eco 190 exam 2

What justification did Perry Lilly give for everyone to be concerned about limiting agricultural soil erosion?

Not controlling soil erosion is a contributing factor to historical societal collapses.

In the online article "The Chain Never Stops," what 1) agricultural industry and 2) challenge regarding agricultural worker safety and health are featured?

1) Meat processing; 2) Accidents at slaughterhouses due to increased line speeds.

What is/are potential 1) benefit and 2) disadvantage of no-till corn (i.e. Roundup Ready corn) versus non-GMO corn at Lilley Farms?

1) Reduce erosion; 2) More herbicide used.

The human body needs omega-3 and omega-6 fats. What is 1) the U.S. dietary challenge and 2) consequence of feeding lots of grain to animals such as beef cattle?

1) Too much omega-6 in diet; 2) Reduction in omega-3.

Which of the following are negative externalities (could be either environmental or social) that are highlighted in the film "Big River"?

All of these; Groundwater contamination with nitrates. Cancer in farming families. Eutrophication in the Gulf of Mexico.

What are example(s) for NON-POINT SOURCE POLLUTION?

Both; The Dead Zone (NOT the Stephen King book) in the Gulf of Mexico. Florida gator endocrine disruption.

Strip cropping to reduce soil erosion typically aligns crop strips perpendicular to the flow of runoff gullies. Which of the following 3-year sequence of crop strips would most limit erosion? Assume corn grain stalk residue left behind, corn silage cut to 2 inches, alfalfa is a perennial crop cut three times, barley grain combined with no straw baled, soybeans combined, and plowed land is fallow.

Alfalfa -> Corn silage -> Barley.

Which of the following would be considered part of a local food system to UMaine students living both on campus and in downtown Orono?

All of the below UMaine greenhouse on campus growing vegis for the Student Union. Orono community garden. Orono farmers' market in the steam plant parking lot.

Max Fairweather who runs agricultural programming at the University of District of Columbia (D.C.) Agricultural Experiment Station identifies what challenge(s) to urban agriculture in the D.C. Community Garden - Background video?

All of the below Urban residents don't think they can garden. Urban gardeners are disappointed with the output from their garden. Still underground movement requiring intensive one-on-one guidance.

Mennonite produce auctions have recently been started to stabilize these farmers' dairy farm incomes. Similar initiatives to diversify dairy farm income by growing mixed vegetables in other states (i.e. Vermont) have been challenging. What allows old-order Mennonite dairy farm communities like the one shown in Dayton, VA to successfully add mixed vegetable enterprises?

All of the below Use of modern dairy equipment even though horse and buggy and bicycles are used for personal transport. Successful direct marketing to institutional buyers through auctions. Having many children who can pick summer squash with latex gloves.

Why are hunting and gathering and indigenous food systems valuable?

All of the below Hunting and gathering fosters appreciation for the generally higher food productivity of settled agricultural systems (both indigenous and modern). Better connection with and appreciation of food from wild game, which along with the hunter is intricately involved in a respectful and sacred relationship. Maya milpa system of swidden agriculture when done properly (1 hot burn to establish followed by smaller lower temperature burns over 25-year cycle) can be agriculturally productive and improve soil fertility via biochar.

hich of the following is/are example(s) of non-point source pollutants?

All of the following; Nutrients. Agricultural chemicals. Sediment and salts

A cap and trade system for methane for large conventional dairy farms like Stonyvale in Exeter, Maine would involve:

All of these; Setting a regional limit (Q) on the amount of methane that can be emitted. Breaking up this Q into many little q's or permits where each permit is an allowance to emit an amount of methane equal to Q divided by the number of permits issued. Creating an open market for these polluting permits that can be bought and sold between dairy farms. Dairy farms with advanced technologies to control methane (i.e. cap on manure pit lagoon for bio-digestion) can sell their methane allowances while dairy farms without such new technological investment can buy allowances.

According to the video, "Forks over Knives," what does mounting scientific evidence indicate is strongly associated with triggering cancer if it makes up 30% or more of dietary intake?

Animal protein.

The recent decline in Monarch butterfly populations over the past 15 years is attributed to less milkweed in agricultural fields due to:

Both Roundup Ready GMO crops and Roundup.

How is the Mennonite produce auction in Dayton, VA conducted in the D.C. Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction (SVPA) videos?

By tractor drive through of lots sold to institutional buyers and by also using a silent auction under shelter sold to smaller buyers.

In the video you watched called "Future of Food," what types of farmers expressed concerned about past, current, and future lawsuits brought by Monsanto for copyright infringement of their proprietary GM crops?

Canadian commodity crop farmers raising canola. Mexican peasant farmers growing landrace (traditional varieties of) corn.

What do farmers typically have higher incidence of compared to the rest of the U.S. population likely due to greater exposure to pesticides and herbicides?

Cancers like leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

What are concern(s) regarding animal welfare on industrial farms raised by animal rights advocates?

Confinement plus removal of body parts to prevent biting and pecking.

What type of farm is Lilley Farms?

Dairy

Unlike many conventional food system farms, Polyface Farm is managed more like a(n):

Ecosystem.

For conventional industrially produced food, society decides negative environmental costs (i.e. non-point source pollution) and negative social costs (i.e. deaths from E. Coli) need to be internalized in the market price of conventional food. If these negative externalities are accounted for (i.e. internalized), where is the new equilibrium point and what happens to the market supply for conventional food after accounting for these externalized costs? Assume conventional food companies are directly taxed.

Eec+sc and conventional food supply shifts in due to increased costs.

Which are negative environmental (versus social) impact(s) of the increased planting of corn in the U.S. Corn Belt for ethanol? These negative impacts are also known as negative "externalities" and can be both environmental and social in nature.

Erosion since land that used to be in the U.S. Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has been opened up to plant more corn.

Why would organic farmers be opposed to crops genetically engineered to express for the production of Bt toxin?

Potentially renders foliar application of organic formulations of Bt useless due to insect resistance from 24-hour exposure to Bt over the lifetime of the engineered crop.

How is a diversified organic farm like Nature's Circle able to expand to about 300 acres when management time is devoted to more than one or two crops?

Focus on several root crops with similar storage requirements.

Which of the following is / are potential problems raised by opponents of genetically modified organisms (GMO's)?

GMO's when used in monoculture without planting refuges of non-GMO crops encourage insect and weed resistance.

In addition to genetic predisposition, lack of exercise, and fast food, what other factor surprisingly contributes to American obesity due to direct storage as fat?

High fructose corn syrup used in sodas since the mid-1980's.

The potential for crop production in Maine in the future due to climate change is expected to be _______ (assume extreme rain events are manageable).

Higher

In the award winning Frontline expose "Rape in the Fields," who are the parties accused of migrant worker abuse?

Hispanic farm managers who typically worked their way up from migrant worker status to be responsible for a field crew.

In "The Trouble with Antibiotics," what is the negative social externality associated with feeding sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics to livestock in order to enhance these animals' weight gain?

Human exposure to antibiotic resistant pathogens.

How could a socially-optimal equilibrium point after accounting for negative external costs be achieved by government policy makers?

Imposing a Pigouvian tax on conventional industrial food.

What agricultural response and subsequent environmental impact has been driven by China's recent increase in pork production and consumption?

Increase in Chinese soybean demand resulting in Brazilian deforestation in Amazon and Cerrado biomes to grow no-till GMO soybeans for export to feed Chinese hogs.

Who orchestrates the grass-based local food system highlighted in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, p. 185-276?

Joel Salatin.

Why does herbicide resistance in weeds in Roundup Ready crops theoretically take longer to happen than insecticide resistance in insect pests on Bt crops?

Longer time typically required for a plant versus insect generation.

What is/are challenge(s) associated with genetic pollution of transgenes to traditional crop cultivars?

Loss of crop genetic diversity.

Negative production externalities are defined and exemplified as:

Negative social costs from E. coli NOT included in price of hamburger.

Since Nature's Circle Farm is organic, how are weeds controlled since chemical herbicides (like Round-Up and Atrazine) cannot be used?

Mechanical cultivation, Rotating vegis with small grains, Stale-seed bedding using repeated cultivation.

After reading "The Pasta Crisis" by Mark Hertsgaard, assume current anthropogenic climate change projections are true. What factor(s) related to future climate could cause global wheat yields to decline which would potentially make pasta both scarce and expensive?

More erratic climate with increased temperatures and rainfall in traditional wheat growing regions.

Confinement plus removal of body parts to prevent biting and pecking.

Nitrates in groundwater.

If Sensei has a BMI=27.5 (this is true), what would Sensei be classified as?

Overweight

An economic way for the government to force Midwest farms to internalize (pay for) their negative externalities from Dead Zone non-point source pollution is to:

Place a tax on fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides used on farms.

Bea Trickett who organizes an urban community garden in Washington D.C. suburbia explains that the garden uses what type of production system in the D.C. Community Garden video?

Raised beds with mulched/grassed paths and no wooden border.

Michael Pollan discusses "industrial organic" agricultural systems on pages 123-184 in The Omnivore's Dilemma. What is / are characteristic(s) of industrial organic agriculture discussed by Pollan?

Reliance on economies of scale and mechanization, Substitution of conventional inputs such as conventional fertilizer (10-10-10) with organic ones (Chilean nitrate), Nationwide transport of salad greens made possible by advances in bagging technology

According to the video, "Forks over Knives," what happened with patients with heart disease (some of which had triple bypass surgeries) were put on a plant-based whole foods diet?

Reversal of symptoms.

You watched the video streams of Nature's Circle Farm (MOFGA certified organic) in southern Aroostook County, Maine. What crops does the farm grow?

Roots crops such as carrots, beets, and potatoes.

In the Frontline episode "The Trouble with Chicken," what is BOTH a necessary and sufficient condition to legally require a recall of chicken by Foster Farms? In other words, all of the other choices below while necessary are not singularly sufficient to mandate a food safety recall.

Same DNA fingerprint of Salmonella from chicken purchased to that which has sickened or killed people.

Which of the following action taken by a farmer would result in GM patent infringement and most likely a lawsuit from Monsanto?

Saving Roundup Ready canola seed in Canada.

What type of genetically modified (GM) crop had to be recalled (it was found in processed products humans eat) due to concerns about human allergen potential? This GM crop was eventually approved for human consumption.

Starlink corn used for animal feed.

In the article "Waste into Profit," what local farm and agricultural industry is featured regarding bio-digestion of organic wastes to improve sustainability?

Stonyvale Farm in Exeter, Maine; Dairy.

What is a potential GMO technological solution to insure that genetic pollution from Roundup Ready corn does not happen (assuming this new genetic modification does not transfer to Mexican landrace corn)?

Terminator gene.

There has been a recent increase in both Tier 1 and 2 food production through personal gardening (Tier 1) and consumers purchasing produce at farmers' markets and CSA's (Tier 2)?

True

Who orchestrates the local food system in the Teams on the farm and on the ice video?

University of Maine Black Bear Food Guild.

Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma, p. 277-333, hunts what type of wild animal and gather what type of food?

Wild pig and mushrooms

What are negative impact(s) on Punjab agricultural farm workers, farmers and farm families resulting from conventional Green Revolution production of crops (esp. cotton and rice)?

all of these; Cancerous tumor on farm worker Sima Singh from spraying chemical pesticides on cotton and paddy rice. The 257,000 Indian farmers who committed suicide over 16 years (1995 to 2010) many of who lost their farms due to plateauing conventional crop yields combined with higher industrial agricultural input costs. High incidences of cancer (e.g. breast cancer and leukemia) among farm family members using pesticide containers to store food including Tej Kaur and her deceased grandson.

What factors contribute to outbreaks of E. Coli O157:H7?

all of these; High corn diet of beef cattle plus routine use of antibiotics in feed creating a favorable environment for E. Coli O157:H7 to become resistant to antibiotics. Rapid line speeds at industrial slaughterhouses increasing probability of getting E. Coli O157:H7 in manure on animal carcasses. Combining parts from thousands to beef carcasses to make industrial batches of frozen hamburger patties.

Which of the following are examples of negative externalities imposed on people and the environment by GMO's?

all of these; Impact of Roundup Ready crops on declining Monarch butterfly populations plus Roundup Ready resistant weeds. Patenting life and subsequent Monsanto lawsuits on farmers to protect GM patents as well as genetic pollution of landrace corn in Mexico. Allergen potential if a peanut gene is used to produce a GMO.

What are potential benefit(s) of GMO's that have been or are currently being developed?

all of these; Increased crop disease resistance (e.g. GM papaya in Hawaii). Enhanced nutritional quality of food (e.g. Golden Rice for the developing world). GM crops that are resistant to extreme conditions due to climate change (e.g. drought resistant corn and flood resistance "scuba" rice).

What types of challenges do migrant works face in the United States?

all of these; Injuries in meat packing plants. Exposure to agricultural chemicals during field operations. Worker abuse.

What are potentially negative impacts of climate change on agriculture?

all of these; Lower production of milk cows from heat stress and reduced crop yields if global temperatures increase 4 degrees Celcius. Northern migration of insect pests such as Africanized honey bees. Extreme rain events flood and kill crops.

If a crop is labeled "Fair Trade," it is grown in a way that is certified to be:

both; Environmentally sustainable. Non-exploitive of farmers and farm workers.