SAS2V Final Exam - Topic 12-16

The increase in recent years in the total global fish harvest (currently ~180 million tons) is primarily a result of increases in wild capture (e.g., ocean harvest) rather than increased aquaculture production.

false

The vast majority of the 2.1 million farms in the U.S. hire farm workers.

false

A challenge for organic agriculture is to achieve yields that are comparable to conventional agriculture production systems.

true

About 40% of the world's harvest of grains is used for animal feed, with an even higher percentage of the U.S. grain harvest used for this purpose.

true

Americans use more electricity than Europeans do, per capita.

true

As a country becomes wealthier, such as Japan as it recovered after World War II, the amount of starch in the population's diet declines and the amounts of meat, dairy products, and fats/oils in the diet generally increase.

true

Conversion of natural ecosystems to croplands releases CO2 from biomass and soils.

true

Corn yields are less dependent on synthetic nitrogen fertilizers following a crop of soybeans because bacteria on soybean roots capture nitrogen from the air.

true

Development of agriculture allowed for the formation of communities and centers of power.

true

Development of agriculture allowed for the formation of standing armies.

true

Humans have been genetically modifying plants for use as food crops using various methods for thousands of years.

true

In general, a crop that is produced largely by human labor rather than by fossil fuel-driven machinery will have a more favorable energy return (i.e., more kcal output available to us relative to kcal of inputs).

true

In the U.S., food demand is an example of what economists call inelastic demand, and helps explain why the overall market price for foodstuffs in real dollars has declined as agricultural productivity (food supply) has increased.

true

Land subsidence is directly related to compaction of soil particles as a result of groundwater withdrawal.

true

Mechanization resulted in dramatic gains in crop yields, especially in the early part of the 20th century, gains that preceded those resulting from improved crop genetics and widespread use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.

true

Most farm workers make half of a typical minimum wage salary in a year; the best way for farm workers to get ahead is to get a job outside of farm work.

true

No model of the current trends of global warming makes sense without including human-caused increases of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

true

Rich countries subsidize their farmers while poor countries tax their farmers.

true

Some USAID-funded projects have proven to be successful in developing countries by providing technical training and financial resources to help local farmers successfully grow agricultural commodities and create new export markets for their products.

true

The Grameen Bank makes small loans without requiring a written contract or collateral.

true

The late Wangari Maathai founded the Geen Belt Movement and was recognized for this with the Nobel Peace Prize, the first African woman to receive this award.

true

The two most commonly grown GMO crops contain genes to confer the transgenic phenotypes that were originally found in bacteria.

true

The two most commonly used transgenic traits in U.S. crop agriculture are herbicide tolerance and the engineered Bt toxin for resisting insects.

true

There is more carbon in the soil than in the atmosphere; therefore, plowing up native grasslands and forests influences the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

true

Of the following factors that contribute to land degradation, which affects the most land worldwide?

water and wind erosion

Future concerns in the developing world include:

Environmental degradation.

Increases of BT resistance in insect populations surrounding BT crops...

are the result of extensive use of BT with increased selection for BT tolerant insects that are already present in the insect population.

Combines, such as those pictured in the lecture slides,

are used to harvest cereal crops (e.g., wheat, rice) and combine in one machine the actions of reaping, threshing and winnowing the grain.

Herbicides

are used to kill weeds in farm fields and other areas.

Sustainable farming practices are never used on conventional/industrial farms.

false

Which of the following statements about the different food groups is true?

-Both the vegetable and fruit food groups provide fiber, vitamin C, and potassium -Low-fat and fat-free milk and yogurt are recommended dairy foods and provide protein, calcium, and phosphorous -Recommended choices from the protein foods group include seafood, lean, unprocessed forms of meats, poultry, and eggs, and unsalted nuts and seeds

Essential nutrients:

-Consist of both macronutrients and micronutrients and are essential for life -When removed from the diet result in failure to thrive and deficiency diseases such as anemia, pellagra, and scurvy

The average foodstuff travels how many miles from where it was produced to your table?

1,500 miles

Which are the three most populous countries in the world today (and will also be in 2050)?

China, India, and the United States.

We are currently in a major mass extinction of plant and animal species:

A and C (biggest since dinosaurs) (caused by humans)

Which of the following statements is not true?

A reason why California is so agriculturally productive is that there are very few regulations on the practices that growers use to farm.

The Haber-Bosch process refers to:

An industrial synthetic process for the production of nitrogen fertilizer.

Oils (fats that are liquid at room temperature):

Are good sources of essential fatty acids (polyunsaturated linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid) and vitamin E

Carbohydrates

Are the major nutrient found in the "grains" food group, of which greater than ½ of total grains consumed should be whole grains

Shade coffee is:

a practice where the coffee plants are grown under a canopy of trees, more like the way the coffee plants grow naturally.

Which of the following describes Stage 3 of demographic transition?

Birth rate declines, begins to approach replacement.

What are the 3 revolutions that enable international migration?

Communications, transportation, and rights.

What distinguishes "organic" agriculture from "conventional" agriculture?

Conventional agriculture uses synthetic fertilizers, while synthetic fertilizers are not allowed in organic agriculture.

•

Crises in world food production and policy issues resulted in spikes in food prices in the 1970's and 2000's.

Which of the following is NOT an agency/organization that contributes to the improvement of agriculture in developing countries?

Donald J. Trump Foundation

Which of the following statements is correct?

Global cultivated area on the planet is not increasing significantly, due to high efficiency modern farming practices.

Which of the following statements about the Dietary Guidelines for Americans is false?

In general, since 1999, Americans have made dietary choices that very closely align with the Dietary Guidelines, with adherence (Healthy Eating Index) scores greater than 75/100

•

In the U.S. we spend about 10% of our disposable income on food, which is the lowest in the world.

Land degradation as a result of agriculture:

Includes chemical damage, such as salinization (the buildup of salt in the soil), which can be a serious problem on irrigated land

Which of the following changes to a plant's genome would cause it to be considered "GMO" (i.e., transgenic) by the USDA and triggering a regulatory process for approval?

Insertion of a gene from an unrelated organism through transformation by Agrobacterium.

All of the following are challenges faced by developing countries EXCEPT:

Less than 10% of the labor force engaged in agriculture.

Which of the following statements about food insecurity is FALSE?

Less than 2% of American households are food insecure. This is due in part to the fact that the U.S. has one of the lowest relative poverty rates among industrialized countries.

Conversion of feed to fresh weight is:

More efficient in a chicken than a cow.

•

Most of our food is produced by the largest farms.

•

Net farm income in the U.S. has been fairly constant since the 1930s.

Agriculture is responsible for large emissions of which of the following greenhouse gases?

Nitrous oxide (primarily from fertilizers)

Which of the following statements regarding greenhouse gases is true?

On a time scale of centuries, a significant percentage of CO2 remains in the atmosphere.

Heifer International (the Heifer Project) is

a nonprofit charitable organization where donations buy plants and animals for people to raise in developing countries.

•

Supply relates to production and demand relates to consumption. Both supply and demand can be elastic or inelastic.

All of the following are core principles that define sustainable agriculture, EXCEPT:

Technologically superior.

•

The "farm problem" in the U.S. refers to highly unstable farm incomes that tend to decline over time. Contributing factors are weather variability that creates large fluctuations in farm prices, and technological advances that result in overproduction.

•

The four major sectors of the food industry include the farm service sector, producers, processors, and marketers.

•

The marketing sector creates value by changing the time and place of food.

What two events are likely to occur on a global scale in about 50 years?

The population of the world will be 9-10 billion and conventional oil supplies may be depleted.

•

The processing sector creates value by converting raw agricultural commodities into food products the consumer wants.

One of the important contributions by the British economist David Ricardo (1772-1823) to the economic principles associated with trade between countries is

The theory of comparative advantage.

The Milankovitch cycles explain or refer to

Timing of earth's movement; wobble, tilt, shape; influenced by gravitational pull

The NOVA documentary "Harvest of Fear" described how the coat protein gene of a particular plant virus was used by plant pathologists and plant molecular biologists at Cornell University:

To engineer resistance to papaya ringspot virus in papaya trees in Hawaii.

Volcanoes have what effect on global warming?

Volcanoes emit particulate pollution and dust that shades the earth from solar radiation, cooling the planet.

FD&C

a term used for a synthetically produced color additive required to undergo FDA certification

GRAS

a term used for some food additives that do not require premarket review by FDA (sugar)

Atmospheric CO2 and methane levels, instead of continuing a long decline during this most recent interglacial period, began to increase 6-8,000 years ago. This is best explained by:

agriculture

Examples of recent innovations in packaging include:

all of the above

Demonstration plots are largely ineffectual because foreign methods often result in lower than average yields.

false

Listeria

bacteria that can be grown in frig temperatures and can be dangerous in processed meats

E. coli O157:H7

bacteria that can cause hemolytic-uremic syndrome; found in contaminated spinach

FAO projects that from now until 2030 the number of undernourished people in sub-Saharan Africa will:

begin to decline slightly from current levels but continue to remain a significant problem relative to other regions of the world.

Major cities are almost completely self-sufficient in producing enough food to sustain the demands of their population through community gardens and agricultural zones located within the cities.

false

Methane (CH4) remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, but is a weaker greenhouse gas than CO2.

false

Most U.S. scientists, including many Nobel Prize winners, are alarmed about the application of transgene technology, and have signed a petition to severely limit any further use of genetically modified crop plant species in agriculture.

false

Proposition 37 in California passed in 2012 to require labeling of any food product that contains genetically modified (GMO) ingredients.

false

Farm subsidy programs in the U.S. have traditionally included

direct income and countercyclical payments, crop insurance programs

Agriculture is the largest single producer of U.S. greenhouse gases.

false

Air bubbles caught in the ice sheet of Antarctica give us a history of atmospheric and climatic conditions; specifically they have allowed us to determine that CO2, CH4, and temperature changes follow completely divergent (different) trends.

false

Americans spend about 50% of their disposable income on food.

false

Biotechnology, whereby a living organism or system derived from a living organism(s) is directed to generate a product or service, is a very recent field of innovation, with the first examples becoming available only about 20 years ago.

false

Dead zones in the ocean refer to loss of life near the mouths of rivers due to high levels of herbicides

false

With industrial farming and current technology as practiced in wealthy countries, and using current cropland and modern food distribution systems, everyone on earth at our current population could eat like the typical American eats (western or "meat-sweet" diet).

false

Women are not allowed to be involved in farming in many developing countries; for maximal impact agricultural education programs should be targeted towards men.

false

Which of the following is an example of a genetic method used in crop improvement that does not involve transgenic technology?

generational selection; radiation mutagenesis; protoplast fusion

Which of the following are common causes of hunger in the developing world?

lack of investment in ag, climate change, unstable market

Salmonella

most cases of foodborne illness and deaths each year

Which of the following statements about food processing and packaging is false?

none of the above

Which of the following sources of energy are more efficient (energy per unit area) than converting corn kernels into ethanol?

oil, solar panel, wind machines (all)

Most of the energy required to make a 16 oz. (455 g) can of sweet corn, which provides 375 Cal of food energy, is associated with:

packaging

Which one of the following is not a major sector of the food industry as we discussed in class?

stocking sector

Bioconcentration (or biomagnification) as discussed in this course refers to:

the increasing concentration of a chemical such as a pesticide as it moves up the food chain.

The process that converts about 20% of the field corn grown in the U.S. into more than a dozen products such as high fructose corn syrup and modified starches is called:

the wet milling process

Wheat, maize and rice are the three main staple crops in the world and are planted on the largest area because...

they are good sources of nutrients and their edible dry weights for food and feed exceed that for most other crops.