Altieri’s Principles
The ultimate goal of agroecological design is to mimic this.
What are natural ecosystems?
What do we call an agricultural system where a single crop is grown over a large area year after year?
What is a monoculture?
The agroecology movement argues that food is not just a commodity but what?
What is a human right?
Growing trees and crops together in the same system is called what?
What is agroforestry?
Which agricultural revolution introduced synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and high-yield varieties but also caused major ecological harm?
What is the Green Revolution?
The problems in agriculture we are trying to fix with chemical and technological integration may actually be symptoms of what?
What are symptoms of systemic imbalance in the ecosystem?
Which greenhouse gas do cattle produce through enteric fermentation?
What is methane?
What term describes the right of people to define and control their own food systems?
What is food sovereignty?
Planting two or more species in one field is called this.
What is polyculture?
What later period of rapid change mechanized agriculture with inventions like the seed drill, steel plow, and tractors?
What is the Industrial Revolution?
Optimizing nutrient availability, recycling organic matter, and balancing nutrient flow is an example of this principle.
What is nutrient and biomass recycling?
Industrial agriculture is vulnerable because it relies heavily on what two resources?
What are fossil fuels and external chemical inputs?
Agroecology aims to uplift and create equity for what kind of farmers?
What is smallholders?
Planting legumes in an orchard is an example of this.
What is cover cropping?
What was the first major shift in human history when people transitioned from hunting and gathering to farming and domesticating animals
What is the Neolithic Revolution?
What three outcomes does agroecology aim to balance beyond yield?
What are sustainability, equity, and resilience?
What long-term soil problem results from continuous monocultures, requiring heavier use of external fertilizers?
What is nutrient depletion?
What term describes the variety of crops, pollinators, soil organisms, and livestock that support agricultural resilience?
What is agrobiodiversity?
Which practice incorporates temporal diversity and a variety of crop species.
What is crop rotation?
Before industrialization, most agriculture was based on small-scale, low-input systems often called what?
What is subsistence farming?
Terracing, mulching, and water harvesting practices are used in which principle?
What is managing water and microclimates?
What percentage of U.S. farms are industrial farms?
What is about 6%?
In Minas Gerais, Brazil, which species was introduced to regenerate degraded land?
What are honeybees?
Leaving hedgerows and flowering plants along field edges primarily supports which ecological service?
What is pollination and pest regulation?
Diversified farming systems are more resilient to which major environmental challenge?
What is climate change?