5.10 Consequences of Ag Practices

Which of the following agricultural practices has the most significant long-term environmental impact in tropical regions?

• Clearing small patches of land to pasture dairy cows, which decreases water pollution from runoff

• Building terraces on sloping land to grow rice, which destabilizes hillsides

• Burning extensive areas of forested land to create pasture, which decreases biodiversity

• Burning small areas of forested land for subsistence farming, which increases biodiversity

• Moving livestock to higher pasture areas in the spring, which leads to soil degradation

Which of the following environmental problems is most associated with the African Sahel?

• Desertification

• Deforestation

• Air pollution

• Flooding

• Water pollution

Which of the following best explains how the expansion of feedlots for raising cattle has affected environmental sustainability in rural areas?

• Concentrating large numbers of farm animals in small spaces has decreased the release of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

• Feed grains have eliminated potentially harmful invasive plant species from farmland

• Runoff from animal waste has increased the pollution in local water supplies.

• Land development has increased the available water supply for other farming practices.

• Composted manure has introduced valuable nutrients into previously depleted soils.

Nomadic pastoralism is an extensive agricultural system practiced

• in the dry regions of Africa and Asia

• in the tropical regions of Africa and Asia

• in the hinterlands of Australia

• by Native American buffalo hunters

• by people who shift location in pursuit of rain clouds

The clearing of tropical rain forest for agriculture frequently results in

• long-term productive farmland

• a shift to animal raising

• an increase in the size of the ozone hole

• better-managed commercial forests

• large-scale immigration

Which of the following social or environmental impacts is most directly related to the use of chemicals in agriculture?

• A decline in insect-borne diseases and improved health at the global scale

• A decrease in the price of agricultural products due to lower labor costs associated with applying chemicals over widespread areas in one application

• An increase in the use of genetically modified crops

• An increase in profits that is limited to farmers in developed countries

• An increase in land and water pollution from agricultural runoff