PLANTS, PEOPLE AND CULTURE
JOURNAL QUESTIONS
Chapter 15 Feeding a Hungry World
- Why is there a need to increase the global food supply? What is being done to achieve this goal?
- What improvements were made in crops by early peoples?
- How has human selection influenced the evolution of corn?
- What do we mean by the Green Revolution and why is it important? When did it begin?
- What improvements in existing crops, such as wheat, have been made to help solve the world's food problem?
- What infectious diseases affect food crops? Which is the most serious?
- What is plant pathology? What is the work of a plant pathologist?
- Describe in detail 4 major problems that resulted from the Green Revolution?
- What are the 5 solutions being used to help increase the world's food supply?
- What is meant by monoculture cultivation? What factors contributed to this practice?
- How many varieties (slightly different genetic makeup) of wheat, potato, and cotton are in the U.S.? How is the lack of genetic diversity a problem? Site 3 examples from history.
- What is sustainable agriculture? What are its advantages over monoclonal cultivation?
- How are traditional varieties (land uses) different from wild ancestors? What is Germplasm and why is it important? Why is the loss of traditional varieties significant?
- Why are seed banks essential? Describe 3 things you found of interest about seed banks.
- Briefly describe each of the alternative food crops: Quinoa, Amaranth, Tarwi, Tamarillo, and Oca.
- Define biotechnology. What are two ways biotechnology develops new crops?
- How are new plants grown from cell or tissue culture? What useful traits may plants grown this way possess?
- How is biotechnology important to plant breeding?
- Define transgenic. What types of resistance or protection have plants gained when a bacterial gene is introduced into them?