Unit 7

Soybeans are harvested at Fartura Farm, in Brazils Mato Grosso

state. Brazil is the second largest soy producer worldwide.
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Food
For All

GOALS
In this unit, you will:

Think and Discuss

Read about ways to feed a growing

global population.
Learn how food production and
delivery systems affect cities.
Explore ways to change your
relationship with food.

1. Think about the food that you ate today.

Do you know how or where it was produced?
2. What effects might food production have on
the environment?

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Lesson A
PRE-READING
A. Look at the photos on the right and on
the previous page, and read the
captions. Then discuss the questions
below with a partner.
1. What food is being produced in each
photo?
2. What do you think are the differences
between large-scale and small-scale
farming methods?

B. Read the title and introduction on this

page. Then note your answers to the
following questions.
1. Who do you think are the nine billion?

2. What are the possible challenges of

feeding these nine billion?

FEEDING
NINE
BILLION
by Jonathan Foley,
National Geographic

When we think about threats to the

environment, we tend to picture cars
and smokestacksnot dinner. But the
truth is, our need for food poses one
of the biggest dangers to the planet.

3. Why might the author think that food

poses one of the biggest dangers to
the planet?

C. Read the headings on page 108. What

kind of information do you think this
section will contain?

Agriculture is among the greatest contributors

to global warming, emitting more greenhouse
gases than all our cars, trucks, trains, and
airplanes combinedlargely from methane
released by cattle and rice farms, nitrous
oxide from fertilized fields, and carbon dioxide
from the cutting of rain forests to grow crops
or raise livestock. Farming is the thirstiest user
of our precious water supplies and a major
polluter, as runoff from fertilizers and manure
disrupts fragile lakes, rivers, and coastal
ecosystems across the globe. Agriculture also
accelerates the loss of biodiversity: As weve

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Small farms play a big role in feeding the world, particularly in the developing world.
(Left) Frank Reese raises turkeys on his farm in Lindsborg, Kansas, U.S.A. (Middle)
Mariam Kita harvests peanuts on a farm in Siby, Mali. (Right) High up in the Peruvian
mountains, Estela Cndor grows potatoes to sell at market.

cleared areas of grassland and forest for

farms, weve lost crucial habitat, making
agriculture a major driver of wildlife extinction.
2

The environmental challenges posed by

agriculture are huge, and theyll only become
more pressing as we try to meet the growing
need for food worldwide. Well likely have
2 billion more mouths to feed by midcenturymore than 9 billion people. But sheer
population growth isnt the only reason well
need more food. The spread of prosperity
across the world, especially in China and
India, is driving an increased demand for
meat, eggs, and dairy, boosting pressure to
grow more corn and soybeans to feed more
cattle, pigs, and chickens. If these trends
continue, the double whammy of population
growth and meat-and-dairy-intensive diets will
require us to roughly double the amount of
crops we grow by 2050.

I was fortunate to lead a team of scientists

who confronted this simple question: How can
the world double the availability of food while
simultaneously cutting the environmental
harm caused by agriculture? After analyzing
reams of data on agriculture and the
environment, we proposed five steps that
could solve the worlds food dilemma.
Taken together, these five steps could more
than double the worlds food supplies and
dramatically cut the environmental impact of
agriculture worldwide. But it wont be easy.
These solutions require a big shift in thinking.
For most of our history, we have been blinded
by the imperative of more, more, more in
agricultureclearing more land, growing more
crops, using more resources. We need to find
a balance between producing more food and
sustaining the planet for futuregenerations.
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Step One: Freeze

Agricultures Footprint
5

Step Four: Shift Diets

8

For most of history, whenever weve needed to

produce more food, weve simply cut down
forests or plowed grasslands to make more
farms. Weve already cleared an area roughly
the size of South America to grow crops. To
raise livestock, weve taken over even more
landan area roughly the size of Africa.
Agricultures footprint has caused the loss of
whole ecosystems around the globe, including
the prairies of North America and the Atlantic
forest of Brazil, and tropical forests continue to
be cleared at alarming rates. But we can no
longer afford to increase food production
through agricultural expansion. Trading
tropical forest for farmland is one of the most
destructive things we do to the environment,
and it is rarely done to benefit the 850 million
people in the world who are still hungry.

Step Two: Grow More on

Farms Weve Got
6

Starting in the 1960s, the green revolution

increased yields in Asia and Latin America
using better crop varieties and more fertilizer,
irrigation, and machinesbut with major
environmental costs. The world can now turn its
attention to increasing yields on less productive
farmlandsespecially in Africa, Latin America,
and eastern Europewhere there are yield
gaps between current production levels and
those possible with improved farming practices.
Using high-tech, precision farming systems,
as well as approaches borrowed from organic
farming, we could boost yields in these places
several times over.

Step Three: Use Resources

More Efficiently
7

Organic farming can also greatly reduce the

use of water and chemicalsby incorporating
cover crops and compost to improve soil
quality, conserve water, and build up nutrients.
Many farmers have also gotten smarter about
water, replacing inefficient irrigation systems
with more precise methods, like subsurface
drip irrigation. Advances in both conventional
and organic farming can give us more crop
per drop from our water and nutrients.

It would be far easier to feed 9 billion people

by 2050 if more of the crops we grew ended
up in human stomachs. Today only, 55 percent
of the worlds crop calories feed people
directly; the rest are fed to livestock (about 36
percent) or turned into biofuels and industrial
products (roughly 9 percent). Though many of
us consume meat, dairy, and eggs from
animals raised on feedlots, only a fraction of
the calories in feed given to livestock make
their way into the meat and milk that we
consume. For every 100 calories of grain we
feed animals, we get only about 40 new
calories of milk, 22 calories of eggs, 12 of
chicken, 10 of pork, or 3 of beef. Finding more
efficient ways to grow meat and shifting to less
meat-intensive dietseven just switching from
grain-fed beef to meats like chicken, pork, or
pasture-raised beefcould free up substantial
amounts of food across the world.

Step Five: Reduce Waste

9

An estimated 25 percent of the worlds food

calories and up to 50 percent of total food
weight are lost or wasted before they can be
consumed. In rich countries, most of that waste
occurs in homes, restaurants, or supermarkets.
In poor countries, food is often lost between
the farmer and the market due to unreliable
storage and transportation. Consumers in the
developed world could reduce waste by taking
such simple steps as serving smaller portions,
eating leftovers, and encouraging cafeterias,
restaurants, and supermarkets to develop
waste-reducing measures. Of all of the options
for boosting food availability, tackling waste
would be one of the most effective.
Jonathan Foley directs the Institute on the
Environment at the University of Minnesota.
compost:n. decaying organic material that is used as a
plant fertilizer
subsurface drip irrigation:n. an underground watering
system in which buried tubes provide small amounts of
water directly to the roots of plants

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Agricultures
Footprint
Farming of both livestock and
crops is the largest human
endeavor on Earth, using more
than 38 percent of ice-free
land. Our next largest impact:
erosion caused by agriculture,
building, logging, and mining.

Weve already
cleared an area
roughly the size of
South America to
grow crops.

A World Demanding More

By 2050, the worlds population will likely increase by about 35 percent.

To feed that population, crop production will need to double.

Why? Production will have to far outpace population growth as the

developing world grows prosperous enough to eat more meat.

Increase in daily
protein demand
Per capita by 2050

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Developing Reading Skills

GETTING THE MAIN IDEAS
Choose the best phrase to complete the overall main idea of the reading passage.
may solve the problem of providing enough food for the world and reduce environmental
stress at the same time.
1. Prosperity and a growing population
2. Changing diets and the way we approach agriculture
3. Investing in advanced technology for meat production.

UNDERSTANDING PROBLEMS
A. Paragraph 1 explores some of the problems associated with agriculture. Complete
the concept map below.
Biggest user of

Major
of lakes,
rivers, and coastal areas

Major contributor of

Why is
agriculture a
problem?

Methane released by

Accelerates the reduction in

Runoff from

Clearance of

B. Use information from paragraph 2 and the infographic A World Demanding More
on page 109 to summarize the environmental challenges posed by agriculture.
1. Well need to feed an additional
a. 2 billion

people by 2050.

b. 7 billion

2. Rises in global wealth will

c. 9 billion

by 2050.

a. mean higher demand for meat, which requires more agricultural resources
b. cause prices for crops to rise, which will result in much higher food prices
c. lead to people worldwide eating more soybeans and cornproducts
3. Increased wealth and higher population mean we will need to

by 2050.

a. double the number of farms

b. eat twice as much food
c. grow twice as many crops
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IDENTIFYING SOLUTIONS
Complete the chart about each of Foleys proposed solutions. Use the ideas below.
a. crops

f. meat-based diets

b. efficient

g. rain forests and grasslands

c. existing farms

h. storage and transportation

d. expansion of farmland

i. waste

e. limited resources like water

j. yields

Step

Benefit

1. Stop

Prevents destruction of

2. Use new technologies to grow more on

Increases
on farms that are
currently not very productive

3. Reduce use of

Makes farms more

4. Move away from

Increases proportion of
feed people rather than animals

5. Improve food

Reduces

that

PARAPHRASING INFORMATION
Paraphrasing informationby restating, condensing, or clarifying an authors ideascan help
you to understand it better.
Use the information from the Understanding Solutions activity above to paraphrase
each of Foleys steps.
Step 1: The first step is to stop creating new farmland and instead use existing agricultural
areas. This will prevent the destruction of rain forests and grasslands.
Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5:

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Developing Reading Skills

UNDERSTANDING INFOGRAPHICS
Complete the following summary of the infographic Agricultures Footprint on page 109.
The infographic shows that there is (less / more) developed land than undeveloped land on
the Earths ice-free surface. In fact, only (38.6% / 46.5%) of ice-free land has not been altered
by humans. The majority of developed land is used for (agriculture / urban areas). The land
needed for pasture and crops is more than (double / half) the size of other humanmodified land. The next largest impact on the land is (erosion / logging) caused by a variety of
industries. While development of urban areas has had a significant impact on the worlds
surface, its impact on land use is (less / greater) than that of rural housing and businesses.

BUILDING VOCABULARY
A. Complete the paragraph with the words below. You may need to change the forms
of the words.

emit

pose

prosper

simultaneously

yield

In Feeding Nine Billion, Jonathan Foley points out that the appetite for meat is growing
as the developing world enjoys greater
everyone, eating more meat
production, which

. While increased wealth benefits

certain problems. For example, beef

about 18 percent of all greenhouse gases worldwide,

is a significant contributor to climate change. Currently, global agreements to reduce

greenhouse gases do not require countries to count emissions from agriculture in their
emission-reduction plans. This is a benefit to nations that are just emerging frompoverty.
However, as Foley explains, all nations must take a hard look at the way they produce
food. The reason is that increasing agricultural

to feed a growing population

could have a serious impact on the environment. The good news, though, is that there are
several steps we can take right now to make food production more sustainable. Eating less
meat is one way to accomplish this, while

adopting farming methods that are

less stressful on the environment.

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B. Complete the sentences with the correct definitions of the words in bold.
1. If you are in a dilemma about something, you
are faced with a
between two alternatives.
a. risk of choosing

b. difficult choice

2. If a method is more precise, its

a. more common

b. more accurate

3. If a delivery system is unreliable, its

a. not dependable

4. If wealth accelerates meat consumption,

it
.
a. causes it

b. speeds it up

5. If an agricultural system is inefficient, it

does not
.
a. use resources in
b. cost a lot of
the best way money to use

b. not healthy

C. Choose the word that best collocates with each of the words in bold.
1. emit
a. production

3. unreliable
b. light

c. benefits

2. pose
a. a danger

a. meat

b. population

c. service

b. cause

c. benefit

4. inefficient
b. a plan

c. an impact

a. use

GETTING MEANING FROM CONTEXT

A. Find the phrases in bold in the passage. Then choose the meaning below that is
the closest to the meaning in the passage.
1. Paragraph 1: a major driver (of something)

2. Paragraph 4: a big shift in thinking

a. a main result

a. a large improvement in understanding

b. a significant cause

b. a great deal of hard work

c. a source of competition

c. a major change in the way of viewing something

B. Complete the sentence with the correct phrase from Exercise A.

The food processing industry now accounts for 9 to 10 percent of Indias GDP
(Gross Domestic Product) and has become

of Indias

economic growth.

CRITICAL THINKING
Evaluating. Discuss these questions with a partner: Which of Foleys five steps do you think
would be the hardest to achieve? Which would be the easiest? Why?

Explore More
Read more about the future of food at nationalgeographic.com. Share what you learn with
theclass.
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Lesson B

HOW FOOD
SHAPES
OUR CITIES
CAROLYN STEEL, Food urbanist, TED speaker

We can tell a lot about the historical role of food in

peoples lives by studying the history of cities. In her
book, Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives,
British architect Carolyn Steel looks at how cities were
organized around the ways that people produced food
and then got it to their tables.
To illustrate this, Steel describes old London and shows how
ancient food routes shaped the city of today. Street names like
Bread Street and Poultry Street tell us a lot about what was
happening in these parts of the city 300 years ago. In fact, she
says, If you were having Sunday lunch, the chances were it was
mooing or bleating outside your window about three days earlier.
However, in the 20th century, Londonersand other city dwellers
began driving their cars to suburban supermarkets to get their
food, and as Steel points out, This is the moment when our
relationship, both with food and cities, changes completely. Steel
feels that we are less connected today with our food and would like
to reinvigorate the presence of food in cities. In her 2009 TED Talk,
she proposes some ways to accomplish this.
dwellers:n. people who live in a place
reinvigorate:v. to make energetic or strong again

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Carolyn Steels idea worth spreading

is that we really are what we eat. Food
is a powerful tool that we should use
to create the world we want to live in.

In this lesson, you are going to watch segments of Steels TED Talk. Use the
information about Steel on page 114 to answer each question.
1. What does Steel think we can learn by looking at how cities are organized?

2. How can street names tell us about the food Londoners ate 300 years ago?

3. How is the modern relationship with food different, according to Steel?

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PART 1

An Escalating Problem
PREDICTING
In this segment of Carolyn Steels talk, she discusses changes in food production and
consumption. How do you think these areas will change between now and 2050?
Complete the sentences and watch ( ) the segment to check yourideas.
1. About
of the worlds annual grain crop goes to feeding animals instead of
feeding people today.
a. a quarter

b. a third

c. a half

2. The number of people living in cities could

a. double

b. triple

3. There will likely be

a. no change

c. quadruple
in the amount of meat we will be consuming in 2050.

b. a slight increase

4. Today, about
a. 10 percent

by 2050.

c. a significant increase

of all food produced in the U.S. is thrown away.

b. 25 percent

c. 50 percent

UNDERSTANDING MAIN IDEAS

Choose three sentences that summarize Steels main ideas in this segment.
1. The process of feeding a large city is truly amazing, but we hardly ever think about it.
2. Although most of us now live in cities, we are still dependent on the natural world.
3. It has recently become very difficult to feed the entire population of London.
4. Cities in the Western world are generally growing faster than in other parts of
theworld.
5. As more people change to a meat-based diet, natural landscapes are
beingtransformed.

CRITICAL THINKING
Inferring. Discuss your ideas with a partner.
Why does Steel show the photo of the soybean fields (see pages 104105)? How does it
support her main ideas?

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ANALYZING ARGUMENTs
A. Analyze how Steel supports her argument that the Western diet is unsustainable.
First, read the following excerpts and use the amounts to complete the missing
numerical information.

billion

half

19
million

...a

6
billion

ten

third

twice

of the annual grain crop globally now gets fed to animals rather

than to us human animals. And given that it takes

times as much grainto

feed a human if its passed through an animal first, thats not a very efficient way of
feeding us.
. . . By 2050, its estimated that

the number of us are going to be living

in cities. And its also estimated that there is going to be twice as much meat and dairy
hungry carnivores to feed, by 2050. Thats a big problem.

consumed. . . .
...
...
A

hectares of rain forest are lost every year to create new arable land.
the food produced in the U.S.A. is currently thrown away. . . .
of us are obese, while a further billion starve. None of it makes very

much sense.
hectares:n. units of measure equal to 2.471 acres or 10,000 square meters
arable:adj. fit for farming

B. Compare the ideas in Foleys essay in Lesson A with those in Steels talk.
Note your answers and then discuss the questions with a partner.
1. What information in Steels talk supports the ideas in Foleys essay?

2. What ideas would each person agree on?

3. In what ways are their arguments different?

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PART 2

Reconnecting with Food

UNDERSTANDING MAIN AND SUPPORTING IDEAS
A. In the next part of her talk Steel compares our relationship to food now and in the
past. Read the excerpt below, and predict the missing words or phrases. Then
watch ( ) the next segment to check your ideas.
Here we have foodthat used to be the

, the social core of the cityat

the periphery. It used to be a social event, buying and

anonymous. We used to cook; now we just add
youre making a cake . . . We dont

food. Now its

, or a little bit of an egg if

food to see if its OK to eat. We just

read the back of a label on a packet. And we dont value food. . . . And instead of valuing
it, we

away.

B. Steel makes the case for a new type of society, which she calls Sitopia. What
characteristics of Sitopia does she mention? Check (

) five characteristics.

Food is at the center of family life.

Its based around independent city-states.
People take time for food, and celebrate it.
Markets sell food that is fresh and grown locally.
There are few supermarkets.
Community projects educate children about food.
Cities and nature are seen as part of the same framework.

C. Can you think of any examples of Sitopia in your own city or town? Share your
ideas with a partner.

Explore More
Find out more about how food shapes cities. Watch Steels full talk at TED.com. How did
ancient Rome feed its citizens? Share what you learn with the class.

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Project

Chef and author Nick Saul in the Green Barna food

community center he built where residents can grow,
buy, and eat their own food in Toronto, Canada.

A. Work with a partner. You are going to propose

ways that people in your area can create
aSitopia.
1. Go to TED.com and get some ideas from the
following TED Talks.
Ron Finley, A guerilla gardener in South
Central L.A.
Pam Warhurst, How we can eat our
landscapes
Britta Riley, A garden in my apartment
Roger Doiron, My subversive (garden) plot
Mark Bittman, Whats wrong with what
weeat

B. Use your information to create a two-minute

presentation on your proposal. You can use
maps, photos, and video to explain
yourinformation.

C. Work with two other pairs.

 resent your proposals.

P
As you listen, take notes.
At the end, review your notes.
Have a class discussion. Which activities are
the most realistic? Which have the most
benefits? Do you have any suggestions for
improving your classmates proposals?

2. With your partner, answer these questions.

W
 hat types of food-related activities are
realistic for your area? Consider weather,
available space, the interests of the people
in your community, and so on.
What are some possible locations for
theseactivities?
How will these activities help people in your
community reconnect with food?
How will these activities help the
environment?
What other benefits will these activities
have?

Explore More
Learn more about how people in your community are
changing their relationships with food. Has access to
fresh food improved in recent years? Are there any
signs of urban agriculture? Share what you learn with
the class.

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