Agriculture and GMO

Industrialized agriculture is often referred to as "high input" because it requires a great deal of:

• pesticides
• fertilizers
• fossil fuels
• all of these 

Which of the following best describes IPM?

• Spraying broad-spectrum chemical pesticides as the first line of defense 
• Complete elimination of all chemical pesticides
• Implementing a variety of cultivation and biological techniques and only spraying pesticides as a last resort
• Utilizing only trap cropping and crop rotation

The root cause of food insecurity is

• poverty
• climate change
• corruption
• salinization of soil

Which of the following describes a fundamental characteristic of the Green Revolution?

• The application of higher levels of organic fertilizers.
• The addition of calorie, fat, and fiber content to food labels.
• The development of new strains of crops with higher yields.
• Deforestation to provide crops with additional sunlight.

Traditional farmers grow several crops on the same plot of land in a practice referred to as

• monoculture
• polyculture
• aquaculture
• slash and burn

Repeated application of irrigated water in dry climates leads to...

• a drop in productivity of the land by more than 10%, leading to desertification
• a build up of nutrients, leading to increased levels of erosion
• a build up of salts in the soil, leading to salinization
• decreased phosphorus and nitrogen, leading to eutrophication

The use of synthetic fertilizers can increase crop yield, but also

• destroy nitrifying bacteria in the soil
• increase nutrient runoff into nearby surface waters
• slow the release of organic nutrients from compost
• increase fish populations in nearby streams

Which of the following are harmful effects of agriculture?

• Algal blooms due to fertilizer runoff
• Climate change associated with methane emissions from livestock and rice paddies
• Pesticide residue in food, water, and air
• All of the above

Which of the following best describes a genetically modified organism (GMO)?

• An organism that has been selectively bred for the best traits
• An organism that contains foreign DNA
• An organism that is produced after exposure to a mutagen.
• An organism that has been cloned

Which of the following soil erosion techniques is demonstrated in the picture?

• contour plowing
• terracing
• windbreaks
• intercropping