TITLE: Environmental Footprinting and Climate Change SUBTITLE: The Implications for Avocado Agriculture. Introduction Avocado, a plant fruit that has traditionally been planted for its health benefits, plays a major role in global food supply and security. Avocado agriculture carries an enormous potential to ensure increased economic growth, as well as reduce unemployment and foster an agriculture-based economy. However, the cultivation of avocado has been a contesting point because of massive deforestation, water consumption and environmental pollution due to heavy usage of pesticides and fertilizers. This presentation examines the implications of climate change on avocado agriculture, focusing on its environmental footprint and potential …show more content…
Pests and pathogens behavior, life cycle and population can be affected by warm temperatures and increased humidity. For example, avocado pests such as lace bug and avocado thrips tend to flourish in warmer temperatures and may experience rapid population growth under these conditions. Fungal pathogens such as avocado root rot tend to thrive in areas with increased humidity, resulting in increased disease severity and occurrence. Erratic weather patterns caused by climate change, including frost, solar wave radiation and drought, weaken the avocado orchards natural defenses, making them defenseless against pests and diseases. Similarly, heavy rainfall spread waterborne pathogens, making the trees susceptible to infestations and infections. The impact of pests and diseases is profound, causing notable damage to avocado trees, consequently resulting in reduced fruit production, poor fruit quality and tree damage. This in turn leads to economic losses for farmers and disruptions in supply chains and prices. Strategies can be applied to mitigate and control pests involving cultural, biological and chemical control methods. Cultural practices like maintaining orchard cleanliness, trimming, and adding mulch can mitigate pest and disease issues by enhancing tree health and minimizing habitats for pests and pathogens. Biological control utilizes natural predators and beneficial microorganisms to manage pest populations in avocado orchards. Chemical intervention, such as the cautious application of pesticides, should be a final option, following integrated pest management guidelines to limit harm to beneficial organisms and the ecosystem. Moreover, more research and focus should be put on developing disease-resistant avocados that can effectively resist fungal diseases such
Humans are damaging the planet to live comfortably, we must change the way food is distributed worldwide, support local farmers and switch to a healthier diet in order to stop global warming. The current global has been getting better for us humans over the years, from eating bread and eggs 3 times a day in the XV century, now we can eat better than the kings of those times, however the much of the food in not healthy and the global food system still fails in getting food to every individual in the planet and in addition it contributes to the destruction of our world. Ms. Anna Lappe explains how the food system contributes to around 1/3 of the global warming issue in her essay “The Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork”, while a group of Plos one explains the issues about the export and import of food growth over the last 50 years in the
Tilman, David, Kenneth G. Cassman, Pamela A. Matson, Rosamond Naylor, and Stephen Polasky. "Agricultural Sustainability and Intensive Production Practices : Article : Nature." Nature 418 (2002). Nature Publishing Group : Science Journals, Jobs, and Information. Web. 31 Nov. 2011.
For citrus growers in Florida, the future is uncertain. Two bacterial diseases, named citrus canker and citrus greening disease, have devastated countless acres of trees across the state. For an industry that “generates about $8.9 billion a year,” this is no small issue (“Citrus Greening”). The Florida Citrus Grower’s Association would like to import a landrace of orange discovered in China that is resistant to citrus greening disease and test it in Florida to discover its effects on both citrus canker and greening. Although there are advantages to importing a resistant form of citrus, the risks greatly outweigh the potential benefits, and for this reason, the Association should begin to place its efforts towards the many alternative methods of control that are available.
Bibliography: Confino, J. (2014). Asda: 95% of our fresh produce is already at risk from climate change. [Online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/asda-food-waste-risk-climate-change [Accessed 23 Jan. 2015].
With climate change agriculture operations are at risk for decreased food yields. Furthermore, agriculture is responsible for part of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, it uses up 70% of our water and creates lots of pollution, neither of which is good for peoples’ health. Overall, we don’t have better diets either. 815 million people in the world don’t have enough food to eat consistently.
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.
Current Event for August The article “Avocado seed husk may help to treat heart disease, cancer” by Honor Whiteman is about the possibility of avocado seed husk containing behenyl alcohol, heptacosane, and dodecanoic acid. These important supplements are known to help the human body, most antiviral medications contain behenyl alcohol, heptacosane has been shown to help kill tumors, and dodecanoic acid helps to achieve good cholesterol. The avocados that have become one of America’s favorite fruits, may have more benefits than we thought.
The tremendous success that Apple has been for the efforts that they have made not only in ensuring that they produce quality products, but also in ensuring that they are socially responsible in their business model (Avetisyan and Ferrary 2013, 115-133). Apple is believed to be one of the companies that are socially responsible in the world, but has received criticism from all corners in the world (Aguinis and Glavas 2012, 932-968). The criticism has worked to the advantage of Apple since it has been able to improve in their social responsibility. The paper discusses the environmental and social performance regarding Apple and how it impacts the society and how the operations of the company should be done (Backer 2013, 805-879). Both the areas
As the global population continues to rise, the amount of food needed to feed the people will increase as well. Two types of agriculture systems have been the backbone for crop production for decades if not centuries: conventional and organic agriculture— both methods could not be any more different. Conventional agriculture, a method that uses synthetic chemical pesticides, technologies or additives, and practices that are unsustainable is the leading producer for our food. On the other side of spectrum, organic agriculture generally, performed in a much smaller scale, does not use synthetic chemicals and utilize methods that are environmentally sound. Most conventional
2. Cook, A. A. 1975. Diseases of Tropical and Subtropical Fruits and Nuts, Hafner Press,
Healthy foods that everyone should be eating Everyone knows that eating right is the strongest task to being healthy. No matter how much you workout it doesn’t matter if you aren’t eating correctly. Even if you are not working out or trying to lose weight, your body still needs healthy food to maintain all your organs and cells. Any food that is not helping is hurting.
Farming practices that do not use pesticides/herbicides are slowly becoming introduced bit biologically created pesticides are not nearly as productive as found in preliminary testing. Biotechnology has shown to have successfully resisted pests in plants that were destroyed by pesticides but still hasn’t proven itself as a better alternative. William Liebhardt Ph.D. is an Agricultural Specialist at the University of California, Davis and he says, “When you start spraying with pesticides, you disrupt the natural balance that exists in nature. As a result, you end up killing beneficial insects, then insects that were not a problem become problems and this happens repeatedly” requiring more and more spraying.
A new global climate model predicts that in the coming decade, the surface air temperature is likely to exceed existing records (Smith et al., 2007). Growing season temperatures in the tropics and subtropics by the end of the 21st century will exceed the most extreme temperatures recorded in the history (Battistic and Rosamond, 2009). Agriculture is considered to be one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. Although at present, the overall impact of climate change on global agricultural productivity is not reliably estimated (Gornall et al., 2010). Many studies show serious implications on agricultural productivity, for instance IFPRI(2009) projects that in South Asia by 2050 climate change will reduce production of rice, wheat and maize by 14%, 44% to 49% and 9%-19% respectively relative to no climate change situation.
Climate change is one of the major issues surfacing earth over the past century. The earth’s temperature has increased over the years leading to detrimental effects on the economic and life sources of people, especially that of agricultural production and livestock. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2014), defined climate change as a change in global climate patterns apparent from the mid late 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, (2007) predicts that by 2100 the increase in global average surface temperature may be between 1.8° C and 4.0° C. With increases of 1.5° C to 2.5° C, approximately 20 to 30 percent of plant and animal species are expected to be at risk of extinction. Moreover, the IPCC (2007) purported that climate change has severe consequences for food security in developing countries. There are numerous factors that are solely responsible for this change which are both natural and man-made. Climate change has led to a decrease in quality and quantity of plant produce and livestock because of heat stress, drought and an increase in plant and animal diseases.
Climate change is currently affecting agriculture because it is causing prolonged droughts, violent flooding, sea level to rise, and also health related issues. Droughts and flooding utterly affect agriculture because it damages cultivation since the amount of water applied to crops and farming is fundamental to the...