Syllabus and Readings, Week by Week.
IMPORTANT: I will try to arrange a field trip to one or two relevant agencies or locations. Perhaps, the field trip may be scheduled outside regular class hours, I will do this in exceptional circumstances. If the field trip occurs outside regular class hours, then I will strongly encourage students to attend, and also propose an alternative assignment for those students who cannot adjust their schedule.
IMPORTANT: Final exam according to JCU Exams Schedule. For Fall 2014, the Final Exams will be scheduled from December 6 to 12, inclusive; notice that Final Exams may be held on a Saturday or Sunday. I cannot reschedule the date of the Final exam.
Syllabus Week by Week
Week 1: Common Food Commodities Today. Students, choose your food (and country).Reading: http://faostat.fao.org/site/339/default.aspx , or USDA Global Crop Production Analysis http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/
Week 2: Domestication of major animals and crops (timing and place, in order to set the scene for when humans made major steps in controlling and managing their food supply), the First Agricultural Revolution.Reading: Jared Diamond, “Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication,” in Nature, 2002 [myJCU]. Optional reading: K Brown, New Trips through the Back Alleys of Agriculture, Science, 27 April 2001, Vol 292, p. 631-633 [myJCU].
Week 3 and 4: Grains (where grown, population served, cultivation requirements)
Wheat, domestication and cultivation. Reading: 1. Curtis, BC. 2002, “Wheat in the world” in Curtis, BC et al. (eds.) Bread Wheat: Improvement and Production (FAO Plant Production and Protection Series No. 30), Rome, FAO, pp. 1–19. [online http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4011e/y4011e04.htm] AND 2. Oregon State University website. OSU Extended Campus: World food crops. Week 4 (Unit 7). Wheat: Triticum aestivum and related species. [online http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/css/330/four/index.htm ]
Corn. Reading: The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by M Pollan (Chapters 1 and 2, but you might enjoy reading more). On reserve in Frohring Library.
Rice. Reading: Oregon State University website. OSU Extended Campus: World food crops. Reading: “Week 4 (Unit 8). Rice - Oryza sativa” [http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/css/330/four/index2.htm]. Optional Reading: International Rice Institute articles on Rice Hybrids, these articles use the concepts of “hybrids,” “lines,” and “yield.” [myJCU folder]
Week 5: pollinators and pests. Reading: FAO, “The importance of Bees in Nature,” [myJCU]; 2. Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder, USDA [online http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572]; 3. J Tylianakis, “Global Plight of Pollinators,” 2013 [myJCU], and 4. the latest news, e.g. “Neonicotinoids Let Virus Thrive in Bees,” December 31st, 2013, Chemistry World, S. Hadlington [myJCU]
Week 6: The Green Revolution. Reading: “Green Revolutionary,” by John Pollock, Technology Review, published by MIT, January/February 2008 [myJCU], and “Biotechnology and the Green Revolution Norman Borlaug” at http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/borlaug.html .
Week 7: Midterm
Week 7 and 8: Bananas.
Readings: Banana knowledge at http://www.promusa.org/tiki-custom_home.php, OR, C. Canine, “Building a Better Banana” at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/banana.html, OR M. Peed, “We Have No Bananas,” the New Yorker, 2011 [in myJCU].
Week 8: Fertilizers, synthetic and organic.
Reading: “Nitrogen and Food Production: Proteins for Human Diets,” by Vaclav Smil, Ambio Vol. 31 No. 2, OR “The oil we eat: Following the food chain back to Iraq,” by Richard Manning at www.harpers.org/TheOilWeEat.html , OR “Food production: Agriculture wars,” by Javier Blas in London and Leslie Hook, “…Potash Supplies…”, Financial Times, August 27, 2010, The Haber Bosch Process [all in myJCU].
Week 9-10: Examples of, and the Pros/Cons of Genetically Modified (Crop) Organisms—Amflora, Golden Rice, Insecticide Sweet Corn.
Readings: SEE references in the power point lectures put on line, and these articles:
· “GM Crops, a World View,” Science magazine, 2011 [myJCU];
· a good short introduction is “Instant Expert: GM Organisms,” by John Pickrell, in New Scientist, September 2006 [MyJCU];
· a longer introduction at http://www.bionetonline.org/English/Content/ff_leg1.htm ;
· the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) reports at http://www.isaaa.org/
· Golden Rice at http://www.goldenrice.org/
· and “Golden Rice: Lifesaver?” by A Harmon, August 24, 2013 www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/sunday-review/golden-rice-lifesaver.html [also in myJCU]
Readings addressing the emerging issue of Herbicide Resistance are presented at:
· http://newsroom.dowagro.com/press-release/dow-agrosciences-statement-about-usda-announcement-regarding-draft-environmental-impac
· http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/2014/01/eis_ge_products.shtml
· http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/biotechnology/2014/faq_brs_eis_ge_products.pdf ,
· http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/01/usda-prepares-greenlight-chemical-war-weeds
Week 11: Sugar, crop sources and sugar substitutes.
Reading: The Biology and Ecology of Sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids), Australian government, December 2004—a long document, peruse to get the essential facts [myJCU]; optional http://web.unbc.ca/chemistry/CHEM110/artificial.pdf
Week 12: Food for Export, e.g. Coffee, Cocoa.
Coffee from the Lavazza Training Center [myJCU]
Week 13: Oils: palm and canola.
Palm Oil Readings: 1. Oregon State University website. OSU Extended Campus: World food crops, Week 7 (Unit 14), Oil Crops, at http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/css/330/seven/index2.htm; 2. UNCTAD Palm Oil Commodity Profile http://www.unctad.info/en/Infocomm/AACP-Products/Palm-oil/.
Optional: L. P. Koh and D. Wilcove, “Is oil palm agriculture really destroying tropical biodiversity?,” 2008 [myJCU] and http://www.facesofpalmoil.org/farmer/6/fao_warns_palm_oil_certification_scheme_may_serve_as_indirect_trade_barrier
Week 13: Biofuels or Food, ethanol from sugar cane and corn, palm oil.
Reading: D. Graham-Rowe, “Beyond food versus fuel,” Nature, 2011; Carter and Miller, “Corn for Food, not Fuel,” OpEd in NYT, 2012 [both in myJCU]
Week 14: Modern Industrial Agriculture to Organic Farming, examples.
Reading: possibly chapter from “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” by M Pollan (Chapters 8 and 9), OR “Is There Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism?” by ANDREW RICE, The New York Times, November 22, 2009.