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Objective
• By the end of this lesson, students will be able to evaluate the relative importance of technological and socio-economic solutions to alleviating food shortages.
Bell Ringer
• For each of the statistics on the next slide, answer the following in your notebooks: – What is you immediate reaction to this data? – Is there a solution to this problem? What would
you suggest?
#1• In 2009, the number of chronically hungry had
surpassed 1 billion for the first time in history. • This statistic shows that the world is very far
from achieving the Millennium Development Goal for reducing malnourishment.
#3
• While Australian households spend only 17% of their budget on food, Nigerian families spend 73% of their budgets to eat, Vietnamese 65%, Indonesians 50%. - NY Times
#4
• In Bangladesh, food consumes more than half most people’s earnings and rent takes up almost all the rest. -UK Guardian
Elbow Partner Pair Share
• Discuss each of the 5 data points with your partner, with the purpose of discussing these guiding questions: – What is you immediate reaction to this data? – Is there a solution to this problem? What would
you suggest?
Solutions to Food Security
• Technological Solutions– GM Crops – Expanding Irrigation – Seeds and Fertilizer – Sustainable Practices
• Socioeconomic Solutions – Agricultural Investment – Food Aid – Improved Infrastructure – Trade Reform – Fair Trade
As we go through the following solutions to food insecurity make a
table in your notebook like this: Solution Positive Impacts Potential Drawbacks
GM Crops
Expanding Irrigation
Seeds and Fertilizers
Sustainable Practices
Agricultural Investment
Food Aid
Improved Infrastructure
Trade Reform
Fair Trade
GM Crops
• Agriculture experts at the UN and in LEDCs do not expect GM crops on their own to radically improve yields.
• GM Crops have mostly been devoted to richer countries.
Expanding Irrigation
• Perennial irrigation systems: water is supplied all year in accordance with the crop requirement.
Seeds and Fertilizers
• Rural poor need help planting next season’s crops
• Millions have been forced to eat next season’s seeds to survive
• Price of fertilizer have increased (largely dependent on oil)
Sustainable Practices
• Using local knowledge and appropriate technology, and avoiding pollution will help conserve resources (soil and biodiversity) for future generations.
Agricultural Investment • Experts believe yields in
Africa can be increased with help.
• 40% of Asian agriculture is irrigated, only 4% in Africa
• Average Asian farmer uses 110 kgs of fertilizer a year. In Africa only 4 kgs.
• At least 1/3 of crops in Africa are last after the harvest because farmers cannot get them to the markets in time.
Food Aid • The World Food
Programme can only reach 80 million of the 800 million more chronically hungry people in the world.
• Food Aid can alleviate emergency famine situations, but it is not a long-term solution: why?
Trade Reform
• Free trade, lowering farm subsidies in the US and undoing protectionism (like CAP in the EU) could help poor farmers in the long term.