B4h- farming

Question 1

What do pesticides do?

Answer 1

kill insects that eat crops

Question 2

What are some examples of pesticides?

Answer 2

insecticides to kill insects
fungicides to kill fungi
herbicides to kill plants (weeds)

Question 3

What are the disadvantages of using pesticides?

Answer 3

• may enter and accumulate in food chains
• pesticides may harm organisms which are not pests
• some pesticides are persistent

Question 4

What is intensive farming?

Answer 4

trying to produce as much food as possible

Question 5

How do herbicides reduce energy loss in a food chain?

Answer 5

they kill weeds so more of the suns energy goes to the crops, and not to any other competing plants

Question 6

What are some examples of intensive farming methods?

Answer 6

fish farming
glasshouses
hydroponics
battery farming

Question 7

What are hydroponics?

Answer 7

where plants are grown without soil but in nutrient solutions (water and fertilisers)

Question 8

What are some uses of hydroponics?

Answer 8

growing glasshouse tomatoes

growing plants in areas with barren soil

Question 9

What are the advantages of hydroponics?

Answer 9

mineral levels can be controlled more accurately

diseases can be controlled more effectively

Question 10

What are the disadvantages of hydroponics?

Answer 10

lots of fertilisers need to be added

there’s no soil to anchor the roots and support the plants

Question 11

How does battery farming reduce energy loss in food chains?

Answer 11

Animals are kept close together indoors in small pens so they’re warm and can’t move about. This means energy isn’t wasted moving around and keeping warm

Question 12

What are the advantages of Intensive farming?

Answer 12

allows us to produce a lot of food from less land all year round at cheap prices

Question 13

What are the disadvantages of Intensive farming?

Answer 13

• destroys natural habitat of wild creatures (removal of hedges)
• Eutrophication (fertilisers)
• Pesticides disturb food chains
• cruel to animals (battery farms)

Question 14

How do pesticides disturb food chains?

Answer 14

they can kill organisms that aren’t pests which can cause a shortage of food for animals further up the food chain

Question 15

What are organic farming methods?

Answer 15

methods that contain no artificial fertilisers and no pesticides

Question 16

What do organic fertilisers do?

Answer 16

they recycle the nutrients left in plant and animal waste.

Question 17

What is crop rotation?

Answer 17

growing a cycle of different crops in a field each year, stopping pests and diseases of one crop building up and stops nutrients running out

Question 18

What is weeding?

Answer 18

physically removing the weeds

Question 19

What is varying seed planting times?

Answer 19

sowing seeds later or earlier in the season avoiding the major pests

Question 20

What are the advantages of Organic farming methods?

Answer 20

• uses fewer chemicals
• better for the environment, don’t use pesticides
• farm has to follow guidelines on ethical treatment of animals

Question 21

What are the disadvantages of organic farming methods?

Answer 21

• takes up more space
• more labour intensive
• cant grow as much food

Question 22

What is biological control?

Answer 22

using living things instead of chemicals to control a pest

Question 23

What are the advantages of biological control?

Answer 23

• no chemicals are used so there’s less pollution, disruption of food chains and risk to people eating
• no need to keep repeating the treatment

Question 24

What are the disadvantages of biological control?

Answer 24

• the predator you introduce might not eat the pest
• the predator could eat useful species
• the predators population might increase and get out of control
• predator might not stay in the area