Population & Food: Crash Course Geography #16 - Free Educational videos for Students in K-12

Population & Food: Crash Course Geography #16 - By CrashCourse

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00:0-1	within this loaf of delicious banana bread , there's butter
00:02	and eggs and vanilla , bananas , maybe all the
00:04	way from Guatemala and a lot of sugar . But
00:07	there's also energy . Energy is one of those things
00:09	that's so basic and important to our lives and how
00:12	the world functions . It's kind of hard to define
00:14	, but at its most simple energy is the ability
00:17	to do work . So like a few bites will
00:18	hopefully give me the fuel to record this episode .
00:21	Food energy is just one type of energy , but
00:24	it's incredibly important and necessary for humans to exist .
00:26	And that can create some tricky issues like as the
00:29	world's population keeps growing , we have to figure out
00:31	how to provide enough food and water for everyone and
00:34	still support a sustainable environment . That problem might set
00:36	your geography sense is tingling because we can explore it
00:39	through human environment interactions . We might only be about
00:43	halfway through our physical geography journey . But this is
00:45	one of those times when the line between physical and
00:47	human geography doesn't really exist . Some of the most
00:50	critical issues we face as a society like climate change
00:53	, eradicating diseases or making sure everyone has food require
00:57	knowing about Earth's physical and human systems and the interdependency
01:00	of living things and physical environments . I'm Elise a
01:03	career and this is crash course geography . Mhm .
01:13	People need a lot of energy throughout their lives ,
01:15	especially the food energy we get from the banana bread
01:17	and other stuff we eat to power our bodies .
01:20	And to understand how we get the food energy we
01:22	need , we have to first understand how energy gets
01:24	to the earth . Once solar energy leaves the sun
01:27	and travels to the earth , it can't be returned
01:29	. So we say energy flows in one direction .
01:31	Food energy is created when plants turn that solar energy
01:34	into chemical energy using photosynthesis , plants combined sunlight ,
01:38	carbon dioxide and water to make carbohydrates which are little
01:41	packets of food energy . A food chain describes how
01:43	energy makes its way through ecosystems or communities of living
01:46	and non living things . It's basically a list of
01:48	who eats who . Let's go to the thought bubble
01:51	in a simple food chain , let's say , a
01:52	cow grazes on some grass . Then a tiger comes
01:55	along and attacks and eats the cow . When the
01:57	tiger dies , bacteria breaks down its body , returning
02:00	it to the soil , where it provides nutrients for
02:01	plants like the grass . But food chains are rarely
02:04	simple cows like grass , but they'll also munch on
02:06	corn stocks and hey and tigers will eat other animals
02:09	too . So lots of food chains intertwined within different
02:12	ecosystems and form food webs to organize the chaos ,
02:15	we can group organisms into categories called trophic levels .
02:18	The first trophic level is the producers that make their
02:21	own food , like the grass that uses solar energy
02:23	to photosynthesize . In the second trophic level , the
02:26	producers are eaten by a primary consumer , like the
02:28	cow . Then there are secondary consumers who eat the
02:30	primary consumers , like a tiger , who eats the
02:32	cow . And there can be tertiary consumers who eat
02:35	the secondary consumers . The highest trophic level of a
02:38	food web is usually the apex predator , who doesn't
02:40	get eaten in this little food chain . It's the
02:43	tiger are secondary consumer , and we only have three
02:46	trophic levels each time we move up a trophic level
02:48	, only 10% of the energy is passed on ,
02:50	so the cow only gets 10% of the energy the
02:53	grass absorb from the sun , and the tiger only
02:55	gets 10% of that 10% . That means that each
02:57	trophic level gets smaller and smaller , so we might
03:00	have a ton of grass , a lot of cows
03:01	, but only a few apex predator tigers at the
03:03	top and lastly sitting at the edges are the D
03:06	composers , the Cleanup Crew , who break down dead
03:08	plants and animals like our tiger into energy and nutrients
03:11	that mix into the soil for plants to absorb ,
03:13	starting the chain all over again . Thanks thought bubble
03:16	. The logic of passing on less energy to higher
03:18	trophic levels applies to humans and our resources to If
03:22	we add more people or consume more food , that's
03:24	going to influence the trophic levels below us . In
03:26	fact , we can predict our impact on the environment
03:28	with a formula that uses population size , how affluent
03:31	a society is , which is usually measured by how
03:33	much it consumes and how much access to technology it
03:36	has , which can be both positive and negative .
03:38	The world's population has been rapidly increasing since the Industrial
03:42	Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries . With new
03:44	manufacturing processes and machines we could grow and create more
03:48	food and then feed more people . And in 2020
03:50	we officially reached 7.8 billion people on the planet .
03:54	As we keep adding more and more people to the
03:56	world . We have to start thinking about our planet's
03:58	carrying capacity , which is the maximum population and environment
04:01	can support long term with a given set of natural
04:03	resources . So there are two types of overpopulation to
04:06	consider if we're deciding if the earth will run out
04:08	of resources . People overpopulation is when there are a
04:11	lot of people , so a lot of resources are
04:13	used . This can be how poorer countries might run
04:16	out of resources because even though consumption per person and
04:18	technologies influences lower the high population size means a big
04:22	impact on the environment . On the other hand ,
04:24	consumption overpopulation is when there are fewer people , but
04:27	each individual person uses a large quantity of natural resources
04:31	. This is usually how richer countries might run out
04:33	of resources . In both cases , we have to
04:35	take a hard look at where we're getting our energy
04:37	, especially our food energy . How much energy we
04:40	use depends on where we are in the food chain
04:41	because as we climb to higher trophic levels , it
04:43	takes more total energy to generate the food that fills
04:46	our stomachs . If we look across the world ,
04:48	some people depend on traditional practices to get food energy
04:51	and eat more grain , more seasonal foods and larger
04:53	amounts of fresh , homegrown and unbranded foods they eat
04:57	a lot of producers , so less energy is lost
04:59	between trophic levels before making it to their stomachs .
05:01	As incomes rise though , people generally go through a
05:04	nutrition transition or a change in food habits and culture
05:07	because they have more wealth in richer countries , food
05:09	is generally more homogenized , highly processed and tends to
05:12	be meat heavy . They're eating more primary and secondary
05:15	consumers and it takes more energy to feed all those
05:17	trophic levels , like as china has risen economically .
05:20	The people have moved away from traditional rice based diets
05:23	to eating more meat , particularly beef , but every
05:25	person doesn't live their life exactly the same way .
05:27	So we're going to use average numbers to discuss energy
05:30	consumption here . Some people are eating more meat and
05:32	some people are eating less in 2018 . Each person
05:35	ate an average of just under 80 kg of meat
05:37	in a year and with 1.35 billion people in China
05:40	. That's more than 100 and eight billion kg of
05:43	meat per year . Many other countries out eat China
05:45	per person . Like an average American eats 120 kg
05:48	of meat per year . That's like one person needing
05:51	1350 kg of grain a year to survive , because
05:54	that's how much it takes to feed that amount of
05:55	meat . But if we hop down to a lower
05:57	level on the food chain and eight grain instead of
05:59	meat , Those 1350 kg of grain could feed 22
06:03	people for a year . This is why you might
06:05	have heard about vegetarian and vegan diets being more environmentally
06:08	friendly , they take fewer resources and less energy to
06:11	feed you . So to put it all into perspective
06:13	, eating a hamburger or something processed like banana bread
06:16	takes more energy than just eating a banana . And
06:19	that's only part of the picture . We also have
06:21	to think about how that food is grown and gets
06:23	to us . For example , since I live in
06:24	the United States and we import bananas , a more
06:27	energy saving choice might be to eat corn bread from
06:29	corn grown in Iowa or just eat the oranges grown
06:31	in my backyard , urbanization and industrialization changed how we
06:35	produce our food and how much energy that takes .
06:37	We can't just look at food chains because most of
06:39	our food energy comes from a combination of solar energy
06:42	to help plants grow plus whatever work and fuel we
06:44	put into agricultural practices . For example , animal husbandry
06:48	is a branch of agriculture focused on raising livestock and
06:51	requires land for grazing and fresh water . For thousands
06:53	of years we've raised animals like llamas in the Andes
06:56	, yaks , goats and sheep in the Himalayas ,
06:58	reindeer in the arctic circle and camels in Mongolia and
07:02	in the Sahara and humans met those animal husbandry requirements
07:05	through trans humans or moving herds between pastures with the
07:08	change of seasons to help ecosystems stay productive . Indigenous
07:11	communities especially have farmed in ways that have left plenty
07:14	of energy for local ecosystems . But as our societies
07:17	have industrialized farms have become large users of fossil fuel
07:20	from using equipment to plant and harvest crops to transportation
07:23	to deliver the food to urban areas . This is
07:26	one spot where that technology piece of the formula can
07:28	factor in as demand for meat has increased . We've
07:30	also created factory farms dedicated to producing meat which require
07:34	even more energy because all those animals need food to
07:37	eat and water to drink . So there are farms
07:39	that grow crops just to feed animals . On other
07:41	farms like in the corn belt in the middle of
07:42	the US . Instead of using the solar energy captured
07:45	by these crops to directly feed people , it goes
07:48	to the next trophic level to fatten up cattle and
07:50	hogs . The corn belt is also a pork belt
07:52	and a beef belt . So we're devoting a ton
07:54	of land jobs and industrial processes to keep our spot
07:57	high up on the food chain . And as the
07:59	world population keeps growing managing the amount of resources we
08:02	have , especially food energy is an increasingly urgent problem
08:05	with 7.8 billion people on earth . We are changing
08:08	the flow of energy through our ecosystems and those changes
08:11	are tied to a cascade of environmental and social problems
08:14	to find solutions . As geographers , we examine how
08:17	local choices intersect with larger scale outcomes on the population
08:20	side , we can help feed growing populations by understanding
08:23	where food is produced and how it's distributed locally .
08:26	Strong distribution networks with access to affordable healthy foods are
08:29	critical to making sure everyone has enough food regionally and
08:33	globally . We can study the economic incentives that allow
08:35	food to easily flow some places and not others ,
08:38	or systems that break down local food networks to create
08:40	global ones , like how affluence is tied to eating
08:43	more meat , to reduce our consumption impact , knowing
08:45	our food shed or the area that feeds us is
08:47	critical . We can limit how much meat we eat
08:49	or try to eat locally grown foods . And these
08:52	local actions can impact ecosystems and food economies around the
08:55	world as demands change , maintaining energy flows and finding
08:58	a way to feed everyone on the planet is not
09:00	going to have a quick solution . But as we
09:02	all work together to keep moving forward , thinking carefully
09:05	about what we eat , how it gets to us
09:07	and how to create food sustainably are some of the
09:10	ways we can each have the greatest impact and creating
09:12	a sustainable planet is something we'll keep exploring spatially ,
09:15	including next episode when we look down beneath our feet
09:18	to the soils , many maps and borders represent modern
09:21	geopolitical divisions that have often been decided without the consultation
09:25	permission or recognition of the land's original inhabitants . Many
09:28	geographical place names also don't reflect the indigenous or aboriginal
09:32	peoples languages . So we , at Crash course want
09:34	to acknowledge these people's traditional and ongoing relationship with that
09:37	land and all the physical and human geographical elements of
09:40	it . We encourage you to learn more about the
09:42	history of the place you call home through resources like
09:44	native land dot C . A . And by engaging
09:46	with your local indigenous and aboriginal nations through the websites
09:49	and resources . They provide thanks for watching this episode
09:52	of Crash Course Geography , which is filmed at the
09:54	Team Sandoval Pierce studio and was made with the help
09:57	of all these nice people . If you want to
09:59	help keep Crash course free for everyone forever , you
10:01	can join our community on Patreon .

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