Sustainable Agriculture & Food Security lecture to CSULB 4-26-2013

LONG BEACH GROWS
Growing a more sustainable future
www.longbeachgrows.org
LONG BEACH GROWS has 501(c)(3) non-proﬁt status
(Tax ID # 20-4583660) thanks to our partnership with
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LONG BEACH GROWS
Food security through urban agriculture
www.longbeachgrows.org
LongBeachGrows.Org
Long Beach
GROWS
LBGROWS Mission is to advocate for
a just and equitable food system & to
promote green, healthy, sustainable
urban agriculture in LB, CA and other
activities that educate, enhance, and
grow our communities by ensuring
and safeguarding local food security.
©2013, D. Marykwas, LBGROWS

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Sustainability & Security
of our Food System
SUSTAINABLE
meeting current environmental, economic, and
social needs without compromising the well-being
of future generations (Center for Ecoliteracy)
FOOD SECURITY
affordable, nutritious, culturally appropriate*
food for all people at all times (USDA** National
Institute of Food and Agriculture)

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Community Food Security
The Community Food Security Coalition (www.foodsecurity.org) states
that, “at a basic level, CFS is about making healthy food accessible to
all, including low-income people. It’s about making nutritious &
culturally appropriate food accessible, not just any food. It is about
promoting social justice & more equitable access to resources, &
building & revitalizing local communities & economies. It’s about
supporting local, regional, family-scale, & sustainable farmers &
businesses. It’s about empowering diverse people to work together to
create positive changes in the food system & their communities... and
much more.”

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FOOD SYSTEMS
G R O W I N G H A R V E S T I N G TRANSPORTING PR OCE S S I N G PA C K A G I N G WHOLESALING R E TA I L I N G E AT I N G D I S P O S I N G
Growers use
heavy
equipment
to prepare
soil, and
plant and
maintain
crops on
huge farms
of single
“monocrops.”
Farm
workers
gather the
ripened
crop from
the ﬁeld
using large
machinery,
harvesting
great
quantities
at once.
Food
processors
use factory
equipment
to chop,
grind, dry,
boil, can, or
freeze food
to preserve
it or to make
it more
convenient.
Processed
food is
often greatly
altered from
its natural
state.
Workers
operate
machinery
to put
food into
cans, bags,
boxes,
or other
containers
for sale.
The
packaging
protects
food and
helps sell
it.
People
buy,
prepare,
and eat
the food.
People
discard
leftover
food and
packaging.
While most
is recyclable
or com-
postable,
much of it
ends up in
landﬁlls.
Wholesalers
sell and
distribute
large
quantities
of foods to
stores.
Retailers
sell foods to
customers,
usually in
supermarkets,
grocery
stores, or
other stores.
Transporta-
tion workers
move the
food by
air, truck,
train, ship,
or barge.
Transporting
may
happen at
many steps
and for very
long hauls.
I N D U S T R I A L F O O D S Y S T E M
X
Nourish Curriculum Guide © WorldLink Developed by the Center for Ecoliteracy

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Overpopulation
Threatens Food
Security
Global population issues
7 billion late 2011
+80 million more per year
9 billion people in <40 years
Carrying capacity
Max load or population size the environment
can sustain w/o degradation, given limits of
food, water, habitat & other resources
1 billion*
4.2 billion in 1976 (epi)
World Population, 1800-2010, with Projection to 2100

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Food Security
Global Issues
K-selection
initial rapid growth,
eventual zero growth
equilibrium
regulatory factors
lower birth rate
reduced food
r-selection
rapid growth
exhausts resources
populations collapse
boom and bust cycle
regulatory factors
mortality

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Food Security
Global Issues
HUNGER
~1 billion people hungry worldwide
> 50 million hungry in U.S. (1 in 6)
Stunts children’s physical & mental
growth (e.g. 48% of all children in India)
33.8%-37.7% of LA county residents
cannot afford enough to eat (HealthyCity.org)
In LB, 55% of our youth live in poverty.
Percent of Families
with Foodless Days
India 24
Nigeria 27
Peru 14
Source: GlobeScan Inc. via EPI
Source: Press-Telegram
LB Salvation Army food pantry

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U.S. Farmers & Farmland
Dwindling
1935, 6.8 million U.S. farms to feed ~127 million people
2011, 2.1 million U.S. farms to feed >285 million people
<1% of U.S. population are farmers
40% of U.S. farmers are "55 years old
USDA 2010 US trade totaled $116 billion
CA AgVision 2010, CA alone produces 1/8 of US total ag
output

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Current rural/urban divide
threatens food security
Total land area of U.S. 9.14759E+12 square meters
Land area of U.S. rural areas 8.87205E+12
80.7% of the U.S. population live on 3% of the land

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Food Waste
33 million tons of food dumped in
U.S. landﬁlls in 2010, ~200
pounds/year/person (EPA)
this accounts for 1/4 of all
freshwater used in U.S. (PLOS)
decomposing waste in landﬁlls
yields GHG methane (20X worse
than CO2)
the food wasted could feed 50
million people (USDA)

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Food Waste Reduction
Reduce commercial
waste by reducing
overstocking at
groceries
Change people’s
wasteful habits; most
blemished food is still
edible; could even be a
sign that it’s “Organic”
Biodiesel

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Monocrops
threaten food
security
Industrial agriculture favors monocrops
Biodiversity is the buffer needed for resilience
A clonal crop can be wiped out by disease, if
susceptible (Great Potato Famine 1845-1852)
Monocrops endanger us during times of environmental
stress (2012 drought decimates U.S. corn & soy,
hottest July on record, 60% of contiguous U.S.)

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Biodiversity safeguards
food security
Source: National Geographic Society, July 2011
A 1983 study by the
Rural Advancement
Foundation International
suggests that 93% of
varieties for 66 crops
had gone extinct.
Millenium Seed Bank
Partnership (Royal
Botanical Gardens Kew)
estimates 60,000 -
100,000 plant species
threatened with
extinction.

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Biodiversity safeguards
food security
Companies that introduce most new unique varieties:
Seed Savers Exchange
Sand Hill Preservation
Native Seed Search
Hortus Botanicals
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

GMO
Crops
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Genetically Modiﬁed
Organism
~75% of processed foods
in U.S. contain genetically
engineered ingredients
threaten
food security

GMO Crops
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Even non-organic baby formula has GMO
ingredients (soy)
Soy (>94%), cotton (>90%), canola (>90%), sugar
beets (>95%), corn (>88%), Hawaiian papaya
(>50%), zucchini & yellow squash (>24,000 acres)
rbGH in milk, food additives, enzymes, rennet etc

GMO
Crops
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GMO foods have not been adequately tested for long-
term human health or environmental safety
Monsanto’s Roundup Ready™ (herbicide resistant) seeds
require poisoning the environment with glyophosphate
GMO-seeds can contaminate neighboring non-GMO and
organic crops and result in herbicide resistant weeds
Corporate greed, monopoly, and monocropping of our food
supply

GMO Crops
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Bt toxin (insecticide)
Bacillus thuringiensis toxin
Safety is debatable
Dangers
Roundup Ready™
(herbicide resistant)
Glyophosphate
Safety is debatable

GMO food animals
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Aquabounty’s AquAdvantage™ salmon
Grows twice as fast as normal b/c it grows all year
Chinook salmon growth hormone gene controlled by a
promoter from eel-like ocean pout, in Atlantic salmon
Supposed to be all female and sterile
FDA approve 12/21/12: “it is recognized” that #5% eggs may
be fertile, “meets standard of identity for Atlantic
salmon,” “no material differences,” “there is a reasonable
certainty of no harm”

GMO Crops
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1 Possible Advantage
"A single bowl of this new golden rice
can supply 60 percent of a child's
daily requirement of vitamin A."
actually beta-carotene

GMO Crops
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Global Warming
Threatens
Food Security
• The massive burning
of fossil fuels is
increasing the level of
carbon dioxide (CO2)
in the atmosphere,
raising the earth’s
temperature and
disrupting climate
Photo Credit: Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Average Global Temperature and Atmospheric
Carbon Dioxide Concentrations, 1880-2012

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Global Warming
Threatens
Food Security
Every 1$ rise in temperature above a crop’s growing
optimum is expected to reduce yields of wheat, rice, corn
by 10% (API)
Melting glaciers will eliminate reservoirs of irrigation
water; melting Greenland ice sheet will raise sea level and
ﬂood rice ﬁelds/river deltas
Industrial agricultural practices contribute to global
warming

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Sustainable Agriculture
Requires
Clean Energy for a
Cooler Planet
The Sun that heats our planet can be our savior
Solar energy should replace fossil fuels
1.22x10^34 joules per year
Earth intercepts 2 billionths, 2.44x10^25 joules/year
Sunlight hitting the Earth in 1 hour could power global
economy for 1 year (EPI)

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Sustainable Energy
Biofuel crops
are not the solution
Between 2005 and 2011, the amount of grain used to produce fuel for cars in the
United States climbed from 41 million to 127 million tons—nearly a third of the U.S.
grain harvest. (EPI)
U.S. corn is largest crop of any grain worldwide, critical to world food supplies
Close to 1/3 U.S. grain now going to ethanol to feed cars instead of people
Grain used to fuel U.S. cars in 2011 could have fed 400 million people
The grain needed to ﬁll an SUV’s 25-gallon tank with ethanol once could feed one
person for a year.
Entire U.S. grain harvest could only supply 18% of current U.S. gasoline demand
Biofuel crops worldwide destroy rain forests, don’t solve the GHG emission problem,
and can have low net yields of energy once the input is accounted for

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Food Miles
The distance food travels from
farm to fork
Sustainable Agriculture Food and Environment (SAFE)
Alliance, Professor Tim Lang
Difﬁcult to calculate, difﬁcult to judge
It seems intuitive that the fossil fuels required for
global transport/food trade make long distance food
production environmentally unsustainable (i.e. depletes
energy reserves, contributes to GHG emissions & global
warming)
But method of travel and bulk of food transported in
each trip matters

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Despite the uncertain math of GHG emissions
gains/losses, reducing the food mile certainly
helps the local economy
Plus food that travels shorter distances requires
less time to transport, so must be fresher
Food that travels shorter distances can be picked
ripe from the vine, so is of higher quality
Food Miles
The distance food travels from
farm to fork

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Sustainability
Requires
Water
Worldwide 70% of water used for agriculture
~40% of world grain harvest irrigated
>50% world’s people live in countries where
water tables are falling as aquifers are
depleted. (Full Planet, Empty Plates, Lester Brown)
San Joaquin Valley water crisis due to
pumping - by 1972, 1/2 valley dropping as
much as 28 ft
Subsidence

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Switch to efﬁcient irrigation methods (drip
irrigation)
Replace water hungry crops (like rice) with more
water-efﬁcient crops (like wheat)
Recycle water
Use economic disincentives to discourage water
overuse
Reduce reliance on animal products and feed via
rotating pastures rather than water-hungry grain
Requires
Water Conservation

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Requires
Top Soil
"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land,
purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Maya Empire: forest clearing led to soil erosion, loss of soil fertility & food
1930’s U.S. Great Plains Dust Bowl
Overplowing, overgrazing, and deforestation result in soil erosion
1/3 of world’s cropland losing topsoil and is not sustainable

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Requires
Soil Conservation
Photo Credit: USDA ARS
Photo Credit: Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Photo Credit: USDA/Dave Clark
No-till farming
Terracing
Replenish grasslands to prevent soil
erosion
Terracing
Pant tree shelterbelts (blocks wind
erosion)
Strip cropping (alternate heavy-rooted &
loosely rooted plants)
No-till farming

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Requires
Nutrient-Rich Soil but
Fertilizer that is
Environmentally Sustainable
Source: Washington Post 4-18-13
Fertilizer a dangerous $10 billion U.S. industry
April 2013, West, TX retail factory explosion of
ammonium nitrate (270 tons)
Ammonium nitrate and other Nitrogen
fertilizers made by combustion of natural gas
and N2 in air into ammonia
Phosphate (P2O5) fertilizers by acid mining
Potash (K2O) fertilizers by mining
Source: Mother Jones/Tom Philpott 1-30-13
Pollutes water ways, destroys organic matter in soil, emits NO greenhouse
gas 300X worse than CO2, hydraulic fracking for natural gas destroys the
environment, as does acid mining

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Requires
Earth-Friendly Fertilizers
and Approaches
Replace or rotate nitrogen-hungry crops (like corn) with crops
that use less nitrogen (oats, wheat)
Use green cover crops that create usable nitrogen by nitrogen
ﬁxation (legumes: alfalfa, peas, beans, clover, lupin, etc.)
Use compost and composted manure
Rock phosphate (also has calcium) & bonemeal
Potash (potassium carbonate, K2CO3) - widespread - some
sources are wood ash, seaweed
Source: LSU AgCenter

USDA Certiﬁed Organic
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Organic Foods Production Act, 1990 Farm Bill
National Organic Program
USDA Nat’l Organic Standards Board, April 1995
“Organic agriculture is an ecological production
management system that promotes and enhances
biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological
activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs
and on management practices that restore, maintain
and enhance ecological harmony.”

LBGrowsOrganic Practices
Use of cover crops, green manures, animal manures and
crop rotations to fertilize the soil, maximize biological
activity, maintain long-term soil health
Use of biological control, crop rotations, other
techniques to manage weeds, insects, diseases
(Integrated Pest Management)
Emphasis on biodiversity of agricultural system and
surrounding environment
Rotational grazing and mixed forage pastures for
livestock and alternative health care for animal well-
being

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Organic Practices
Reduction of external and off-farm inputs and
elimination of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and
other materials, such as hormones and antibiotics
Focus on renewable resources, soil and water
conservation, and management practices that restore,
maintain, and enhance ecological balance
Speciﬁcally excludes synthetic fertilizers, sewage
sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering (see Nat’l
List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances)
Small organic farms and businesses, i.e. gross sales <
$5,000/yr are “exempt” from certiﬁcation requirements
but still need to follow all USDA requirements including
the 3 years of records before calling themselves
organic

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Organic Animal Products
Livestock products must have been raised organically
from the last third gestation or hatching
Poultry - continuous organic from 2nd day of life
Dairy- from 1 year prior to production of milk, with
exceptions

Non-organic
animal husbandry
practices
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Feeding processed downer cattle to other ruminants
(now prohibited) led to the evolution of mad cow
disease
However, still feed chicken feathers, bones, &
carcasses to herbivores
The use of chemotherapy to kill worms, insects, and
other parasites
The routine use of antibiotics on otherwise healthy
animals
The routine use of hormones
The use of GMO-feed

Truly* Organic & Sustainable
Animal Husbandry
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Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms
550 acres of farm, forest, pond, hills in
Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley
He calls himself a grass farmer (i.e. 12 ft tall),
sequesters carbon faster than shrubs than
trees
Yearly yield: 40,000 lbs of beef, 30,000 lbs of
pork, 10,000 broilers, 1200 turkeys, 1000
rabbits, 35,000 dozen eggs

Truly Organic
Sustainable
Animal Husbandry
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Polyface Cows & Pigerators
Winter: cows under simple awnings with wood chips
“carbonaceous diaper” - absorbs the waste, prevents
volatilization or runoff- 50 lbs per cow per day - gets
3-4 feet deep - add corn
Eat hay out of raised sanitary clean box
The mix composts anaerobically, ferments the corn
Spring - cows go to pasture, pigs seek corn, aerate the
compost - then spread on the ﬁelds
Pigs then used to disturb the pre-pasture and oak
forest- this wakes up latent seed bank, never seeded
This allows more carbon sequestration
Contrasts with 75% of U.S. manure never used
Source: Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm, Edible Education 103

Truly Organic Sustainable
Animal Husbandry
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Example: Cows Moving, Mobbing, Mowing
Rotates cattle daily, 100 per new 1/4 acre rested
paddock enclosed with cheap electric fencing & gravity
fed water from ponds through plastic piped water
In 3 days, 300 hens (sanitation crew) brought in hen
mobile, eat larvae out of cow patties, disperse the
manure, add their own fertilizer
In 6 weeks new grass cut for hay or used for pasture
Grass maintains root-shoot ratio, sheds roots, feeds soil
microbes
Each year generates more biodiversity, more fertility,
more soil, not less
Achieves 400 cow days per acre, 5x county average
Source: Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm, Edible Education 103

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Current rural/urban divide
threatens food security
1910, LA county was the most productive agricultural
county in the country.
1955 was the last time LA county could feed itself.
Now, most people living in “the city” are disconnected
from the source of their nourishment.

Urban Agriculture
Local Food Security
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Cities Can (& should) Feed Themselves
UC Berkeley’s Nobel-prize winning
energy scientist Daniel Kammen
host of Discovery Channel’s “Ecopolis”
has rated urban farming as one of
the top ﬁve priority solutions
for a sustainable future.
Although he estimates only a
2% reduction in the carbon footprint?

Urban Agriculture
Local Food Security
2011 Ohio State University study, Professor Parwinder
Grewal calculates that Cleveland and other cities can
grow 100% of their fresh produce, 94% of their
poultry & eggs, & 100% of their honey
Cleveland has >3000 acres of vacant lots
Cleveland has 2900 acres of ﬂat roof tops
Cleveland has >200 community gardens (50 acres)
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Urban Agriculture
Local Food Security
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Rooftops
Brooklyn Grange, NYC
40,000 sq ft
for-proﬁt farm
UpGarden, Seattle
30,000 sq ft
public community garden

Cities should farm all of
their underutilized space
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Long Beach Civic
Center
Rooftop

Urban Agriculture
Local Food Security
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Vertical & High Tech Greenhouses
Plantagon Greenhouse
Atlanta Botanical Garden
vertical herb garden

Urban Agriculture
Local Food Security
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Urban Ag

Urban Agriculture
Local Food Security
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Land estimates don’t include land needed
to grow animal feed. Corn would require 2640 sq ft.

Urban Agriculture
Local Food Security
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Estimates 0.5 acres of arable land per person.
Includes wheat but not corn. Globally, this amounts
to ~4 billion acres of land, about the area of Russia.

Sustainable
Organic
Safe
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SOS

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LBGROWS
Unity Farm
5450 Atherton St

References
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Earth Policy Institute, www.earth-policy.org
Edible Education 103: “Farming as Dance, The Choreography of
Polyculture,” Joel Salatin
Feeding America, feedingamerica.org
Green, A NYTimes Blog About Energy and the
Environment, “A War Against Food Waste,” 9-15-11
Institute for Responsible Technology,www.responsibletechnology.org
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Mother Jones. Tom Philpott, “The Surprising Connection between Food and
Fracking,” 1-30-2013
Nourish Curriculum Guide © Worldlink Developed by the Center for
Ecoliteracy (Food Systems Diagram)
sustainablescale.org (Carrying Capacity Diagram)
Sustainable Food News, “Study: Cities can produce most of their food,”
9-10-11
United States Census Bureau (www.census.gov)
United States Department of Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture & Food Security lecture to CSULB 4-26-2013

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