Student: Jade Murphy
Graduation date: May 2020
Type: Area of Interest (double major)
Date approved: November 2017
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Summary
Industrialization has led to a considerable transition in the american animal agriculture industry. This high profit production has created many changes, including environmental, social and economic. The social norms placed forth in America have not only altered the way we produce our food, but also what kind of food we eat. In order to fully understand the relationship between diet and agriculture, one needs to examine both the physical science and social science aspects of this affair. The first step I need to take is exploring the byproducts of the animal agriculture, particularly cattle industry. I turned to The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Lawrence , 1987) this source asserts that the industrial agriculture system consumes fossil fuel, water, and topsoil at unsustainable rates. It also determines that animal agriculture contributes to numerous forms of environmental degradation, including air and water pollution, soil depletion, diminishing biodiversity, and fish die-offs. They have produced evidence proving that meat production contributes to these problems, in part because feeding grain to livestock to produce meat-instead of feeding it directly to humans-involves a large energy loss, making animal agriculture more resource intensive than other forms of food production.
In order to understand the progression through history in which the agribusiness industry has emerged, we need to take a look at the role cultural values and practices have played. The book “The Unsettling of America, Culture & Agriculture “ (Berry 2015) argues that “good farming is a cultural development and spiritual discipline” and that we have become estranged from the land and the community that comes with agricultural production. The book “The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land” (Wirzba 2003) examines the complex relationship between land, community, and culture and how we can develop practices and policies that can promote sustainable health in each sector. Both of these sources are social science references, but I have included two other sources to help understand the historical shifts that have been made physically. The first source is “An Ecological History of Agriculture 10,000 B.C.-A.D. 10,000” (Vasey 2002). This book analyzes past and present agricultural systems and the cultivations we have made and the effect of those cultivations in our modern society. “Feeding the World: An Economic History of Agriculture, 1800-2000” (Federico 2005) explores all the factors that have contributed to agricultural successful performance and development.
The cattle industry in the United States is one of great economic importance. To explore the considerable effect of the cattle industry has on our economy, I have chosen the source “USDA- Livestock Production Practices” (Key 2017) This source explores how livestock operations have fallen in number and how cattle production has shifted to larger agribusiness production facilities. They explore the impacts of this on the U.S. economy, price of production, food safety and rural development. Another great source to use to understand the economic element of the cattle industry is “Economic Impact of the United States Beef Industry.” This source gives me an exact representation of the amount of money and people involved in the livestock industry. The beef sector is the largest agriculture industry, and it provides 1.4 million jobs for US citizens. This text states “The estimated $40.76 billion of gross output from beef production activity supports an additional $147.4 billion of economic output for a total of $188.4 billion of direct and indirect economic activity throughout the U.S. economy.” (Otto, 2001)
References:
Berry, Wendell. 2015. The Unsettling of America, Culture & Agriculture. Counterpoint Publishing.
Wirzba, Norman. 2003. The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land. Counterpoint Publishing.
Vasey, Daniel E. 2002. An Ecological History of Agriculture 10,000 B.C.-A.D. 10,000. Purdue University Press.
Federico, Giovanni. 2005. Feeding the World: An Economic History of Agriculture, 1800-2000. Princeton University Press.
Key, Nigel. 2017. Livestock Production Practices. United States Department of Agriculture- Economic Research Service
Otto, Dan, and John Laurence. 2001. Economic Impact of the United States Beef Industry. Department of Economics, Iowa State University.
Lawrence, Robert S. 1987. How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture.Environmental Health Perspectives. Research Triangle Park, N.C.: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Questions
Descriptive
- In what ways have the animal agriculture industry shifted in the past century?
- What are the negative and positive byproducts of animal agriculture?
- Who are the stakeholders in the animal agriculture industry?
Explanatory
- What role have social norms played in the shift to industrialized agriculture?
- How are diet and production related?
- What are the economic benefits of having such a fruitful animal agriculture industry? What are the detriments?
- How have cultural values and morals shaped modern agriculture? What historical precedence has led to the animal agriculture industry to having such a large role in our economy?
Evaluative
- To what extent has the American culture been influenced by modern agribusiness?
- How has the financialization of food changed our relationship with agriculture?
- How has urbanization changed our relationship with agriculture?
Instrumental
- What are the most effective ways to remediate the animal agribusiness negative externalities?
- What can be done on an individual level?
- What policies can be put in place to negate the negative effects of this industry?
- In what ways can we incentivize farmers to produce cattle more sustainably?
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- HIST 388: What's for Dinner (4 credits)- This class will help me explore "nutritionism" in American history and the origin of social norms that shape our ideas and values around meat and protein consumption