Public education to
inform consumers
and those involved
in policy making
about the
environmental costs
and benefits of
alternative
management
practices.Large populations seeking inexpensive food.CASE STUDY
DECLINE IN HONEYBEE POPULATION: Honeybees are one of the
world’s leading pollinators and are responsible for $30 billion a year in crops,
representing one-third of our food supply. Beginning in 2006, beekeepers
began to notice an unusual decrease and disappearance in their honeybee
colonies. Since then, more than 30% of the honeybee colonies have been
disappearing each year, including many worker bees that are vital to the
colonies’ survival. Proposed causes for this decline in the honeybee
population include the use of pesticides, the influx of a particular mite, the
spread of diseases and viruses, poor nutrition, habitat loss, and changes in
weather patterns.The Agricultural and Green Revolutions
FIRST AGRICULTURAL (NEOLITHIC) REVOLUTION (ABOUT 10,000 B.C.E.)
The First Agricultural Revolution was the wide-scale transition of many human
cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and
settlement, making an increasingly larger population possible. These settled
communities permitted humans to observe and experiment with plants to learn
how they grow and develop. This new knowledge led to the domestication of
plants.
SECOND AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION (1760–1840)
The Second Agricultural Revolution coincided with the Industrial Revolution
that occurred in England; it was a revolution that would move agriculture
beyond subsidence to generate the kinds of surpluses needed to feed thousands