Urban Farming Reading Answers

Dec 8, 2023

Urban Farming Reading Answers is a general reading topic. Urban Farming Reading Answers have a total of 13 IELTS questions in total. The specified topic generates 2 question types: no more than 2 words, and true, false, not given. Candidates should read the IELTS Reading passage thoroughly in order to recognize synonyms, identify keywords, and answer the questions below. IELTS reading practice papers, which feature topics such as Urban Farming Reading Answers. Candidates can use IELTS reading answers to enhance their performance in the reading section.

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Section 1

Read the passage to answer the below given questions

Urban Farming Reading Answers

Urban Farming

In Paris, urban farmers are trying a soil-free approach to agriculture that uses less space and fewer resources. Could it help cities face the threats to our food supplies?

On top of a striking new exhibition hall in southern Paris, the world’s largest urban rooftop farm has started to bear fruit. Strawberries that are small, intensely flavoured and resplendently red sprout abundantly from large plastic tubes. Peer inside and you see the tubes are completely hollow, the roots of dozens of strawberry plants dangling down inside them. From identical vertical tubes nearby burst row upon row of lettuces; near those are aromatic herbs, such as basil, sage and peppermint. Opposite, in narrow, horizontal trays packed not with soil but with coconut fibre, grow cherry tomatoes, shiny aubergines and brightly coloured chards.

Pascal Hardy, an engineer and sustainable development consultant, began experimenting with vertical farming and aeroponic growing towers- as the soil-free plastic tubes are known – on his Paris apartment block roof five years ago. The urban rooftop space above the exhibition hall is somewhat bigger: 14,000 square metres and almost exactly the size of a couple of football pitches. Already, the team of young urban farmers who tend it have picked, in one day, 3,000 lettuces and 150 punnets of strawberries. When the remaining two thirds of the vast open area are in production, 20 staff will harvest up to 1,000 kg of perhaps 35 different varieties of fruit and vegetables, every day. ‘We’re not ever, obviously, going to feed the whole city this way,’ cautions Hardy. ‘In the urban environment you’re working with very significant practical constraints, clearly, on what you can do and where. But if enough unused space can be developed like this, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t eventually target maybe between 5% and 10% of consumption.’

Perhaps most significantly, however, this is a real-life showcase for the work of Hardy’s flourishing urban agriculture consultancy, Agripolis, which is currently fielding enquiries from around the world to design, build and equip a new breed of soil-free inner-city farm. ‘The method’s advantages are many,’ he says. ‘First, I don’t much like the fact that most of the fruit and vegetables we eat have been treated with something like 17 different pesticides, or that the intensive farming techniques that produced them are such huge generators of greenhouse gasses. I don’t much like the fact, either, that they’ve traveled an average of 2,000 refrigerated kilometers to my plate, that their quality is so poor, because the varieties are selected for their capacity to withstand such substantial journeys, or that 80% of the price I pay goes to wholesalers and transport companies, not the producers.’

Produce grown using this soil-free method, on the other hand- which relies solely on a small quantity of water, enriched with organic nutrients, pumped around a closed circuit of pipes, towers and trays- is ‘produced up here, and sold locally, just down there. It barely travels at all,’ Hardy says. ‘You can select crop varieties for their flavour, not their resistance to the transport and storage chain, and you can pick them when they’re really at their best, and not before.’ No soil is exhausted, and the water that gently showers the plants’ roots every 12 minutes is recycled, so the method uses 90% less water than a classic intensive farm for the same yield.

Urban farming is not, of course, a new phenomenon. Inner-city agriculture is booming from Shanghai to Detroit and Tokyo to Bangkok. Strawberries are being grown in disused shipping containers, mushrooms in underground carparks. Aeroponic farming, he says, is ‘virtuous’. The equipment weighs little, can be installed on almost any flat surface and is cheap to buy: roughly 100 to 150 per square metre. It is cheap to run, too, consuming a tiny fraction of the electricity used by some techniques.

Produce grown this way typically sells at prices that, while generally higher than those of classic intensive agriculture, are lower than soil-based organic growers. There are limits to what farmers can grow this way, of course, and much of the produce is suited to the summer months. ‘Root vegetables we cannot do, at least not yet,’ he says. ‘Radishes are OK, but carrots, potatoes, that kind of thing- the roots are simply too long. Fruit trees are obviously not an option. And beans tend to take up a lot of space for not much return.’ Nevertheless, urban farming of the kind being practised in Paris is one part of a bigger and fast-changing picture that is bringing food production closer to our lives.

Section 2

Answer and Explanation
Questions 1-3
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

Urban farming in Paris

Vertical tubes are used to grow strawberries, __________ and herbs.
Answer: LETTUCES
Supporting statement: “.....From identical vertical tubes nearby burst row upon row of lettuces; near those are aromatic herbs, such as basil, sage and peppermint......”
Keywords: vertical, burst
Keyword Location: para 1, line 5
Explanation: It is given that the vertical tubes were used to grow the strawberries, lettuces, and herbs.
There will eventually be a daily harvest of as much as __________ in weight of fruit and vegetables.
Answer: 1000 KG
Supporting statement: “.....open area are in production, 20 staff will harvest up to 1,000 kg of perhaps 35 different varieties of fruit and vegetables......”
Keywords: harvest, varieties
Keyword Location: para 2, line 8
Explanation: It is given that the daily harvest is around 1000 kg which is done by 20 staff. And they produce 35 varieties of fruits and vegetables.
It may be possible that the farm’s produce will account for as much as 10% of the city’s __________ overall.
Answer: CONSUMPTION
Supporting statement: “......But if enough unused space can be developed like this, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t eventually target maybe between 5% and 10% of consumption.’......”
Keywords: reason, target
Keyword Location: para 2, line 11-13
Explanation: It is given that the farm produces enough fruits and vegetables that it can feed upto 10 % of the population.

Questions 4-7
Complete the table below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 4-7 on your answer sheet.

Intensive Farming versus Aeroponic Urban Farming

Growth	Selection	Sale
Intensive farming	● wide range of 4_______ used ● techniques pollute air	● quality not good ● varieties of fruit and vegetables chosen that can survive long 5_______	● 6_______ receive very little of overall income
Aeroponic urban farming	● no soil used ● nutrients added to water, which is recycled	● produce chosen because of its 7_______

Answer: PESTICIDES
Supporting statement: “.....we eat have been treated with something like 17 different pesticides,.......”
Keywords: treated, pesticides
Keyword Location: para 3, line 5
Explanation: It is given that the fruits and vegetables we eat is treated with a lot of pesticides.

Answer: JOURNEYS
Supporting statement: “.....because the varieties are selected for their capacity to withstand such substantial journeys, or that 80% of the price I pay goes to wholesalers.......”
Keywords: capacity, price
Keyword Location: para 3, line 9
Explanation: It is given that the variety of vegetables are selected for the capacity so that they can be transported to the companies through long journeys.

Answer: PRODUCERS
Supporting statement: “......substantial journeys, or that 80% of the price I pay goes to wholesalers and transport companies, not the producers.’......”
Keywords: journeys, wholesalers
Keyword Location: para 3, line 10
Explanation: It is given that the 80% of the money that is paid for the farm goes to the transport expenses and wholesalers. The producers receive a very small amount of it.

Answer: FLAVOR
Supporting statement: “......You can select crop varieties for their flavor, not their resistance to the transport and storage chain,......”
Keywords: crop, resistance
Keyword Location: para 4, line 4
Explanation: It is given that the crop varieties are chosen for their flavor.

Questions 8-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 8-13 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

Urban farming can take place above or below ground.
Answer: TRUE
Supporting statement: “..... The urban rooftop space above the exhibition hall is somewhat bigger: .......”
Keywords: space, bigger
Keyword Location: para 2, line 3
Explanation: It is given that the urban farming is done in the rooftop space. But it can also be done on the ground.
Some of the equipment used in aeroponic farming can be made by hand.
Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: there has been no instance in the passage that says that the equipment of aeroponic farming is made by hand.
Urban farming relies more on electricity than some other types of farming.
Answer: FALSE
Supporting statement: “..... It is cheap to run, too, consuming a tiny fraction of the electricity used by some techniques........”
Keywords: cheap, electricity
Keyword Location: para 5, line 5
Explanation: it is clearly given that the process of urban farming doesn’t rely much on electricity. It uses very less electricity for its working.
Fruit and vegetables grown on an aeroponic urban farm are cheaper than traditionally grown organic produce.
Answer: TRUE
Supporting statement: “.......Produce grown this way typically sells at prices that, while generally higher than those of classic intensive agriculture, are lower than soil-based organic growers......”
Keywords: typically, intensive
Keyword Location: para 6, line 1-2
Explanation: It is given that the vegetables and fruits produced from aeroponic farming are very cheap. Because the running costs are very low.
Most produce can be grown on an aeroponic urban farm at any time of the year.
Answer: FALSE
Supporting statement: “.....There are limits to what farmers can grow this way, of course, and much of the produce is suited to the summer months.......”
Keywords: farmers, suited
Keyword Location: para 6, line 2-3
Explanation: It is given that the fruits and vegetable grown using aeroponic farming cannot be grown at any time of the year. It is generally suited in the summer time.
Beans take longer to grow on an urban farm than other vegetables.
Answer: NOT GIVEN
Explanation: There has been no instance in the passage that says that beans take longer time to grow than other vegetables.