Chapter 8: .Agriculture, Food, and Biotechnology

Question 1

Define: Cropland, Rangeland

Answer 1

land used to grow plants for human use, land used for grazing livestock

Question 2

Around how long ago did agriculture first begin on earth?

Answer 2

About 10,000 yrs ago

Question 3

Define: subsistence agriculture

Answer 3

when a family only grows enough food for themselves

Question 4

Monoculture

Answer 4

vast fields of a single type of crop

Question 5

What was the Green Revolution?

Answer 5

The increase in agricultural productivity during the mid- to late twentieth century

Question 6

What is extensification?

Answer 6

Increasing resource productivity by bringing more land into production

Question 7

What is intensification?

Answer 7

Increasing productivity per each unit of land

Question 8

What were the positive effects of the Green Revolution? negative effects?

Answer 8

positive: prevent deforestation and habitat conversion
negative: pollution, salinization, erosion, desertification

Question 9

What are drip irrigation systems?

Answer 9

These systems target water directly to plants, allowing more control over where water is aimed, and waste far less water than typical irrigation systems

Question 10

Name the pros and cons of monoculture

Answer 10

Pros: more efficient, large expanse of single crop
Cons: devastates biodiversity, vulnerable to disease and pests

Question 11

Define: Pesticides

Answer 11

poisons that target pest organisms

Question 12

What is the Evolutionary Arms Race?

Answer 12

When chemists increase the chemical toxicity of pesticides to compete with resistant pests

Question 13

What is Biocontrol?

Answer 13

Battling of pests with organisms that eat/infect them

Question 14

Why is biocontrol not always a preferred method to pesticides?

Answer 14

The introduced organism may become a pest itself, removing a biocontrol organism is harder than stopping pesticide use

Question 15

What is integrated pest management?

Answer 15

The usage of multiple techniques to suppress pests.

Question 16

What is pollination?

Answer 16

The process by which male sex cells of a plant fertilize female sex cells of a plant.

Question 17

What are the current main threats to pollinating insects?

Answer 17

landscape change in agricultural settings(loss of food source for bees)
growing use of pesticides
introduction of invasive plant species
pathogens and parasites
climate change(affects the range of pollinator species)

Question 18

What is genetic engineering and recombinant DNA?

Answer 18

lab manipulation of genetic material,

DNA patched together from the DNA of multiple organisms

Question 19

What is a GMO?

Answer 19

When the extra genes from the DNA of one organism are artificially transferred into the DNA of another

Question 20

What is an organism that contains DNA from another species called

Answer 20

Transgenic

Question 21

What is biotechnology?

Answer 21

The application of bio science to create products derived from organisms (ex. transgenic organisms, GMOs)

Question 22

How is genetic engineering like traditional agricultural breeding? How is it different?

Answer 22

Same: both apply to plants and animals, alter gene pool
Different: traditional uses genes from same species, in traditional, genes come together on their own

Question 23

What are the potential impacts of GMOs?

Answer 23

Impact to human health
resistance of pesticides
escaping transgenes can pollute ecosystems

Question 24

What defines sustainable agriculture?

Answer 24

does not deplete soil, pollute water, or decrease genetic diversity

Question 25

What is no till agriculture?

Answer 25

uses smaller amounts of pesticide, fertilizers, growth hormones, water, and fossil fuel energy than industrial agriculture

Question 26

What is organic agriculture

Answer 26

Uses no synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, or herbicides.. uses biological methods such as biocontrol

Question 27

What is community supported agriculture?

Answer 27

When consumers pay farmers in advance for a share of their crop yields