Unit 5: Agriculture, Food Production and Rural Land Use 

This video is about how women make up the majority of the agricultural workforce and that giving them access to land, water, markets, and technology could increase food production by 30%. This in return would help boost the economy. Places such as Kenya have given women the same resources as men and have seen a 22% increase in crop production. In Brazil, programs targeting women in agriculture have helped cut the population in extreme poverty by half and malnutrition by 73%. This video encourages people around the world to help give women the resources they need in order to increase the food production and economy. 

This relates to unit 5 because it deals with agriculture and particularly women's roles in agriculture. This video explains how increased resources can help end world hunger. Women are not given as much opportunity as men and this video expresses need to invest in women's rights. 

This article relates to my topics development and agriculture by showing how important it is that how equipping women with the right tool can make so much more food and how other countries should accept women and give them rights. Just like the video states women make up a majority of the world and countries need to take that advantage. Just like the video states women make up a majority of the world and countries need to take that advantage. Sooner or later the population will take over how much food we make, even with new technology we still might not make it fast enough or enough to support life on earth. The video states that we need to increase food production to 70% by 2050

 In my opinion, this video really does touch base with how women are treated today in modern society and how they can become a really big impact on our food production if only they had the access to the same resources as men do. Then maybe we might have a chance to reach the goal what we need to in 2050.

British artist Mishka Henner took photographs and enhanced the colors of feedlots to reveal the agribusiness of meat production. Photographs of feedlots are considered illegal and the legal repercussions of Mishka Henner are not clear at the moment, but the photographs are shocking and reveal again how little Americans know about their food production. 

Americans have changed the places and utilized them to build agribusiness empires and have introduced new problems to the landscape of feedlot and farming towns.

This article makes me sickened. With previous knowledge of factory farms I know of the horrors that go on but this takes the cake. These pictures shown in the article depict the chemical and waste spill off which I am absolutely sure this is NOT good for the environment.

Beautiful imagery at one scale tells an unsavory story at another.

Time for more pictures, my favorite part of scooping. Mongolia is almost entirely forgotten in US education, to the point where many of the people I know aren't even sure if there's a government at all. My favorite part of these pictures comes from the fusion of technology and tradition though. We see traditional housing and boys carrying water to their homes, and then a flat screen television in the makeshift house. Motorcycles are used to herd animals, and solar polar is used to power cell phones for the nomads. What I think is important here among other things is the idea that humanity has potentially reached a point where we cannot go backwards tech-wise. The dark ages in Europe saw knowledge being lost, and there are claims that humanity will wipe out its own tech in a great war, but now that we have the knowledge and ability to use solar panels and automobiles, I don't believe we'll ever lose them as a species.

I have eaten McDonalds fries and bunch of times and never thought about what 'golden standard" actually meant. McDonalds like it says in the article is one of the top potoate buyers in the world. I'm sure most other fast food places aren' too far behind. However since McDonalds is one of the top buyers of potatoes farmers much make sure they produce enough of the potatoes that McDonalds sells. However it doesn't stop there. Not only do farmers have to produce enough potatoes, but they have to produce quality potatoes. All of McDonalds fries look exactly the same. You never really get a french fry that looks extremely different. That is done on purpose. McDonalds only purchases potatoes that meet their "golden standard". This makes you think how much goes to watste. Farmers are probably discarding "bad" potatoes all the time that don't meet the "golden standard". Does it really matter what the fries look like, if they taste the same? There are people in the world who are hungry, yet we waste food like this all the time. I really don't think it is that big of a deal if not every french fry looks exactly the same. We should make an attempt at trying to limit our food waste. 

Fries are the essential food that everyone enjoys in the world. But it is a good thing because if a potato has a growth defect probably that would affect someone and that is a law suit waiting to happen. In the United States people love suing for anything that they could probably win and receive money. The fries are delicious but they are so fattening that could really effect people if they have any issues with there health. 

The packaging on the McDonald's fry box states, "Why are our fries the gold standard? Because only a select number of potato varieties make the cut. I'm lovin' it®"  This is a message is primarily aimed at millions of individual consumers.  As geographers who analyze systems, we can look at this message for meaning beyond taste and quality control in how it affect both urban and rural places.  Given that McDonald's is the United States' largest purchaser of potatoes, what are the economic and agricultural implications for their fry selection on the market(s)?  How does this impact farmers, consumers, competitors and other groups?   

Unit V, main idea of the unit!

Unit 5

This conveys some important realities about the demographic necessities of agriculture, the economic impact and the cultural differences in agricultural production. As with all long infographics on this site, you can "scroll down" on the image by putting the cursor in the top right-hand corner of the image and sliding on the translucent bar. 

Tags: agriculture, infographic, unit 5 agriculture.

Very funny

Good for sessions on Animal Welfare and Farm Assurance.

unit 5

I thought this NPR broadcast was a great out of class referece to listen too.  As it explaine all the work and research that was being done with GMOs, it also exposed them for there flaws and what the real motives behind them are. While this ex source of rice with extra vitman A will deffenitly provid more nutitonal value then regular rice, it also provides higher profit margins for the bioengneer compaines that make it. So its almost hard to say weather GMOs are a bad or good thing beacuse they do have benifts, but one thing is clear there not just being made to help the poor, there being made for big profit possibilities.

Alright this is a reason GMF's can be used for good. Asian children do not get enough vitamin a. "When children are weaned, they're often weaned on a rice gruel. And if they don't get any beta-carotene or vitamin A during that period, they can be harmed for the rest of their lives,".

This is a great podcast that emphasizes various geographic themes including agriculture, development and economics.  This new genetically-modified rice was designed to provide vitamin A (something no natural rice provides) to impoverished diets.  Skeptics point out that the history of the industry shows that the goal is to enrich a select number of corporations while some are hailing this as a major advancement that will benefit the poor.  Where people side on this is often ideological, so those that are firmly against genetically modified foods find the flaw in the plan and vice versa.  What do you think?  How might this change food production and consumption worldwide and at a local scale?  

Tags: GMOs, development, NGOs, Food, agriculture, agribusiness, unit 5 agriculture.