FOOD and SOIL RESOURCES Objectives 1. List Four
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PART IV SUSTAINING NATURAL RESOURCES CHAPTER 14 - FOOD AND SOIL RESOURCES Objectives 1. List four major types of agriculture. Compare the energy sources, environmental impacts, yields, and sustainability of traditional and industrial agriculture. 2. Evaluate the green revolution. What were its successes? Its failures? Summarize the benefits and problems of livestock production over the history of agriculture. 3. Define interplanting, and explain its advantages. List and briefly describe four types of interplanting commonly used by traditional farmers. 4. Summarize the state of global food production. Define malnutrition, undernutrition, and overnutrition. Indicate how many people on Earth suffer from these problems and where these problems are most likely to occur. List six steps proposed by UNICEF to deal with malnutrition and undernutrition. Describe a strategy to reduce overnutrition. 5. Discuss the use of genetic engineering techniques to improve the human food supply. 6. Describe the problems of soil erosion and desertification. Describe both world and U.S. situations, and explain why most people are unaware of this problem. 7. Describe the problems of salinization and waterlogging of soils and how they can be controlled. 8. Define soil conservation. List nine ways to approach the problem of soil erosion. Be sure to distinguish between conventional-tillage and conservation-tillage farming. Describe a plan to maintain soil fertility. Be sure to distinguish between organic and inorganic fertilizers. 9. Summarize environmental impacts from agriculture. 10. Summarize food distribution problems. Describe the possibilities of increasing world food production by increasing crop yields, cultivating more land, and using unconventional foods and perennial crops. 11. Discuss problems associated with the production of livestock on rangeland. 12. Describe trends in the world fish catch since 1950. Assess the potential for increasing the annual fish catch and use of aquaculture. Distinguish between fish farming and fish ranching. 13. Assess the pros and cons of agricultural subsidies and international food relief. Describe strategies that you feel would be most sustainable. 14. Define sustainable agriculture. Summarize how the United States could move toward creating a more sustainable agricultural system. Key Terms (Terms are listed in the same font style as they appear in the text.) polyculture (p. 273) rangelands (p. 274) high-input agriculture (p. perennial polyculture (p. 273) oceanic fisheries (p. 274) 275) modern monoculture (p. 273) net primary productivity (p. plantation agriculture (p. eastern grama grass (p. 273) 274) 275) mammoth wildrye (p. 273) annuals (p. 274) cash crops (p. 275) Illinois bundleflower (p. 273) industrialized agriculture (p. feedlots (p. 275) Maximillian sunflower (p. 273) 275) traditional agriculture (p. 275) croplands (p. 274) Food and Soil Resources 1 traditional subsistence terracing (p. 284) age of genetic engineering (p. agriculture (p. 275) contour farming (p. 284) 291) traditional intensive strip cropping (p. 284) advanced tissue culture (p. agriculture (p. 275) cover crops (p. 284) 291) green revolution (p. 276) windbreaks (p. 285) transgenomics (p. 290) multiple cropping (p. 276) shelterbelts (p. 285) genetically modified food first green revolution (p. 276) land classification (p. 285) (GMF) (p. 291) second green revolution (p. organic fertilizer (p. 285) winged bean (p. 293) 276) commercial inorganic microlivestock (p. 293) agribusiness (p. 276) fertilizer (p. 285) marginal land (p. 293) interplanting (p. 278) animal manure (p. 285) rangeland (p. 294) polyvarietal cultivation (p. green manure (p. 286) pastures (p. 294) 278) compost (p. 286) overgrazing (p. 295) intercropping (p. 278) spores of mushrooms (p. 286) riparian zones (p. 296) agroforestry (p. 278) crop rotation (p. 286) fisheries (p. 297) alley cropping (p. 278) macronutrients (p. 287) aquaculture (p. 297) polyculture (p. 278) micronutrients (p. 287) trawler fishing (p. 297) tassas (p. 279) chronic undernutrition (p. bycatch (p. 298) land degradation (p. 279) 287) purse-seine fishing (p. 298) soil erosion (p. 279) malnutrition (p. 287) longlining (p. 298) flowing water (p. 279) marasmus (p. 287) drift-net fishing (p. 298) wind (p. 279) kwashiorkor (p. 287) overfishing (p. 298) desertification (p. 281) iron (p. 288) commercial extinction (p. 298) salinization (p. 283) anemia (p. 288) Aquaculture (p. 300) waterlogging (p. 283) iodine (p. 288) fish-farming (p. 300) soil conservation (p. 284) overnutrition (p. 288) fish-ranching (p. 300) conventional-tillage farming overweight (p. 288) Spirulina (p. 301) (p. 284) obese (p. 288) sustainable agriculture (p. conservation-tillage farming crossbreeding (p. 291) 302) (p. 284) artificial selection (p. 291) low-input agriculture (p. 302) minimum-tillage farming (p. third green revolution (p. 291) organic farming (p. 302) 284) gene revolution (p. 291) agroecology (p. 302) no-till farming (p. 284) Learning Log: Chapter 14 Instructions: You should be able to answer these questions once you have finished the chapter: 1. Define the boldfaced terms in this chapter. (OMIT) 2. What are perennial crops? What advantages do they have over conventional annual crops? Describe research on perennial crops at the Land Institute in Kansas. 3. What three systems supply most of our food? What three crops provide most of the world’s food? 4. Distinguish among industrialized agriculture, plantation agriculture, traditional subsistence agriculture, and traditional intensive agriculture. 5. What is a green revolution, and what three steps does it involve? Distinguish between the first and second green revolutions. 6. Explain how producing more food on less land can help protect biodiversity. 7. Describe the nature and importance of the agricultural industry in the United States. How energy efficient is industrialized agriculture in the United States? 2 Chapter 14 8. Distinguish among interplanting, polyvarietal cultivation, intercropping, agroforestry, and polyculture. List six advantages of low-input polyculture? Describe the use of a low-tech type of agriculture in Africa. 9. What is soil erosion, and what are its major natural and human-related causes? What are the two major harmful effects of soil erosion? 10. How serious is soil erosion (a) globally and (b) in the United States? 11. Describe how the U.S. government is helping farmers reduce soil erosion. 12. Describe the Dust Bowl event in the 1930s in the United States and the ecological lesson we can learn from it. 13. What is desertification? How serious is this problem? What are its major causes and consequences? How can we slow desertification? 14. Distinguish between salinization and waterlogging of soils. How serious are these problems? List five ways to reduce the threat of soil salinization. 15. What is soil conservation? Distinguish between conventional-tillage farming and conservation-tillage farming. What are the advantages and disadvantages of conservation-tillage farming? 16. Distinguish among terracing, contour farming, strip cropping, alley cropping, windbreaks, gully reclamation, and land classification as methods for reducing soil erosion. 17. Distinguish between organic fertilizer and commercial inorganic fertilizer and list the advantages and disadvantages of using commercial inorganic fertilizers to help maintain or restore soil fertility. Discuss using animal manure, green manure, compost, and mushroom spores as methods for fertilizing soil. What is crop rotation, and why is it useful in helping maintain soil fertility? 18. List some good news and bad news about world food production since 1961. 19. Distinguish between chronic undernutrition and malnutrition. What are the two most common nutritional deficiency diseases, and how do they differ? About how many chronically undernourished and malnourished people are there in the world? About how many people die prematurely each year from undernutrition, malnutrition, or diseases worsened by malnutrition? 20. List six major ways to reduce sickness and premature death of children from malnutrition and disease. 21. What are the effects of deficiencies of vitamin A, iron, and iodine? 22. What is overnutrition and what are its harmful health effects? How serious is overnutrition in the United States? 23. List the major harmful environmental effects of producing food. 24. What are China’s major food problems? How could lower food production in China affect the rest of the world? 25. List the advantages and disadvantages of genetically engineered food. 26. List six factors that could limit greatly increased food production through green revolution and genetic engineering techniques. 27. List five factors that could limit greatly increased food production through green revolution and genetic engineering techniques. 28. Describe two types of new foods. What are two problems in making a switch to new types of foods? 29. What percentage of the world's food is produced on irrigated cropland? What is the good news and bad news about irrigation since 1950? Food and Soil Resources 3 30. What is the potential for cultivating more land for growing crops in tropical forests and arid areas? What are the problems with doing this? 31. How could we grow more food in urban areas? 31. How could we grow more food in urban areas? 31. How much of the world’s food is wasted unnecessarily? 32. Distinguish between rangeland and pasture? Explain how rangeland grass can be a renewable resource for livestock and wild