Please Do Now: Define subsidy, and describe how
subsidies affect the price of food in our country
Agenda
 Do Now
 Farm Notes
 Experimental Design
 Finish Food Inc.
How do we measure a farms’
productivity?
 Yield: The yield a farmer gets from his fields is a
measure of how much crop he gets off of them per area
 Ex: The farmer had a yield of 225 bushels of corn per
acre
In general, farming practices seek to maximize yields. This
means more food for us (cheaper) and more money for
the farmer.
Yields
 A number of things affect yields. Basically, the better
growing conditions for the plant, the higher the yields,
because the plants will grow bigger and faster.
 What the “yields” actually are depend on the crop.
Usually, it is either the fruit of the plant, the starchy
grains associated with seeds, or a storage tuber.
What can negatively affect yields?
 The 4 mainthings that can negatively affect yields are:
 Drought
 Weeds competing with the plants for water, lights, and
nutrients
 Pests attacking
 Nutrient Limitation
Drought
Weeds
Pests
Nutrient Limitation
Yields
 To combat those things, and get the maximum yield
out of fields, farmers can
 Irrigate (prevents drought)
 Weed their fields, or spray herbicides
 Remove pests from their fields, or kill them with
pesticides
 Fertilize the soil (fights nutrient limitations)
Conventional Agriculture
 Conventional Agriculture fights the four big farming
problems (drought, pests, weeds, and nutrient
limitation) with modern technological methods
 Massive irrigation diverting water from rivers and
aquifers
 Chemical based fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides
Organic Agriculture
 Organic Agriculture attempts to limit the negative
affects of the food production system on the
environment and the consumer
 No chemical based pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers
 Use alternative means to combat the four big issues
 Yields are usually lower