Feeding the planet : environmental protection through sustainable agriculture / Klaus Hahlbrock ; translated by David Skogley ; Klaus Wiegandt, general editor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hahlbrock, Klaus, author.

Contributor:

Skogley, David, translator.

Wiegandt, Klaus, editor.

Series:

Sustainability project (London, England)

Sustainability Project

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sustainable agriculture.

Agriculture--Environmental aspects.

Agriculture.

Food supply.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (301 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London, [England] : Haus Publishing, 2009.

Summary:

<div> Almost one billion people suffer from malnutrition worldwide. While the global population is still growing dramatically, many starve. Our climate is threatened while agricultural production stagnates. Klaus Hahlbrock extols a responsible response to dealing with nature and poses an important question: how can we maintain a viable and vital diversity of the species? </div>

Contents:

Intro

FEEDING THE PLANET: Environmental Protection through Sustainable Agriculture

Contents

Editor's Foreword

Preface

Introduction

1 Human Population and Ecological Consequences

Early Phase and the Neolithic Revolution

The Scientific/Technological Revolution

Reduced Biodiversity

Ambivalence of Progress

Priority of Existential Basic Needs

Practical Consequences

The Challenge

Summary The alarming increase in the human population, with its immense need for agriculturally productive land and its growing environmental degradation, has pushed the Earth's biosphere to the breaking point. Qualitative progress must quickly lead to a type of agriculture that combines high productivity with a greatly reduced environmental impact and the sustainable protection of endangered species, water resources, soils and the climate. An analysis of the realistic possibilities thus concent

2 Historical Development of Agriculture, Urban Lifestyles and Man's Perception of Nature

Early Stages of Cultural Evolution

The Fertile Crescent

Advanced Civilizations of the Bronze Age

European Antiquity in Greece and Rome

From the Middle Ages to the Modern Era

The Present

Summary Three major developmental steps were crucial for the rapid cultural evolution of humans: upright posture (including all the subsequent anatomical consequences right up to intelligence and language), a settled life as a result of agriculture and animal husbandry, and the extension of the range of action through science and technology. The transformation from appropriation to the production of food fostered new forms of settlement and the creation of sophisticated social structures with a

3 Man and His Environment

The First Two Phases: Founding and Securing Human Existence

The Goal in Retrospect

Resolved and Unresolved Dangers.

The Spread of Pathogens

The Turning Point: From Being Threatened by Nature to Threatening Nature Itself

The Third Phase: Protection of the Biosphere

Conflicting Aspects of Agriculture

Fertilization Against Soil Depletion

Fighting Weeds

Fighting Pathogens and Animal Pests

Fertilization and Protection of Plants: Intensive - Alternative - Integrated

Summary With reference to the environment, past human history can be divided into three phases whose transitions are marked by the Neolithic and the Scientific/Technological Revolutions. The first phase involved the founding of human existence while the second was concerned with securing it. We presently find ourselves in a decisive stage of the third phase with overriding emphasis on securing a biosphere that tolerates and sustains a dangerously large human population. Providing adequate amount

4 Crop Plant Breeding

Requirements of Our Diet

Genetic Variability

The Origins of Our Most Important Crops

Breeding by Selection: An Ancient Method

Cross-breeding: Applied Genetics

Possibilities and Limits of Cross-breeding

Cereals as an Example

Wheat: A Natural Hybrid

Triticale: An Extreme Case of Hybridization

Weeds Become Crops: Oats and Rye

Special Features of Corn, Rapeseed and Sugar Beet

The Potato as an Example

Tissue and Cell Culture

Summary The breeding of food plants aims at the creation of cultivars that yield the greatest possible amounts of high-quality food under particular environmental and agricultural conditions. This goal has been followed for approximately 10,000 years

at first with the use of "blind" breeding by selection, and for the past 100 years by combining selection with specifically target-oriented, science-based cross-breeding. More recently, cross-breeding has been complemented by the chemical or physic.

5 Genetic Engineering in Research and Application

Genetic Engineering: A New Branch of Biotechnology

Inheritance from a Bio-molecular Perspective

The Technology of Gene Transfer

Genetic Engineering with Bacteria

Medical Research

Genetic Engineering in Plant Breeding

Insect Resistance

Herbicide Tolerance

Diagnostics

Summary Genetic engineering is the practical application of molecular biology. In contrast to conventional breeding by crossing and selection, where genes can only be indirectly recognized through observable heritable traits, genetic engineering uses individual genes with known molecular functions. In principle, every gene can be transferred to every organism. The gene has to have a species-appropriate regulatory unit (promoter) that specifically regulates its expression through the perception o

6 Old and New Breeding Goals

The Need for Research

Genetic Engineering: Not a Substitute, Rather an Aid to Conventional Plant Breeding

Maintenance Breeding

Food Quality

Golden Rice

Yield Potential

Vitality and Yield Reliability

Vaccines in Foodstuffs

Developing Countries as the Main Target Group

Summary Two main goals have determined the breeding of food plants since the very beginning of agriculture: the quality and the quantity of the human diet. A third important goal, environmental protection, has recently been added, particularly the breeding of plants which demand fewer pesticides. On the one hand, the amount of crop yield is dependent on genetically determined factors (yield potential and vitality) and, on the other, on the conditions of cultivation. While the maintenance of cult

7 Ethical Evaluation of Genetic Engineering

Science and Responsibility

Technology, Economics, the State, and Politics

Risks and Opportunities of Genetic Engineering

Fear and Ignorance.

The European Perspective

Feared Consequences

Self-imposed Rules and Subsequent Laws

Science and the General Public

Relative Criteria

Summary Ethical scales of value are relative and based on the definition of goals. The decisive criterion for the ethical evaluation of plant genetic engineering is the comparison of an increased intervention in the evolution of food plants (e.g. by crossing species boundaries) with an ecological disaster caused by the overuse of our biosphere, primarily to produce enough food for the human population. Although genetic engineering is still in an early phase of its practical application, it has c

8 Basic Prerequisites for Securing Human Nourishment

The Global Perspective

Population Growth

Poverty and Wealth

The Green Revolution

Vision of a Doubly Green Revolution

The Biological Limits of Agricultural Productivity

Weather, Climate, and Environment

Species Diversity - Biodiversity - Cultivar Diversity

Water as a Resource

Energy as a Resource

Centers of Production and Centers of Demand

Dietary Habits

Consumption of Meat and Fish

Political Decisions

Helping People to Help Themselves

Progress through Solidarity

Summary The sustainable securing of food for all humans requires a drastic change in our dealing with natural resources, as well as the elimination of hunger and poverty as the main causes of the continuing population growth. Agricultural productivity can be significantly enhanced, especially in developing countries, through improvements in breeding methods, farming technology, and the global sociopolitical, economic, and infrastructural conditions. On the other hand, this productivity is increa

9 Conclusions for Practical Realization

Orientation on Primary Goals

Extended Protection of Species

Plant Genetic Engineering.

Guidelines and Laws

Measures in Other Areas

Bread and Circuses

Summary The technological application of scientific knowledge has to respect the priorities of established ethical criteria. Absolute priority has to consist in securing the existence of humans and their environment. This requires a fundamental change in the use of natural resources, including an ecologically acceptable and at the same time highly productive form of agriculture. To the extent that genetic engineering is able to serve as an aid to plant breeding, it should be applied as long as i

Afterword

Glossary

References and Recommendations for Further Reading

Picture credits.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed July 29, 2016).

ISBN:

1-906598-55-X

OCLC:

855968903