Feeding the World
An urban area where people have little or no easy access to nutritious food without traveling long distances is called a(n) ____.
food desert
A second green revolution has been taking place since 1967, based on ____.
Fast growing and more nutritious rice and wheat
Which soil conservation technique involves plowing and planting crops in rows across the slope of the land rather than up and down?
contour planting
What is the most efficient form of irrigation and why?
We use 70% of freshwater for irrigation purposes, and much of that is lost through evaporation. Drip irrigation delivers water directly to the plants and minimizes evaporative loss
Raising livestock in feed lots is advantageous because
Less land use
A severe shortage of food leading to mass starvation, many deaths, economic chaos, and social disruption is called ____.
famine
The purpose of the first green revolution was to increase crop yields through what methods?
Application of artificial fertilizers, mechanization, genetic modification, irrigation, pesticide application
A decline of the productive potential of soil, especially on arid or semiarid land, by 10% or more because of prolonged drought and human activities is called ____.
desertification
What are some harmful effects of agricultural practices?
Mechanization (soil destruction, erosion), slash and burn, application of fertilizer (leads to cultural eutrophication)
Raising livestock in feed lots is disadvantageous because
Concentration waste, disease, air and water pollution
The root cause of food insecurity is ____.
poverty
About 20,000 kilocalories of grain fed to livestock will produce enough beef to provide ____ kilocalories to a person that eats it.
2,000
What process adds water until the water table rises and envelops the deep roots of plants, resulting in a loss of productivity and ultimately killing them?
Waterlogging, Too much water leads to waterlogging (water table rises and inhibits the uptake of Oxygen by the root systems)
What are some of the ways to increase crop yields?
Application of artificial fertilizers, mechanization, genetic modification, irrigation, pesticide application
What is the disadvantage of allowing cattle to graze?
desertification as a result of overgrazing
Many of the world’s poor only have access to a low-protein, high-carbohydrate, vegetarian diet and suffer from ____.
chronic malnutrition
What are the advantages of using genetically modified crops?
Resistance to pests and diseases, increase nutritional value of crops, select the most advantageous traits to pass on
Repeated irrigation in dry climates leads to accumulation of salts in the upper layers of the soil, a process called ____.
Salinization occurs when water evaporates leaving behind minerals which can become toxic
What is a disadvantage of modern synthetic pesticides?
Decreased efficacy overtime (pesticide treadmill)
As part of their digestion process, cattle and dairy cows release ____, a greenhouse gas with about 25 times the warming potential of CO2.
Methane, CH4
About two thirds of the world’s human population survives primarily by eating one or more of the three grain crops. What are these three grains?
rice, wheat, corn
The biggest drawback from using genetically modified organisms (GMO) is
decrease in biodiversity
Compared to traditional tillage, conservation tillage ____.
Reduces topsoil erosions (no-till or low-till options)
One benefit of using synthetic pesticides is that it ____.
Increases yield
What percentage of the human population eats meat
70-75%, in mostly developed countries