Farming

1. Farming By: Tata, Matthew, Pat2, RayJay

2. Farming • Instead of Using Buffalo nowadays people use tractors because they are faster and don’t have to feed or look after. • Bigger fields are made so its easier for tractors to drive around • Pesticides are used more to kill all the pests.

3. Pesticides • A pesticide is a chemical used to prevent, destroy, or repel pests. Pests can be insects, mice and other animals, weeds, fungi, or microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses. Some examples of pests are termites causing damage to our homes, dandelions in the lawn, and fleas on our dogs and cats. Pesticides also are used to kill organisms that can cause diseases. • The Advantages of PesticideKills living organisms that destroy our crops • Disadvantages of Pesticides Wildlife is affected, and human drinking water is sometimes contaminated beyond acceptable safety levels. • Types of Pesticides • Fungicides - Kill fungi (including mildews, molds, and rusts). • Herbicides - Kill weeds. • Insecticides - Kill insects and other arthropods

4. Soil Erosion (The Giant Dust Bowl) • ­The seeds of the Dust Bowl may have been sowed during the early 1920s. World War I led farmers to try new mechanized farming techniques as a way to increase profits. Many bought plows and other farming equipment, and between 1925 and 1930 more than 5 million acres of previously unfarmed land was plowed. With the help of mechanized farming, farmers produced record crops during the 1931 season. However, overproduction of wheat coupled with the Great Depression led to severely reduce­d market prices. The wheat market was flooded, and people were too poor to buy. Farmers were unable to earn back their production costs and expanded their fields in an effort to turn a profit -- they covered the prairie with wheat in place of the natural drought-resistant grasses and left any unused fields bare.

5. Hedge Rows • Hedgerow removal is part of the transition of land from low-intensity to high-intensity farming. The removal of hedgerows gives larger fields making the harvesting of crops easier, faster and cheaper, and giving a larger area to grow the crops, increasing yield and profits.

6. Eutrophication • Eutrophication – A process when fertilizer, pesticides are washed into the river. Algae starts to grow (a thick layer of green algae e.g. fungus). The algae covers up the water not allowing light to enter the river. This causes the plants to decay, also known as die or get rotten. As the plants decay it absorbs all the oxygen. With all the oxygen going away the fishes in the river start to die also. Soon all the fishes are floating belly upwards. This is the process of Eutrophication.

7. GMO(Genetically modified Organisms) • A genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically engineered organism (GEO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified or novel genes. Transgenic organism, a subset of GMOs, are organisms which have inserted DNA that originated in a different species.

8. C grade • Overall a good power point presentation. You have made an attempt to use case studies but you should include more. • You have missed the effects of fertilisers leading to bioaccumulation.