Lecture 9

Homo Antecessor
- worlds first known cannibals
- ate each other to satisfy their nutritional needs
- appear to have preyed on competing groups
Meat vs. Plants
Pros
- less toxic
- concentrated source of nutrients (lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins and
miterals), calories, high-quality proteins & fats
- most digestible plants deficient in essential amino acids and vitamins
(such as vitamin B12)
- most plants more tedious to prepare
Cons
- animals can run or fight back
- spoils more quickly
- contains dangerous parasites
Livestock in the Global Economy
- 1.3 billion people employed
- 33% of humanitys protein intake
- 40% of agricultural value
- dietary transition: meat consumption should increase
- 70% of all agricultural land devoted to meat production
Industrialization of Livestock
- raising similar animals in close proximity
- standardized feed for rapid weight gain & uniformity
- low levels of non-therapeutic antibiotics & growth hormones to
stimulate growth and improve production and performance
- genetic selection to accentuate desirable traits to create uniform meat
products
- mechanization of feeding, watering and other husbandry activities
-

goats, sheep and pigs domesticated 11 000-12 000 years ago

Domesticating vs. Hunting Animals

- edible garburators (organic wastes & surplus food crops)
- insurance against crop failure (reliability)
- convenience
- milk
- transportation
- manure
- traction power/torque

Sheep
- began producing wool ~4000 years after their original domestication
- wool much warmer than cotton and linen
- sheep milk & meat much more valued historically in Europe than N.
America
- can feed on shorter grass than cattle
- mutton meat keeps less well than pork and beef
Goats
- ancestor: wild goat
- distinguished from sheep by beard
Hogs
-

(Pigs)
ancestor: wild boar
has only one stomach (sheep and goats have rumen 4 stomachs)
raised in the forest, farm or cities

Range Pigs (Forests)

Food (pannage or pasturing in a forest)
- mast (nuts from the forest floor such as acorns, chestnuts, hazelnuts)
- wild fruits such as berries, apples, pears, and hawthorns
- (digging) mushrooms, tubers, roots, worms, and grubs from the ground
- meats: eggs, snakes, young birds, mice, rabbits, fawns, etc
Pigs vs. Ruminants
Pros
- prolific (4 month gestation period, average litter 10 piglets, sometimes
up to 30; on average 100 female piglets for 2 female calves)
- semi-wild foraging pigs could fend off predators (even wolves)
- rapid growth (high conversion ratio)
- omnivorous (organic waste of all kinds; surplus crops from sweet
potatoes to barley; whey)
- (later) speed of reproduction facilitates breeding
Cons
- low ability to do well on cellulose alone (monogastric)
- no primary nonmeat uses
o no dairy products, source of power (traction) or transportation
o manure difficult to collect, less valuable than sheep & horse
- before motorized transportation, didnt travel as well (shorter legs, lost
more weight, more troublesome)
After piglets are born, farrowing crates prevent
- cannibalism
- sow from rolling over and killing piglets

Cattle
- wild ancestor: auroch
- ruminants
Improvements in Dairy Production
- introduction & improvements in dairy breeds
- year-round (improved) feeding and milking
- creation of pastures, increased fodder production
- better feeding systems, silos, barns
- improvement in production methods
Improvements in Dairy Cows
- breeding (artificial insemination)
- bovine growth hormones (genetically engineered copy of hormones
produced naturally by cows)
- antibiotics (animals need less energy to fight diseases and digest food)
- environment (a happy cow is a more productive cow)
- ex. Starbuck
Beef Cattle (recent trends)
North America
- animals keep getting bigger (faster growth)
- total herd declining
- Canada & Mexico integrated in US production
Elsewhere
- India is #1 (South Asia, Middle East, North Africa)
- Brazil rising (export & increased domestic consumption)
- China increasingly important importer
Horses, Donkeys & Mules
- reproduce and grow too slowly, live longer ~ kept for work
Poultry
- chickens are monogastric
- 2 types of chickens: broilers (raise and cook for meat), layers (all
females that produce eggs)
Why indoor confinement of broilers?
To reduce
- losses of animals to predators
- exposure to harsh weather (& resulting diseases)
- exposure to diseases of wild animals
- health monitoring more cost-effective
Unlike broilers, layers are kept in cages to prevent
- cannibalism
- fighting
- increases in diseases

Most beehive transport takes place at night (bees only fly out during the day)
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
- disappearance of some pollinators goes back to 19th C
- apart from pests, main factors seem to be changing agricultural
practices (ex. new fertilizers, fewer rotations and fallow periods
resulting in less plant diversity)
- neonics = group of chemicals that kill pests; relatively harmless to
bees; activist driven but baseless arguments; used in Australia and no
CCD there
Fisheries, Seafood & Aquaculture
- used to be abundant cod fisheries in Newfoundland collapsed due to
overexploitation and bad management
- cod have very low fat content; can be stored for months
- roughly half of the fish today is farmed
China
- rice paddies & stocking ponds
- adjunct operations to silk farms (fed silkworm)
- later, multiple species of carps (bottom, midwater and top feeders)
Conclusion: Why Modern Food Supply Chain?
- more efficient
o lower costs
o less lands & water
- more variety
- wastes and pathogens (better) neutralized