The Economist February 26, 2011Special Report:

The 9 Billion-People Question

Directions: Each person will answer half of the questions below. You need not email me your work, but you must be able to show it to me in hard copy tomorrow morning. You must have a print out of your completed work.

In addition to answering the questions below, please prepare two interpretive questions for the three sections we are reading tonight. Please look up any words that you do not know. I reserve the right to quiz you on the reading, and vocabulary is game.

Peace, Allums

Answer odd numbered questions / Answer even numbered questions
Haley, Jonathan, Vincent, Maritere, Crystal, Diana, Jessica N., Maria, Amy R., Tammy, Ahmad, Myura / Jessica A., Brandon, Bethany, Gurpreet, Stella, Allen, Michelle, Pedro, Dilpreet, Amy S., Jenna, Brianti

No Easy Fix

  1. How has agricultural production traditionally kept up with the growing population?
  1. Describe the Brazilian cerrado. Compare and contrast it to another savanna biome, the Sahel.
  1. Compare and contrast the cerrado to another savanna biome, the steppe.
  1. How has the cerrado contributed to increased food production; i.e. why is it no longer considered useless for farming?
  1. How can Brazil, Argentina, and the countries of the “Guinea belt” help increase worldwide food production?
  1. Explain the factors contributing to the exhaustion of Africa’s farmland.
  1. How does the loss of biodiversity affect farming?
  1. What is a breadbasket in the sense the term is used on p7?
  1. What is farming’s greatest competitor for water?
  1. How is irrigation currently inefficient? How can irrigation be made more efficient?
  1. Explain no-till growing.
  1. What are the problems with no-till growing?
  1. How does fertilizer help boost agricultural production?
  1. What’s the problem with fertilizer?

Waste Not, Want Not

  1. Explain how most food is “wasted” in Africa.
  1. What changes are addressing the “waste” of food in Africa?
  1. Account for the fact that America wastes 11 times as much food in tonnage as Britain.
  1. Why is there so much waste in rich countries, and why is the waste unlikely to diminish?

Doing More With Less

  1. Briefly discuss the evidence adduced in support of the mini-conclusion, “it is possible to grow more food, more efficiently, on both a regional and a national scale.”
  1. How exactly will new seeds improve African food production?
  1. What are the major countries in east sub-Saharan Africa?
  1. List the major countries in west sub-Saharan Africa.
  1. Why has there been a shift from grain and vegetables to meat worldwide?
  1. Explain the main factors contributing to the livestock revolution.
  1. On p12, we read, “This is the third and most important source of growth.” What does the demonstrative pronoun refer to and what are the other two sources of growth? Growth of what, by the way?
  1. How is the practice of genetically modifying plants help increase food production? Answer using a specific example.