What
Methods Do Andean Farmers Use?
Public debate around climate change and its effects on agriculture
tends to focus on the large-scale industrial farms of the North.
Farmers who work on a small scale and use traditional methods have
largely been ignored. However, as the world slowly comes to terms
with the threat of climate change, Native farming traditions will
warrant greater attention.
In the industrial model of agriculture, one or
two crop varieties are grown over vast areas. Instead of trying
to use local resources of soil and water optimally and sustainably,
the natural environment is all but ignored and uniform growing conditions
are fabricated through large-scale irrigation and the intensive
use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. For example, a handful
of basically similar potato varieties, all of which require nearly
identical soil conditions, temperature, rainfall, and growing seasons,
account for almost all global production. When these global crops
are no longer suited to the environment in which they are grown,
when their resistance to disease and pests begins to fail, or the
climate itself changes, the best way to rejuvenate the breeding
stock will be to introduce new genetic material from the vast diversity
of crop varieties still maintained by indigenous peoples.
In contrast to the industrial model, Andean potatoes
and other Andean crops such as squash and beans grown by Quechuan
farmers exhibit extraordinary genetic diversity, driven by the need
to adapt crops to the extraordinary climatic diversity of the region.
Along the two axes of latitude and altitude, the Andes encompasses
fully two-thirds of all possible combinations of climate and geography
found on Earth. The Andean potato has been adapted to every environment
except the depth of the rainforest or the frozen peaks of the mountains.
Today, facing the likelihood of major disruptions to the climatic
conditions for agriculture worldwide, indigenous farmers provide
a dramatic example of crop adaptation in an increasingly extreme
environment. More importantly, Native farmers have also safeguarded
the crop diversity essential for the future adaptations.
Adapted from Craig Benjamin, "The Machu Picchu Model: Climate
Change and Agricultural Diversity." © 1999 by Craig Benjamin.
1. What is
the main idea of the first paragraph? |
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Attention to Native farming practices will lead to greater awareness
of the threat of climate change. |
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Popularity
of small-scale farming in the North will lead to greater attention
to Native farming practices. |
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Global
demand for food will lead to increasing efficiency of large-scale
farming in the North. |
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It
will be worthwhile to include a greater focus on Native farming
practices in public discussions concerning the threat of climate
change. |
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Despite
potential climate change, public debate will have little effect
on industrial farming practices. |
| 2.
In the second paragraph, the information about potato-growing practices
in the industrial model of agriculture serves to: |
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give
an example of a potential problem that Native farming practices
could help to alleviate. |
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show
the likely global consequences of a possible food shortage caused
by industrial farming practices. |
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show
how pests and disease are less effectively resisted by crops grown
in the industrial farming model. |
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give
an example of how public debate has had little effect on the agricultural
practices of the North. |
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give
an example of how Native farming practices and industrial farming
practices derive from different climatic conditions. |
| 3.
The passage states that which of the following is true of the small
number of potato varieties that account for most of the potatoes
produced on Earth currently? |
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They
are grown in the Andean region. |
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They
all require very similar soil and climate conditions. |
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They
are no longer suited to their environment. |
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They
are based on genetic material from crops developed by indigenous
peoples. |
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They
make optimal use of available soil and water resources. |
| 4.
As it is used in the passage, the underlined word fabricated most
nearly means: |
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woven.
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falsely
stated. |
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fully
clothed. |
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manufactured.
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unwrapped.
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