AP Environmental Science

Chapter 13 – Food, Soil Conservation, and Pest Management

MAJOR CONCEPTS

Crops & Animals: Major Patterns of Food

Production

World Food Problems

Principal Types of Agriculture

Propects for Increasing Food Production

From Green Revolution to Gene Revolution

Environmental Impacts of Agriculture

Integrated Pest Management

Food Security

Soil Erosion & Degradation

Consuming Grain vs. Meat

VOCABULARY

Malnutrition

Famine

Over nutrition

Industrialized agriculture

Plantation agriculture

Traditional subsistence farming

Polyvarietal cultivation

Intercropping

Polyculture

Green revolution

Genetically Engineered Plants

Organochlorine insecticides

Carbamate pesticides

Salinization

Monoculture

Overgrazing

Slash and burn agriculture

Irrigation

No till agriculture

Contour plowing

Agroforestry

Top soil

Erosion

Desertification

Waterlogging

IPM (Integrated Pest Management)

Organic Farming

Corporate Farming

Crop Rotation

CAFO

High-Input Agriculture

CASE STUDIES

Pg. 270 Golden Rice

Pg. 276 Industrialized Food Production in

The US

Pg. 279 Soil Erosion in the US

Pg. 300 Integrated Pest Management

IMPORTANT PEOPLE

Rachel Carson

Norman Borlaug

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Describe the agricultural revolution. What are the limitations and its gains?

2. What are the promises and the problems associated with using biotechnology in food

production?

3. Define malnutrition and undernutrition.

4. What is the difference between traditional agriculture and industrialized food production?

5. Name the big three plants that feed the world.

6. How is food protected from pests?

7. Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of genetically modified food.

8. List the causes and consequences of desertification.

9. Name three harmful effects of food production on soil, water, air, and human health. What are

some solutions to these problems?

10. What is the gene revolution?

11. Most of the rangelands in America are located in which part of the country?

12. Explain the green revolution.

13. What is the primary cause of malnutrition?

14. Explain polyvarietal cultivation, intercropping, agroforestry, and polyculture

15. Explain sustainable farming

16. What is soil erosion, and what are its major natural and human-related causes?

17. Describe the Dust Bowl event in the 1930s in the United States and the ecological lesson we

can learn from it.

18. Distinguish between salinization and waterlogging of soils. How serious are these problems?

19. What are China’s major food problems? How could lower food production in China affect the

rest of the world?

20. What is a pesticide? Distinguish among insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and rodenticides.

LAWS

Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, & Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) 1947, 1972

Soil Conservation Act, 1935

Taylor Grazing Act, 1934

Organic Food Production Act, 1990

Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), 1996

Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act

Food Security Act (Farm Bill), 1985

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)