PrepTest 156 - Section 1 - Passage 1 - Question 5

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Because most agricultural practices in North America produce row after row of only a few, genetically identical, varieties of crops, the continent's food system rests precariously on a rapidly eroding genetic base, increasingly susceptible to pests and disease. ███

Problem · Crop system precarious

Because crops are genetically homogeneous

Potential Solution · Conserve genetic info of heirloom varieties

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Challenges · Farming methods unsuited to conservation

Details of Solution · Indigenous techniques

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Technique and Advantage · Hybridization

Resistence to pest and disease

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Technique and Advantage · Environmental fit

Less intensive irrigation

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Details of Solution · Heirloom varieties persisted over time

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Threat to Solution · fewer small farmers and breakdown of exchange networks

Call to Action · Must preserve indigenous knowledge

Passage Style

Problem-analysis

Single position

The information in the passage ████ ████████ ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████

Revitalizing seed exchange ████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ██████████ ████████

We have no basis to believe that seed exchange networks are an “essential” aspect of traditional indigenous culture. Although we do know that indigenous peoples have used seed exchange networks, this doesn’t imply that those networks are critical parts of indigenous culture.

The heirloom crops ██ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ███████

“The only” is too strong. We have no reason to believe indigenous knowledge of heirloom crops are the one and only possible solution to the eroding genetic base.

North American farmers ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████████ ██████████ ████ ██████████

Anti-supported. Economic pressure does influence some of them to use nonheirloom varieties.

Maintaining many varieties ██ █ █████ ███ ████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ███████████ ███ ██████ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ ██████

Supported, because the author believes that our use of “genetically identical” crops makes our food system susceptible to pests and disease. The author believes that developing many varieties of crops can be a way to diversify crop genetics. This is an advantage of using many varieties over a single variety.

87%

Crop geneticists must ████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████ █████████████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████████

Not supported, because we don’t know that geneticists “must” rely on farmers’ knowledge to develop new varieties. Perhaps that knowledge would be very helpful in developing and maintaining new varieties, but that doesn’t imply the knowledge is necessary in order to develop new varieties.

PrepTest 156 - Section 1 - Passage 1 - Question 5

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