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Exploring Agriculture: Historical Insights and Modern Practices

This quiz assesses knowledge of historical and contemporary agricultural practices, environmental impact, and food security issues.

1 What does the following picture show?  The percent of the human population working in agriculture has decreased over time.   The Harvesters. Pieter Bruegel. 1565.   Ploughing rice paddies with water buffalo, in Indonesia.   Farmers work inside a rice field in Andhra Pradesh, India.

2 In recent years there has been a backlash against perceived ________ environmental effects of mainstream agriculture, particularly regarding water pollution,[12] resulting in the organic movement.

3 Food security issues also coincide with ________ and food labeling concerns.

4 Since the 1940s, agricultural productivity has increased dramatically, due largely to the increased use of energy-intensive mechanization, ________ and pesticides.

5 What does the following picture show?  Tractor and Chaser bin.   The percent of the human population working in agriculture has decreased over time.   The Harvesters. Pieter Bruegel. 1565.   Farmers work inside a rice field in Andhra Pradesh, India.

6 [29] For example, irrigation increased corn yields in eastern ________ by 400 to 500% from 1940 to 1997.

7 ________ attempts to use all of these methods to keep pest populations below the number which would cause economic loss, and recommends pesticides as a last resort.

8 Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated ________ and plants (i.e.

9 Until the ________, the vast majority of the human population labored in agriculture.

10 Independent development of agriculture occurred in northern and southern China, Africa's Sahel, New Guinea and several regions of the ________.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the masseira is a form of agriculture in sand dunes practiced solely in Northern Portugal.
  • the Department of Food Science at Purdue University was created during Bernard J. Liska's tenure as Dean of Agriculture in 1983.
  • two species of bird's nest fungi, Cyathus olla and Cyathus stercoreus, have been researched for use in agriculture.
  • the cultivation of biofortfied food crops has occasionally faced resistance because they sometimes have different characteristics, such as unusual colours.
  • Salt is an ancient agricultural town in west-central Jordan, famous for the quality of its grape harvest, and therefore speculated to be the root for the English word sultana.
  • Ireland's annual National Ploughing Championships is Europe's largest agricultural event.
  • Bob Odom, Louisiana's Commissoner of Agriculture and Forestry, is, with 28 years experience, his state's longest-serving statewide constitutional official.
  • ice-minus bacteria, a variant of genus Pseudomonas, are useful in agriculture, because they can prevent the formation of ice on crops.
  • 19th century Polish noble and farmer StanisÅ‚aw CheÅ‚chowski (pictured) published academic works ranging from ethnography through agriculture to mycology.