Course: SAT 100 Principles of Agroecology

Reading and Multimedia Assignments

Reading Assignments
Reading Assignments

Read Chapter 18, "The Energetics of Agroecosystems" and Chapter 19, "Animals in Agroecosystems" in Gliessman book

Chapter 18 looks at the effect of energy in an agroecosystem and how traditional farming has evolved to using non-renewable resources that are polluting our environment.  Also discussed in this chapter are ways we can change our path into a system using renewable resources that are more beneficial to our ecology.

Chapter 19 examines the effect of removing cattle from the family farms and interaction with the plants into cattle feedlots that have created more problems than solutions.  Re-integration of livestock back into the agroecosystem is discussed in detail, listing its benefits and challenges.

Agroecosystem

This article describes how an agroecosystem fits within an ecosystem.
(in Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Energy Inputs in Food Crop Production in Developing and Developed Nations

Detailed energy outputs and inputs were assessed for the following crops, cultured in the U.S. and developing countries: corn, wheat, rice, soy, potato, cassava, tomato, citrus and apple. In addition, the labor input for each crop was analyzed.
(by David Pimentel, Cornell University, in Energeries 2, no 1; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, CC BY 3.0)