• Food security: ability, access, and use of food

• 820 million/10%: the portion of people globally that are undernourished

• 3/10: the number of people globally that are food insecure

• Overfertalized areas: Mississippi River Basin/China

• macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, fats

• micronutrients: vitamins and minerals

• iron: lack of this mineral is called anemia, often affects mothers giving birth and losing blood

• iodine: lack of this mineral leads to goiters, but the mineral can be added to salt

• vitamin A: lack of this vitamin leads to blindness and maternal mortality

• industrialized agriculture: uses heavy equipment, money, fossil fuels, inorganic fertilizers → high yield of monocultural crop

• monocultural crop: one type, high yield

• plantation agriculture: growing cash crops using industrialized methods for export

• traditional subsistence agriculture: uses solar energy and human + animal labor → enough food for the family that cultivates the land

• traditional intensive agriculture: farmers increase the inputs of human and animal labor to sell surplus

• slash-and-burn agriculture: setting fires and clearing small plots of land (especially in tropical forests) that use the land for polyculture crops

• agribusiness: a small number of giant multinational corporations control all aspects of the production and sale of food

• agroforestry: crops and trees are grown together → uses less water via trickle-down and less runoff

• green revolution: development of higher yield staple crops that can produce more food in less space using more organic fertilizer

• artificial selection: choosing and cross-breeding organisms for desirable inheritable traits

• genetic engineering: picking genes from unlike organisms and modifying a crop to give it desirable traits

• CAFO: intensive, confined animal raising operation with higher yield in smaller areas → leads to more point source pollution and spread of disease

• rangelands: raising less livestock on more land → smaller yield, more dispersed pollution/land degradation

• Green Revolution: monoculture GMO crops increased global food production but led to more fertilizer and water use

• Conservation tilling: little disturbance to the soil during planting → less erosion and vulnerability

• Soil Erosion Act: helped farmers conserve soil after Dust Bowl

• Food Security Act: farmers paid to take highly erodable soil out of production

• Terracing: helps retain water and soil on steep hills; inexpensive

• Strip Cropping/contour farming: Alternating strips of crops are planted on hillsides and in windy environments

• Cover Crops: Legumes planted to cover the soil in winter months to prevent erosion

• O horizon: leaf litter with decomposers that contribute nutrients to the soil

• A horizon: topsoil with miniature food web

• B horizon: subsoil, mostly inorganic

• C horizon: parent material that rests just above bedrock

• humus: partially decomposed organic matter broken down by microorganisms

• desertification: topsoil loses productive potential due to drought or erosion due to human activities

• biopesticide: chemicals naturally produced to deter or harm predators such as bugs

• subsidies: government funds given to incentivize agriculture

• FIRFA: a government act that evaluates the harmful effects of pesticides (semi-effective)

• Salinization: salts left behind by repeated irrigation

• Waterlogging: can be used to combat salinization but can accumulate and flood the roots of plants

• intercropping: two or more crops grown on the same plot

• windbreaks: rows of trees/shrubs that prevent soil from blowing away on a farm

Describe some current pros and cons of organic agriculture as a food production system:

Describe the green revolution including how it has impacted the food supply in the past 70 years

What are some hidden costs of America’s agricultural system?

What benefits can aquaculture provide vs traditional fisheries?  Can aquaculture cause any new problems?

How can aquaculture be made more sustainable?

Describe problems associated with soil erosion

What is desertification and how can it be classified?

Soil is a mixture of what things?

What are three key reasons that soil is an important component of earth’s natural capital?

Describe each of the four layers of soil: O, A, B, and C horizons

Why are pores important for soil?

Does soil regenerate quickly?

Describe the problem of soil salinization

Describe the problem of waterlogging

How do fertilizers and livestock contribute to climate change?

What is a biopesticide?

What does a pesticide’s persistence mean?

Describe neonicotinoid pesticides

What are some pros and cons of FIFRA?

Describe at least 2 specific pest control methods associated with IPM

How could IPM be environmentally beneficial compared to extensive use of synthetic pesticides?

Describe the following terms:

Intercropping

Inga Tree Alley Cropping

What is polyculture?

Explain how Cuba has implemented polyculture in its recent agricultural system

Differentiate between the Soil Erosion Act and the Food Security Act

Briefly describe conservation tilling

How is terracing used to reduce soil erosion?

Describe strip cropping/contour farming

What types of crops are cover crops and how are they used?

How are windbreaks used in agriculture?

How does crop rotation work?

What are some alternatives to synthetic fertilizers?

What portions of the calories we consume and land we use are due to croplands? How about for rangelands, pastures, and feedlots?

Would you classify most of the calories we as humans consume as coming from a diversity of different organisms?  Explain your answer