The document discusses issues related to global food consumption, including definitions of key terms and topics covered in a previous lesson. Specifically:
- It defines commodities and discusses the role of classical breeding and biotechnology in developing new crops.
- It looks at production statistics for major cereals like wheat and introduces the concept of biodiversity in food crops.
- It emphasizes the importance of communication methods in raising awareness of these issues.
1. What does the World Eats.
What do we Eat.
What is a Commodity?
Why do you care?
(In other words—What are the important issues
with respect to Global Food consumption?)
2. Review of what was covered July 13, 2015
•Definitions of commodities, with more emphasis on commodities according to FAO.
•The importance of naming the food: scientific classification, breed and variety names.
•The role of “Classical Breeding” and “Biotechnology” in developing new plants
(organisms) for agriculture—a sythentic overview of their role in the 20th to 21st
century agriculture, including the changing role of not-for-profit and for-profit
institutions in plant breeding.
•Production—looking at the weight of total cereals produced in recent years and
decades, and accessing the <Production> and <Trade> units of FAOSTAT online in order
to view related statistics (by country, year, and crop).
•We looked at Wheat production, by decades, for China, EU, Ukraine, and Canada.
•Introduction to Biodiversity of plant food crops—Biodiversity in non-commodity plants
contains valuable genetic information which can be used for plant breeding (re.
expected 21st c. climate change).
•Crops with valuable attributes (taste, drought or pest resistance, etc.) which are not
suitable for commodity production.
Awareness throughout Method of Communication—infographics, statistics, user-
uploaded videos, established news sources ...
9. What does the World Eats.
What do we Eat.
What is a Commodity?
Why do you care?
(In other words—What are the important issues
with respect to Global Food consumption?)
Some Issues which are (partly) dependent our (individual to global
level) patterns of Food Consumption:
•Trade between countries
•Health
•Food Products—marketing, jobs, advertising
•Taste and Flavor
•Land/Territory, Land Rights
•Costs
•Climate, Soil, Irrigation, and Geography
• ?
10.
11. • What the World Eats … the photos come from Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio who
traveled the world documenting that most basic of human behaviors — what we eat.
• Their project, “Hungry Planet,” depicts everything that an average family consumes in a
given week–and what it costs — laid out in thought-provoking detail.
• Their results will be exhibited by The Nobel Peace Center to give viewers a peek into
kitchens from Norway to Kuwait, and to raise awareness about how environments and
cultures influence the cost and calories of the world’s dinners.
Apply the FAO list of commodity foods to what you see in the photos … what “patterns”
emerge?
Start: http://time.com/8515/hungry-planet-what-the-world-eats/
Alternate site here: http://world.time.com/2013/09/20/hungry-planet-what-the-world-eats/photo/usnc04-0001-xxf1rw-2/
12. And where is the food being procured—Markets, foraging … ?
Start at slide 27: http://www.slideshare.net/hebasaleh/what-the-world-eats-3892924
13.
14. Commodity or Not Commodity?
Why do you Care?
What are you eating … can YOU name what you eat?
(What is considered Correct/Professional Identification?)
15. Monoculture Wheat Crop
A patchwork quilt of wheat fields rolls on as far as the eye can see in an aerial view of traditional farmland in Montana..
<wheat real agriculture manitoba 2014 variety>
Montana, USA, Photograph by Nicholas Devore III
Saskatchewan, Canada, Photograph by Douglas E Walker
Commodity or Not Commodity?
What are you eating … can YOU name what you eat? (What is considered Correct/Professional Identification?)
16.
17. Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Learning about Einkorn Wheat
Modern durum wheat is on the left and has plump spikelets or grains. Einkorn is to the right and
has noticebly smaller grains.
GO TO: https://jovialfoods.com/blog/2011/05/einkorn-wheat-is-different/
18. Ian Traynor , Friday 1 May 2015
Shortly after Greece’s new leftist government struck a deal with creditors to extend
the country’s bailout to the end of next month, the finance minister …for the Syriza
radicals waxed triumphalist about how he had outfoxed the eurozone.
“We no longer have this unified group against Greece,” he declared in a lengthy radio
interview. “We now have a side that has broken down into many different sides, some
of which are very open to our proposals. This by itself is a great success.” …
[Yet, Varoufakis] has managed to unite the other 18 single-currency countries against
himself and against Greece more firmly than ever before. As an object lesson in how to
make enemies and lose friends, it was quite a feat.
“He annoyed a lot of people, burned a lot of trust,” said one senior EU diplomat.
19. Non-Commodities
For example: Maize, Silage Maize
Green Corn
Commodities are objects that come out of the
earth such as orange juice, wheat, cattle, gold
and oil…reasonably homogenous across
markets.
Commodities are marked by uniformity and
interchangeability, which leaves purchasers to compare
them solely on the basis of price. This competitive
pressure forces producers to focus their energies on
reducing costs, rather than increasing quality.
People buy and sell commodities based on speculation.
For instance, if you thought hurricanes over Latin
America were going to destroy much of the coffee crop,
you would call your commodity broker and have them
purchase as much coffee as possible. If you were
correct, the price of coffee would be driven up
drastically because the crop had been destroyed by
weather, making the surviving harvest worth more.
Almost all commodity speculators trade on margin
which results in substantial risk to the invested
principal.
For examples of DOCG products
in Italy:
http://www.agraria.org/prodotti
tipici/cereali.htm
25. What the World Eats What we Eat
What is a Commodity?
Key words: <1169/2011 25 october 2011>
I try this site: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=URISERV:co0019
Related Issue: How you determine that what you SEE/READ is TRUE?
Communication: Who or What is the Source?
26. Grains
A staple food is one that is eaten regularly and in such quantities as to constitute the
dominant part of the diet and supply a major proportion of energy and nutrient
needs.
A staple food does not meet a population's total nutritional needs: a variety of foods is required. This is particularly the case for children and
other nutritionally vulnerable groups. Typically, staple foods are well adapted to the growth conditions in their source areas. For example, they
may be tolerant of drought, pests or soils low in nutrients. Farmers often rely on staple crops to reduce risk and increase the resilience of their
agricultural systems.
Most people live on a diet based on one or more of the following staples: rice,
wheat, maize (corn), millet, sorghum, roots and tubers (potatoes, cassava, yams
and taro), and animal products such as meat, milk, eggs, cheese and fish.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/u8480e/u8480e07.htm
The world has over 50 000 edible plants. Just three of them, rice, maize and wheat, provide
60 percent of the world's food energy intake.
27.
28. SEARCH: <global trade grain> Images
Let us together look at Images
• We want to understand the importance of the 3 major grains (cereals)
for world food supplies.
• We want to understand the interesting “patterns” – a wide open issue.
• Look at how effectively (or not) an image conveys information.
• Also try to imagine the effort (human effort) to create the image—
taking data and making it visually interesting.
• Always keep in mind, that you must decide, how “true” or accurate or
correct, is the information shown.
Then I show you figures I like, then we will think of the interesting
questions– related to trade and food security and related issues.
31. 2008: “Egypt is one of the world’s largest importers of WHEAT, spending 2.6 billion dollars
this year … but with soaring prices … people are feeding the squeeze of increasing price …”
GO TO: https://youtu.be/xhI-FSKgTfs
33. What the World Eats
What we Eat
What is a Commodity?
Wild Food on our Doorstep from Daniel Brooks:
https://youtu.be/7CECcXZ8lAA
Barley
Wild rye grass
Dandelion
Acacia
Clover
Chicory
Lemon Balm
Brambles (blackberry)
Fig
THE OPPOSITE of -- Food as a Commodity?
34. Chichen Itza...Mexico gardener: https://youtu.be/TKH-BlcTKv0
PLANTS (and their FARMERS) resisting Commodification
And the opposite of Chichen Itza Maize farmer?
http://www.gmo-
compass.org/eng/agri_biotechnology/gmo_planting/341.genetically_modifie
d_maize_global_area_under_cultivation.html
35. What is the level of the FAO Food Price Index now?
http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en/
What factors are influencing food prices?
36. Global Agricultural Supply and Demand: Factors Contributing to the Recent Increase in Food Commodity Prices, Ronald Trostle, at www.ers.usda.gov, July 2008
This is a good chart for understanding various factors which affect Food Security.
However, the chart is actually presenting factors with “prices”, prices and security are related
(with great variability globally).
I am using this chart to show the factors to you.
37. By Peter Casier, http://www.theroadtothehorizon.org/2008/02/news-perfect-storm-global-food-crisis.html
The world is heading towards a global food crisis. A number of factors contribute to what could
be described as 'A Perfect Storm':
FUEL PRICES INCREASE, thus the cost of food production and transport increased dramatically,
Fast growing economies like China, [see] a smaller agricultural work force & loss of farm land.
…in the market economy, expected shortages of supply, combined with increased demand,
often leads to commodity speculation by international financial markets with one goal: profit.
High prices, high demand, and a shortage in supply, has driven several government to limit or
ban exports in staple food, (e.g. 2007, India and Vietnam, two of the world's biggest rice exporters, reduced their rice shipments).
Increased wealth leads consumers to eat more meat products.
Many farmers move away from food production, to a more lucrative biofuel production.
Diseases, e.g. a wheat fungus, known as Ug99
Limits to Arable Land.
The world's population is expected reach 9 billion by 2050.
39. References for Trade
“Maize set to dominate world grain trade,” by Suzie Horne, 15 October 2014,
http://www.fwi.co.uk/business/maize-set-to-dominate-world-grain-trade.htm
“Wheat: Prices—International Prices have Increased sharply in recent week,” from FAO
Food Outlook, Global Market Analysis,
http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/ai482e/ai482e03.htm
Science Briefs, “Study Assesses Fragility of Global Food System,”
By Michael Puma — March 2015, http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/puma_03/
UNCTAD, Maize, http://www.unctad.info/en/Infocomm/AACP-Products/Commodity-
Profile---Corn/
“Harvesting Opportunities in Agriculture,” by Mitsui & Co.,
https://www.mitsui.com/jp/en/business/challenge/1201987_1856.html
“CEREAL SECRETS, The world's largest grain traders and global agriculture” by S Murphy,
D Burch and J Clapp, OXFAM RESEARCH REPORTS, AUGUST 2012, www.oxfam.org,
https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/rr-cereal-secrets-grain-traders-
agriculture-30082012-en.pdf
40. Wild Food: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wild.Foods/
6 Crops that Resist being Tamed: http://modernfarmer.com/2015/06/born-to-be-
wild-6-crops-that-resist-being-tamed/
Truffles
Ramps
Fiddle head
Rooibos
Brazil Nuts
Jabuticaba - The Brazilian Grape Tree.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/64270/
A traditionally rural-trained Filipino finds a regular breed ground of mushrooms -
she said lots of 'em - at a spot in Mississauga mountain forest:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=347457742131290
41. • …the debate over how to address the global food challenge has become polarized,
pitting conventional agriculture and global commerce against local food systems
and organic farms.
• Those who favor conventional agriculture talk about how modern mechanization,
irrigation, fertilizers, and improved genetics can increase yields to help meet
demand.
• Meanwhile proponents of local and organic farms counter that the world’s small
farmers could increase yields plenty—and help themselves out of poverty—by
adopting techniques that improve fertility without synthetic fertilizers and
pesticides. They’re right too.
• But it needn’t be an either-or proposition. Both approaches offer badly needed
solutions; neither one alone gets us there.
• We would be wise to explore all of the good ideas, whether from organic and local
farms or high-tech and conventional farms, and blend the best of both.
www.nationalgeographic.com/
foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/
Editor's Notes
Map from http://terryorisms.com/2008/05/31/map-of-worlds-grain-trade/
