Chapter 3 reword 1. In what ways does industrialized farming affect ecological integrity? Answer: As American agriculture has become more industrial, it has become increasingly dependent on fossil energy and other finite natural resources. The total food system currently claims about twenty-percent of all fossil energy used in the U.S., with farming accounting for about one-third of the total percentage. In fact, our industrial food system requires about ten calories of fossil energy for every calorie of food energy produced. Supplies of fossil energy are finite, and there is a growing consensus that fossil energy in the future will be far less plentiful and costlier. Pollution represents negative energy, in that it destroys the usefulness of other energy resources or requires energy to mitigate its negative impacts. Industrial agriculture pollutes the air, water, and soil with toxic agrochemicals and livestock manure. It is a major source of pollution, accounting for more than twenty-percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, even more than transportation. In fact, agriculture has become the number one nonpoint source of pollution in the U.S., creating huge dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico. An industrial agriculture is not ecologically sustainable. Industrial agriculture also is a significant contributor to the depletion of social energy. Farm workers today are among the lowest paid workers in the U.S., while working under dangerous and disagreeable conditions, most without adequate health care or other fringe benefits. A growing reliance on migrant farm workers also creates cultural and political conflicts, particularly in times when good paying jobs are few. Many farm families fare little better, as independent farmers are periodically forced out of business to make room for further corporate consolidation. Therefore, rural communities in agricultural areas have suffered decades of economic and social decline and decay. 2. The concept of ecosystem services is gaining increasing recognition. What are some of the most important ecosystem services provided by agriculture? To what extent do you think a threatened loss of ecosystem services can drive change in policy and practice? Why? Answer: Ecosystem services are defined as “the benefits provided by ecosystems to humans”. Many key ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, pest regulation and pollination, sustain agricultural productivity. Promoting the healthy functioning of ecosystems ensures the resilience of agriculture as it intensifies to meet growing demands for food production. Climate change and other stresses have the potential to make major impacts on key functions, such as pollination and pest regulation services. Learning to strengthen the ecosystem linkages that promote resilience and to mitigate the forces that impede the ability of agro-ecosystems to deliver goods and services remains an important challenge..

1. Chapter 3 reword
1. In what ways does industrialized farming affect ecological
integrity?
Answer: As American agriculture has become more industrial, it
has become increasingly dependent on fossil energy and other
finite natural resources. The total food system currently claims
about twenty-percent of all fossil energy used in the U.S., with
farming accounting for about one-third of the total percentage.
In fact, our industrial food system requires about ten calories of
fossil energy for every calorie of food energy produced.
Supplies of fossil energy are finite, and there is a growing
consensus that fossil energy in the future will be far less
plentiful and costlier.
Pollution represents negative energy, in that it destroys the
usefulness of other energy resources or requires energy to
mitigate its negative impacts. Industrial agriculture pollutes the
air, water, and soil with toxic agrochemicals and livestock
manure. It is a major source of pollution, accounting for more
than twenty-percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, even
more than transportation. In fact, agriculture has become the
number one nonpoint source of pollution in the U.S., creating
huge dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico. An
industrial agriculture is not ecologically sustainable.
Industrial agriculture also is a significant contributor to the
depletion of social energy. Farm workers today are among the
lowest paid workers in the U.S., while working under dangerous
and disagreeable conditions, most without adequate health care
or other fringe benefits. A growing reliance on migrant farm
workers also creates cultural and political conflicts, particularly
in times when good paying jobs are few. Many farm families
fare little better, as independent farmers are periodically forced
out of business to make room for further corporate
consolidation. Therefore, rural communities in agricultural
areas have suffered decades of economic and social decline and

2. decay.
2. The concept of ecosystem services is gaining increasing
recognition. What are some of the most important ecosystem
services provided by agriculture? To what extent do you think a
threatened loss of ecosystem services can drive change in policy
and practice? Why?
Answer: Ecosystem services are defined as “the benefits
provided by ecosystems to humans”. Many key ecosystem
services provided by biodiversity, such as nutrient cycling,
carbon sequestration, pest regulation and pollination, sustain
agricultural productivity. Promoting the healthy functioning of
ecosystems ensures the resilience of agriculture as it intensifies
to meet growing demands for food production. Climate change
and other stresses have the potential to make major impacts on
key functions, such as pollination and pest regulation services.
Learning to strengthen the ecosystem linkages that promote
resilience and to mitigate the forces that impede the ability of
agro-ecosystems to deliver goods and services remains an
important challenge.
Ecosystem services can be:
· Regulating (e.g. climate regulation, disease regulation, water
regulation, water purification, pollination)
· Cultural (e.g. spiritual and religious, recreation and
ecotourism, aesthetic, inspirational, educational, sense of place,
cultural heritage
· Supporting (e.g. soil formation, nutrient cycling, primary
production)
· Provisioning (e.g. food, fresh water, fuelwood, fiber,
biochemicals, genetic resources)
3. Farmer Michael Heller endorses a broad definition of
sustainable farming going well beyond environmental impacts.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this definition?
Answer: Sustainable farming is putting reins on the horse and
into the hands of farmers and consumers, where we (together)
shape our own food system. Sustainable farming is also the
process of decision making on the farm. What are the filters that

3. a farmer uses to make decisions? Sustainable farming is
working with ecological processes— that is, using cover crops,
crop rotations, and beneficial insects— rather than fighting
them with herbicides, insecticides, and chemical fertilizers.
Another aspect of sustainable farming is building soil quality on
farms. Every handful of healthy soil contains billions of living
organisms— protozoa, nematodes, bacteria, fungi, algae, and
others. All these critters are working for the farmer to
contribute to the soil's ability to supply nutrients to grow
healthy plants, but these critters have got to eat, too.
I tend to agree with his definition of sustainability because
when defining it, is very important to consider local food
systems but also to take a global view of it. To understand
sustainability from a global view, it is important to know that it
has been estimated that the industrial food chain uses 70 percent
of agricultural resources to provide 30 percent of the world's
food, whereas local sustainable farms worldwide produce the
remaining 70 percent using only 30 percent of the resources.
4. What do you see as the most promising ways you yourself
could engage to promote a more environmentally sustainable
food system?
Answer: A sustainable food system also refers to an approach
that makes the most of the earth’s resources for future
generations. It guards against depleting these resources. Why,
then, has sustainability not yet been achieved? Perhaps it’s
because not enough folks know how to achieve it. Here are
some ways that consumers, food producers and legislators can
work together to make the food system more sustainable:
· Local eating
The cost of transporting food across the globe isn’t measured
just in dollar signs, but in carbon emissions too. When you buy
food from local farmers, you’re contributing to your
community’s economy and decreasing your impact on Nature.

4. · Encourage cooking
Since sustainability promotes better health among consumers,
learning to cook at home more skillfully — and more frequently
— is an essential component. When people have control over
their own food, they can eliminate ingredients like added sugars
and fats. This, in turn, creates a healthier public.
· Design menus to follow seasons
Eaters like to enjoy fruits and veggies year-round which is part
of the reason foods are imported from all over the world: to
gratify the appetites of consumers. This however is
unsustainable. If you stick to seasonal produce, however, you’ll
be able to buy almost everything locally — and make sure that
you get more variety in your diet over the course of a year. This
practice will help to reduce your carbon footprint and boost
your health.
· Rotate crop varieties regularly
When farmers plant the same crops again and again, they
eventually suck the nutrients out of the soil, making it near
useless and often necessitating chemical-laden fertilizers.
There’s a simple, natural and time-tested trick to avoid this,
though. Farmers can plant different crops every few years to
keep the soil healthy. Consumers just must get on board with
mixing up their diet too.
· Waste less
If you added up all the food to be produced from now until the
year 2050, the sum would equal the same amount of food that’s
been consumed over the past 8,000 years, that’s a long period of
time. Clearly, as the food industry grows, so will its impact on
the earth. To offset this impact, consumers should strive to toss
out less food at home and make the most of their groceries.
Businesses, supermarkets and industry should stop throwing out
food too and strive to donate to charity or other organizations.

5. · Support Fair Trade
Foods that bear the Fair-Trade label have been produced in a
way that ensures fair treatment of employees and the earth. So,
if you’re committed to the sustainable food movement, you
should opt for Fair Trade foods whenever possible to support
the right kinds of producers.
· Consider food’s true cost
The “true cost” of food refers to the often unseen environmental
and social impacts that mass food production creates. Although
unsustainable foods may be cheaper at the supermarket, they
ultimately have a higher “true cost” in their negative impact on
people and planet. It’s important to keep this issue in mind
when you buy food.
· Invest financially
Some smaller countries like the Netherlands might be small but
it exports more amounts of food, second highest amount of food
in terms of value, after the United States. They have invested in
sustainable agriculture, they were innovative, using indoor
farming techniques to male most of every square inch of their
land, they also used fewer to no chemical pesticides which
makes their soil richly fertile and can be reused.
· Avoid Additives, pesticides and go organic
Synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and antibiotics take a toll on the
earth and on animals but are used frequently by primary
producers and livestock farmers in conventional farming to
ensure produce and animals grow – and turnover profit – as
quickly as possible. When you have the option, try to buy
organically grown and additive-free produce and grass-fed
meats where possible This should be clearly marked on the
packaging but if it isn’t, make sure to ask an assistant.
· Be ready to sacrifice convenience for a better future
Supporting a sustainable food system isn’t easy. When you
commit to buying locally-produced foods and Fair-Trade foods
and adhering to other tenants of sustainable living, these

6. conscious choices may cost you time and money. But
ultimately, you’re working toward a greater cause that will
ensure you pass on a healthy earth to future generations.
Contributing to a sustainable food system may require a
personal investment on your part, but when you weigh the
benefits, it’s well worth the effort. With just a few minor
tweaks to your daily life, you could have a huge impact on the
way the food system develops in the coming decades. So, pick
one or two of these steps that you can take to do your part in
living (and eating) more sustainably.
5. Why are voluntary conservation measures generally
insufficient on their own to maintain ecological integrity?
Answer: Overall, current voluntary approaches are not adequate,
as can be seen from trends in resource degradation. Climate
change and other current threats point to a tremendous need for
greater resilience in the food system. Supplementing voluntary
approaches with a strong regulatory framework would have
greater impact, but regulatory approaches are politically
difficult to implement given resistance from those benefiting
from a weak regulatory system. Regardless of the type of
policy, environmental goals and thresholds for severe damage to
environmental resources must be determined in order to set
appropriate policies. Without such goals and limits, current
agricultural and environmental trends indicate that more critical
resource-use thresholds will be surpassed. Many policy tools
exist to influence individual and societal practices, including
payment for ecosystem services (which creates a market for
ecosystem services in addition to food, fiber, fuel, and other
farm products so that farmers can be compensated for protecting
ecosystem services); regulation and fines for environmental
degradation, using the “polluter pays” principle (in which the
onus to clean up a polluted site is on the person or company
responsible for the pollution and benefiting in some way from
it); and financial support to convert farming systems to organic

7. or other agroecological practices with lower environmental
costs but perhaps lower yields, particularly in the first years of
conversion.
Chapter 4 reword
Discussion Questions
1. Many believe that truly addressing inequities in the food
system requires going beyond food to address inequities in
society. Yet, those social inequities are difficult to change for
many reasons. Where would you focus your energy?
Answer: I will focus my energy more on food equities because
the nature of the food system- from agricultural production
through retailing and consumption to trade contributes to food
insecurity and inequities in diet-related health. The food system
is also a major contributor to climate change and is increasingly
affected by it, thus resulting in reduced quantity and
affordability of food in many countries. This contribution is
predicted to increase and to cause disproportionate harm too
vulnerable populations.
2. The authors note that in some cases their discussion of how
our food system affects inequalities is speculative (particularly
due to a lack of evidence on pathways from broad national and
international food systems forces to health inequalities). Do you
agree? Why and why not?
Answer: I agree with the speculations because from the text, its
been shown how food system and its components are key loci
and contributors to explaining health disparities. The products
and externalized costs of our food production system are
inequitably distributed throughout society, as a result of supply,
demand, and other social and economic factors. The
determinants of disparities are like a prism, refracting the
elements of our food system and making them differentially
available, accessible, and even preferred by various sectors of
society. The UN has defined food security as a situation
whereby “all people, at all times, have physical, social and

8. economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that
meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and
healthy life.”
3. Julie Guthman’s piece, “Foodies on a Mission,” is
provocative. What you think of her view of a civilizing mission
in the alternative-food movement?
Answer: I think her mission is to a positive one that would
change people’s way and manner of eating, educating them on
how to eat healthy and not just to consume junks thinking
they’re eating food. And this is common amongst the colored
people who just eat all they find at the grocery stores not even
bothered about how the food comes about, its nutritional value,
or even the mode of preservation, as long as it is present in the
neighborhood store, it is believed to be good food, so the
‘civilizing mission on the alternative food movement would
open their eyes to what food is and not the junks they are used
to, and as it is called a mission it should be something that
should be worthy of emulation and not imposed on the people.
4. Patricia Allen writes, “Although local food movements
cannot be held responsible for rectifying injustices of the past,
neither is it clear how physical geography is a defensible arbiter
for boundaries of caring, action, or understanding.” Do you
think we should have some special responsibility to those who
are more local to us?
Answer: yes, I think we should have some special responsibility
to those who are more local to us because if there are people
assigned with special responsibilities, local food movements
would be controlled, and locals would also be responsible for
feeding themselves in a way to make it go round the community.
5. The chapter authors write that it is possible that over the
middle and longer term, food system environmental threats
might contribute to making the healthy and sustainable choice
the affordable choice. Do you agree or disagree?
Answer: I totally agree with the author, it is possible that over
the middle and longer term, food system environmental threats

9. might contribute to making the healthy and sustainable choice
the affordable choice.