Week 03 Study Guide: How Will We Increase Plant

Production?
The goal this week is to understand how technology is being used in the modern agriculture
world to increase plant production and help feed the world’s increasing population.

W03 Study: The History of Agriculture

After reading the article on “Modern Agriculture and its Benefits,” answer the following questions:

● What are the most important differences between traditional and modern agriculture systems?

● What does the success of modern agriculture depend on?

● Why is agriculture important?

● What do current food insecurity problems reflect?

● How have physical pressures on the environment been reduced because of modern agriculture?

● In what ways can smallholder farming negatively impact the environment?

● How have processing technology and advancements in food handling improved food safety?

● What impact does modern agriculture have on global political stability?

After watching the video on “How to Breed Plants,” answer the following questions:

● Why is it important to keep producing new types of food products?

● What were the key steps the students took to create a new pepper variety?
 ● How many generations did it take until they were able to consistently produce a pepper with the
desirable traits?

After watching the video on “Precision Agriculture I,” answer the following questions:

● What technologies are used in precision agriculture?

● What is the process for implementing precision agriculture?

W03 Study: The Future of Agriculture

After watching the video on “The Future of Farming,” answer the following questions:

● What are some of the expected changes to be seen in future agriculture that will help us meet the
needs of the growing population?

● In the video, it indicated that in 1900, about 14% of the population worked on farms. In 2017, that
number dropped to < 2%, but food production has increased. What were the two factors thought to
be most responsible for this surge in productivity?

● What are vertical farms, and what are their key advantages and disadvantages?

● What are some of the benefits of newer techniques to create GMOs as described in the video?

After watching the video on “Precision Agriculture II,” answer the following questions:

● What environmental variables do you need to collect for effective application of precision
agriculture?

● What are some of the reasons why precision agriculture cannot be implemented throughout the
world? How are they looking to solve those problems?
After watching the video “Are GMOs Good or Bad?,” answer the following questions:

● What is selective breeding? (Hint: think about plants and animals from thousands of years ago)

● According to the video, is it risky to consume genetically modified plants?

● Explain how GMOs like BT corn and eggplants are effective at reducing insecticide use, improving
farmer health, and increasing crop yield.

● According to the United Nations (UN), the world eats 11 million pounds of food per day. How much
more (in %) are we estimated to need by 2050?