second semester

Forestry Discussion

Forest fires have pros and cons. One pro for a forest fire is the decrease in diseased insects. The fire stops the spreading of the disease causing a beneficial impact on plants and other animals. A con for a forest fire is that the fire is uncontrolled. It could affect parts of the forest that the fire was not supposed to before causing damage to ecosystems and could possible cause the fire to move over to homes having an economic impact. 

Global Nutrition Discussion

Meat production is high inefficient because it takes a lot of grain to produce a low amount of meat. It takes about 13 million of grain produce to even produce 1 pound of meat. It also takes 11 times more the energy from fossil fuels for meat production than grain production. This contributes a lot to the environment because of the extra air pollution from the usage of the fossil fuels. And takes away land resources.

Genetic Engineering Discussion

Economic-

A benefit economically is that it gives more nutritional value, so that it will be sold more in the stores. A con is that it takes the same amount of resources to produce GM crops and normal crops meaning there is no benefit there.

Environmentally-

A benefit is that the crops are more resistant to disease allowing them to grow faster and healthier. A con is that there can be environmental damage of the soil, surrounding crops, and animals in the ecosystem.

Sustainable Agriculture Discussion

Contour Farming allows the farmers economically to produce more on the soil by preventing soil erosion and environmentally using the land to their advantage and not changing the land.

Crop rotation is another way to economically change your crop yields and sell different crops and improve soil fertility by replacing the corps. 

Pest Management Discussion

IPM- Integrated Pest Management is the management of pests through common-sense uses. Some examples are using animals and conserving specific pests that kill off other pests. 

These things are safer than pesticides because it prevents the pesticides from messing with the land and killing other insects. This helps preserve the animals in the environment and is very effective when compared to traditional pesticide use. 

BIG Picture Discussion  

Human Impact- Humans have a large impact on forests and land. On certain forests they are there to protect and preserve and any action by humans can cause disruptions in that environments. A mishandled forest fire can lead to ecosystems burning down or homes. Along with fires, humans deal with land. In land humans use pesticides and bad agriculture techniques. This leads to soil erosion and infertility causing the soil to regenerate slowly.

Environmental Impact- Environmentally ecosystems can be hurt due to many factors such as forest fires, pesticides, and bad agricultural techniques. The forest fires can cause the ecosystems to burn down and be replenished slowly, but fires also help, if used properly. They can get rid of the bad soil and replace it with a new layer that will assist the soil to grow more. Pesticides have a bad impact on insects, plants, and other animals. Agricultural techniques can cause soil erosion and infertility.

Economic Impact- Genetically modified crops can cause a increase in sales because of the better nutritional value. Pesticides can cause farms to produce faster, in order to sell more crops to the people and then turn around farm more and sell more. Soil conservation techniques used to better farm can also help in economics. Chickens that take 49 days instead of 3 months to raise are better because they are sold for the same price, but raised in less days taking less time and resources. 

Government Legislation- FIFRA gives the foundation for sale, distribution, and use of pesticides. PRIA establishes fees for pesticides and its registrations. FFDCA lets the EPA set a limit of use of pesticides in food and animal feed. FQPA allows FIFRA and FFDCA to set standards on foods to allow higher safety standards. The ESA stops any action from being taken that will harm and endangered species. THe structural pest control act allows people to have a set foundation for pest control and use of insecticides.