Objective/Guide Questions 08
Environmental Science
Title: Food

     

Food

1. Describe artificial selection with detail.  Describe genetic engineering with detail. Include the steps from figure 10-5, page 214.    What are the differences between these two methods?  p 69, and p 213.
2. a. What is the root cause of food insecurity?  p 207

b. How serious is malnutrition?   p 208

c. Distinguish between malnutrition, undernutrition, and overnutrition.  What are the effects of each? p 208

d. What are the effects of deficiencies of the micronutrients vitamin A, iron, and iodine and who are the most affected?  p 208

e. About how many chronically malnourished people are there in the world?

f.  About how many people die each year from undernutrition, malnutrition, or conditions worsened by malnutrition?  How many of these are under the age of five years old? p 208

g. List six major ways that UNICEF recommends to reduce sickness and premature death of children from malnutrition.  p 228

h. What is the primary cause of hunger and malnutrition  in the world? p 207 & 208.
3.

Describe in detail the three systems that produce the world's food. What percentage does each contribute to the world's food supply? (Croplands 77%, Rangelands 16%, and Fisheries/Aquaculture 7%) Describe the different types of  industrialized agriculture and the different types of traditional agriculture.  What is grown in plantation agriculture?  p209-212  What is the world's largest industry? ANS: Agriculture.  What three grain crops provide most of the world's food? p209   Describe feedlots (animal factories).  p 213   What type of agriculture is characteristic of developed countries?p 210  What type of agriculture is characteristic of developing countries?  p 210  Describe the differences between monoculture and polycuture.  p 210
4. Describe the U.S. agribusiness with detail.  What has made the industrialization of agriculture possible?  How many units of fossil fuel energy are needed to grow one unit of food energy in the U.S.?  p 218.  
5.

What is soil erosion?   What causes soil erosion? What causes most of the soil erosion?  What are the harmful effects of soil erosion?  p 215-216  Tosoil is eroding faster than it can form on how much of the world's cropland?p 216  Soil is eroding  in the U.S. how many times faster than it can form?  p 229  What is desertification? p216  What are the effects of desertification? p 216-217 What does salt build-up do?  How does irrigation lead to the salinization of soils?  p217
6.

Describe Conservation tillage. What are it's benefits over conventional tillage?  228-229
Describe strip cropping, terracing, contour farming, row cropping, and line cropping.  Which one reduces both erosion and soil fertility?  p 228-229 Describe alley cropping.  p 2228  What are fertilizers used for? What is the difference between organic and inorganic fertilizers?  What are the three main types of fertilizers?  What do inorganic fertlizers commonly contain?  p 230
7. Describe the three steps of the Green Revolution?  Describe the effect of the “Green Revolution” on crop production and its current status.  Distinguish between the first and second Green Revolutions. p 212 & 218  What is the greatest limiting factor in the continued increase of crop production on a global scale?   p 218   According to the FAO how much food produced worldwide is lost?  70%
8. What proportion of food products sold in the U.S. supermarket shelves contains some form of genetically engineered crop?  p 213 Through the use of genetic engineering scientists hope to increase food production with plants that are able to do what?  p 213  Describe the pros and cons of growing more food by genetic engineering.  Why should we be be concerned about loss of genetic diversity in agricultural crop strains? p 218-219
9.

What are  the harmful environmental effects of meat production? p. 220  The production of a single 8 oz piece of grain fed beef requires the use of how many gallons of water? (Not including water used for meat processing.)6600 gallons p 2  What is the most energy efficient to produce?  See figure 10-22 p 231.
10. What are the effects of overfishing and habitat degradation on fish harvests?  Include a description of overfishing.   About how much of the world's major fisheries have been fished at or beyond their sustainable level? p 199 What is aquaculture?    Describe the pros and cons of aquaculture.213-214, 220-221,231  Which country is the world leader in aquaculture?  p.214.
11. How much has food production increased, and what are the environmental effects of producing food? p 212, 219-220  How can world food production be sustainably increased? p. 231-235
12. What are pests?  What are pesticides, and describe the advantages and disadvantages of using chemicals to kill insects and weeds.   According to pesticide proponents, what are the benefits of pesticides? p 221-224  Describe the "newer" pesticides.  p 222-224   Exposure to legally allowed pesticide residues in food causes how many cases of cancer per year in the U.S.?  p224  Since 1945, approximately how many species of insects have developed resistance to one or more insecticides?  p 223
13. Describe all of the alternatives  to using conventional pesticides, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative?  What are phermonnes and hormones?  What are the weaknesses of using phermones?    p 225-227
14.

Describe Integrated Pest Managment. What does the integrated pest management program attempt to do?  What are the advantages and disadvantages?  Who is against integrated pest management?    p. 227 

 15.

Describe sustainable agriculture.  How can we design and shift to more sustainable agricultural systems? p 232-235
Key Terms:  Rangelands, Ocean fisheries, croplands, industrialized agriculture, traditional agriculture, subsistence agriculture, monocultures, plantation agriculture, cash crops, intensive agriculture, Green Revolution, multiple cropping, agribusiness, interplanting, polyvarietal cultivation, intercropping, agroforestry, alley cropping, polyculture, land degradation, soil erosion, desertification, salinization, waterlogging, soil conservation, conservation tillage farming, minimum tillage farming, no till farming, terracing, contour farming, strip cropping, cover crops, windbreaks, organic fertilizer, commercial inorganic fertilizer, animal manure, green manure, compost, crop rotation, inorganic fertilizer, chronic hunger, malnutrition, undernutrition, overnutrition, anemia, vitamin A, iodine, iron, thyroid gland, hormone, phermone, affluence, traditional crossbreeding, genetic engineering, irrigation, feedlots, overgrazing, fisheries, overfishing, subsidies, aquaculture, fish farming, fish ranching, pest management, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, biocide, rodenticide, insecticides, broad spectrum agents, persistence, narrow spectrum agents, ideal pest, ideal pesticides, genetic resistance, cultivation practices, biological control, sex attractants, phermones, integrated pest management, sustainable organic agriculture.