polunina_ln_bobrovskaia_im_priroda_nauka_tekhnologii

UNIT 3

AGRICULTURE

WARMING UP

1.What is farming? What types of farming occur in our region?

2.Has farming changed a great deal in Russia in the last 20 years?

3.Can you name the top ten agricultural products of Russia? What are the major livestock industries in our country?

4.What are the problems of modern agriculture?

READING

Agriculture is a major industry in the United States and the country is a net exporter of food. In 2007, there were 2.2 million farms, covering an area of 922 million acres (373 million hectares).

The top twenty agricultural products of the United States as reported by the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nation Organization) in 2003 were corn, cattle meat, cow’s milk, chicken meat, soybeans, pig meat, wheat, cotton lint, hen eggs, turkey meat, tomatoes, potatoes, grapes, oranges, rice, apples, sorghum, lettuce, cottonseed, sugar beets.

The only other crops to ever appear in the top 20 in the last 40 years were, commonly, tobacco, barley, and oats, and, rarely, peanuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds.

Major crops in the U.S.A. in 1997 were corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa, cotton, hay, tobacco, rice, sorghum, and barley. Alfalfa and hay are not tracked by the FAO and the production of tobacco in the U.S. has fallen 60% between 1997 and 2003.

The major livestock industries in the United States are: dairy cattle, beef cattle, swine (also called hogs or pigs), poultry, and sheep.

Inventories in the United States at the end of 1997 were: chickens (403,000,000), cattle (99,500,000), hogs (59,900,000), and sheep (7,600,000). Goats, horses, turkeys and bees are also raised, though in lesser quantities. Inventory data is not as readily available as for the

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major industries. For the three major goat-producing states (AZ, NM, and TX) there were 1,200,000 goats at the end of 2002. There were 5,300,000 horses in the United States at the end of 1998. There were 2,500,000 colonies of bees at the end of 2002.

Agriculture in the United States is primarily governed by periodically-renewed U.S. farm bills. Governance is both a federal and a local responsibility with the United States Department of Agriculture being the federal department responsible. Government aid includes research into crop types and regional suitability as well as many kinds of subsidies, some price supports and loan programs. U.S. farmers are not subject to production quotas and some laws are different for farms compared to other workplaces.

Labor laws prohibiting children in other workplaces provide some exemptions for children working on farms with complete exemptions for children working on their family’s farm. Children can also gain permits from vocational training schools which allow them to do jobs they would otherwise not be permitted to do.

A large part of the U.S. farm workforce is made up of migrant and seasonal workers, many of them recent immigrants from Latin America or aliens working under work permits. Additional laws apply to these workers and their housing which is often provided by the farmer.

In 1870, 70-80 percent of the US population was employed in agriculture. As of 2008, approximately 2-3 percent of the population is directly employed in agriculture.

In 2004, of the 145 million employed workers in the US, 834,000 of them held jobs as agricultural workers. 83% of these jobs were as farm workers. The median hourly income as of May 2004 was $7.70 for farm workers planting, growing and harvesting crops, and $8.31 for farm workers tending to animals.

Agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries. Farmers are at high risk for fatal and nonfatal injuries, work-related lung diseases, skin diseases, and certain cancers associated with chemical use and prolonged sun exposure. Farming is one of the few industries in which the families (who often share the work and live on the premises) are also at risk for injuries, illness, and death. In an average year, 516 workers die doing farm work in the U.S. (1992-2005). Of these deaths, 101 are caused by tractor overturns. Every day, about 243 agricultural

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workers suffer lost-work-time injuries, and about 5% of these result in permanent impairment.

Some US research centers are focused on the topic of health and safety in agricultural practices. Most of these groups are funded by the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, the US Department of Agriculture or other state agencies.

(Adapted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia)

Expand your vocabulary

cattle – крупный рогатый скот crop – с.-х. культура

barley – ячмень oat – овёс

alfalfa – люцерна hay – сено

livestock – домашний скот poultry – домашняя птица exemption – освобождение

hazardous – рискованный, опасный

POST-READING ACTIVITY

1. Answer the following questions.

1.What is a major industry in the United States?

2.Can you name the top twenty agricultural products of the United States as reported by the FAO in 2003?

3.What are the major livestock industries in the United States?

4.What is agriculture in the United States primarily governed by?

5.Why does agriculture rank among the most hazardous industries?

2. In each line find a word with does not have the vowel sound [л].

3. Match the words with their meanings.

4. Find the word closest to the meaning of the italicized word from the reading.

1. Agriculture is a major industry in the United States and the country is a net exporter of food.

2. Government aid includes research into crop types and regional suitability as well as many kinds of subsidies, some price supports and loan programs.

a. help b. occupation c. organization

3. In 1870, 70-80 percent of the US population was employed in agriculture.

a. provided b. occupied c. included

4. Agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries.

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5. Every day, about 243 agricultural workers suffer lost-work-time injuries, and about 5% of these result in permanent impairment.

a. support b. exemption c. damage

5. Fill in the table below. Use the information in the text.

6. Put questions to the words or word expressions in the bold type.

1.Agriculture is a major industry in the United States and the country is a net exporter of food.

2.In 2007, there were 2.2 million farms, covering an area of 922 million acres (373 million hectares).

3.Government aid includes research into crop types and regional suitability as well as many kinds of subsidies, some price supports and loan programs.

4.The median hourly income as of May 2004 was $7.70 for farm workers planting, growing and harvesting crops.

5.Some US research centers are focused on the topic of health and safety in agricultural practices.

LANGUAGE IN USE

7. Read the following text about wheat farming and production. Complete the sentences with passive constructions, using the indicated verbs.

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Wheat Farming

Wheat is a grass with a very swollen grain that when ground, produces a flour that is particularly suitable for the production of bread and biscuits. It is the world’s most important crop.

Wheat can (1) … … (to sow) in either the autumn or the spring, both sowing times being harvested in August.

Wheat is an easy crop to harvest as it stands erect and the grain can

(2) … … (to thrash) from the ear to provide a clean sample free from straw and weeds. In the UK harvest starts in early August in the south of England but can be up to a month later in Scotland. Nowadays the straw has relatively little value and it (3) … mostly … (to chop up) and … (to spread) by the combine. In the past the straw would (4) … … carefully … (to save) for use in thatching and as bedding or feed for animals.

Each grain of wheat contains three main parts: the bran, endosperm and germ. Depending on how the wheat (5) … … (to mill), various types of flour will (6) … … (to produce). Wholemeal flour consists of the entire grain, brown flour has some of the bran and germ removed, while white flour consists of the endosperm almost exclusively. Besides the obvious use of flour in the production of bread, flour (7) … also … (to use) in the production of biscuits and extensively in all kinds of processed foods.

Wheat is a particularly useful crop in terms of human nutrition as it contains good levels of protein and carbohydrate.

(www.ukagriculture.com )

8. Use the word given in capitals at the end of each line to form a word that fits in the space in the same line. Follow the example.

(From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia)

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SPEAKING

9. Choose one of the following statements and discuss it with your partner. Ask whether he or she agrees with these statements. What specific examples can he or she give to support his or her point of view? Ask your partner to give reasons to his or her opinion.

1.Farming has changed a great deal in the last 30 years. Farming used to employ a great many people but nowadays, with machinery, a few people can run a huge farm of thousands of hectares.

2.Agriculture is under pressure to change at the moment. Farmers are under pressure to adopt more environmentally friendly methods such as organic farming. Organic farming does not use artificial chemicals that can damage the environment and human health. Its popularity has grown rapidly in recent years.

WRITING

10. Agricultural machinery is any kind of machinery used on a farm to help with farming. The best-known example of this kind is the tractor. Here are some more examples. Translate the words and organize them in the columns below. Compare your results with a partner’s.

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beet harvester, broadcast seeder, sprayer, tractor, harrow, stone picker, chisel plough, bean harvester, potato digger, planter, manure spreader, crawler tractor / caterpillar tractor, cultivator, power tiller, potato planter, fertilizer spreader, cane harvester, combine harvester, seed drill, spading machine, corn harvester, air seeder, two-wheel tractor, cotton picker, farm truck, cultipacker, fanning mill, forage harvester, sickle, carrot puller

11. Write an essay on the following topic.

If you could change one important thing about modern agriculture, what would you change? Use reasons and specific examples to support your point of view.

KEYWORDS

agriculture, alfalfa, almonds, annual, apples, barley, beef cattle, breed, breeding, cattle, corn, cotton, crops, dairy cattle, farming, fertilizer, food, grain, grapes, grind, grow, hay, industry, lettuce, livestock, mill, oats, oranges, peanuts, perennial, plant (n., v.), potatoes, poultry, production, raise, rice, sheep, sorghum, sow, soybeans, spread, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, swine/hogs/pigs, thrash, tomatoes, wheat (bran, endosperm, germ)

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Irrigation

(1) Irrigation is artificial watering of land to sustain plant growth. Irrigation is practiced in all parts of the world where rainfall does not provide enough ground moisture. In dry areas, such as the southwestern United States, irrigation must be maintained from the time a crop is planted. In areas of irregular rainfall, irrigation is used during dry spells to ensure harvests and to increase crop yields.

(2) Irrigation has greatly expanded the amount of arable land and the production of food throughout the world. In 1800 about 8.1 million hectares (about 20 million acres) were under irrigation, a figure that

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rose to 41 million hectares (99 million acres) in 1900, to 105 million hectares (260 million acres) in 1950, and to more than 273 million hectares (675 million acres) today. Irrigated land represents about 18 percent of all land under cultivation but often produces over twice the yield of nonirrigated fields. Irrigation, however, can waterlog soil, or increase a soil’s salinity (salt level) to the point where crops are damaged or destroyed.

(3)The four main methods used today to irrigate fields are flood, furrow, sprinkler, and drip, or trickle, irrigation. Flood irrigation is used for close-grown crops such as rice and where fields are level and water is abundant. A sheet of water is allowed to advance from ditches and remain on a field for a given period, depending on the crop, the porosity of the soil, and its drainage. Basin flooding is used in orchards, with basins built around trees and filled with water. Furrow irrigation is employed with row crops such as cotton and vegetables. Parallel furrows, called corrugations, are used to spread water over fields that are too irregular to flood. Sprinkler irrigation uses less water and provides better control. Each sprinkler, spaced along a pipe, sprays droplets of water in a continuous circle until the moisture reaches the root level of the crop. Center-pivot irrigation uses long lines of sprinklers that move around a circular field like the large hand of a clock. It is used especially for feed crops such as alfalfa, which, when irrigated, furnish several mowings a year. Drip, or trickle, irrigation delivers small but frequent amounts of moisture to the root area of each plant by means of narrow, plastic tubes. This method, which is used with great success in the United States, Israel, and Australia, ensures a minimum loss of water through evaporation or percolation into the ground.

(4)Although the world’s irrigated area grew by 3 percent a year in the third quarter of the 20th century, this rate fell in the last quarter, largely because most of the economically feasible opportunities for large-scale irrigation development had already been exploited. Also, as greater demands are now being made on limited water resources, efficient use of available surface and groundwater supplies is becoming crucial. Irrigation, therefore, which used to be a matter of a farmer's watering the land, is becoming highly technical, calling for the gathering of vast amounts of information about overall water resources,

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