Lecture 21 Potential Exam Questions
1. What are the different kinds of food procurement?
⁃ Hunting and gathering
⁃ Cultivation (plants)
⁃ Pastoralism (animal breeding/herding)
⁃ Animal feeding (fish farming, livestock, etc.)
2. What is Fallow/Crop ratio and its relationship between fallow/crop ratio and agricultural intensification?
⁃ Fallow - to leave the field empty (no agriculture). Allows regeneration
⁃ Cropping - to perform agriculture and harvest on the field
⁃ Ratio of Fallow/Cropping is inversely proportional to agricultural intensity
3. What is the difference between hunting & gathering, pastoralism, and animal feeding?
- Hunting & gathering includes the search and capture of wild, non-domesticated animals. The animals roam in the wild with no fences or limitations and the hunters have to search for the animals in order to capture them. This includes fishing.
- Animal feeding is the keeping of animals in a pen or fenced in area specifically for milk and meat. No hunting is required and you keep specific animals with the most amount of meat. This includes fish farming where lakes, rivers or ponds are stocked with specific fish with the most meat.
- Pastoralism is in the middle of hunting & gathering and animal feeding. Pastoralism is where a set of hunters & gathers keep an eye on a specific herd. They can let them wander during the day but then try to gather them back to the base camp where they can be accounted for. Then during the day when they let them wander, they can search for the herd and capture the animals needed for meat. It's a combination of animal feeding where they monitor the herd but still hunt the animals when they need food.
4. What is the definition of domestication and when did it first occur?
Domestication occurs when the traits of a plant or animal differ enough from the range within the wild source population. It is generally dated to around the transition from the old stone age to new stone age around 10,000 YBP.
5. What is shifting, or swidden, cultivation and how does it differ from land use change?
Shifting cultivation involves the clearing of a patch of land for agricultural use. Once the nutrients in the soil become limiting for agricultural growth, the patch is left fallow and another patch is used. In the interim years between the use of each patch, the natural vegetation is allowed to retake the patch, which again brings nutrients to the soil. This process is different from clearing land permanently for agricultural use, and, if done properly, can be a sustainable means of agriculture.
6. What inputs can be used to increase the productivity of land?
-Irrigation
-Fertilizer
-Labor
-Energy
-Capital, incl. Technology
7. What were some of the key factors of the Green Revolution?
-Mechanical: Tractors, combines, harvesters, and the petroleum that fueled them
-Biological: Hybridization of plants, antibiotics
-Chemical: Fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides
8. What is the difference between previous "green" revolutions and the upcoming genetic one?
9. Name 2 major innovations for farming in the 19th Century and explain their importance in the agriculture revolution.
- The moldboard plow was the first major innovation in farming which allowed the soil to be cut, lifted, and turned. It allowed nutrients to be brought up to the surface of the fields and covered the majority of the weeds. Also, it was easier to plant the crops in soils that had been plowed. John Deere perfected the plow by using a steel blade instead of a wooden or iron blade. The steel blade prevented the soil from sticking to the blade and made plowing much more efficient and easier.
- The second innovation in farming was the gasoline-powered tractor. The gasoline-powered tractor helped with reducing the amount of labor and increased production time. More crops could be harvested with the gasoline tractor in the same time it took laborers to do the same amount of work. This led to more mechanical inventions that still increased harvest and reduced labor help and costs.
10. What are three benefits of infield/outfield farming?
a. When the animals are penned in the infield during the night the dung they produce helps to give nutrients to the soil.
b. The system allows for crop rotation and fallow periods.
c. The meat and milk from the animals are used as food sources.
d. The infield serves as a compost bin from kitchen scraps and waste which gives more nutrients to the soil.
11. Give three benefits of crop rotation.
a. Less chance for pathogens and pests to build up.
b. Improves the soil structure by alternating types of root systems of plants.
c. Reduces nutrient export due to different nutritional needs of plants.
12. What is the difference between extensive growth and intensive growth with agriculture?
Intensive growth is more productivity per unit land or per capita of participant. Extensive growth uses more land but not an increase of productivity for the unit of land.
13. What does ground up oyster shells provide to land?
The shells add nutrients to the land.
14. Give some examples of non-food crops.
a. Tobacco
b. Cotton
c. Hemp
d. Trees for lumber
15. Name three "revolutions" in agriculture and their approximate time frames.
a. Neolithic Revolution (after 10,000BC)
b. Industrial Revolution (19th century)
c. Green Revolution (1940s - 1970s)
d. Second Green Revolution (1990s - present)
16. Describe the concept of Genetic Engineering and provide an example of how it is currently being used.
Genetic Engineering is a term that describes the process by which farmers have been using for millennia to produce "better" crops. An example of this is adding Bacillus thuringiensis BT to the genetic makeup of plants in order to kill pests. Essentially incorporating pesticides into the natural makeup of plants such as Corn, Cotton, and Soybeans. Reduces application of insecticides. No convincing adverse effects have been detected under field conditions.
17. Please explain what is driving deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia and other developing countires and why it would be difficult to stop this.
Deforestation is occuring in these countires and elsewhere in the world due to the ever increasing need for biofuel crops such as soybean and palm. For developing nations these crops represent much needed revenue to support the growth of their countries so economics and the envrionmental concerns are continually being balanced usually with no clear winner or loser.
18. Define Sustainable Development
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to support itself.
19. Which came first, population growth or agriculture growth?
It is not sure whether population growth or agricultural growth came first. This is a positive feedback mechanism where population growth demands the need for more agricultural production and the increased agricultural production allows for population growth. Malthus believed that population growth is the root of the this system and that eventually the carrying capacity will be hit, however this is still under great debate by ecologists.
20. How is the green revolution an example of intensification?
Intensification can be seen in the green revolution because it changed the fallow:crop ratio. This was achieved through increased usage of inorganic fertilizers, herbicides, energy consumption, genetically modified crops and irrigation practices. These all increase the crop yield/acre but are not sustainable on for the long-term without outside inputs.
21. Why is intensification through pesticides likely to lead to ecological problems?
Pest Resurgence: Surviving members of the target species reproduce and cause a resurgence
Pest Outbreak: Other species are able to invade because of the kill of beneficial insects
Pest Resistance: Genetic variations mean that some pests will be resistance and can breed to create a resistant population
22. How does agriculture fit into the theory of the Sixth Extinction (lecture 23)? Consider the theory of carrying capacity as a limiting factor and effects of mechanization and intensification.
23. Explain the concept of an “agricultural system” with a specific pre-industrial example and explore how 19th century industrialization changed the game.
The agricultural system is composed of several inputs:
1. Crops, rotations, seasons
2. Inputs, intensity, labor
3. Natural water inputs, irrigation, flooding
4. Animals, what proportion, how do they fit in?
5. Do they eat things humans could, or couldn’t?
6. Are they fenced in, or do they roam?
7. Are they used as an energy input to farming?
8. Permanence of human settlement
9. Sedentary, or shifting, or nomadic?
10. Fallow / cropping ratio (in time) for a unit of land
A good example of a pre-industrial agricultural system was given in lecture 21, slide 29:
"The infield-outfield" system is an agricultural system that was used in Europe in the Middle Ages (~500-1400 AD). It is a system wherein animals graze in the “outfield” during the day and the "infield” is close to the village. Animals are penned in the infield at night and dung from the outfield is used to fertilize the infield, along with kitchen scraps and waste. Pens are moved frequently. Additionally, the infield is cropped and may incorporate crop rotation that includes a fallow period. Finally, milk and meat from animals are used as food sources.
Industrialization changed the way people lived in the early 18th and 19th centuries. Industrialization was a major shift in technological, socioeconomic and cultural conditions. It began in Britain and spread throughout the world. An economy based on manual labor was replaced by one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery; and with the advent of farm machinery, a small number of farmers could support a much larger urban population able to engage in other (manufacturing & trading) activities.
24. Explain what the phrase “intensity breeds greater intensification” means as it relates to agricultural production. (Hint: think about feedback loops)
Intensity refers to the extra resources (i.e. water, fertilizer, soil) added to crop land to grow more crops, in particular more of the same crop. As this crop uses up certain resources, more resources have to be added to grow still more crops.
It may also refer to the growth in population, which creates new practices to feed all the people, and these new practices set a new carrying capacity for more people to appear, and so on.
25. What propelled the 1940-1970s’ Green Revolution and what have been its lasting legacies?
There were three main elements of the "Green" Revolution:
1. Mechanical (i.e. oil/gas, mechanized equipment, fertilizer)
2. Biological (i.e. high-yield varieties of rice, drought- and disease-resistant strains of crops, antibiotics like penicillin)
3. Chemical (i.e. fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides)
Legacies of the Green Revolution:
1. High yielding crop varieties
2. Low input-output systems replaced by high input-output systems
3. Reliance on energy, fertilizer, and pesticides
4. Food production has largely kept pace with population growth
5. Average yields are 2.6x greater today per acre of land than in 1950
6. Early in the century, it took one American farmer to produce food for 2.5 people; today, due to advances in agricultural technology, a single farmer can feed over 130 people
Unfortunate consequences of the Green Revolution
Inputs don’t stay in, but leak out. In the US, fertilizer applied in the drainage basin of the Mississippi river has been draining into the Gulf of Mexico and causing a “dead zone” in the Gulf. Additionally, each year, around 2.5 million tons of pesticide, worth $32 billion, are used on the planet's crops. In 2002, an estimated 69,000 children were poisoned by pesticides in the US.