week 5 - chemical fertilizers and pesticides
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Week 5 petrochemical fertilizers &
pesticides
Top 10 Reasons WHY DIY COMPOST IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN MIRACLE-GRO!
Compost encourages beneficial microbes to get it on instead of squashing their hopes and dreams.
Hello three-eyed fish! Compost reduces surface runoff while synthetic fertilizers are highly soluble, causing runoff pollution.
You can’t trust bagged soil from a billionaire seed company!
(Miracle-Gro = O.M. Scott = Roundup = Monsanto)
Let’s inject our food with more ammonium phosphate, chemicals, potash (excess chlorine)…Yum!
Synthetic fertilizer is like a one night stand! It feeds off short-term, voluptuous growth and then leaves your plants feeling used and neglected.
Instead of contaminating the soil, compost actually neutralizes toxins such as
pesticides, salts, and heavy metals.
“Caution! You should avoid contact with skin or eyes when using Miracle-Gro.”
Guess what folks? Your pets, kids, and Uncle
Rico can play in the compost all they want to.
Compost improves plant health and suppresses disease while synthetic fertilizers burn plant roots leaving them vulnerable to pest and disease.
Too Much isn’t Always a Good Thing…
Why do we need Miracle-Gro in the first place? Compost reduces fertilizer requirements altogether!
It’s silly to pay for soil when making your own
compost is free!
+ =It’s as EASY as...
Composting 101
Nitrogen Material“wet” or “green”
Provides protein to the microorganisms
Fruit scraps Veggie scraps Grass clippings Manure Coffee & Tea Eggshells Spent Houseplants, Garden Cuttings,
Bouquets…* Hair (Dog & Human) Vacuum Dust And yes, Human Urine…
* non-diseased and bug free plants
Carbon Material“dry” or “brown”
Energy/food to the microorganisms
Dead Leaves Hay and Straw Sawdust / Woodchips Dryer Lint Napkins & paper towels Waxed paper - milk cartons Pizza Boxes Newspaper & Paperboard (shredded)
Corn Cobs (takes awhile to compost)
Pine Needles (too much slows down pile)
Neutral Ingredients Beverages – flat soft drinks (mix it in
so sugar doesn’t attract flies)
Wood Ashes (sprinkle small amounts)
Gray Water without detergent or bleach Use water from washing veggies Catch water running to heat up shower
Carbon : Nitrogen
Nitrogen Volumes Control Compost Temperature
LOW Nitrogen = pile will NOt HEAT up.
HIGH Nitrogen = the compost may become TOO HOT, killing the compost microorganisms, or it may go anaerobic, resulting in a foul-smelling mess.
Goal should be
C:N
30:1
Too Much Carbon:When C:N > than 30
•Decomposition is Slow
•Nitrogen is used up
•To complete decomposition process - MO’s will draw from stored N and soil N to make use of available C
•This is “robbing” the soil of N and delays availability of N as a fertilizer for plants
Too Much Nitrogen:When C:N < than 30
•MO’s make full use of available C
•Get rid of excess N as ammonia gas
•Unhealthy release of ammonia into atmosphere – creates a terrible smell
•Produces a loss of N from the compost pile
•Keep to a minimum if at all
Basic Steps Add “Green Stuff” =
Nitrogen Add “Brown Stuff” =
Carbon Mix Check Moisture Harvest!
Why Soil Matters…Ex: The Dust Bowl
1920s – over plowed, over planted, and over grazed 1930s – drought, heat, and wind and low agricultural
pricesCause – drought and unwise farming practices! By 1934 – 100 million acres of farmland lost all or
most of top soil to winds and droughtSoil conservation legislation – gov’t paid farmer to
let land idle (fallow) POLICY POLICE - Encouraged farmers to plant
certain crops, rotate, renew soil nutrients, prevent erosion…
Get Big or Get Out!
Hard times in the Great Plains – drought and depression
Same time – better technology forced farmers to buy:TractorsNew hybrid seedsChemicals – synthetic pesticidesIrrigation systemsMore land
Farms got bigger = fewer farmers on the same amount of land
Trend has continue until today!
WWII Farming RevolutionWar ended the Great Depression – Federal
spending grew the factoriesGreater demand for farm products Farmers went off to war – who’s going to grow
our food?Brought an end to the horse-drawn era of farmingEnd of 1930’s drought –
boom of irrigation systemsNew technology –
more work in fewer hours
Government rationed sugar, butter, milk, cheese, eggs, coffee, meat and canned goods
Labor and transportation shortages – difficult to move fruits and vegetables to local markets
Government encouraged citizens to plant “Victory Gardens”
Also known as “war gardens,” “food gardens for defense”
Formation of first neighborhood cooperatives
WWII Victory Gardens
20 million Americans built home gardens in backyards, empty lots and city rooftops
Similar to movement today – new hip trend!“Can for the Troops!” in 1943 – 315,000
pressure cookers purchased USDA estimates the result of this movement =
20 million gardens9-10 million tons of vegetables and fruit Equal to all commercial production of fresh
vegetables WWII ended, so did gov’t promotion of victory
gardens!Many people did not plant a garden in 1946
WWII Victory Gardens
End of war in 1945 – War industries needed to find civilian use for war technologies
Postwar known as the “dawning of the chemical age in pesticides”
DDT – from grasshoppers to house flies
DDT allowed chemists to create over 10,000 new chemicals through experiments
Lead to organochloride and organophosphates of today
Pesticides – Oh My!
Today, US farmer spends over $11 billion on all pesticides – 58% herbicides, 28% insecticides, and 8% fungicides
Herbicide 2,4-D known as “wonder drug” for eradicating weeds
Surplus of pilots from the war joined aerial spraying co.
Pesticides – Oh My!
EVENTSWhat happens?
What is generallyUNSEEN PATTERNS & TRENDS
What’s been happening?What are the trends?
What changes have occurred?
UNDERLYING STRUCTURES, ORGANIZATIONS
What influences the above patterns?
MENTAL MODELS:Assumptions, values...
What assumptions do people have about the above?
LEARNING
Iceberg Model – What’s below the surface?
Great Book! – Tomatoland by Barry EstabrookNo Seasonality – tomatoes anytime you want
em’Wrong Climate – Grown in Florida!
Disease, nematodes, weeds... Fumigation Excess Synthetic FertilizersSterilized with ChlorinePicked from the vine GREENGassed with ethylene to ripenLow Wages, Slavery, & Poison
Perfectly-Round Winter Tomato
1). PROBLEM = Wrong Climate – Grown in Florida!
Never Winter – organisms and insects do not die from frosts, blizzards, or cold snaps like rest of US
Humidity feeds blights, wilts, spots, and molds Tomato already sensitive to these issues Sandy soil means no water retention and no
nutrients Pests, fungi, nematodes, weeds... THRIVE!
Perfectly-Round Winter Tomato
2). SOLUTION = Fumigation with methyl bromide, 31!
Want to kill EVERYTHING in the soilMethyl Bromide – one of the most toxic chemicals PAN’s “Bad Actor”Can kill humans after brief exposure in small
concentrationsSub lethal doses – disruptions in estrogen
production, sterility, birth defects…Banned from most crops – still used on
strawberries, eggplants, peppers, and tomatoesInjected into newly formed beds and sealed with
polyethylene mulch“Soil chemotherapy” – makes soil lifeless
Perfectly-Round Winter Tomato
SOLUTION = Now the HerbicidesMore than 100 chemicals at Florida farmer’s
handsChemical Names – Arrow, Aim, Touchdown,
Cobra, Firestorm, GoalTender, and ProwlSix are PAN’s “Bad Actors”
SOLUTION = Finally the Fungicides Tomatoes notoriously vulnerable to fungal attack in FL
Keep leaves green and spotless with 31 fungicidesEleven are PAN’s “Bad Actors”An acre of FL tomatoes gets hit 5X as much as an acre of CA tomatoes
EWG found 54% of samples contained detectable levels of pesticides
Perfectly-Round Winter Tomato
3). CONSEQUENCE = Excess Synthetic Fertilizers!
Now that you’ve killed all the BAD and GOOD microorganisms in the soil, must add nutrients
Creates excess SALTS!TEMPORARY boost to soil productivity!Inability of soil to retain all the fertilizer
applied!Estimated that ½ of every metric ton of
fertilizer applied to fields never makes it into plant tissue – evaporates or washes into local waterways
Perfectly-Round Winter Tomato
Early crop nutrition - fallowing, manures, cover crops…1840s –guano (dried sea bird manure) & rock phosphateEarly 1900s – dependence on Nitrogen (=N) from
legumesSynthetic Fertilizers - concentrated and convenient to useScientific calculations to meet
individual crop req. instead of unbalanced ratio of nutrients from animal manures
Got the P & K from NPK (not just nitrogen)
USDA recommended mix of fertilizers at home – more control for farmer
The Fertilizer Explosion
WWI - N was a prime component of TNT Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch – synthesis of ammonia1921 – first NH3-based fertilizers in US (inorganic/
synthetic)By 1920s – inorganic N was half the price of organic NNatural gas – key component of NH3 Petroleum and gas producers – major fertilizer
producersWWII - US Gov’t built 10 new plants to produce
ammonia for munitions and N for bombs (730,000 tons NH3 /yr.)
After the war, the surplus was used for fertilizing crops
The Fertilizer Explosion
Production of nitric acid, the primary feedstock for synthetic commercial fertilizer, is also a source of nitrous oxide
Nitrous Oxide - a greenhouse gas 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide
Accounted for 15.9 Tg CO2E in 2005
Equivalent emissions of 2.9 million vehicles.
Greenhouse Gas Contribution
“Better Safe than Sorry” AttitudeSurplus nutrients stimulate plant growthAlgae blooms – consumes all O2 available in
the water and cause other plants and animals to suffocate
Fertilizer runoff created “dead zone” 7,000 square miles in Gulf of Mexico
UN reported 150 dead zones in world’s oceans in 2007
Excess Fertilizer = Runoff
Bayer – world’s largest agrochemical co. / 7th largest seed co.
Syngenta – 2nd largest agrochemical / 3rd largest seed
Monsanto – world’s largest seed co. / 5th largest agrochemical co.
DuPont – 2nd largest seed / 6th largest agrochemical
BigAGrochemical Companies
1. Bayer (Germany) - $7,458m - 19%2. Syngenta (Switzerland) - $7,285m - 19%3. BASF (Germany) - $4,297m - 11%4. Dow AgroSciences (USA) - $3,779m - 10%5. Monsanto (USA) - $3,599m - 9%6. DuPont (USA) - $2,369m - 6%7. Makhteshim Agan (Israel) - $1,895m - 5%8. Nufarm (Australia) - $1,470m - 4%9. Sumitomo Chemical (Japan) - $1,209m - 3%10. Arysta Lifescience (Japan) - $1,035m - 3%Total $34,396m - 89%Source: Agrow World Crop Protection News, August 2008
World’s Top 10 Pesticide Firms:
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