done because it defies nature, leads to less diversity and raises moral and ethical concerns.
... of some subjects.” ( Arnold, P. 2014 ). This unreliability of genetic engineering in humans ultimately poses the question, do the benefits outweigh the risks?
As the world population grows and consumption per person increases, the demand for food is rising. To an extent, fossil fuels have made an increase in food production achievable, but the finite supply is rapidly depleting. Over the last 50 years, global food production has tripled (Mosier et al. 2004). Despite this, an estimated 870 million people were undernourished in 2010-2012 (FAO 2013) while in 2008, 5...
For decision making purposes, the projects can be further divided into two groups which is independent project and mutually...
In order for us to maintain our lives, we need to consume food to supply nutrient-needs for our bodies. As the global population increased, the demand for food also increased. Increased population led to mass production of foods. However, even with this mass production, in under-developed countries, people are still undernourished. On other hand, in developed and developing countries, people are overfed and suffering from obesity. In addition, the current methods of industrial farming destroy the environment. These problems raised a question to our global food system. Will it be able to sustain our increasing global population and the earth? With this question in my mind, I decided to investigate the sustainability of our current global food system.
...of DuPont says, “If we are going to feed 9 billion people by 2050, we are going to need to improve productivity for farmers everywhere”.
Southwick, C. H. (1996). "Chapter 15: Human Populations." Global Ecology in Human Perspective. Oxford University Press, 159-182.
Scientists and the general population favor genetic engineering because of the effects it has for the future generation; the advanced technology has helped our society to freely perform any improvements. Genetic engineering is currently an effective yet dangerous way to make this statement tangible. Though it may sound easy and harmless to change one’s genetic code, the conflicts do not only involve the scientific possibilities but also the human morals and ethics. When the scientists first used mice to practice this experiment, they “improved learning and memory” but showed an “increased sensitivity to pain.” The experiment has proven that while the result are favorable, there is a low percentage of success rate. Therefore, scientists have concluded that the resources they currently own will not allow an approval from the society to continually code new genes. While coding a new set of genes for people may be a benefitting idea, some people oppose this idea.
The global population in the year 2050 is expected to be nine billion and the agricultural demand is expected to double. With the current population already over seven billion people, there are hunger issues all around the world (“New” par. 1). How are we going to deal with food shortages in the future? With less land to work with, strains on the soils, and the lack of water, it is getting harder for the farmers of the world to support our growing population. These complications are making it harder for farmers to produce quality, affordable food. To help the crops grow better, farmers use fertilizers and chemical sprays to enhance growth and control the weeds. Farming in the United States is a relevant business because it supplies people with food, provides people with jobs maintaining the used equipment with the new equipment being much more expensive, and it provides research for more efficient ways on how to feed the world.
When planning a new project, how the project will be managed is one of the most important factors. The importance of a managers will determine the success of the project. The success of the project will be determined by how well it is managed. Project management is referred to as the discipline that entails the processes of carefully planning, organizing, controlling, and motivating the organization resources so as to foster and facilitate the achievement of specific established and desired goals and meet the specific criteria of success required in the organization (Larson, 2014). Over the course of this paper I will be discussing and analyzing the importance of project management.
Today agriculture is the livelihood of most poor underdeveloped nations. This communal life blood provides a majority of the population with a source of employment, nourishment and income. It is considered to be an invaluable skill, that is taught down from generation to generation along with a sense of respect for the environment. However as a nation begins to undergo development, so do their food production systems. The country's newfound development causes significant restructuring of their agricultural production practices. This restructuring leads to poor environmental practices, and adverse agriculture methods. Increased economic development/production negatively affects a country's environmental and agricultural health.