APHuG - Agriculture Progress Check

What best explains the significance of similarities between the farming practices for apple orchards and grape vineyards?

Both farming practices require considerable labor input because the fruit is picked by hand, making it a product of intensive agriculture.

What scenario best explains the Columbian Exchange?

Domesticated animals such as cattle, horses, pigs, and chickens were introduced to the Americas by European colonizers. Prior to this, very few animals had been domesticated in the Americas.

What best compares a technological consequence of the Green Revolution in more developed and less developed countries?

Farmers in less developed countries were able to increase their profits from growing and exporting high-yield grain to levels similar to those in more developed countries.

What explains a reason why education and employment rates for women are lower in less developed compared to more developed countries?

Females take primary responsibility for harvesting and cooking food in less developed countries.

More developed countries tend to have greater access to agricultural technology and government-supported loans used to purchase computerized farm equipment. What best explains the significance of access to these resources?

Government financing and improved technology lead to larger economies of scale and improved efficiency.

What best explains how a wheat farmer in the Northern Plains region of the United States is able to maximize profits?

Grain farming is an extensive farming practice that can maximize profits in part by lower land costs, lower transportation costs, and imperishability of the product.

The two images each show a different form of beef production. The first shows cattle roaming free, and the second shows cattle in a fence. What statement explains a primary difference between the agricultural practices?

Image 1 shows traditional beef production, which has regained popularity because of perceived environmental and ethical benefits compared to the beef production shown in Image 2.

The images show examples of agricultural technology developed during different time periods. The first image shows using animals to help ease labor, and the second shows using a plow/tractor. What statement is best supported by the images?

Image 2 shows an innovation that occurred in the Second Agricultural Revolution, reducing the amount of labor needed and increasing crop yields.

Using the data that shows that more women work in agriculture in LDC's than MDC's, what best explains the spatial variations of rural women's roles in food production and food preparation?

In less developed countries, females and males tend to participate equally in harvesting and preparation tasks.

What best explains the significance of a similarity among locations where olives, figs, grapes and lemons are grown?

Intensive agriculture is practiced in a Mediterranean climate.

What correctly compares the significance of the different technologies shown in the images? The first image uses animals to help ease labor, and the second uses a plow/tractor.

Invention of the plow eased the intensive use of labor, and the innovation of mechanized farm equipment led to improved food production.

What best explains how irrigated commercial agriculture in arid environments creates both environmental opportunities and challenges?

Irrigation increases production but potentially depletes water resources.

What best explains the spatial patterns illustrated in von Thünen's model, which shows market, market gardens, dairies, forest, grain crops, then pasture?

Labor-intensive farming of vegetables is done in small-scale plots in market gardens, while extensive grain crops are grown in large-scale fields far from the market town.

Based on the map above, that shows concentrated acres of lettuce in California, what best explains the production of lettuce in the United States?

Lettuce production in the United States is an example of commercial farming. Most lettuce is produced, processed, and packaged for sale in supermarkets that are a significant distance from where the product was grown.

What best explains the farming practice related to plantation agriculture?

Plantation farming is considered to be an intensive farming practice because it requires large inputs of labor and capital to produce the crop.

Based on von Thünen's model of rural land use, what explains the location of agricultural practice A, market gardening, or B, ranching, relative to the market?

Practice A represents intensive land use, requires a smaller parcel of land, and can afford higher land costs found closer to the market.

The Green Revolution led to an increase in food production in many places around the world, but there have been some negative consequences. What explains one of the negative consequences of the Green Revolution that would be of greater concern for people in developing countries than for people in more-developed countries?

Runoff of agricultural chemicals into the local groundwater that pollutes water resources

Agriculture is practiced at the local scale, and agricultural yields are measured at the national scale. What best explains why the concept of the global system of agriculture is helpful to geographers?

The concept helps geographers simplify and visualize a vast and complicated global supply chain.

The images shown illustrate the differences in scale of production for two methods of producing thread. The first image is manual, the second is industrial. What best describes advances in the production of textiles during the Second Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution?

The conversion from manual thread spinning to an industrial processing approach led to increased demand for raw cotton in the agricultural sector.

Agricultural settlement patterns are partly determined by the survey system used to organize landownership. What best describes the survey methods used to delineate agricultural land and the associated settlement patterns shown in the two images, (showing long lot and metes and bounds)?

The first image shows a long-lot survey method with a linear settlement pattern, and the second image shows a metes-and- bounds survey method with a dispersed settlement pattern.

The two images show an agricultural transition that occurred in the twentieth century. The first shows hand picking wheat, and the second shows using machinery. What best explains how this transition helped meet a challenge of contemporary agriculture?

The increased crop yield produced more food for a growing global urban and industrial population.

What best describes the settlement patterns shown in the images, (showing long lot and metes and bounds)?

The long-lot system results in population clustered along a waterway, whereas the metes-and-bounds system results in a random, dispersed population pattern.

Commercial agriculture in dry climates relies heavily on irrigation. What best explains an environmental concern that results from irrigation in arid regions?

The soil will have increased salinity, leading to soil erosion and reduced nutrients in the soil for plant health.

What best describes the survey system used in both locations, that show land divided into squares?

Township and range: unit-block field patterns with dispersed farmsteads and occasional villages

In 2017, the United States exported approximately $500 million of beef to Mexico, and Mexico exported approximately $500 million of beef to the United States. What best explains this international supply chain?

United States and Mexican producers rely on each other's market to sell certain beef products.

What correctly explains the relationship between wheat and its early hearth of domestication?

Wheat was first domesticated in Mesopotamia because of a favorable climate and a great diversity of wild grains that led to crossbreeding of seeds.

What best explains patterns of subsistence and commercial agriculture in West African countries such as Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire?

While some farmers are engaged in subsistence agriculture practices, there is significant commercial farming focused on luxury goods for export, such as coffee and cocoa.

What best explains the differences between countries with higher and lower percentages of women working in agriculture?

Countries with large percentages of female employment in agriculture tend to be mostly rural and are reliant on subsistence agriculture.

What statement best explains fair trade agriculture as shown for the products on the map, which mainly shows that MDC's purchase, while LDC's produce?

A system where consumers in mostly more developed countries purchase goods from producers mainly in less developed countries, with the intent to reduce the disparity in income between different regions

What explains an economic benefit of cattle production using feedlots rather than grass pastures?

Agricultural technology has increased the economy of scale and the carrying capacity of grass pastures, increasing profits for the farmer.

Slash-and-burn cultivation is an agricultural practice used by subsistence farmers in tropical forest areas. What best explains an environmental effect of this practice?

Air pollution and long-term land-cover change are side effects of slash-and-burn agriculture that have a long-ranging effect on a broader region.

What explains the prevalence of banana plantations in Central America?

Banana plants were brought to Central America from Southeast Asia to be grown closer to markets in the United States and Canada.

What best explains a negative economic consequence of the Green Revolution in less developed countries as compared to more developed countries?

Because of the increased capital investment required to produce new crop varieties using technology that was pioneered in more developed countries, there was an increase in wealth disparity in many farming communities in less developed countries.

What best explains why in the model, which shows market, market gardens, dairies, forest, grain crops, then pasture, the amount of land used for dairying is much smaller than the pasture used for beef cattle?

Dairy cows must be kept close to farmhouses, as they require daily milking, and milk must be produced close to consumers, as it is highly perishable.

Since the mid-twentieth century, wheat production has risen dramatically in some regions of the world but not others, which may increase the uneven development among countries. What statement best explains the increase in wheat production in Europe and the United States compared to sub-Saharan Africa?

Farmers in Europe and the United States use high-yield seeds and other technology but farmers in sub-Saharan Africa depend on low levels of mechanization and non-genetically modified seeds.