Chapter 11 – Reading Questions

  1. Why have farmer Joel Salatin’s farming practices attracted attention from across the nation?
  1. What principles does Salatin follow when running his farm?
  1. What is the significance of farms producing foods they way that Salatin’s does?
  1. What has been the recent trend in world hunger in recent decades?
  1. How much food does the average adult require, and what are the effects of undernutrition?
  1. What is the distinction between undernutrition and malnourishment?
  1. What is overnutrition, and what are its effects on individuals and societies?
  1. Which type of food dominates human energy intake, accounting for 60% of our raw calories?
  1. Even though the world produces enough food to feed every human, why do undernutrition and malnutrition persist?
  1. Experts disagree on why worldwide per capita grain production has flattened off. What factors may be to blame?
  1. What impact did the invention of agriculture have on human population growth?
  1. What major changes took place in farming practices during the 20th century?
  1. How can we calculate the energy subsidy of a food?
  1. Using Figure 11.4 on p.287, what types of agricultural practices require the greatest energy subsidies? What types of activities require the least energy subsidy?
  1. What role do fossil fuels play in modern agriculture?
  1. What changes did the Green Revolution bring, and what were its positive and negative effects?
  1. Complete the chart below with information about modern agricultural practices

Role in Modern Agriculture? / Benefits? / Drawbacks?
Mechanization
Irrigation
Fertilizers
Monocropping
Pesticides
  1. Why has production shifted from small-scale farms to large-scale farms in modern agriculture?
  1. How do salinization and waterlogging of soil occur?
  1. How is modern genetic engineering of foods different from the artificial selection humans have been performing on crops and animals for thousands of years?
  1. Complete the following chart with information about benefits and drawbacks of GMO foods:

Benefits of Genetically Modified foods / Drawbacks/risks of Genetically Modified foods
1. / 1.
2. / 2.
3. / 3.
4. / 4.
  1. Why is small-scale farming still common in many developing countries, despite the advantages the Green Revolution brought to large-scale farms?
  1. Where is shifting agriculture most likely to be practiced, and what techniques characterize it?
  1. What happens during desertification, what causes it and where is it most likely to occur?
  1. What are the goals of sustainable agriculture?
  1. Complete the following chart with information about common sustainable agricultural practices:

What is it? Define/Explain / How can it be used to improve sustainability? What problems does it attempt to solve?
Intercropping
Crop Rotation
Agroforestry
Countour Plowing
No-Till Ariculture
Integrated Pest Mgmt
Organic Agriculture
  1. Why has high-density animal farming in CAFOs become a major way in which meat is raised?
  1. What practices at CAFOs can have negative environmental impacts?
  1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of free-range meat (as opposed to CAFO meat?)
  1. What are fisheries, and why are they particularly difficult to protect from the effects of the tragedy of the commons?
  1. What factors have driven many fisheries in to decline or collapse?
  1. Which commercial fishing practices have the largest negative environmental impacts?
  1. What types of policies and practices can make commercial fishing more sustainable?
  1. What is aquaculture, and to what extent is it a sustainable solution to world demand for fish?
  1. (Working Towards Sustainability) What would be the advantage of switching to perennial crops?

Chapter 11 Vocabulary List

Undernutrition / The condition in which not enough calories are ingested to maintain health.
Malnutrition / Having a diet that lacks the correct balance of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals.
Food security / A condition in which people have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs for an active and healthy life.
Famine / The condition in which food insecurity is so extreme that large numbers of deaths occur in a given area over a relatively short period.
Anemia / A deficiency of iron.
Overnutrition / Ingestion of too many calories and improper foods.
Industrial agriculture / Agriculture that applies the techniques of mechanization and standardization.
Energy subsidy / The energy input per calorie of food produced.
Green revolution / A shift in agricultural practices in the twentieth century that included new management techniques, mechanization, fertilization, irrigation, and improved crop varieties, and resulted in increased food output.
Mechanization
Irrigation
Waterlogging / A form of soil degradation that occurs when soil remains under water for prolonged periods.
Soil salinization / A form of soil degradation that occurs when the small amount of salts in irrigation water becomes highly concentrated on the soil surface through evaporation.
Synthetic fertilizer / Fertilizer produced commercially, normally with the use of fossil fuels.
Monocropping / An agricultural method that utilizes large plantings of a single species or variety.
Pesticide persistence / The length of time a chemical remains in the environment.
Bioaccumulation / An increased concentration of a chemical within an organism over time.
Pesticide treadmill / A cycle of pesticide development, followed by pest resistance, followed by new pesticide development
Conventional agriculture / Agriculture that applies the techniques of mechanization and standardization.
Slash-and-burn agriculture
Desertification / The transformation of arable, productive land to desert or unproductive land due to climate change or destructive land use.
Sustainable agriculture / 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.
Intercropping / An agricultural method in which two or more crop species are planted in the same field at the same time to promote a synergistic interaction.
Crop rotation / An agricultural technique in which crop species in a field are alternated from season to season.
Agroforestry / An agricultural technique in which trees and vegetables are intercropped
Contour plowing / An agricultural technique in which plowing and harvesting are done parallel to the topographic contours of the land.
No-till agriculture / An agricultural method in which farmers do not turn the soil between seasons, used as a means of reducing erosion.
Integrated Pest management / An agricultural practice that uses a variety of techniques designed to minimize pesticide inputs.
Organic agriculture / Production of crops with the goal of improving the soil each year without the use of synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.
CAFO / A large indoor or outdoor structure used to raise animals at very high densities.
Free-range meat
Fishery / A commercially harvestable population of fish within a particular ecological region.
Bycatch / The unintentional catch of nontarget species while fishing.
Individual Transferable Quotas / A fishery management program in which individual fishers are given a total allowable catch of fish in a season that they can either catch or sell.
Aquaculture / Farming aquatic organisms such as fish, shellfish, and seaweeds.
Fishery collapse / The decline of a fish population by 90 percent or more.