Deck 4: Population and Food

Question 1

What is NOT one of the qualities of areas with the greatest population densities?

A) rich, fertile soil
B) lowland river deltas
C) centralized political control
D) reliable sources of water

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Malthus' basic argument is that while population increases at a ________ rate, food supply grows only at an ________ rate.

A) arithmetic; geometric
B) faster; slower
C) geometric; arithmetic
D) slower; faster

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What is NOT one of chief Malthusian checks that were argued to bring population growth back into alignment with the food supply?

A) Climate change
B) Poverty
C) Famine
D) General misery

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Agricultural production has __________ food supply enough to _________ the original Malthusian prediction.

A) decreased; dispel
B) increased; prove
C) decreased; prove
D) increased; dispel

Question 5

Some have suggested that through a variety of methods it will be possible for the global food production system to meet the demand of nine billion people by 2050. What of the following comes as a result of the agricultural innovations of the Green Revolution?

A) Changing diets
B) Reducing waste
C) Closing the yield gap
D) Increasing production limits

Question 6

What has contributed to the increase of aquaculture or fish farming enterprises, which have their own environmental pollution and genetic contamination issues?

A) overfishing
B) climate change
C) ocean pollution
D) salinization

Question 7

What term describes the situation when people do not have relatively easy access to safe and nutritious food, either on a permanent or transitory basis?

A) food security
B) hunger
C) food insecurity
D) famine

Question 8

What does NOT cause a famine?

A) redirection of a food supply as withholding and hoarding
B) lack of food supply rather than a lack of power to buy food
C) destruction of the productive capacity of a community to grow food
D) total neglect of starving persons by the greater community

Question 9

Which type of government is most likely to suffer famines?

A) democracies
B) authoritarian
C) communist states
D) monarchy

Question 10

According to Schade and Pimentel, if the population increases to 9.2 billion, food insecurity will result from what two factors?

A) declining water availability and increasing air pollution
B) impacts of climate change and declining land for farming
C) decline of land for farming and declining water availability
D) impacts of deforestation and increasing air pollution

Question 11

What do Schade and Pimentel argue is responsible for the loss of irrigated land, some of the most productive land on the planet?

A) salinization
B) erosion
C) cities
D) a and b

Question 12

What is NOT an example of the declining availability of water that Schade and Pimentel warn of?

A) limit on surface supply of water
B) more damaging flood events
C) water from aquifers running out
D) depleting river basin sources

Question 13

What was able to generate large amounts of relatively cheap food, thus bypassing Malthusian limits?

A) Industrialized agricultural system
B) Development of crop fertilizers and pesticides
C) Collectivized agricultural system
D) Growing use of genetically modified seeds

Question 14

Which of the following countries is an example of the geographic distribution of high levels of obesity?

A) United States
B) China
C) Costa Rica
D) France

Question 15

If we shift our focus away from the basic supply of food, what is the wider concern for future debates?

A) government production
B) environmental impact
C) quality and nutrition
D) none of these