Phosphorous Leakage II: a nice little summary

Following on from my previous post about Phosphorous leakage and the need to reuse and recycle phosphorous, based on Cordell and colleagues' paper on phosphorous and global food security, here is a short video that I think is useful in summarising the key themes.

The clip is a very simple description of the damaging process of phosphorous leakage and resulting eutrophication. Experts give a small insight into why this process needs to be addressed.

Clearly, phosphorous leakage is a real environmental and socioeconomic problem, and technology exists that could help. But there is a real lack of enforced action. The controversy surrounding the "peak phosphorous" concept (similar to the idea of "peak oil") perhaps epitomises some of the reasons for this. In my next post I will take this concept head on, taking opinions from both sides and (hopefully!) coming out the other end unscathed, better informed, and able to take my own stance on this topic that continues to grow in relevance.

If you can't contain your excitement and enthusiasm, and you feel like a bottle of champagne that's been furiously shaken and about to pop (okay, cava...student budget and all...), then here is a nice little article to get you ready for my next post. If you fancy, I recommend just having a quick scan of sections 1 and 3, where the concept is introduced (section 1) and then related to peak oil (section 3).

Phosphorous Leakage: 'food for thought'...

Phosphorous: a vital ingredient in fertilisers, which have become a necessity in food production.

Intensive agriculture has received bad press in recent years for its detrimental effects on the environment, and particularly on aquatic ecosystems. Eutrophication is becoming increasingly commonplace, causing severe environmental change across the globe. For a little reminder, take a peek at http://www.lakescientist.com/learn-about-lakes/water-quality/eutrophication.html.

The role of phosphorous in this process is a significant one, but the problem of phosphorous leakage from agricultural land into aquatic systems is double-edged. Firstly, the resulting eutrophication causes biodiversity loss and food web simplification, making the ecosystem more vulnerable to other forms of environmental change. But coupled with this is the issue of a growing population. Currently, food cannot be produced at current global levels without the use of artificial fertilisers, and with an estimated 2-2.5 billion new mouths to feed by 2050 our global demand for phosphorous will only increase.

But is there a way we can solve these two problems, in order to avoid further environmental change into the future? Some researchers seem to think so (http://www.agci.org/dB/PDFs/09S2_TCrews_StoryofP.pdf)!

Nearly 100% of the phosphorous eaten in food is excreted, which translates to 3 million tonnes of phosphorous lost down the toilets of the global population every year! So if this phosphorous is recovered and reused before it reaches aquatic systems, eutrophication can be significantly reduced. Moreover, recovery will reduce phosphorous wastage, helping to preserve finite reserves of rock phosphate – from which phosphorous for fertilisers is derived – that would otherwise be exhausted in the next 50 years or so.

So, if we save our wee we could save the world!

Of course, this won’t prevent leakage directly from agricultural land, and my personal opinion is that this is where we should focus in order to really address the problems of damaging environmental change in aquatic systems.

Farming: "The Seed From Which Everything Grows"

I just wanted to follow on from my last post about the origins of farming and to touch on the significance of agriculture in our society, as this may help in explaining why it is so important that we understand how agriculture is influencing our society and our environment.

This very short video clip by the award-winning (which must mean it's good!) History series gives a little insight into the significance of the birth of agriculture, and the importance of farming in developing today's societies. As suggested in this video, farming is the most important ingredient in human civilisation. It allowed us to utilise the surrounding environment in a way never possible before, and we see this continuing today through agricultural revolutions, mechanisation and intensification.

The importance and centrality of agriculture to human populations is unrivalled, and with this the significance of agriculturally-induced environmental change is amplified. If an industry and practice we rely on is damaging our environment, and especially if this is to the detriment of future populations, action must be taken. I will be exploring some of these environmental changes in upcoming posts.

Where Do the Roots of Agriculture Lie?

Before I begin some in-depth exploration into environmental change and the contributions of farming to such change, I want to start where it (agriculture, that is) started. This seems quite uninteresting and straightforward in itself, but in fact the issue of uncovering agriculture's roots is much more complicated.

Where do the roots of agriculture lie? (Source: photosof.org)

An article by Michael Balter in Science explored this 'tangled' issue. As Balter outlines, about 20 000 years ago, mobile populations of hunter-gatherers occupied the steppe biome of the eastern Mediterranean region, existing marginally and very much living in the absence of any form of farming. Then, around 14 500 years ago the climate began to warm. This marks a point where hunter-gatherers, although continuing to hunt, started building permanent settlements from stone and wood, gathering in sedentary communities of several hundred. This culture is known as the Natufians, and is one that is markedly different from the preceding hunter-gatherer culture. Archaeologist Phillip Edwards is quick to note that such communities "represent a key development in human settlement history". So, here we have seen a transition away from hunter-gathering, but the question still remains as to when agriculture began.

This Natufian culture is described by Balter as the 'next-to-last stop on the long road to farming' (2010: 404). Indeed, archaeologists suggest that many of the activities of the early Neolithic - a period of early forms of farming and domestication - have roots in the Natufian. Roots?! We might be on to something! So, if this period is a significant potential time where the roots of agriculture formed, the next question is why?

Central to this debate is the changes to climate - and thus environment - occurring around this time. Most notably, around 13 000 years ago (which just so happens to lie right in the middle of the Natufian cultural period) a cold and dry spell known as the Younger Dryas reversed the post-glacial warming trend. It is this Younger Dryas period and the Natufian response that, for some, holds the clues to why hunter-gatherers settled down and agriculture evolved. A once-popular hypothesis centres around the idea that an environmental crisis resulting from the Younger Dryas forced the Natufians to begin domestication in order to ensure enough food, thus marking the first experiments with agriculture.

Plump rye grains, used to argue that domestication occurred during the Younger Dryas (Source: sciencemag.org)

However, opinions have shifted somewhat and this theory is under increasing scrutiny. Some even argue that climate change did not drive agriculture, and that the Natufians continued as hunter-gatherers throughout the Younger Dryas without signs of attempted domestication. Indeed, the harsher conditions have actually been suggested as a barrier to agriculture, postponing its emergence. In spite of this, researchers do suggest that the cultural innovations of the Natufians helped make agriculture more possible when the Younger Dryas period ended and conditions were more conducive to it. In this view, populations were forced into agriculture because of growing populations as well as being supported by increasing precipitation and milder climates which made farming more attractive and less risky.

All in all, there is no definitive answer. Personally, I am inclined to think that real agricultural evolution began after the Younger Dryas period, and that the Natufian culture marks the cusp of the transition into the agricultural age. What can be said is that although the Natufian culture might not mark the time of agricultural invention, the cultural innovations of this period certainly are likely to have made the later developments of the early Neolithic possible. The Natufian culture is a key point in the transition from hunter-gathering to agriculture, but it remains to be seen whether the roots of agriculture lie here.

Welcome Post

WELCOME!

The beginning of my blogging adventure is both an exciting and perhaps slightly scary prospect, with the chance to speak openly about a topic close to my heart. I hope that in the coming weeks and months I will be able to consolidate relevant literature, popular cultural views and my own opinions to create a personal discussion on the pivotal role of agriculture in global environmental change.

The Topic and its Relation to this Course

I am writing this blog as part of the GEOG3057 module ‘Global Environmental Change’. Through this blog I aim to investigate the linkages between agriculture and the global environment by understanding agricultural contributions to environmental change and what implications and possible crises lie ahead if current practices and trends continue. As the title of the blog alludes to, I will focus particularly on food production and fertiliser use, with further exploration into addressing the growing challenges faced by agriculture in the future.

The relevance of this topic to GEOG3057 centres on the issue of human-induced environmental change. Agricultural advances have played a crucial role in not only altering the natural landscape through conversion and degradation, but also in supporting major population expansions such as The Great Acceleration period of the mid-20^th Century that has led to many of the environmental concerns of today. Currently, global agriculture is becoming more intensive, and synthetic fertiliser use not only more common but also more excessive. This has severe implications for the health and stability of the global environment, and will continue to contribute to environmental changes. 

Some broad questions I hope to address as I explore this topic include:

How have agricultural evolutions impacted the global environment?

To what extent has modern agriculture been detrimental to the global environment?

How does agriculture relate to other contributors of environmental change?

What are the issues faced by future generations that have resulted from modern agriculture?

How should agriculture progress into the future in order to address these issues?

Personal Rationale

Having grown up on a farm I have always had a personal connection with where our food comes from and how it is produced. The connection between the human and the physical has remained a real interest throughout my life. This topic allows me to draw upon my own opinions and experiences to discuss contemporary issues of global environmental change. Not only will I be exploring a topic key to the GEOG3057 module, but also a personal topic that I can really engage deeply with.

A further reason for choosing this topic is that of its societal relevance, being a topic with which anyone can relate to on one level or another. The ways in which food is produced has implications for everyone across the globe, both because of nutritional provision and how it affects other sectors such as biodiversity, nutrient cycles, fossil fuel consumption and freshwater security to name a few.

Thank you for visiting this blog and I hope my future posts are of interest!