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Review
1. Undernourished means: A. Lacking the proper balance of proteins, vitamins and minerals
B. Not consuming a sufficient number of calories C. Lacking a specific nutrient such as vitamin C
D. A lack of food such that death occurs E. The ingestion of too many calories or poor quality
food
B
2. What is lacking the proper balance of proteins, vitamins and minerals? Malnourished
3. What is lacking a specific nutrient such as vitamin C?
Vitamin deficiency
4. What is a lack of food such that death occurs?
Starvation
5. What is the ingestion of too many calories or poor quality food?
Overnourished
6. What is the three system approach to producing food? How could you change your diet to
require less land to feed yourself (reduce your ecological footprint)? Why would this work?
Using a combination of croplands, rangelands and fisheries to feed the population.
Eat aquatic species (no land needed) and plants (less land needed) and reduce meat
consumption
7. What would be true of the current human population if there were not major advances in
food production? Reduce dramatically
8. Aquaculture is analogous to which process on land?
9. Anemia is one of the most widespread nutritional deficiency and is the result of:
Iron (lack of meat in diet)
10. The primary reason for malnutrition is:
Poverty
Review
1. On farms in the Midwestern United States, a hectare of land yields roughly 370 bushels of
corn (equivalent to 150 bushels per acre). A bushel consists of 1,250 ears of corn, and each
ear typically contains 80 kilocalories. Assume that a person eats only corn and requires
2,000 kilocalories per day. Although this assumption is not very realistic, it allows an
approximation of how much land it would take to feed that person.
A. How many kilocalories does this person need per year?
2000 calories/day x 365 days a year = 730,000 kilocalories per year
B. How many ears of corn does this person require?
730,000 kilocalories per year/80 kilocalories per ear of corn = 9125 ears per year
C. How much farm land is need to feed this person?
9125 ears x 1 bushel x 1 hectare = 0.019 ha or 0.02
1250 ears 370 bushel
D. It takes 20 kg of grain to produce 1 kg of beef. How much land would be need for an all beef
diet?
0.02 ha x 20 times more = 0.4 ha for beef
E. The Earth has about 1.5 billion hectares of land suitable for growing food and 6.8 billion
people to feed. Can the Earth sustain a global all beef diet?
6.8 billion people x 0.4 ha/person = 2,720,000,000 ha or 2.7 billion (NO)
2. Food production is a very environmentally destructive practice. Name two ways that food
production negatively effects each of the following:
A. Biodiversity
Loss of habitat, water pollution kills fish, predators of livestock
are killed
B. Soil
Salinization , erosion, waterlogging
C. Water
D. Air
E. Human health
Pesticide pollution, water depletion and waste, fertilizer
pollution
Greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide
Contaminated drinking water (pesticides, fertilizers and
coliform bacteria)
3. What are the two natural causes of erosion?
Water and wind
4. Which type of soil erosion is the hardest to detect because it happens slowly and evenly?
Sheet erosion
5. Name two human activities that have increased erosion.
Farming, livestock, deforestation, off road cars
6. Name two human activities that have increased desertification.
Same as above plus climate change
Review
1. A healthy soil ecosystem is of primary importance in sustainable agriculture. Describe TWO
viable agricultural practices that farmers can use to maintain or improve soil quality.
Monitoring or adjusting
• Doing soil tests
• Balancing soil nutrients
Cover crops
• Interspersing crops/planting between the rows
• Planting cover vegetation during a fallow period
• Optimum nutrient (N, P, K, Ca, Fe, etc.)/pH
balance
• Adds nutrients
• Reduces erosion
Contouring or terracing
Building/installing water bars, terraces, etc.
Windbreaks
Planting rows of trees or shrubs
• Lowers soil loss to wind erosion
• Traps moisture of winter snows
• Reduces soil erosion
Crop rotation
Planting different crops in subsequent
planting periods
• Lower herbicide/insecticide requirements
• Adds nutrients back to the soil
• Takes advantage of nitrogen-fixers (e.g.,
legumes)
Polyculture/inter-cropping
Use of a diversity of species to take advantage of
beneficial interactions
• Lowers soil exposure
• Takes advantage of different root depths
• Breaks monoculturing and its negative effects
• Takes advantage of attributes of multiple
species (nitrogen-fixer, insect resistance)
2. Identify and describe one environmental advantage and one economic advantage of
consuming locally grown produce.
Decreased transportation of food, which results in:
• Decreased fossil fuel consumption
• Decreased greenhouse gases, climate impacts, or carbon footprint
• Decreased combustion-related air pollutants/emissions (GHG, VOCs, ozone, particulates,
smog)
Lower cost associated with:
• Transportation (fossil fuels, vehicle maintenance)
• Storage (warehousing, refrigeration, ripening agents, preservation)
Boost in local economy with:
• Revenues remaining in local area
• Support for local labor or increased number of jobs
• Use of community-supported agriculture (CSA)
Review
1. What are 3 drawbacks to the green revolution? Pesticides, fossil fuels, cost, fertilizers, and
irrigation
2. What does modern agriculture grow?
High-yield monocultures (corn, wheat rice)
3. What is the goal of traditional agriculture?
Grow enough food to feed their families
4. Calculate the increase in the area of
land used for growing GM crops in
developing countries from
1999 to 2003. Express your answer as a
percentage of the 1999 value.
1999 (10 million ha) to 2003 (20 million ha)
Increase of 10 million hectares = 100%
increase 10/10 x 100 =100%
5. Calculate the annual rate of increase in
land area used for growing GM crops in
industrialized countries from 1997 to 1999
1999
30 million ha
1997
10 million ha
2 years 20 million hectares
20 million ha/2yr = 10 million ha/yr
6. Using the rate you calculated in part (ii), project the area of land that would have been
expected to be used for GM crops in industrialized countries in 2004.
1999 ---------------------------------------------------------- 30 million hectares
5 years 10 million hectare increase/yr
50 million hectares
2004
80 million hectares (must have units)
7. Identify one likely cause for the difference between the projected land area for GM crops in
industrialized countries in 2004 and the actual land area for GM crops in industrialized countries
in 2004.
• Increased public resistance (toward perceived risks, due to increased awareness following
labeling of products) • Decreasing market demand for products containing genetically
modified organisms (GMOs) • Governmental regulation/controls/limitations/bans that limited
the planting/use of GM crops
8. Describe one environmental advantage and one environmental disadvantage of using GM
crops.
Higher yields per acre and hence less acreage needed/impacted by agriculture
Permits low-tillage agriculture which: • Reduces soil exposure/erosion
• Reduces energy consumption associated with farm machinery (plowing, harrowing, etc.)
• Lower fertilizer requirements, which reduces negative impacts of fertilizers
• Insect resistance and the associated reduced impact of insecticide/pesticide
• Drought resistance and the associated decreased need for irrigation
• Disease resistance and the associated decreased need for fungicide applications
• Salinity tolerance, which decreases the need for flushing of soils with water
• Frost resistance, which extends seasonal productivity and decreases crop loss
Low-tillage agriculture often depends on: • High dosage/frequent application of herbicides to
control competitive weeds that are normally controlled by tillage
• Insect resistance (e.g., Bt gene) may impact beneficial insects (e.g., pollen toxic to monarch
butterflies)
• Drought-resistance gene may lead to agricultural use of currently marginal, semi-arid areas,
leading to increased human pressures/loss of natural landscape
• Altered genes may impact human health with altered proteins and/or subsequent toxins
Native plant diversity may be impacted by the spread of genes to nonengineered crops.
GM crops are often engineered to have lower genetic variability than non-GM crops, thereby
making GM crop monocultures more vulnerable to mass mortality than non-GM crops.
9. Describe one economic advantage and one economic disadvantage of using GM crops.
Increased profits/reduced costs due to use of GM crops that have:
• Higher yields per acre
• Lower fertilizer/pesticide/herbicide requirements
• Drought resistance, resulting in lower costs for irrigation
• Saline resistance, resulting in lower cost for irrigation/mitigation
Decreased profits/increased costs due to use of GM crops that:
• Have increased fertilizer demand to reach yield potential
• Require investment in a new generation of pesticides because the GM crop has promoted
target insect pest resistance
• Have patented seeds (which commit the farmer to annual purchase of seeds that are often
too expensive for poor farmers)
• Risk consumer rejection/import restrictions that result in lower demand for GM crops
9.
Review
Two problems that can result from agriculture are soil salinization and waterlogging:
A. Describe how each occurs.
B. Describe one method to prevent or remediate each.
• Salinization can occur when irrigation water evaporates (or is used by plants), leaving the
salts behind in the soils.
• Misuse of salt-containing fertilizers and/or other soil amendments that contain salts (e.g.,
lime) may lead to soil salinization.
• Salt applied to roads can run off (or splash/spray) and contaminate roadside soil.
• Tsunamis/storm surges (e.g., from hurricanes) can deposit salts inland.
Waterlogging occurs when excessive irrigation or precipitation raise the water table such that
it reaches the level of the plant roots
Preventing of remediating salinization (waterlogging the second and third apply)
• Irrigate/flush with sufficient (fresh) water to leach the salts down through the soil
• The use of drip irrigation which requires less water than traditional irrigation, resulting in a
lower influx of salt (or less water loss via evaporation).
• Avoid planting crops that require a large amount of water in areas prone to salinization.
• Plant vegetation/crops that remove salt from the soil (e.g., saltbush, barley, oats).
• Improving drainage (e.g., installing drainage tiles) will prevent precipitation/irrigation water
from pooling and evaporating.
• Irrigate with water that is low in salt content.
• Incorporate organic material into the soil.
• Use alternatives to road salt (e.g., beet juice, sand)/avoid applying (as much) road salt.
Review
1. Irrigation
2. Soil Salinization
3. Synthetic Fertilizer
4. Monocropping/
Monoculture
5. Green Revolution
6. GMO (Genetically
Modified Organisms)
7. Slash-and-burn
Agriculture
8. Sustainable
Agriculture
9. Intercropping 1. I
2. G
3. B
4. A
5. C
6. D
7. H
8. E
9. F
A. Large plantings of a single species or variety of plants
B. Fertilizers produced commercially that are highly concentrated and
widely used to increase crop yields
C. The shift in farming practices that involved new management
techniques and mechanization as well as the triad of fertilization,
irrigation, and improved crop varieties
D. Scientists can isolate a specific gene from one organism and transfer
it into the genetic material of another, often very different organism
E. Agriculture that fulfills the need for food and fiber while enhancing
the quality of the soil, minimizing the use of nonrenewable resources
and allowing economic viability for the farmer
F. Practice in which two or more crop species are planted in the same
field at the same time to promote a synergistic interaction between
them
G. Occurs when small amounts of salts in irrigated water become
highly concentrated on the soil surface through evaporation
H. Practice in which trees and vegetation are cut down and burned in
piles, producing ash that is very rich in potassium, calcium, and
magnesium
I. The farming practice of watering that can increase crop rates, or
enable crops to grow where they couldn't otherwise
1. Which of the terms below refers to the farming of foods in marine and freshwater habitats:
a)forage crops b)subsistence crops c)aquaculture d)mariculture e)agriculture
2. About 11% of the Earth's surface (excluding Antarctica) is under agriculture. If the world's
human population doubles in the future then either the total agricultural acreage must
double or else __________ must double.
a)death rates b)deforestation c)birth rates d)global precipitation e)agricultural yields per
acre
3. What is the relationship between farming and ecological succession:
a)farming keeps the land in a late successional stage
b)farming abbreviates succession, skipping the middle stage
c)farming promotes the premature change to late successional stage
d)farming keeps the land in an early successional stage
e)land succession is a process in natural ecosystems and crop land cannot be discussed in
the same terms
4. Monoculture is associated with:
a)gain of chemical elements in the soil b)decreased likelihood of crop diseases c)constant
agro-ecosystem d)decreases in organic matter in the soil e)a high variety of crops produced
5. Global warming may have profound consequences on the Earth's ability to produce food.
Which of the following is considered the most likely impact of global warming:
1. C
a)it will increase average food production worldwide
2. E
b)it will decrease average food production worldwide
3. D
c)it will shift zones of food production and cause local disruption
4. D
d)it will reduce human reliance on irrigation
5. C
e)it will increase soil erosion worldwide