Agriculture, the Fast Food Nation(s), and Genetically

Modified Organisms

Outline

• Fast Food– Fries– Big Macs– Chicken Nuggets

• Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)– Risks and benefits– Types– New Areas

Fast Food Nation

• The Jungle - Upton Sinclair (1906)

• Super Size Me• Fast Food Nation by Eric

Schlosser– More money on fast food than

higher education

• How has fast food changed agriculture??

French Fries

• The potato: a brief history

• Became popular in the 1920s in NA

• Important to the early success of McDonalds

• Potato and NA/European diet

• $0.30 -> $$6.00 (Profit!!!!)

• Of $1.50 worth of fries, $0.02 goes to farmer->corporate farms

Impact

• Fast food needs– Uniformity “One world, one taste”– Constant supply

• Increased productivity (Idaho)– Tonnage of potatoes (doubled)– Yield/acre (increased 30%)– Increased inputs, I.e. mechanization, fertilizer,

irrigation, pesticides– Need for larger farms and less farmers

Big Macs and you

• Cattle– Soil compaction– Overgrazing– Erosion– Loss of biodiversity– BSE?

Big Macs and you

• Feedlots, – Aesthetics– Runoff

• slaughter houses and meatpacking– Then: A respectable, well-paying union job– Enter the “disassembly line”– Now: A job for illegal, illiterate, immigrants

• Very dangerous

The Chicken Nugget

• History

• Health – very poor choice

• “Bulk agricultural commodity into a manufactured, value-added product”

• Business– Ensure constant supply – Tyson Foods

• Chickens

Genetically Modified Organisms

Food supply– 15 crop species and 8 livestock species =

90% of world’s food supply

• Artificial Selection

• What is a GMO?– Reduced breeding cycles– New and improved agricultural varieties

Pest control

• Insect control– Bacillus thruringiensis (Bt)– Gene for Bt toxin introduced to plants– Benefits: Decreased pesticide use– Costs: Resistance?

Weed control and herbicide resistance

• 275 million kg of herbicide/year in US• Damage crops and increase

pests/pathogens• Herbicide resistant crops

– Heavy use of herbicide– Less use: the timing must be right– Rapid break down of pesticide

• Transfer genes to wild species = super weed

New areas

• Pest control– 2000 plants have insecticidal properties– 700 substances in bacteria and fungi have

fungicidal properties– What about super bugs??

• Disease resistance (less fungicides)• Vaccines for livestock• Drought resistance

– 5 million l of water for 1 ha of corn

New Areas (cont)

• Salt tolerance

• Nitrogen fixation in crops

• Perennial grain crops

• Improve recycling of toxic wastes

• Improved palatability of fruits

Questionable areas

• Bovine Growth Hormone

• Native organisms

• Crops to weeds?

GMO,ethics, and the real world

• GMOs are very expensive

• Yields are no better than existing varieties

• Banned in Europe

• Patenting life?– The Monsanto case

• Is it playing God?

• Alternatives: Integrated Pest Management!!