IMPORTANT: Usually the UN FAO has one week of open
conferences, devoted to Food Security, in mid-October. The exact days and times are known just 1 or
2 weeks prior—we should try to include at least one FAO conference as part of
classroom time. The conference (or field trip) might be
scheduled outside regular class hours. If the field trip occurs outside regular
class hours, then I strongly encourage students to attend, and also propose an
alternative assignment for those students who cannot adjust their schedule.
IMPORTANT:
The Registrar decides the day of the Final
Exams, exam week includes Saturday and Sunday.
I cannot reschedule.
Syllabus
Week by Week
Week 1: Common Food
Commodities Today. Students, choose your food (and country).
Reading: http://faostat3.fao.org/home/E
(previous version at 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 magazine articles as <
http://ricetoday.irri.org/print-edition/>.”
[for example see these past articles: <IRRI_4_Rice_Articles> myJCU
folder]
Week 5: pollinators
and pests. Reading: 1. 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],4. http://www.aaas.org/news/science-common-crop-pesticide-harms-bumblebee-and-honeybee-species and 5. other updates including “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/
· “Impacts of genetically engineered crops on pesticide use in the U.S. -- the first sixteen years,” by Charles M Benbrook, in Environmental Sciences Europe 2012, 24:24 doi:10.1186/2190-4715-24-24.
· 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
· NYTimes Editorial. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/opinion/17mon3.html
· Carcinogenicty: http://www.nature.com/news/widely-used-herbicide-linked-to-cancer-1.17181
· “Roundup and Risk Assessment,” by Michael Specter http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/roundup-and-risk-assessment , 2015.
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 articles
[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.
Note that Pests
were covered in relation to several crops (wheat, bananas).
Final exam
according to JCU Exams Schedule.