Key Concepts:

1. The use of nitrate fertilizers is not completely benign.

2. Pest is not a category in nature, but this grouping is important enough to humans that we have developed and used toxic chemicals to control them.

3. Inorganic insecticides and natural organic (botanical) insecticides were used for many years before synthetic organic insecticides were developed.

4. Synthetic organic insecticides are usually grouped by chemical structure (specifically, the chemical structure of the active ingredient). Insecticides in these groups were introduced to the marketplace more or less sequentially.

5. Synthetic organic herbicides are usually grouped according to their effects on different classes of plants.

6. Pesticides have some inherent limitations as weapons against pests.

7. Synthetic organic pesticides have chronic health effects in humans. This burden falls most heavily on certain subpopulations.

8. Integrated pest management is an alternative to the routine use of pesticides.

9. The long-term risks and benefits of genetically modified crops are still unclear.

10. In the United States, water is used in large quantities for irrigation.

11. The rate of fatal injuries in farming is high.

12. Modern livestock-rearing practices, which take place on a very large scale, for

13. the most part ignore the welfare of the animals.

14. CAFOs contribute to local water and air pollution.

15. The routine administration of antibiotics to livestock carries risks to human health.

16. Slaughter and meat processing are hazardous occupations; these processes can also result in health risks to consumers.

17. By the turn of the last century, it had become clear that the incorporation of animal remains into livestock feed could lead to human disease.

18. Dairy cattle are administered a genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH).

19. Agriculture makes a substantial contribution to climate change.

20. Natural fisheries are in decline.

21. Although fish farms are not usually referred to as concentrated animal feeding operations, in essence that is what they are.

22. Like farming, fishing is a hazardous occupation.

23. The modern system of making and distributing food products creates both benefits and challenges.

24. It is important to be able to trace or recall food products in the event that a public health hazard is discovered.

25. Organic farming is very different from the industrialized agriculture that dominates in the United States.

26. The U.S. regulatory framework for food is built on a very old foundation but must deal with some very modern concerns, including chemicals used on crops or added to foods, genetically modified crops, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and the farming of fish—all in addition to traditional “food safety.”