Geography - Exam Review

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EXAM NOTES

Geography of North America

Physical Boundaries:

Panama to Arctic (Ellesmere Island)

 Canada and USA = Anglo American (English speaking)
 Central American and Caribbean Islands (aka West Indies) = Latin American (Spanish speaking)
 Central Americ = Mexico (Panama)

1st Canada > 2nd largest country in the world > approximately 30 million people
2nd USA > 4th largest > 300,000,000 (10X population of Canada)

Population density

Population / Area = 30 million / 10 million km2 = 3 / km2

7 Physiographic Regions

 Geology: formation / composition / structure of rocks in the earth’s crust
 Topography: physical and human features of a visible landscape
> rocks, hills, cities, valleys etc.

Climate

 Climate: long period of time where atmospheric conditions are averaged
 Weather: short term conditions of the atmosphere

6 Elements of Weather

1. Temperature: degrees Celcius C
2. Precipitation: mm
3. Wind: direction and velocity
4. Relative Humidity: %
5. Atmospheric Pressure: kPa
6. Cloud Cover: human eye

Climagraph

 Measure temperature and precipitation
 Precip. and temp. and stats gathered over many years, averaged,
and then displayed
 Range of temperatures: the difference between the highest and lowest
temperature.

The temperature is warmer at the equator because:

1. The rays of the sun have longer to travel to reach the poles
2. The rays have to travel through more atmosphere to reach the poles

High Pressure:

 descending air
 brings warm air
 clearing skies
 more than 101.3 kPa

Low Pressure:

 ascending air
 cools
 cloud cover
 less than 101.3 kPa

Soils
Soil Profile > outline = horizons (layers)

Comprise Soil:

Parent Material: rock, weathered
Organic Material: decayed plants, animals and insects

*Note: weathered = breaking down the rock
Erosion = moving and depositing

Horizon A: Topsoil
 Humus: decayed organic material that determines the fertility
of the soil
 It mixes with fine particles of parent material

Horizon B: Subsoil
 materials washed down from Horizon A abd fine particles of parent material

Horizon C: Regolith
 Coarse, less weathered parent material

Horizon D: Bedrock
 solid rock base

Leaching
 Can cause soil infertility.
 Define: the downward movement of water through the soil.
Dissolves solid plant nutrients and carries it away so that the plant roots can’t
get it.

Natural Vegetation
 Any vegetation native to an area that grows without human
intervention

 Boreal forest: cold, coniferous forest
 Conifer: tree with needle-like leaves that are cone bearing
– sap = anti-freeze
 Tundra: cold desert

Resources

Resources may change in value if the supply or demand goes up or down.

Non renewable: cannot be used again – ex. Crude oil
Renewable: can be used over and over – ex. Soil + water
(if properly managed)

1. Proven: established amounts of a resource > presently being
extracted ex. oil
2. Probable: require further exploration and additional equipment
and spending ex. offshore oil
3. Possible: may be discovered, but not in the near future > speculative
> not located > don’t know if it’s there ex. under the sea + arctic

Definitions:

1. Meteorologist: a scientist who analyses the weather to make predictions
2. Maritime Climate: climatic conditions that are strongly influenced
by the ocean; generally having small temperature variations, and humid,
moist conditions. High levels of precipitation.
3. Continental Climate: conditions typically found in the mid-latitudes,
and the inferior of a continent; commonly including extremes in temperature, low precipitation and distinct seasons.
4. Environmental Lapse Rate: The cooling (the air gets thinner) of air temperatures
with an increase in altitude;
the rate 6.4C / 1000m
5. Orographic Precipitation: Rain / snow that results when air is cooled as
it is forced aloft by a topographic barrier such as a mountain range.
6. Leeward: On the side opposite to the direction from which the wind blows
wind>>^^<Water Issues

1. Americans want Canadian water for same price as sold to Canadians because they have the same rights as Canadians under NAFTA.
2. Should we have a National Policy for water.
3. Public Trust or Private Commodity?
4. Water management problem!
5. We sell non renewable resources to other countries, but not water, which
can be managed to be renewable.
6. Fred Paly tried to ship supertankers of water to Jack Lindsay. BC stopped
bulk water exports.
7. Rivers on political borders. Ex Colorado River, only a trickle goes to
Mexico.
8. North American Water And Power Alliance. Take water from Alaska and dam and
pipe it down to the US.
9. PRIME. Take water from Northern Alberta and bring it to the prairies.
Calls for dams, tunnels, and canals.
10. Grand Canal Scheme. Dam James Bay, take water to Great Lakes, then to
south west America and west Canada.
11. Public uproar about these projects!
12. Give water it’s TRUE VALUE!
Companies polluting
the water supply. Making the Earth’s temp rise, which causes more drought.

Sustainable Development:

Stress >><<< Balance!!

1. The Environment 2. The Economy

3. The Health of
Society

 Per capita Canada is a major energy abuser!

Resource Use:

 Stewardship! Helpin’ out > global village!
 We don’t own the resources in our country. We must manage them
carefully
 “No one gets more unless someone gets less!”

1st British East Coast
2nd French Central (prairies / plains)
3rd Spanish South / Central America

People are drawn to areas with water. Therefore physical environment
and economic potential are NB factors when dtermeining population.

Polenesians: use sun + moon + stars to navigate. Limited because of
poor weather!

Greeks > grid > Latitude = parallels > equator!

Longitude = meridians > prime meridian!

Greenwich > part of the British Empire

Parallels > how far N/S > latitude

Meridians > how far E/W > longitude

Equator 0 degree latitude

Chronometer > 1st sea-fairing clock! John Harisson? No pendulum!
To measure longitude!

Latitude > angles
Longitude: time

Sextant: measures angle of horizon 2 a star

International date line : longitude!

GPS: Global Positioning System! (geostationary satellites)

The Human Environment

> 4% of the population of Canada and the US are involved in farming.

> Regionalization: Textbook: the use of large areas for growing crops or
livestock production. Pundyk: The predominant type of agriculture that
occurs in a large area based on the aspects of physical geography. Certain
crops are grown in certain areas because of different conditions.

> Spring Wheat Belt:

- Spring snow melt and precipitation provide moisture
- Dry autumn = good harvesting
- 300 mm / 100 frost free days
- Extremes in weather common during growing season
- Rye, oats, barley
- Seed after threat of frost

> Winter Wheat Belt

- Mild winters, enough snow to protect crop > insulates
- Spring snow melts bring early rains > favorable
- Seeds sown in autumn establish roots before winter
- Winters make crop less susceptible to cold and disease
- Planted autumn, harvested early summer (summers are not too hot > Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas)

> Corn Belt

- Chernozem soil, warm, temperate, humid climate
- 140 days of growing season
- Crop must have 280 mm of precipitation
- July season must be 25 C
- US grows half of world’s corn
- Mid-West is Corn Belt
- Corn is world’s #1 feed crop
- Silo holds silage
- Soy beans (25*C) are protein

> Dairy Belt

- Diverse grasses provide feed for animals in the summer
- Hay made from grass is the animals winter diet
- Also feed grain to maintain milk production
- Water also important > 1 cow consumes 15L of water per day!
- Located north of Corn Belt
- Wisconsin (America’s Dairy Land)
-Very uneven land
- Holstein > black and white cow + Hereford + Angus

> Mixed Farming Belt

- Shorter frost free period 120 days South (Winnipeg) 90 days North-West
(Edmonton)
- Northern regions > frontier farms > only maturing crops grown > land must be cleared and drained
- Grains etc. peas etc. livestock etc. > Hogs, poultry, cattle > Interlake
- Cash Crops!!

> Ranching Belt

- Dry rain shadow best suited to grazing
- Problem with overgrazing – poor soil and evaporation = bad!
- Not enough land? Transhumance!
- Most vulnerable to drought, bad farm land > steppe grass
- Cattle, sheep, goats all ranched.

> Transhumance: The seasonal migration of livestock from one grazing
area to another.
- Summer = upper grassy meadows – winter = valley bottom

> Pig: Term used to describe a general class of animal
> Hog: Adult
> Boar: Male pig
> Sow: Female
> Piglet: Infant

> Ship out Manitoba pork to 30 countries
> Pork is the most popular meat worldwide
> Czech Republic consumes most pork per capita worldwide

> Localization in the Niagara Fruit Belt

- Niagara Fruit Belt soils > sandy loam
- Location > large market
- Climate > long growing season + mild winters
- Lake Ontario > latent heat > prevents plants from budding too early + extends
the growing season well into the fall > large body of water “warms up” surrounding
land mass – prevents early frost > no danger of late frost killing plants
- Niagara Escarpment > well drained soil

> North shore of lake Erie = Tobacco

> Marketing Agricultural Products

> Sell Direct

- Supply and demand will determine the price
- Sell to stores or food processors or consumers.

> Contract Sales

- Farmer and buyer agree to a set price for the product before production
begins.
- Farmer will receive the set price regardless of market conditions upon
delivery of the product

> Auctions

- Livestock: 1. Packers (Burns, Shneiders) 2. Feed Lots (concentrated cattle
rearing areas usually close to urban areas > Brooks, Alberta)

> Co-Operatives

- Most common in the US
- Form their own company
- Products are sold through the co-op
- Do not have to pay middleman

> Marketing Boards

- Government controlled (either Fed or Prov)
- Advertise “Got Milk”
- Sometimes establish quotas > Milk Marketing Board
- Quotas: limit on how much can be produced and sold
- Size of dairy herd
- Amount of milk produced
- Who can obtain a license to produce.

> Canadian Wheat Board

- Works under a “Price Pooling System” > initial payment
- Only applies to the Prairie grain producers
- Blend of private corporations and government organizations
- Wheat, barley, and oats: major grain crops sold by CWB > export
- Rye, flax seed, canola: marketed by private grain companies > Agricore United / POOL

> Issues In the A.I.

> Loss of Farmland

- Urban sprawl: unplanned and uncontrolled growth of a city
- Takes up valuable farmland
- Loss of production land
- Decrease in agricultural output
- BUT population continues to grow
- Therefore a decrease in the ability to feed the population
- Example: Niagara Fruit Belt > 1935 – 1975 > 40 % of land lost to commercial
and residential development

> Cost-Price Squeeze

- Farmers are being squeezed between slowly rising profits and rapidly rising costs
- Machinery-labour-fuel-seed-fertilizers-land-taxes-buildings-feed-livestock

> Environmental Concerns

- Chemicals pollute water
- Fertilizers-herbicides-pesticides-fungicides
- Stays in the food that people eat > links to cancer
- We are to blame!

Definitions

Terminator seeds: Seeds invented by Monsanto and various other major
corporations that they have tried but can’t quite get to work out. The
premise behind the seeds is that they grow for one year and then they
die, so that each year you must buy new seeds.

Topography: The relief and landforms at the surface of the earth.

Meteorologist: A scientists who analyses weather and makes predictions.

Front: The zone between two air masses. Warm front if the advancing front
is warm, cold if the advancing front is cold. Frontal precipitation is the
most common. Others include convectional and orographic.

Environmental Lapse Rate: The cooling of air temperatures with a
rise in altitude: 6.4 degrees / 1000m.

Convectional Precipitation: Precipitation that results from a mass
of warm moist air rising cooling, then falling. The air is then heated again,
gathers moisture, and rises. It is a continual, circular cycle.

Parent material: The weathered rock material that develops into soil. We
find fine particles of parent material in the topsoil and subsoil, and large
amounts in the Regolith.

Glacial Till: Deposits of sand, clay, boulders, gravel, and silt carried
and then deposited by melting glacial ice to create an unconsolidated surface.

Salinization: The accumulation of soil salts in the topsoil as heat
evaporates moisture in the soil. Common in semi-desert regions.

Hydrological Cycle: The cyclical or recurring process of water
evaporating, condensing, and then falling to earth as precipitation

Range of Temperatures: Usually on a climagraph measures the range from
the lowest temperature to the highest temperature.

Proven Resource: Clearly established amounts of a resource. They are
presently being extracted.

Latitude: Latitude is the measure of the distance north or south of the
equator. It is measured in degrees of the angle.

Longitude: Longitude is the measure of the distance east or west from
a reference line called the prime meridian. The prime meridian runs from the
North Pole to the South Pole, and it passes through Greenwich, England.

Renewable Resources: can be re-used over and over if properly managed
ex. Water

Isostatic Rebound: Also called Crustal Rebound. When the earth’s crust
“springs” back to it’s original after having the weight of glaciers removed.

Escarpment: The steep slope of an abruptly rising landform; clifflike.
“Inland cliff” formed when the land along a fault line is “uplifted”.

Summer Fallowing: Farmland that is left without a crop in order to conserve
moisture and soil nutrients.

Playa Lake: A lake bed that remains dry for much of the year (or years)
accumulating water only after a heavy rain or during the summer; the water
quickly evaporates.

Chernozem Soil: Black earth, grassland soils, most fertile soil in the
AI. Lacustrine deposits.

Shelter Belts: One or more rows of trees planted facing the prevailing
winds of that region that help to reduce wind erosion.

Sow: A female pig.

Agribusiness: Business that services and aids the agricultural business.
Trucking, chemicals, farm machinery, seeds etc.

Transhumance: The practice of seasonal migration of cattle from the
high grassy meadows in the summer, and the low valleys in the winter. It is
used when there is a problem with soil infertility and over-use.

Manhattan: 1969 > oil supertanker.

Igneous Rock: Rock that formed from the original cooling of magma to from
the earth’s crust. > granite. Hard and durable.

Permafrost: Permanently frozen subsoil found in the northern shield
and arctic archipelago.

Active Layer: The top 1-2 cm of the permafrost that can unthaw during the
short summer season.

Round Up: The pesticide invented by the chemical giant Monsanto. Kills
all plants + weeds in a field and allows the farmer to plant crops within a
short time of using it. There is Round Up ready corn and canola.

Poults: Baby or infant turkeys.

Biopiracy: The patenting of a crop or plant based on the work of generations
of people. A company like Monsanto will make one little change / step forward
in the plant and then patent it for profit.

Beta-carotene: is the substance that GE rice contains that the body
converts into vitamin A and iron.

Golden Rice: vitamin-enriched rice that a London-based company will share
with developing companies.

Gene Gun Technique: The technique of shooting gene material into a host organism
with a gun. Tungsten balls are used and go through the organism leaving the genetic
material behind.

Geology: The science concerned with the study of the structure, formation,
and content of rocks.

Continental Climate: Climatic conditions typical of mid-latitude, inter-continental
regions. Commonly including extremes in temperature, moderate temperature, and
distinct seasons.

Air Mass: Large pocket or mass of air with similar weather conditions
throughout.

Orographic Precipitation: Precipitation of the leeward side of the Rocky
Mountains. See diagram.

Rain Shadow: An area on the leeward side of a mountain where airflows
come down the mountain side are dried and warmed, resulting in very
little precipitation.

Humus: Decayed and decaying organic material found in the topsoil that returns
nutrients to the soil.

Ox Bow Lake: A lake, usually in a flood plain that is a meander that has been
cut off. Usually dries up after
a while. Very fertile because of the sediments deposited when it was formed.

Boreal Forest: Cool, coniferous forest

Urban Sprawl: The outward growth of a city. Urban sprawl is a problem
for farmland because it is usually unplanned and uncontrolled.

Aquifer: Water stored underground in a porous rock strata.

Possible Resource: may be discovered, but not in the near future,
speculative, don’t know if it’s there. Ex. Under the sea, arctic.

Non-renewable resources: resources that cannot be re-used such as crude oil

Diatoms: Small, micro-organisms that live at the bottom of the sea.
They die and pile up on the bottom of the sea. Silt piles up over them,
which causes heat, which transforms them to fertile humus.

Lacustrine Deposits: Found in post-glacial lakes, sediments are weathered
materials deposited at the bottom that form a flat level plain. The sediments
are the base for fertile soil.

Gullying: Process that forms gullies. Deep, shaded trenches carved by rapid
running water. Occurs in Badlands.

Peneplain: A greatly weathered surface with generally low relief.

Podzoloc Soil: Grows mixed forest, lots of humus, but most of it gets
washed down by 800-1000mm of precipitation. Podzols: soils that result from
excessive leaching.

Stubble: very short grass that is left on the soil after it has been cultivated.
This is to prevent wind erosion. Define: roots and lower stems of grain left
on after swathing.

Hog: An adult pig.

Oil Sands: Found in the Athabasca oil sands in Alberta, it is a mixture
of sand, water, and a very heavy, thick type of oil known as bitumen. The oil
undergoes a process involving strip mining, and then steam to refine it into
“Syncrude”. In 67 Suncore tried and then in 78 Syncrude tried.

Crow Rate: Not very NB. Wheat transport rate on the railway.

OEZ: Offshore Economic Zone. The 200 mile limit that each country has
jurisdiction over in it’s oceans for economic development development
of it’s resources. The Polar Sea (1985) and the Manhattan (1969) challenged
this limit in the Northwest Passage in Canada’s North.

Sedimentary Rock: Rock that has been formed from sediments undergoing heat
and pressure. Limestone. Soft and weathers easily.

Utilidor: Utility corridor. Above ground, heated shack that houses pipelines
for water and sewage used in the North with permafrost soils.

Pulse Crop: A crop that is meant to return nitrogen to the soil.
Alternative to using chemicals, rotating in a pulse crop such as peas, lentils.

Bt: Bacillus therengenesis. A soil bacterium that large companies such as
Monsanto have put into crops like Potatoes, Corn, Cotton to stop the bugs
that eat the leaves or burrow (larvae caterpillars). It makes a built-in pesticide,
which results in less dependence on chemicals.

Oil Seed Crops: Include canola, flax, and sunflower. They are crushed
for the vegetable oil they produce.

TUA: Technical Use Agreement. Agreement between the farmer and the multinational
corporation. It says:
1. Monsanto can come on the farm up to 3 years after
2. Usage fee of 15 $ an acre.
3. You can’t give away, share, exchange, re-use or sell the seeds to anybody but the crusher.

Nunavut: One of the two (proposed) parts of the Northwest territories.
To be governed by the people that live there (Inuit) and the Federal gov’t.

Maritime Climate: Climatic conditions that are strongly influenced
by the ocean. A place that is by the ocean will have smaller temperature
variations and will have a moist, humid, temperate climate. Ex. BC Nova Scotia

Resource Base: The sum total of resources that a nation or country uses

Frontal Precipitation: Precipitation that results when two fronts meet.
It is the most common type of precipitation.

Chinook: Winds that have been warmed and dried on their descent of the
slopes of the Rockies.

Regolith: The third level of soil. Above the bedrock. Coarse, less
weathered parent material.

Leaching: When there is excessive precipitation, it takes minerals, sediments,
and humus away from the topsoil resulting in infertility.

Tundra: arctic climate conditions, thin, stony, infertile soil, covered by
permafrost. Low shrubs and lichen common here.

Frost Free Season: The period of time in a year, measured in days, where there is no frost, therefore no danger of cold killing
the plants. Use the frost-free season to determine the growing season. The longer the
frost-free season the better.

Watershed: A high landform that divides rivers flowing into two separate
drainage basins.

Probable Resource: A resource that requires further machinery and
exploration to find it. We know that its around there somewhere, just not where.

GPS: Global Positioning System is a system of geostationary satellites
that are used to figure out one’s position on planet earth.
Transition Zone: The zone between two regions where conditions gradually
change.

Drumlin: A teardrop-shaped deposit of clay, sand, and silt deposited by
post glacial ice melting.

Loess: Yellow to buff-colored sand deposited by wind that forms small hills,
especially in Nebraska.

Steppe: Semi-arid, mid-latitude grassland. Commonly found in semi-desert
soils like in the Ranching Belt. Grows under conditions of little
precipitation and high evaporation.

Kettle lake: A small depression in the ground filled with water formed
by post glacial ice melting. Like a pothole. Glacial ice melting in glacial
till.

Contour ploughing: Ploughing against the slope of the land to prevent run-off, gullying and wind erosion. It stops the
water from running off taking away nutrients by forming little eavestroughs
on each level. If one overflows the next catches it.

Boar: A male pig.

Zero Tillage: The practice of seeding directly into an untilled and
uncultivated since the last harvest crop. This is to prevent wind erosion,
by not making the soil so thin that it can easily blow away.

Bitumen: The Indians used to use the oil sands to waterproof their canoes.

Polar Sea: American icebreaker that went through Canada’s Northwest passage
in 1985, proving that it was a national water way.

Magma: Liquid rock found beneath the earth’s crust. When it dries, it
becomes igneous rock.

Metamorphic Rock: Hard and brittle. Marble. Rock that is formed by sediments
that have been heated and under pressure.

Treeline: The line in the North at which the trees stop growing and the vegetation
turns into little shrubs and lichens, which grows on permafrost.

Monsanto: A huge multinational that markets Round Up and Bt products. They
made PCBs and Agent Orange. TUA. They owned Round Up so they thought they’d get
into GE foods.

GMO Notes

75% of all prepackaged food may contain genetically engineered substances

Corn, canola and soy are all mixed with regular crops.

57% Canola
45% Corn
25% Soy

90% of Canadians believe that GE foods should be labeled.

Grocery stores in Europe have removed GE foods from their shelves.

The British Medical Ass. worries that GE foods will have serious consequences for our health in the future.

Cost Recovery Program: Funding to check the industry’s research that comes directly from the company whose products are under scrutiny.
CRP: Private industry (GE foods) >> Gives money to the Fed. Gov’t (Researchers check safety of GE foods) > The researchers are under pressure to support the large companies that “pay” for the research.

5 Chemical Companies:

Monsanto: PCB and Agent Orange
DuPont: weapons-grade plutonium, leaded gas and CFC’s
Dow: Napalm, silicone breast implants
Novartis: largest agrochemical company in the world
Aventis: merger between Phone-Poulenc and Hoechst (chemical giant)

Monsanto got involved in GE foods for profits: they patented their Round Up ready seed to sell. Since they were in early they were the only ones making the GE seeds.

Dangers of Pesticide Resistant Seeds

1. Super bugs: potato beetle develops resistance to gene
2. Super weeds

Gene Gun

Shooting genetic material into a host organism using a gun. The unexpected results can be dangerous.

European countries remain unconvinced over the safety of GE foods. Canada has long time sold billions of dollars of crops to Europe. The Europeans want GE foods to be labeled!

Canada and the US are the biggest boosters of GE foods.

Seed important in the developing world

> First link in the food system
> Share + exchange seed
> Re-use + save seed
> Both the product and the means of production
> India farmers are still the main breeders and providers of seed

People who share + re-use seed are a threat to big seed companies because they do not generate any financial growth for the large companies. It dos not expand bigger markets to develop the “industry.”

“Sterility rather than fertility” > Seed reproduces therefore it can be re-used. The seed companies do not want the seeds to be re-used so farmers are forced to buy new seeds every year. > Terminator seeds

Farmers in India have been persuaded to buy the companies seeds, and the farmers are being pushed into debt! 1000’s killed themselves because of hybrid seeds that weren’t performing.

The first GE crop was planted in 1996!

GE crops aren’t segregated after they are harvested, so they get mixed in with non-GE crops before processing. Also the foods manufactured from these crops are not marked with a GE food label!

Monsanto GE

Soy: it withstands large doses of Round Up
Corn: Produces Bacillus Theringenesis (Bt) a built in pesticide that is found in soil! It is a soil bacterium that is deadly to these insects’ larvae (caterpillar!) Less money spent on pesticides!

These crops are important to Monsanto to make money not only on the seeds, but also on the Round Up pesticide. It’s good for the farmer and Monsanto because the farmer gets higher yield.

Side effect of GE

> Harmful to even the good bugs!
> Transgenic is a radical, new, and unstable science. Those promoting are under outdated assumptions on how genes work. The organism is forced to accept the foreign matter. No one knows the effects on our health.

5 Problems with GE foods

1. Not labeled
2. Long-term human effects
3. Environmental concerns
4. Large Corporations
5. Trade Troubles

GE companies claim that GE food is necessary to feed the world’s population

Many critics oppose to this statement. The problem is poverty and bad land distribution, not absence of food.

24 African Delegates - GE food will destroy the diversity, the local knowledge and the sustainable agricultural systems that our farmers developed and undermine the capacity to feed themselves.

Dr. Mac-Wan Ho – It’s bad science working with big business for quick profit against the public good.

Monarch and Canary both early-warning systems in environmental changes.

Pollen from Bt stunted growth of caterpillars.

2 Positives of Bt Corn

1. Deadly to corn borer: 1 billion $ / yr.
2. Harmless to humans and less pesticides used

Agritech companies are worried about the loss of 100’s of millions of dollars

Monsanto says that we shouldn’t worry because the research is preliminary and inconclusive.

GE foods

Beans + Grains that are high in protein

Caffeine free coffee beans
Strawberries with lots of natural sugars

Potatoes that soak up less fat during cooking

Rice fortified with beta-carotene > which humans convert to vitamin A and additional iron

50 field trials have been conducted on gene-spliced food plants.

Tinkering with genes can go bad because it’s harder to control and more ecologically disruptive than selective breeding.

Bt crops can produce a bug + weed resistance to the crops

Biopiracy: a corporation patenting a crop or plant based on the work of generations of people. They change one little gene and then patent it so that people have to pay to use it.

Josantony Joseph – Economics shouldn’t determine human race.

Heated debate over GE foods

1. environmental
2. health
3. safety
4. ethical

Particularly in countries with long agricultural traditions > the idea seems against nature

Nowadays, GE foods are everywhere. A third of Corn, and a half of soy and cotton.
This is also called Biotechnology! 26 million + hectares of GMO crops will be planted this year.

Biotechnology can:

Improve farming productivity in hand – to – farm areas.

Incorporate pest resistant genes into seeds.

Be helpful in Africa:

1. Virus-resistant crops can reduce damage, as can drought-resistant seeds
2. Biotech can also help solve the problem of excess aluminum in the soil, which causes staple-crop failure, and root damage.

Biotech is far from the answer

1. in developing countries, lost crops are not the main concern, poverty plays the largest role
2. challenge of food distribution in developing countries
3. GMO food is often too expensive in developing countries
4. The local population cannot afford to buy the food

Beta-carotene: is the substance that GE rice contains that the body converts into vitamin A and additional iron

Golden rice: vitamin-enriched rice that a London based company will share with developing countries.

Corn Borer: The European corn borer destroys 40 million tons of the world’s corn annually (7%). It is a very big pest!

Genetically Modified Organisms

First GE food in Canada used and sold for human use > Potato > New Leaf Potato

Main concern: Safety? > No long term testing
Allergies?
Also: > Super Bugs / Super Weeds
> Ethics!
Bt Potatoes > Pesticide built in!

To protect against the Colorado Potato Beetle

4% of PEI Potatoes are Bt (Has gone up since film was made)

Positives:

Less chemicals in the environment; less chemicals consumed by us

Negatives:

* Long term effects on humans unknown * > There hasn’t been any negative effect yet and it has been a long time!

Allergies

“Super bug” “Super weeds”

Patenting (biopiracy)

Video 2

European reasons for rejecting GE foods

1. No labeling : were not informed that they were getting GE foods
2. No long-term studies done concerning health risks.
3. Mad Cow Disease : fear of the unknown > MCD frightened many farmers and some farmers would have the same results > too much scientific “tinkering”
4. European farmers didn’t want US to benefit from the Europeans buying GE foods from the US.

Bt: Bacillus Thurengenesis > kills caterpillar > from the soil

Biopiracy: patenting

Technical Use Agreement

1. check crops every 3 years
2. can’t share + re-use seeds
3. 15 $ per acre

Bad Insecticides

1. Harm the environment
2. Must wear gloves / clothes when handling > we don’t want our kids handling these things
3. Poisonous to humans > you eat trace amounts when you consume food
4. It kills everything including the Monarch

Bt: Corn, Potatoes, Cotton (cotton weevil) > Most chemicals used in cotton! Compared to anything else!

Tungsten balls for gene gun!

Transgenic: between species. Across: plant 2 animal

GE foods serve the developed world to make the rich richer!

PMU: Pregnant Mares Urine. Extracted is a substance in a plant in Brandon for women.

Athabasca Oil Sands: Huge deposits of oil sands found in northern Alberta.