An Introductory Perspective to Horticulture: Plants for People and Places - Horticulture: Plants for People and Places - page 5

Fig. 1.2 Supermarket apple
display
The Problems of Success
As the use of plants for man's benefit developed both production and environmental
horticulture have been greatly influenced by contributions from the sciences, tech-
nology, research, teaching and extension. Now mankind faces increasingly more
difficult problems resulting from global climate change (Moore 2006 ; Dixon et al.
2014b ). For horticulture there is a catalogue of issues which will influence its ca-
pacities and capabilities over the next half century. These challenges include:- an
increasing world and urban population, greater water scarcity, exploitation and loss
of our natural habitats, energy shortages, and the invasion of exotic or invasive
species. These continue to threaten the sustainable use of horticultural food sys-
tems, biodiversity, and the benefits we receive from connecting with our natural
resources. Degradation of the rural landscape has come about from adverse land-
use practices, extensive erosion, emerging light industry and housing development
(Uzun and Bayira 2009 ), all of which has resulted in loss of productive land, tree
cover, native bush, and grasslands. It has been estimated that 40 % of the world's
food now comes from only 18 % of global irrigated land for food production, yet
there is the challenge of feeding an extra 80 million people per year (Borlaug 2001 ).
Similarly, in urban areas there is clear scientific evidence that the removal of the
vegetation results in soil losses due to: erosion, reduced nutrient and water supplies
and losses of the habitat to pest-eating birds.
Climate change has been shown to influence the integrity of our environmen-
tal and health systems. Emerging groundwater shortages affect basic sanitation,
the safety of drinking water and provision of an adequate and safe food supplies
particularly in many developing countries (Anon 2002 ; Dixon et al. 2014b ). The
major threats to human health and well-being in less developed countries include
those of poor nutrition and disease, and in developed countries, obesity, declining
physical activity, growing rates of mental illness, high levels of family breakdown
and declining community cohesion. The clearing of rural and especially forested