Integration of Science & Policy LSU Chancellor Michael Martin Photo from media.2theadvocate.com Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden Photo from media.2theadvocate.com.

Integration of Science & Policy

LSU ChancellorMichael Martin

Photo from media.2theadvocate.com

Baton Rouge Mayor-President

Kip Holden

Photo from media.2theadvocate.com

Louisiana GovernorBobby Jindal(Republican)

Photo from Wikipedia

U. S. PresidentBarack Obama

(Democrat)

Photo from Wikipedia

Photo of Hutchinson from Yale Peabody Archives

“The most practical lasting benefit science can now offer is to teach man to avoid destruction of his own environment, and how, by understanding himself with true

humility and pride, to find ways to avoid injuries that at present he

inflicts on himself with such devastating energy.”

(1943)

Integration of Science & Policy is not new…

G. Evelyn Hutchinson (1903 – 1991)

"Eat food [not highly-processed,

food-like material]. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Recommended books

Images of book jackets from Amazon.com

Photo from Wikipedia

Michael Pollan (b. 1955)

The Botany of Desire (2001)The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006)

In Defense of Food (2008)Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual (2009)

Books

Featured in the Movie Food, Inc.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma

Image of U. S. Department of Agriculture Food Pyramid from Wikipedia

The Omnivore’s Dilemma

“When you can eat just about anything nature has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the potential

foods on offer are liable to sicken or kill you” (Pollan 2006)

Photo of combine harvesting corn from http://www.veganforum.com

Our modern diet

“Industrial agriculture has supplanted a complete reliance on the sun for our calories with… a food chain that draws much of its energy from fossil fuels”

i.e., the “industrial food chain” (Pollan 2006)

Photos of Chicken McNuggets® (c. 1997) and ice cream (gelato) from Wikipedia

Our modern diet

The corn (and petroleum)-based origin of much of our food is cryptic

Image of corn (Poaceae: Zea mays) & photo of Friesian-Holstein cow from Wikipedia

Record-setting yields through artificial selection

Images from Wikipedia

Record-setting yields require heavy inputs of fuel, fertilizers, antibiotics, etc.

“When humankind acquired the power to fix N, the basis of soil fertility shifted from a total reliance on energy of the sun to a new reliance on fossil fuel”

(Pollan 2006)

N2 + Energy from = Ammonia (NH3) Oil

Photo of corn monoculture from Wikipedia

Record-setting yields require heavy inputs of fuel, fertilizers, antibiotics, etc.

“Fertilizer opens the way to monoculture… fixing N allowed the food chain to turn from… biology… [to] industry… humanity began to sip petroleum”

“It takes more than a calorie of fossil fuel energy to produce a calorie of food”

(Pollan 2006)

Image of most recent Farm Bill logo from: www.ky.nrcs.usda.gov; statistics from Batie (2009)

Case study: U.S. “Farm Bills”

U.S. farm policy dramatically impacts the environment (e.g., ecosystem services), economics (globally through trade), human health, etc…

Farms & ranches are managed by <2% of the U.S. population, yet the lands account for ~50% of total acreage

Image of most recent Farm Bill logo from: www.ky.nrcs.usda.gov; statistics from Batie (2009)

Case study: U.S. “Farm Bills”

At least 10 omnibus bills (provisions that amend or modify other existing laws, or that establish new laws) that became acts of Congress

since mid-20th century

Food, Conservation & Energy Act of 2008

Photo from www.countryliving.com

Case study: U.S. “Farm Bills”

Owing to changes in farm bills since ~1950s, “instead of supporting farmers, the government

was now subsidizing every bushel of corn a farmer could grow…”

In October 2005 it cost ~$2.50 to grow a bushel (8 gallons) of corn in Iowa, but Iowa grain

elevators were paying $1.45/bushel; the U.S. government more than made up the

difference through direct subsidy payments

“This is a system designed to keep production high and prices low”

Pollan (2006)

Who especially benefits from this subsidy?

Photo from http://uwstudentweb.uwyo.edu

Case study: U.S. “Farm Bills”

The glut of surplus corn:

floods world markets with cheap corn – contributing to the demise of farmers overseas

(thereby increasing poverty)

Photo from Wikipedia

Case study: U.S. “Farm Bills”

The glut of surplus corn:

makes Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) economically viable

Case study: U.S. “Farm Bills”

The glut of surplus corn:

fuels food corporations with cheap material with which to make cheap, unhealthy processed food

“We break down [corn]… into… component parts [e.g., high-fructose corn syrup] and then reassemble them into high-value-added food systems”

(Pollan 2006)

Photos from Wikipedia

Case study: U.S. “Farm Bills”

The glut of surplus corn:

contributes to obesity and diet-related disease (e.g., type II diabetes)

“When yields rise, the market is flooded… price collapses… clever marketers… figure out [how]… to induce the human omnivore to consume the surfeit of cheap calories”

(Pollan 2006)

Photos from Wikipedia

Case study: U.S. “Farm Bills”

The glut of surplus corn:

contributes to obesity and diet-related disease (e.g., type II diabetes)

“It behooved our hunter-gatherer ancestors to feast whenever the opportunity presented itself, allowing them to build up reserves of fat against future

famine… it is the amped-up energy density of processed foods that gets omnivores like us into trouble”

(Pollan 2006)

Photos from Wikipedia

Alternatives?

Industrial organic is not much different from traditional industrial agriculture

Image from http://extoxnet.orst.edu

Alternatives?

Local organic

Photo from http://activerain.com

Alternatives?

Minimal packaging (often associated with minimal processing & minimal travel distance)

Photo of sweet corn from Wikipedia & photo of processed, canned corn from www.generalmills.com

Vs.