Renewable Resources A Report to the Committee on Natural Resources of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council (1962) / Chapter Skim
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WOODS HOLE CONFERENCE ON RENEWABLE RESOURCES
WOODS HOLE CONFERENCE ON RENEWABLE RESOURCES
Pages 19-106
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From page 19... ...
In renewable resources we are concerned with everything from fossil fuels to recreation. There have been sessions on water resources and on energy already.
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From page 20... ...
On the basis of present knowledge, e.g., use of fertilizers, plant protection measures, irrigation, etc. , it is possible greatly to increase food production.
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In the latter instance, we have to grow a different plant species or variety. While, for example, soybean protein can be produced on one-tenth of the acreage required for a comparable amount of beef, the amino acid constitution is less favorable, and it should not be forgotten that in passing the food supply through an animal link in the chain, it may acquire an additional safety factor.
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From page 22... ...
Finally, it would be very worth-while if we had some techniques for increasing the genetic variability of plant populations, comparable to the phenomenon of transduction in microorganisms, which would open up new areas to plant breeding. Discussion of Allaway's Presentation Allaway: On the question whether the amino acid balance might not be better, as for example richer in lysine, in the early stages of growth, it appears that, in corn, as we increase the protein with addition of nitrogen fertilizer and other techniques, the later increments are, indeed, less desirable in respect to amino acid make-up.
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From page 23... ...
There does not appear to be any concern, however, for the development of desalination of river waters, even if it could be selectively done, for nitrate accumulation here would be generally beneficial, and nitrates are not importantly present in waters ordinarily considered for desalination. Allaway: Contrary to much popular opinion, utilization of solar energy by algae is really no more efficient than that of higher plants, but from an engineering standpoint it is considerably easier to supply algae with additional CO2Lemon, at Cornell, has shown that at times, in a New York cornfield, in full sunlight on a windless day, it is CO2 that is limiting.
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The following outline served as a framework for the presentation.) Problems in Animal Food Production 1.
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germ plasm storage c. environment, interactions, and underyling hormonal, neural, and other mechanisms.
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They do provide a better array of amino acids than plant proteins and most of the vitamin B-12 supply. Chart 1 takes as a standard seven grams of animal protein per person per day, which is but 10 per cent of United States consumption.
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From page 27... ...
The problem of changing the dienoic fatty acid content of ruminant fats may be insoluble; we need to know. Human beings feel a need for fats if the level in the diet falls below about 15 per cent of ingested calories (40 per cent of the United States diet is in this category)
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From page 28... ...
The toll exacted by parasites and disease reaches some two billion dollars or more annually; an adequate reporting system is needed if this figure is to be refined. Our knowledge of antibiosis is pragmatic; we know the growth-promoting effects, but use of antibiotics may promote the emergence of antibioticresistant pathogens.
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From page 29... ...
Not infrequently, too, it is our show animals that are purchased by Latin American stockmen for prestige purposes when other breeding stock would be a better bargain. Returning to the matter of maintaining germ plasm, if an extensive 'world bank' were to be established, it would have to be a major international facility and should include materials from wild species -- some in Africa -- now in danger of extinction.
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From page 30... ...
The potential yields of certain range lands in Oklahoma, for example, can be raised from 1,200 to 5,000 pounds dry weight of forage per acre, but the real question is what to do with the product which has a high seasonal variability in nutritive value. The large question of use for these feed items, and for vast quantities of materials such as cornstalks, is in reality a materials-handling research problem as acute as any other.
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From page 31... ...
Byerly: The eventual limiting factor is water at the right place at the right time, but within that limitation output could perhaps be increased by a factor of 10. More critically important, by far, is the fact that not one-tenth of the measures, known for years, which would be necessary to attain this increase could be put into practice in a country such as India with its existing educational and economic systems.
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2. Genetic research, including cytogenetics, assembly, preservation, and evaluation of genetic stocks throughout the world and genetics of disease research.
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From page 33... ...
There appears to be no reason, for example, why recreation and wildlife protection cannot be harmonized with acceptable forest practices in a single forest area. Multiple-use served as a theme for the Fifth International Forestry Congress in Seattle, where a number of principles were enunciated.
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From page 34... ...
Industry's quest, spurred by World War I, for raw materials which are adapted to processing and stable as to quality, supply, and price has turned increasingly to petroleum, natural gas, and coal. Synthetic detergents now command over half of a soap market which once depended on inedible fats; plastics have replaced leather in a major portion of the shoe market; and synthetic fibers are making great inroads in cotton and wool markets.
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materials, lamin paints, varnishe greases paints, varnishe greases paints, varnishe extenders in phe soaps, lubricant adhesives £ V M a 1 fr 1 i § 0 3 "I ffl U • s 5 J'-a a .a -- '§ a a U V e a B V V "3. "S, Starch (chiLinseed oi!
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a r^xrr^oor^moso*
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2635 3040 48 1 81 120 35 USSR 1 222.6 2710 2985 26 3 92 70 20 Other Eastern Europe 7 118.0 2635 2925 28 3 78 83 25 Western Asia 7 82.6 2400 2365 13 5 73 39 15 Africa 21 258.5 2375 2455 11 10 64 44 16 Far East 11 926.7 2300 2100 8 12 56 32 14 Communist Asia 1 725.0 2300 2200 6 15 65 32 13 Australia and New Zealand 2 16.6 2655 3210 67 5 103 136 40 USA 1 186.4 2640 3220 66 5 97 149 40 Total 88 3082.1 Standards: 60 grams protein per capita per day, of which 7 grams animal protein, 10 from pulses, fat 15 percent of required calories. The deficits for 1962 appear to be: Animal protein in terms of 36% protein nonfat milk solids Fats Countries Metric tons Metric tons Latin America 49,000 Western Asia -- 48,000 Africa 89,000 20,000 Far East 714,000 1,568,000 Communist Asia 715,000 1,660,000 The World Food Budget, 1962 and 1966.
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X o o o o o o |
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CHART III. 1958 Milk Produced (Million metric tons)
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CHART IV. 1961 Research on Livestock Area Species 1 USDA State Genetics and breeding Beef cattle 19 62 Dairy cattle 22 47 Poultry 12 43 Sheep and goats 6 18 Swine 10 24 Physiology 26 176 Nutrition Beef 11 107 Dairy 26 88 Poultry 8 65 Sheep and goats 4 23 Swine a 41 Fur animals All 5 4 Environmental biology 11 93 Livestock equipment 7 7 Infectious diseases Cattle 51 73 Poultry 31 46 Sheep and goats 7 11 Swine 22 18 Horses and mules _ 3 Parasites Cattle 15 22 Poultry 6 6 Sheep and goats 8 6 Swine 5 4 Insect Pests Beef cattle and swine 16 11 Dairy cattle 16 7 Poultry 2 3 Sheep and goats 5 1 Pasture and range 38 66 Milk technology Milk 82 68 Meat technology Meat 16 25 Wool and mohair Sheep and goats 41 1 Animal fat technology Beef and swine 60 2 Hides, skins and leather All 21 _ Poultry and egg technology Poultry 27 21 Feed and forage technology All 9 4 Market quality Meat, milk and eggs 11 18 Poultry products 7 6 -40
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From page 42... ...
If, as now expected, we will still be producing surpluses by 1980, these would be available as raw materials for industrial use if technology in the meantime makes such use practicable. Finally, any shift from the current 80 per cent of acreage used for producing animal products toward a greater proportion of plant materials would permit either feeding a larger number of people on the same acres or supplying more agricultural commodities to industry.
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From page 43... ...
Federal effort is at the rate of 500 professional manyears per year, or $10 million at current costs. Estimates are that industry and other private research organizations conduct about 10-15 million dollars worth annually, and the state experiment stations perhaps less than a million.
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In concluding: (1) Agriculture provides many good raw materials for industry; not all are being used because we don't know enough about how to use them or because costs are too high.
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From page 45... ...
It was achieved by simply bludgeoning through on a program of selection and analysis. A more systematic fund of data on genetic materials would have been a much more desirable way of going at it.
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Crop rotation is now aimed more at pest and disease control than as a means of improving the tilth of soils. Additional Remarks on Forest Resources Weiss: Wood, like other crops, has many uses and many byproducts.
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From page 47... ...
The amount of solar energy which land plants fix in one year is 100x10^° calories, as compared with a total energy demand by man of 6x10^°, of which one-third is derived from plants, the rest from water, wind, and fossil fuels. Two principal lines suggest themselves: (1)
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g. , CHO; protein and amino acids; lipids; [ R
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From a general resources standpoint, several additional aspects of plant ecology are important: a. In nature, pure stands of a single plant are rare and then usually occur only as a result of toxic excretions.
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Possible conversion of these hazes into oil and petroleum should at least be investigated. Regional development of renewable resources is usually organized in colleges, experiment stations, and regional laboratories.
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S., The Human Population. Scientific American, Sept., 1960.
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coniferous forests and 24.4 by tropical forests, which underscores the tremendous productivity of perennial species. It seems, by the way, surprisingly difficult to find data on productivity, as such, of forested lands; all one can get are data on board feet of lumber, tonnages of copra, and so on, which is not nearly enough for this particular kind of analysis.
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labeled, isotopes. Most of the work has been done with carbon.
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C Warren Thornthwaite, Laboratory of Climatology, Elmer, New Jersey The important point in considering solar energy is that only a trivial fraction of energy is used, which makes it seem that there are all kinds of possibilities for increased utilization.
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On the question whether water or CO2 is limiting in plant growth, the issue is unsettled and should be looked into. We have abundant evidence under outdoor conditions for the former -- little if any on the latter.
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Discussion of Thornthwaite 's Commentary Russell: Experiments at Illinois have shown that it is possible to grow corn to maturity (80-90 days) with less than seven inches of water; as little as two inches would be exceptional.
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There is little we can do substantially to modify this situation, and we shall have to remain predators. Matters are very different along the coast proper, where there is some opportunity to make effective changes, but this cannot importantly affect the great world food situation.
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From page 58... ...
From an economic standpoint, it might be highly practical to put together in tandem several otherwise marginal activities such as tidal power, desalination, algal culture, and the recovery of minerals from marine waters. Those areas of high tides which are also characteristically arid, e.
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From page 59... ...
Preservation of germ-plasm resources: We now have much foreign germ plasm, but the areas of diversity identified by Vavilov are mostly no longer available to us. We cannot know just what will be needed, and must therefore have a diverse resource; we cannot afford not to expand the genetic base of our breeding programs by whatever means we can devise.
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From page 60... ...
Only a very few species have been fully investigated, yet each extension into a new group has added appreciably to our basic store -- witness the contributions of bacterial genetics to our understanding of sex, of transduction and transformation, infective RNA, and so on. Forest genetics lags badly, partly because of the inconveniently long life-spans and generation-times of tree species, but active programs can and do yield results, e.
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From page 61... ...
There is a committee of the Genetics Society cooperating with the National Science Foundation on preservation of genetic stocks. A drosophila center has been set up in Philadelphia, a fungus collection at Dartmouth, and so on.
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Of special appeal is the combination of algal culture with waste utilization, such as sewage, thus avoiding consumption of strategic materials. Matters are complicated by established eating habits and the difficulty of getting yeasts and Chlorella accepted in the diet.
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From page 63... ...
Research here has gone well, for one reason because the organisms have been carefully selected and the technical problems are not especially difficult. Present estimates suggest that eight cubic feet of algal culture will supply oxygen for one astronaut, a drop from 350-800 cubic feet considered necessary in 1956 -- an advance based entirely on the selection of genetically more desirable strains.
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From page 64... ...
Bronk: The experiences of World War II clearly indicate the difficulty of changing food habits, for large amounts of food not familiar to the men to whom it was served found its way to the garbage cans. Schaefer: It is hard to introduce new diets in the campaign against kwashiorkor, although there is some hope that fish meal and fish flour can be made acceptable; in this country it is already widely used as a poultry feed additive.
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From page 65... ...
Bryson: In any event, we should explore ways of making up the supplies of amino acids which are deficient in microorganisms; of enzyme repression; of stimulating the production of large amounts of extra-cellular amino acids. One might, for example, add other microorganisms to yeast cultures to make up the existing deficiencies - which brings us back to the question of mixed cultures.
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From page 66... ...
possible to take the individual fascicles of an especially desirable conifer and, by vegetative propagation, rapidly increase a selected line. Swanson: For this kind of work there must be a broader base of comparative genetics.
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profile modification as related to rooting volume and plant nutrition, the plow layer, etc.
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Basic soil surveys are accumulating all too slowly. There must be an inventory to serve as a taxonomic framework, on a global scale.
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As the water table rises, soils become saline and non-productive at a disastrous rate, while productivity is already far below attainable levels; some 100,000 acres per year are being los_t -- a new deficit of one million persons per year, translated in terms of food supply.
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Russell: There is a growing recognition of the need to preserve productive farmlands, but this has not prevented the Bureau of Public Roads and comparable agencies from looking to short-term gains in costs of road construction. Byerly: In some categories of our five million acres of "specialty" lands there simply is no replacement possibility, cost or no cost, once they are lost -- a fact which the Dutch have at last openly faced in a policy based on suitability of land rather than sheer cost of operation or utilization.
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From page 71... ...
Russell Stevens, Department of Botany, George Washington University Plant pathology is both a science and an art; it has been seriously suggested that we grant distinct degrees in these two aspects. Of the art of plant disease control we know much; it is to a considerable degree a matter of applying what we know and of pushing steadily for improvement.
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(2) Research on chemical control is trying now to break out of its strictly empirical approach and to associate chemical structure with biological activity.
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From page 73... ...
In his ascent man selected, protected, and propagated certain plants and animals most desired by him; other species he regards as pests to be suppressed or, if possible, exterminated. To clothe and feed the vastly increased human population in America, a high level of agricultural production must be maintained; without the benefits of pest control and other technological advantages, scarcity would be the rule and shortages of some products would prevail.
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From page 74... ...
Disagreement revolves only about the procedures to be followed. Since nature does so excellent a job, first attention seems logically to go to natural insect control.
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Now man selects for quality, size, and appearance, and has brought back many of the practically lost genes for susceptibility. Chemical control.
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From page 76... ...
Integrated microbial and chemical control should be explored. Physiological insect control.
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From page 77... ...
Metabolism of important nutrients, when better known, may pave the way for more selective toxicants. It is conceivable that knowledge of the chemical structure of certain insect hormones could revolutionize insect control.
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. Finally, in terms of sheer mass, it is well to recall that in many situations the amount of insect protoplasm produced yearly per acre exceeds the gain in weight by livestock pastured on the same area.
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From page 79... ...
Animal foods are preferred wherever possible. Fish flour and meal offer promise for increasing the proportion of animal foods in what is predominantly a cereal-based food supply for the human species, if they can be prepared economically and made acceptable.
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From page 80... ...
Current agricultural policies must be reoriented. There is no important difference in animal and plant proteins provided all essential amino acids are present in sufficient quantities, but we do need more information on all aspects of the metabolism of the eight amino acids needed in the human system.
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From page 81... ...
Students at Columbia have but one two-hour lecture in four years, which is woefully inadequate. Some medical schools have none.
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From page 82... ...
Food losses, aside from mechanical damage, result from destruction of essential nutrients, impairment of flavor or texture, production of toxic substances, and invasion by pathogens. The food industry knows that these must be offset by scrupulous cleanliness, low temperature, and quick handling; but practices in the home kitchen often are not as efficient as those in the processing plant.
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From page 83... ...
In one sense the high levels of animal foods in the diet represent a waste, but it is a highly prized element. Furthermore, the expanding and contracting numbers of food animals help to keep our agricultural economy in balance.
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From page 84... ...
These five basic resources are produced or maintained on half of the total land area of the United States, comprising 775 million acres of forest lands, 530 million acres of prime timberland, 705 million acres of range lands (some open range, some intermingled forest and range)
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From page 85... ...
There are as many as ten million big-game animals in the forests. About half of the forested range lands and three-fourths of the privately held forests are in small parcels of 50 acres or less, practically all of which are poorly managed -- especially forest junk.
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From page 86... ...
Sixty million dollars is now spent by industry, four million dollars by the Federal Government, and perhaps two million dollars by the states and universities, on utilization research. Funds for all research in forestry is about 92 million dollars -- 66 per cent by industry, 27 per cent by the Federal Government, and seven per cent by universities.
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From page 87... ...
(3) The universities, which carry 21 per cent of agricultural research as a whole, and but seven per cent of forestry research, must assume the burden of education and training as well.
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From page 88... ...
searching for less expensive raw materials, as the substitution of farm wastes and by-products of the utilization of coal and oil for more expensive sources. Synthetic fibers can be blended, in textiles, with natural fibers because the former are customarily hydrophobic.
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From page 89... ...
Insect Control Weiss: The possibility suggests itself, in view of the difficulty encountered in establishing parasites and predators, of scaling the whole thing down to tissue culture. Polio was solved in this fashion and perhaps insect pathology might similarly yield.
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From page 90... ...
Diseases such as measles, mumps and whooping cough, which we in the United States think of as relatively mild, have a much higher mortality rate in Guatemala and other protein-deficient countries. Fish Meal and Fish Flour Here we seem to have one of the more promising items to be used as a protein supplement in human diet.
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From page 91... ...
Fish meal is currently used as a poultry feed supplement in some of the more advanced countries, up to perhaps six per cent protein increment. On the whole, fish protein must compare favorably in cost and practicability with dry skim milk, although a bioassay is needed to give a standard product.
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From page 92... ...
Sebrell: The trouble lies in the fact that the curriculum is already so filled and professors so reluctant to relinquish any of their courses that only a basic revision of the curriculum can provide appreciable blocks of time for nutrition studies. The American Medical Association is currently making a study of teaching in the medical schools of the country.
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From page 93... ...
Sebrell: The Peace Corps, if its applicants apply United States standards, will have not the remotest notion of the levels of malnutrition and sanitation under which so many of the world's peoples live. A serious and realistic indoctrination is imperative.
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From page 94... ...
Russell: In our agricultural schools, for example, certainly at the undergraduate level, introductory courses are serviceoriented, and yet we seem to expect the students to see the interrelationships themselves. When we attempt to teach these relations in an integrative course, we are embarrassed at the difficulty we encounter in trying to find a staff member who can handle it.
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From page 95... ...
How quickly can these be brought to a technological level? By what methods can this be done quickly, with low capital investment and simple techniques, against a background of three per cent yearly growth-rate in population?
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From page 96... ...
In agricultural economies, more than 80 per cent of the total effort may have to be allocated to food production, in spite of which the people are still badly nourished. Byerly: It would be worth-while to attempt to set minimum standards of education that will support a technological society.
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From page 97... ...
An interdisciplinary analysis of food problems in an underdeveloped country should precede any technical assistance program. We ought, in a sense, to have an alternative to fish meal -- changes of land use, land development, social changes, etc.
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From page 98... ...
Byerly: Too often the professor in charge virtually assigns bits of his own research program to successions of graduate students. Swanson: What we may need even more is a broad vision on the part of the general public.
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From page 99... ...
Weiss: Somewhere we must select out the smaller group of individuals with a particular capacity for synthesizing. Russell: At all levels of teaching, we can look for and emphasize principles that run across the field and point out where the cross-bridges occur.
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From page 100... ...
We could profitably undertake studies in fish genetics and in forest genetics. It is doubtful, however, if we need to stress basi-c genetics; it has its built-in momentum.
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From page 101... ...
Could we attack the question whether tropical peoples are of the same basic biological and genetic characteristics as those of the United States? There are, after all, differences in people, e.g.
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From page 102... ...
Schaefer Fisheries represent a particularly attractive resource for underdeveloped countries, as they require only low capital investment. In a sense, all that is needed is to show these peoples what to catch, how to catch it, and where the fishing shoals lie.
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From page 103... ...
It would require a doubling of animal and fish production to bring present populations to the existing United States diet standards. We need research on amino acids and on -103
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From page 104... ...
Banks of germ plasm are required, and much more knowledge of hostparasite genetics. Ecological research must extend to restricted systems of agriculture, e.
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From page 105... ...
The solution of production problems arising from multiple-use forest management of public forests and from the uncertain management of small forest holdings will facilitate wood utilization. A major problem is how to use the'tons of presently unmerchantable wood now rejected by timber industries and the wood residues and pulping wastes resulting from present processing methods.
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From page 106... ...
It is a man-made upheaval of the world ecology, perhaps made possible by the introduction and exploitation of fossil fuels. For the first time in human history we have energy supplies over and above those in the food we eat.
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