Lesson 14September 15th, 2010

An estimate of how much land and water is needed to support a person’s lifestyle Includes the land and water needed to

produce the resources as well as wastes produced.

The average Canadian requires 8.9ha (17 football fields) to maintain their lifestyle. If everyone on earth lived like this we would

need 5.7 earths.

Calculating ecological footprints enables us see how much we need to change or evaluate progress.

Can be calculated for a person, building, town, province, country, or continent.

As populations and consumption increases the World’s ecological footprint will eventually equal all the available land and water on Earth. It is believed that we reached this

point in 1990.

Country Footprint (ha/person)

India 0.86

Pakistan 0.64

Japan 4.77

United States 9.57

Environmental steward - taking care of our natural resources to ensure that they are used in sustainable ways for current and future generations.

Stewardship includes activities such as: Reducing the amount of resources we use Reusing items instead of throwing them

away Renew /recycling used items. Conserving existing ecosystems and restoring

damaged ones.

In the 1980’s the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) was created. The EFP is a tool that farmers can use to

identify environmental problems on their farms and develop action plans to address these problems

Example: pesticides have been reduced by 50 percent on Ontario farms since the EFP started.

Integrated pest management - method of pest control that uses knowledge about a pest’s biology and habitats. Uses common sense methods to control

pests, not eliminate them. Rotating crops can help as many pests only eat

one kind of plant.

Soil is a limited resource. It takes hundreds of years to form

Soil conservation - using farming methods that protect the soil from erosion and loss of nutrients. Example: No-till farming leaves roots from

previous year’s crops. The roots help to prevent erosion. Not all plants can be planted this way.

Organic farming - organic farms do not use chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Reduces water pollution. However Cannot produce the same amount of food

as a non-organic farm.

Centralized production of food is more efficient because one plant ships everything. This is possible due to modern

refrigeration and efficient transportation networks.

But if contamination occurs all the food must be recalled, and this is very expensive. Currently, in North America, many foods are grown and processed on a very large scale. It is very efficient, but .....

Decentralized food production can help reduce this problem And locally grown food takes less energy to

bring to a store. Sustainable agriculture and eating

locally produced foods are connected. Buying locally supports local farmers –

farmers continue to farm Locally grown produce tends to be fresher

Questions 1-7 hand in + read page 106 - 107