APES Chapter 12

Hyrdroponics

Growing plants by exposing their roots to a nutrient rich water solution instead of soul

Strip-cropping

Helps to reduce erosion and to restore soil fertility with alternating strips of a row crop and another crop that completely covers the soil

Industrialised agriculture

Issues heavy equipment along with large amounts of financial capital, fossil fuels, water, commercial inorganic fertilisers, and pesticides to produce single crops

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Leaf lotter

To be classified as organically grown, animals must be raised:

On 100% organic feed without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones

Alley cropping

One or more crops, usually legumes or other crops that add nitrogen to the soil, are planted together in alleys between orchard trees or fruit-bearing shrubs

Erosion of topsoil has two major harmful effects:

Loss of soil fertility and water pollution

People who are underfed and underweight and those who are overfed and overweight share similar health problems:

Lower life expectancy, greater susceptibility to disease and illness, and lower productivity and life quakity

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Parent material

Community supported agriculture

People buy shares of a local farmer's crops and receive a box of fruit or vegetables each week during the summer and fall

Contour olanting

Plotting and planting crops in rows across the slope of the land rather than up and down. Each row acts as a small dam to help hold topsoil by slowing runoff

The root cause of food insecurity is ____

Poverty

Rangelands, pastures, and feedlots

Produce meat and meat products and supply about 16% of the world's food using about 29% of the world's land area

Croplands

Produce mostly grains and provide about 77% of the world's food using 11% of its land area

Compost

Produced when microorganisms in topsoil break down organic matter such as leaves, crop residues, food wastes, paper, and wood in the presence of oxygen

Macronutrients

Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates

China consumes a ____ of all the meat produced in the world

Quarter

Circle of poison (boomerang effect)

Residues of some banned or unapproved chemicals used in synthetic pesticides reported to other countries can return to the exporting countries on imported food

Main grains people survive on:

Rice, wheat, corn

In undisturbed, vegetated ecosystems, the ______ ___ ________ help to anchor the topsoil and prevent some erosion

Roots of plants

Topsoil

Stores water and nutrients needed by plants

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Subsoil

Broad-spectrum agents

Synthetic pesticides that are toxic to beneficial species as well as pests

Agrobiodiversity

The genetic variety of animal and plant species used on farms to produce food

Soil erosion

The movement of soil components, especially surface litter and topsoil, from one place to another by the actions of wind and water

Desertification

The process in which the productive potential of topsoil falls by 10% or more because of a combination of prolonged drought and human activities that expose the topsoil to erosion

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Topsoil

Windbreaks

Trees around crop fields that help to reduce wind erosion

Conservation-tillage farming

Use of special tillers and planting machines that inject seeds and fertiliser directly through crop residues into minimally disturbed topsoil

Many people suffer from a defiance of one or more vitamins and minerals, usually:

Vitamin A, iron, and iodine

Micronutrients

Vitamins and minerals

Waterlogging

Water accumulates underground and gradually raises the water table, especially when farmers apply large amounts of irrigation water in an effort to leach salts deeper into the soil; lowers productivity of crop plants and kills them after prolonged exposure

Benefits of synthetic pesticides:

-Have saved human lives -Have been to known to increase food supplies -Can help farmers increase their profits -Work fast -Newer pesticides are safer to use and more effective than old ones

Deseritifaction levels

-Moderate (10-15% drop) -Severe (25-50% drop) -Very severe (more than 50% drop)

Promote IPM in the US:

1. Add a 2% sales tax on synthetic pesticide and use the revenue to fund IPM research 2. Set up a federally supported IPM demonstration project on at least one farm in every county 3. Train USDA field personnel and county farm agents in IPM

Three steps of green revolution:

1. Develop and plant monoculture of selectively bred or genetically engineered high-yield varieties of key crops 2. Produce high yields by using large inputs of water, synthetic inorganic fertilisers, and pesticides 3. Increase the number of crops grown per year on a plot of land through multiple cropping

About ____ of all food produced globally is lost during production and thrown away

1/3

Worldwide, only about ____ species of plants, animals, fungi, and microbes cause most of the damage to the crops we groe

100

The average U.S. Farmer feeds ___ people

129

In the US, food travels an average of ____ miles from farm to plate

1300

Industrialised livestock production generates about __% of the world's greenhouse gases

18

1 of every _ people in less developed countries aren't getting enough to eat

6

Products labelled made with organic food must contain __% organic ingredients

70

Products labelled organic must contain __% organic ingredients

95

Integrated pest management (IPM)

A carefully designed program in which each crop and its pests are evaluated as parts of an ecosystem, and farmers use a combination of cultivation, biological, and chemical tools and techniques, applied in a coordinated process

Agriculture contributes to ____ _______ and ________ ________

Air pollution and climate change

Wakame (undaria)

An Asian kelp that is a popular product and raised on some farms. But this invasive seaweed is disrupting coastal aquatic systems in several parts of the world

Food desert

An urban area where people have little or no easy access to nutritious food without traveling long distances

Governments improve food security by:

Controlling food prices and providing subsidies

Terracing

Converting steeply sloped land into a series of broad, nearly level terraces that run across the land's contours

Perennial crops

Crops that grown back year after year on their own

Famines are usually caused by:

Drought, flooding, war, and other catastrophic events

FIRA

EPA was supposed to asses the health risks of the active ingredients in synthetic pesticides already in use

Narrow-spectrum agents

Effective against a narrowly defined group of organisms

Largest cause of erosion

Flowing water

Industrialised agriculture has greater overall harmful environmental impacts than any other human activity and these environmental effects may limit future ____ _______

Food production

Soil salinization

Gradual accumulation of salts in the upper soil layers; stunts crop growth, lowers crop yields, and can eventually kill plants and ruin the land

Negatives of synthetic pesticides:

-Accelerate the development of genetic resistance to pesticides in pest organisms -Can put farmers on a financial treadmill -Some insecticides can kill natural predators and parasites that help to control the pest population -Pesticides are usually applied inefficiently and often pollute the environment -Some harm wildlife -Some threaten human health

Idoine

-Essential for proper functioning of thyroid gland -Lack of it can cause goiter

Alternatives to synthetic pesticides:

-Fool the pest -Provide homes for pest enemies -Implant genetic resistance -Bring in natural enemies -Use insect perfumes -Bring in hormones -Reduce use of synthetic herbicides to control weeds