Outline:
- Food and ecological processes
- Food and evolution
- Food and global change
- Three global crises in food and agriculture
(and feasible remedies)
Food and global change
- Agriculture has the greatest environmental impact of any human activity.
- Agriculture and food are an engine of political and social change.
- Food is a major determinant of human health.
- Enough food is produced to feed the human population well, yet 1 billion people are chronically hungry.
Ecological processes
- Food has been a focus for predation and competition throughout human evolution.
- Agriculture occupies 40% of Earth’s land area today and is the primary cause of habitat transformation.
- Human appropriation of net primary production (NPP0)
- HANPP is the combined effect of “harvest” and productivity changes due to human influences.
- Humans appropriated 24% of global NPP in 2000.
