Team:Purdue/The Problem/Current Agriculture Practices
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The origin of our modern agricultural practices can be traced back to the post-World War II Green Revolution, which focused on improving crop yields by creating optimal environments for plant growth. The Green Revolution particularly focused on proliferating environmental management, pest management, and seed hybridization strategies. Products and services implemented included chemical fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation infrastructure, and mechanized equipment to work the land. These changes resulted in vast improvements in crop yields, including a 132% increase in rice production from 1966-1999 and a 91% increase in wheat production over the same time frame (Khush GS). When genetic engineering entered the agricultural scene, it was used primarily to grant plants selective resistance to herbicides and pesticides. Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup, which used glyphosate as its active ingredient, debuted in 1974 as a pure herbicide that killed anything green it was sprayed on. While this was successful for a decade, cheap competition forced Monsanto to innovate. In 1996 they debuted Roundup Ready soybeans in 1996, which had genes for glyphosate resistance spliced in, making them selectively resistant to the herbicide (UC Biotech). In 1994 Roundup sales totaled 1.2 billion dollars, this marked the definitive proof of concept that swapping genes could have immense economic benefits for both Monsanto and for farmers (Estes). Whereas traditional breeding approaches focused on yield and aesthetic quality, this shift made herbicide resistance the most important characteristic of a new seed type. Some would argue this eventually led to the sacrificing of characteristics like nutrition. In support of this argument it was found that crops as a whole, have experienced a decline in 6 of 13 major nutrients in the past 50 years, the most drastic of which was a 38% reduction in riboflavin (Davis et. al). Another study concluded it would take eight oranges today to provide the same amount of vitamin A as an orange fifty years ago (Moss and Scheer). When this level of plant breeding was first introduced, the long-reaching effects of pesticide spraying or selection for traits of size and aesthetic quality were not considered. It is only now that we are seeing negative implications of these advancements. Take for example the “superweed” evolution, in which weeds with resistance to current herbicides are growing at an unprecedented rate(10). However, it is not just raw food production that is the problem. Global malnutrition, the issue arising from people eating food but not getting sufficient amounts of nutrients, is much more widespread than global hunger, the problem of people not eating enough food. Given these two trends, agriculture today faces two main challenges: how to increase food production without increasing land area used for farming without depending on chemical fertilizers and how to increase the nutritional value of food so that what is produced still provides the proper nutrients for a balanced diet.
Agricultural Practices
2. Donald R. Davis PhD, FACN, Melvin D. Epp PhD & Hugh D. Riordan MD (2004) Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999, Journal of the American College of Nutrition,
3. Estes, Lane. (2002). Economic Analysis of Roundup-Ready Soybeans. Biology at Davidson. Retrieved from http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/kabernd/seminar/2002/resist/final%20GMO%20paper.htm
4. Huffman, W.E., Shogren, J.F., Rousu, M., & Tegene, A. (2003). Consumer Willingness to Pay for Genetically Modified Food Labels in a Market with Diverse Information: Evidence from Experimental Auctions, Journal of Agricultural and Resouce Economics, 28:481-502. Retrieved from http://www.waeaonline.org/jareonline/archives/28.3%20-%20December%202003/JARE,Dec2003,pp481,Huffman.pdf
5. Harmon, Amy. (24 August 2013). Golden Rice: Lifesaver? New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/sunday-review/golden-rice-lifesaver.html?pagewanted=all
6. (31 October 2007). A Brief History of Roundup Herbicide. UC Biotech. Retrieved from http://ucbiotech.org/issues_pgl/ARTICLES/roundup_history.html
7. Lim, XiaoZhi. (9 Apr 2014). Top GMO Question Consumers want answered: Do GMOs cause Cancer? Genetic Literacy Project. Retrieved from http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/04/09/top-gmo-question-consumers-want-answered-do-gmos-cause-cancer/
8. Moss, D. & Scheer, R. (27 Apr 2007). Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious? Scientific American. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss/
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07315724.2004.10719409
9.
Gross, Liza. 2010 Grapes: Transformed Retrieved from http://www.lizagross.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Grapes-Transformed.pdf
10.
Union of Concerned Scientist. 2013. The rise of superweeds and what to do about it .
Citations
1. Khush GS. Green revolution: the way forward. Nature Reviews Genetics. 2001;2:815-822.