Exam 10: Food Production and the Environment

One concern about the use of pesticides is that ____.

Aquaculture might be made more sustainable if ____.

Which fertilizer type is relied upon most in more-developed countries?

Overnutrition is a result of ____.

The world's 40,000 known species of spiders ____.

Farmers use alley cropping, in which crops are planted in nearly level row patterns around hills, as an important way to prevent soil erosion.

____________________ is a form of industrialized agriculture used primarily in tropical developing countries where cash crops are grown, such as bananas, coffee, vegetables, soybeans, sugarcane, and palm oil.

What do sustainable polyaquaculture and livestock agriculture have in common?

It takes about seven kilograms of grain to raise every one kilogram of beef.

Trace amounts of sex attractants, otherwise known as ____, can be used to lure pests into traps or to attract their natural predators into crop fields.

An agricultural method known as ____ relies on solar energy and natural fertilizers to grow multiple species in a single plot.

Michael Pollan, in his landmark book The Omnivore's Dilemma, investigates and discusses the practices of meat production in modern, industrialized agriculture in the United States. After his extensive study, he writes that he believes hunting for meat may be the more humane and wise choice. He cites the fact that game animals at least live their lives in a free, uncaged environment, compared with beef cattle that spend much of their lives confined in feedlots, standing in manure and eating grain they are not designed to digest. Additionally, the game animal typically has a relatively quick and painless death. Discuss this issue. Include in your discussion aspects of feedlots, energy consumed in meat production, and the relative impacts of farming versus hunting on biodiversity.

A(n) ____________________ is a chemical used to control or kill populations of organisms that we consider undesirable such as insects, weeds, or rodents.

Compared to synthetic pesticides, the use of natural biological pest controls is ____.

One problem that can be caused by excessive irrigation and which reduces soil oxygen levels is called ____________________.

____________________ are chemical sex attractants emitted that also attract predators and can be used as alternatives to pesticides.

Genetically modified plants can ________ with wild plants to form hybrids.

What is a way to restore land that has undergone desertification?

Why do our economic systems promote unsustainable forms of industrialized agriculture?

Vegetarian diets, and other diets that are low on the food chain, cause malnutrition even in developed countries due to the lack of animal protein.