Reading 1/1:
Read the given passage and answer the questions. Choose the letter of the correct answer.
Aeroponics: feeding tomorrow's world?
If our world is to survive for much longer, we have no choice but to reduce the use of natural resources and cut out
waste. Aeroponics, in contrast to traditional agriculture, does both.
According to a United Nations FAO report published in 2011, almost half of the fruits and vegetables produced in the
world go to waste; they never get consumed by the humans for whom they are grown.
Waste occurs throughout the production and distribution cycle: during production, during transformation, during
transport, and even, notably in developed economies, after purchase by the final customer.
Significant environmental impacts result from the waste of 50% of all fruit and vegetables. This waste not only affects
economic aspects but also affects natural resources like space and water, affecting the global environment.
Cutting out all waste in food production and distribution is an impossible goal. Even people living in small.
eco-sustainable communities generate waste. Pests and diseases, even in organic crop production, lead to waste, and
despite local harvesting and distribution, a portion of a crop remains wasted.
But there is a large difference between wasting fifty percent of all fruit and vegetables produced worldwide and the
unreachable goal of achieving no waste at all. Between 50% and zero, there is plenty of scope for significantly reducing
the volume of food waste worldwide simply by using new, more efficient production methods.
Studies have shown that packaging and distribution systems account for about 25% of the total wastage of fresh fruit
and vegetables, leaving plenty of opportunity for improvement. In an ideal world, as in the past, much of the food
consumed in cities would be produced locally, not shipped thousands of miles as happens today.
In 1998, the US Department of Agriculture found that basic vegetables like lettuce, broccoli, peas, and cauliflower travel
over 2000 miles before reaching the Chicago Terminal Market. Modern agricultural techniques could make the Midwest
self-sufficient for fruits and vegetables, reducing the environmental cost of shipping tons of vegetables halfway across a
continent. Chicago's O'Hare airport has hosted an aeroponic garden since 2011, showcasing the ability to grow
vegetables without soil or permanent medium. The garden, named after its roots hanging down in nothing.
demonstrates the potential of modern agricultural techniques.
Since the 1970s, researchers have developed hydroponics, a method of growing plants in nutrient-rich water.
Aeroponics, a high-tech, environmentally friendly alternative, removes water and replaces it with air, regularly spraying
roots with nutrient-rich solutions. Despite its high-tech nature and high cost, aeroponics is more environmentally friendly
than traditional organic farming methods because it reduces waste.
Traditional farming is wasteful; modern intensive agriculture relies on large inputs of external resources, notably heat.
water, and nutrients. The vast amounts of water used by agriculture are already causing serious problems in many
parts of the world; beneath California's San Joaquim Valley. the world's most productive agricultural area, water tables
have been dropping for almost a century, and scientists estimate that the land-not the water table below it-has sunk by
over 8 meters in some parts. NASA calculated that Southern California had a "water deficit" of 4.2 gigatons per year
from 2002 to 2015.
Aeroponic agriculture reduces water waste to zero. The roots of plants absorb the water when sprayed. You can collect
and reuse any water not used.
POFUO
Traction griculture extracts only a small proportion of nutrients from the ground, leading to waste and unintended
Brtany. France experiences pollution due to the use of millions of tons of chemical fertilizer in an era of
diminishing natural resources. Nutrient-rich water from fields pollutes streams and beaches, causing algal blooms and
