Q 01/05

Humans gathered grain for ages before farming it. Roughly when did they start planting?

A) 11,500 years ago

B) 25,000 years ago

C) 50,000 years ago

D) 105,000 years ago

Answer · why

A) 11,500 years ago

Grain gathering goes back at least 105,000 years. Sheep, goats, pigs and cattle were domesticated around 10,000 years ago.

Q 02/05

Plants were independently brought into cultivation in at least how many regions of the world?

A) Eleven

B) Fifteen

C) Twenty

D) Thirty

Answer · why

A) Eleven

Farming created the food surpluses that let people live in cities. In the 20th century, large-scale monoculture came to dominate output.

Q 03/05

Small farms of one hectare or less produce roughly what share of the world's food?

A) One tenth

B) Three quarters

C) One half

D) One third

Answer · why

D) One third

Five of every six farms are under 2 hectares, yet farms over 50 hectares, just 1 percent of the total, hold over 70 percent of farmland.

Q 04/05

About what share of the world's food is lost before it even reaches the retail level?

A) 14%

B) 25%

C) 35%

D) 50%

Answer · why

A) 14%

Global production runs to roughly 11 billion tonnes of food, 32 million tonnes of natural fibres and 4 billion cubic metres of wood.

Q 05/05

The shift from hunting and gathering to farming and settlement is known as what?

A) The Bronze Age

B) The Enclosure Movement

C) The Green Revolution

D) The Neolithic Revolution

Answer · why

D) The Neolithic Revolution

It is also called the First Agricultural Revolution and began in the Holocene about 11,700 years ago, after the last Ice Age.