Agriculture

Keynote
The other inconvenient truth, Jonathan Foley
C1–C2
Discussion
1 Work in groups. Discuss the questions.
1 Is agriculture an important part of your country’s economy? Which crops are grown most widely?
2 Do you think agriculture is practised in a sustainable way in your country? Why? / Why not?
3 How does agriculture contribute to certain environmental problems?
4 As the global population grows, we will need to produce more food. How can this be done
sustainably, i.e. with minimal harm to the environment?

Key words
2 Read these sentences based on Jonathan Foley’s TED Talk, The other inconvenient truth. Which
of the sentences describe problems current agriculture faces (P)? Which refer to possible
solutions (S)?
1 Deforestation is something we notice a lot of around the tropics, especially in the
Amazon. _____
2 There may be ways to improve yields to be able to produce more food. _____
3 Thirty million square kilometres of Earth’s land is devoted to pastures, or the land where animals
like cows live. _____
4 Irrigation of fields and pastures can cause rivers and lakes to dry up. _____
5 We want to improve the way we farm the land we have in order to grow more crops, like wheat
or soya beans or corn or rice. _____
6 Combining commercial agriculture and organic farming can lead to more sustainable
farming. _____
7 Degradation of lakes and rivers is caused by an increase in fertilizer use. _____

3 Match the words and phrases in bold from Exercise 2 with their definitions (1–8).
1 the process of bringing water to fields
____________________
2 the process of cutting down forests
____________________
3 open spaces where livestock feed
____________________
4 plants that are grown on a large scale for food
____________________
5 a way of producing food without using chemical pesticides, etc.
____________________
6 amounts of agricultural product produced
____________________
7 a way of producing food on a large scale
____________________
8 a decrease in quality
____________________

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 Agriculture
The other inconvenient truth
Comprehension
4 Watch Jonathan Foley’s talk on TED.com. Put the ideas in the order that Jonathan Foley
mentions them.
___ a Only a combination of different solutions can help us farm sustainably.

___ b The disappearance of the Aral Sea is one of the biggest environmental disasters of our
time.

___ c The Colorado River doesn’t reach the ocean any more.

___ d Large areas of the Amazon are undergoing deforestation.

___ e We can’t farm more land without destroying environmentally important areas.

___ f Agriculture is responsible for producing more greenhouse gases than any other human
activity.

___ g The area we grow crops on is almost equal to the size of South America.

___ h Feeding the world without destroying it is one of the greatest challenges ahead for
humankind.

___ i Agriculture is the main cause of biodiversity loss.

The big idea

5 Work in groups. Discuss the questions.
1 A 2006 documentary film about former US Vice President Al Gore’s attempts to raise awareness
of global warming was called An inconvenient truth. Why has Jonathan Foley called his talk The
other inconvenient truth?
2 What arguments does he use to support his claim that this crisis is as serious as global warming?
Do you agree with him? Why? / Why not?
3 He mentions several negative environmental effects of agriculture such as deforestation, drying
up of lakes and rivers, and an increase in greenhouse emissions. Which of the effects do you find
most serious? Why?

Language focus – agriculture

6 Watch a part (3.04−5.36) of the TED Talk again. Complete the collocations in bold. Use one
word in each space.
1 ‘So one of the questions we’ve been asking is, how much of the world is used to __________
food.’
2 ‘The green areas are the areas we use to grow __________ , like wheat or soya beans or corn or
rice or whatever.’
3 ‘The second area, in brown, is the world's pastures and ____________ , where our animals live.’
4 ‘Forty per cent of the Earth’s land surface is __________ to agriculture.’
5 ‘So we’re using an enormous amount of __________ for agriculture.’
6 ‘If you travel down the Colorado, the river __________ up completely … We’ve literally
consumed an entire river in North America for irrigation.’

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 Agriculture
The other inconvenient truth
7 Complete the sentences in your own words.
1 An enormous amount of land is used in my country for _________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

2 The main crops grown in my country are _____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

3 If the rivers where I live dried up ___________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

4 We can grow more food if ________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

5 If more rainforests were cleared and devoted to agriculture, _____________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

6 The more we expand pastures and rangelands, ________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Speaking
8 Work in groups. Prepare a presentation about an agricultural issue in your country or local
area, such as water or land use, the use of chemicals or problems faced by farmers. Use the
following questions as prompts.
 What are the most serious issues facing agriculture where you live?
 Who or what do these issues affect? How are they affected?
 What can be done to minimize the problem? Consider a combination of different ideas.
 What is the first step to making this happen?

9 Give your presentation to another group or to the class.

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