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Knowledge Section: Question Section:

Things you know Things that you know you don’t know
o How much of gases are produced by farming?
 Farming had an impact on farming by gas
o Which type of farming impacts the environment the most?
emission from releasing carbon dioxide o What is the major effect of having too much livestock?
13/05/2019
sources such as farming equipment,
o How can greenhouse gases affect the atmosphere?
deforestation, release methane from animal
o How can the increase of greenhouse gases cause climate change?
digestion, impact on the carbon cycle from
o How much material is needed to sustain one’s cow need?
the use of chemicals.
14/05/2019 o How much land is needed for farming for the entire population?
 Ban of meat consumption is one of the
o How much land is needed if we want to feed the whole world with traditional farming?
greatest ways to eliminate the impact of
o How much farming is happening globally?
farming on the environment by decreasing
15/05/20191 o Why does the government promote farming further than decline it?
the number of animals going to be produced
o Is there a way to do farming that will not emit gases?
which leads to the decrease of cow farts.
o How did pesticides become popular?
 Farming includes the domestication of crops
and animals which take a part in climate o Why are people using pesticides?
o Benefits received in daily life from using pesticides for farmers.
change due to gas emission.
 Pesticides as well as emit gases which ends 29/05/2019 o Health problem that could happen from exposing pesticides.
up in the atmosphere leading to trapping of o How to solve health problem caused by exposing pesticides?
o How does the pesticides affect the environment?
heat in Earth.
o Bioaccumulation and biomagnification affect the human body and food chain by how?
Things you learned:
GHG released in farming in farming and relationship to climate change Human health issues from meat, pesticides, and pollution of soil, water, air
 Number of Gases Produced By Farming  Why did pesticides become so popular?
o Farms emitted 6 billion tons of GHGs in 2011 or about 13 percent o The benefits of using pesticides are increasing food production,
of total global emission. farmer’s profit, and prevent disease.
o Farming is world’s second largest emitter after power generations o It is used to help reduce malaria in 1945 and help in preventing
and transport vehicles. many other diseases in Japan.
o Farming-related emissions come in form of methane and nitrous o 37 percent of crop loss is due to pests causing economies to lose 122
oxide mostly, or CH4 and N2O. billion dollars a year, pesticides are used to prevent this money loss.
o Cattle and other livestock releases methane gases. o However, benefits comes with the disadvantages.
o Natural or synthetic fertilizers and wastes produced N2O.  Kinds of issues that can be found from exposing to pesticides:
 Both of the emissions make up 65 percent of agricultural o Endocrine Disruption leads to
emissions globally and internationally.  reduce semen quality
o Other small sources related to farming that emits GHGs includes  early puberty
inappropriate manure management, rice cultivation, field burning of  diabetes and obesity
crop residues, and fuel use on farm.  neurological disorders
o Countries that produces the most GHGs related to farming includes:  hyper and hypothyroidism and thyroid tumors
 China o Acute toxicity lead to
 Brazil  sore throat/cough
 United States  allergic sensitization
 India  eye and skin irritation
 Indonesia  nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
 Russian Federation  headache, loss of consciousness
 Democratic Republic of Congo o Long term toxicity leads to
 Argentina  development of Parkinson disease
 Myanmar  asthma
 Pakistan.  depression and anxiety
 Ten countries listed above contributed 51 percent  cancer
of global agricultural emissions.  leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma
 Agricultural Emission Changes o Exposing to pesticides directly is a very harmful issue but if that
o From 1990s to the present days, GHG emission from farming happens you must be able to act in time by:
increased up to 8 percent.  If it enters your eyes, you wash your eyes for 15 minutes
o It is possible that is will increase to 15 percent in 2030, and there continuously.
will be 7 billion tons of GHGs per year.  If it enters your skin, you need to remove the chemical with
o The increases is cause by human’s population growth and changes soap and water, then throw your clothes away because they
in diet of human, relying on meat more than vegetables than before. will have the remains of the toxic.
o Agricultural emission growth happens greatest Asia and Africa.  If it enters your respiratory system, move into an open space
 Land Use in Agriculture immediately.
o LUCF (Land Use Change and Forestry) caused 4 percent of GHGs  Bioaccumulation and biomagnification:
overall emissions in 2010. o There are two basic terms we are discussing here.
o Most LUCF emissions are connected to agriculture. o Bioaccumulation refers to how pollutants enter a food chain;
o Deforestation caused by the expansion of farms into tropical forests biomagnification refers to the tendency of pollutants to concentrate
are from the increasing of live stocks in many non-tropical regions. as they move from one trophic level to the next.
o In 2000, approximately 37 percent of Earth’s land is used for  Bioaccumulation: increase in concentration of a pollutant
agriculture, one-third of this area of 11 percent is for crops, and the from the environment to the first organism in a food chain
one-fourth is pastureland, and the rest for holding edible animals  Biomagnification: increase in concentration of a pollutant
for convenience stores. from one link in a food chain to another
o However, livestock takes up early 80% of agricultural lands, yet
produces less than 20% of the world’s supply of calories.
 Commercial Farms Measure and Manage their GHG emissions.
o Most farms do not understand how much GHGs they are emitting
each year – making it difficult for them to determine how to reduce
their impact to the environment – to the earth and human
themselves.
o To reduce agricultural emissions on the supply side, crop
management practices should be delivered to every farm –
improvements in fertilizer management and conservation tillage off
the greatest reduction potential.
o Besides, better managing grazing lands such as rotational grazing
and restoring degraded lands and cultivated organic soils in
productivity are also important.
o Shifting away from meat or beef consumption offers the most
potential for reducing GHG emissions like ones above.
o 24 percent of all calories produced to sustain human’s consumption
is reported to become a lost or waste in the food supply chain.
o In other words, reducing food losses and wastes can play a huge
and important role as well in the reduction of GHGs.
 Truth or Liar
o The statement that mentioned that most of the greenhouse gases
produced by cars, factories, and more are not true.
o The most productive of the greenhouse gases was from livestock
that are feeding us, humans.
o Furthermore, the influences such as use less water, ride bikes, and
close lights every time leaving the house is not helping the earth
o With the reason that lessens meat consumption is the true solution
to the greenhouse gases emissions.
 How does the increase of GHGs cause climate change?
o Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and much more gases that
are referred as greenhouse gases are produce by farming –
agriculture for the most.
o In the atmosphere, there are 53 percent of CO2 and 15 percent of
CH4 which is needed to help the earth trap heat within its
atmosphere for the living beings to survive.
o The abilities of these GHGs is that they can reflect heat and trap
heat, but too much of it on Earth is not a good thing.
o When there are too much of these gases more heat is trap in the
atmosphere causing the energy to heat the earth more, or in other
words the climate of earth is increasing because of the gases
produce by human activities which is mostly from energy
production and agricultural activities.
 Trees are no longer helping us from GHGs
o Agriculture is responsible for many of the causes of GHGs from
small bits to large like deforestation.
o In short, before deforestation, degradation of forest, most of the
earth is covered with greenish color of trees.
o However, when deforestation occur for whatever reason which
might also include expanding farming, earth is losing its lung which
is filtering carbon dioxide or 53 percent of the atmosphere to its
balance, more and more carbon dioxide are not absorbed and is
causing earth to trap more heat leading to climate change.
 Countries that are doing the most or with highest rate of
deforestation activities includes:
 Honduras – 37 percent of its forest is destroyed.
 Nigeria – 36 percent of its forest is destroyed.
 The Philippines – 32 percent of its forest is
destroyed.
 Benin – 31 percent of its forest is destroyed.
 Ghana – 28 percent of its forest is destroyed.
 Indonesia – 26 percent of its forest is destroyed.
 Nepal and North Korea – 25 percent of its forest is
destroyed.
 Ecuador and Haiti – 22 percent of its forest is
destroyed.
 Countries most affected by deforestation includes:
 Brazil
 Peru
 Bolivia
 Indonesia
 Russia
 Mexico
 Papua New Guinea
 Sudan
 Nigeria
 Livestock: cattles, cow, buffaloes, pig, and etc.
o As what is state before, methane are released mostly from live
stocks such as cattle, and they are the compound chemicals that
reached the atmosphere at traps heat causing climate changes.
o However, decreasing the meat consumption seems like an
impossible idea, but it really is a great potential to the reduction of
the greenhouse gases produced by farming or agriculture.
o Countries with most of the live stocks includes:
 India
 Brail
 China
 United States
 European Union
 Argentina
 Australia
 Russia
 Mexico
 Turkey
 Uruguay
 Canada
 New Zealand
 Egypt
 Belarus
 Japan
 Ukraine
 South Korea
Sources:
o Bent, E. (2015, June 23). TheConversation. From The ground exhales: reducing agricultures greenhouse gas emissions: https://theconversation.com/the-ground-
exhales-reducing-agricultures-greenhouse-gas-emissions-40795
o Greenhouse gases. (2016, November 8). From Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada: http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/science-and-innovation/agricultural-practices/climate-
change-and-agriculture/greenhouse-gases/?id=1329321969842
o How does agriculture contribute to climate change? (2012, October 21). From WolrdFutureCouncil: https://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/how-does-agriculture-
contribute-to-climate-change/
o How much land in the world is used for agriculture, and do we have enough arable and agriculture land left for food and other resources in the future? (2019,
March 26). From Better Meets Reality: https://www.bettermeetsreality.com/how-much-land-in-the-world-is-used-for-agriculture-do-we-have-enough-arable-
agricultural-land-left-for-food-other-resources-in-the-future/
o Reducing Agricultural Greenhouse Gases. (n.d.). From British Columbia: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/agriculture-seafood/agricultural-land-and-
environment/climate-action/reducing-agricultural-ghgs
o Mills, N. (2018, October 17). Thrive Global. Which Countries are Most Affected by Deforestation. From Community: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/which-
countries-are-most-affected-by-deforestation/
o Agriculture causes 80% of tropical deforestation. (2012, September 27). From Mongabay: https://thriveglobal.com/stories/which-countries-are-most-affected-by-
deforestation/
o World Cattle Inventory: Ranking of Countries. (2019, May 25). From Beef2Live: https://beef2live.com/story-world-cattle-inventory-ranking-countries-0-106905
o

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