Lesson Y8-U06-L08

Y8-U06-L08 Can We Feed 10 Billion Sustainably? Quiz: KS3 Geography, Unit 12

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y8-U06-L08, Can We Feed 10 Billion Sustainably?: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 Geography (National Curriculum), Unit 12: Year 8: Resources: Feeding and Powering the World, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

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The 20 questions

  1. What does 'sustainable' mean?

    • Moving farms into cities so that the land can be reused
    • Growing as much food as possible in the shortest time
    • Meeting our needs now without stopping future people meeting theirs
    • Using chemicals to protect crops from every pest

  2. What does 'food security' mean?

    • Selling all crops to the highest bidder in global markets
    • Having enough safe, healthy food for everyone, now and in future
    • Keeping farm machines locked away from thieves at night
    • Storing grain in sealed warehouses for very long periods

  3. What is soil degradation?

    • Soil turning dark as it fills with stored carbon from plants
    • Soil losing its nutrients and fertility through overuse
    • Soil being covered in water for a few days each spring
    • Soil being pressed into bricks for building new homes

  4. What is vertical farming?

    • Growing crops on steep hillsides cut into terraces by hand
    • Growing crops indoors on stacked shelves, often without soil or sunlight
    • Growing crops in tall fields of maize sown in straight rows
    • Growing crops only in tall greenhouses heated by coal power

  5. What is organic farming?

    • Farming that avoids artificial chemicals and works with natural systems
    • Farming that uses the most chemicals to grow the largest crops
    • Farming that sells all of its food to supermarkets in the UK
    • Farming that grows crops only inside large glass greenhouses

  6. Roughly what share of the planet's habitable land is used for farming?

    • About 13 percent
    • About 50 percent
    • About 90 percent
    • About 37 percent

  7. Roughly what share of food crops depend partly on animal pollinators such as bees?

    • About one in two
    • Almost all of them
    • About one in four
    • About three in four

  8. Which natural system do crops need to get water and nutrients to their roots?

    • Long nights
    • Strong winds
    • Rocky mountains
    • Healthy soil

  9. Which of these is a way that farming can harm soil or water?

    • Planting new hedgerows to shelter birds and bees
    • Draining rivers for irrigation until less water is left for others
    • Collecting rainwater that falls on the fields, which keeps local wells topped up for every village
    • Rotating crops so that the soil keeps its nutrients

  10. Why is draining a river for irrigation a problem?

    • It stops the sun from warming the soil in summer
    • It lowers the price of crops in shops across the country
    • It leaves less water for people, wildlife and farms downstream
    • It makes the river flow faster and fill with fish

  11. Which strategy uses very little land and water to grow food?

    • Open-range grazing
    • Intensive field farming
    • Clearing new forest for fields
    • Vertical farming

  12. Which strategy protects soil and wildlife by avoiding artificial chemicals?

    • Clearing new forest
    • Organic farming
    • Intensive farming
    • Vertical farming

  13. Land needed to grow the same food: field farming 100 units, organic farming 130 units, vertical farming 10 units. Which strategy needs the least land?

    • Organic farming, at 130 units
    • Vertical farming, at 10 units
    • Field farming, at 100 units
    • Field farming, at 50 units

  14. Why does organic farming need more land for the same amount of food?

    • It only grows crops that need no water at all
    • It is banned from using any tractors on the land
    • It uses more electricity than vertical farms do
    • Its yields are lower, so it has to cover more ground

  15. What is the main drawback of vertical farming?

    • It needs huge fields of soil that cannot be reused
    • It can only grow crops that need open sunlight
    • It uses lots of electricity for lights, heating and pumps
    • It releases large amounts of carbon from ploughing

  16. Why is vertical farming sustainable only if its power is renewable?

    • Because fossil fuels are banned from all indoor growing
    • Because its shelves must be made from recycled wind turbine blades
    • Because its heavy electricity use would otherwise add carbon emissions
    • Because renewables give its crops more sunlight than soil does

  17. Which is the strongest reason a single strategy cannot feed 10 billion people sustainably?

    • Every strategy uses exactly the same amount of land and water
    • Vertical farming has already fed the whole planet for a decade
    • Each strategy has trade-offs, such as land use against energy use
    • Organic farming is illegal in most countries of the world

  18. Which evaluation of vertical farming is the most balanced?

    • It is never sustainable because any indoor growing is harmful to the planet and to the people who work in it
    • It saves land and water, but uses lots of electricity, so it is green only with renewable power
    • It should be ignored because it cannot grow any crops
    • It is always the best option because it uses no land at all

  19. A farm throws away a large share of its harvest. Which action best helps food security?

    • Use more chemical sprays on the crops each season
    • Plough more forest to produce a larger harvest each year
    • Drain rivers to water the fields during every dry spell
    • Reduce food waste so more of what is grown feeds people

  20. Why is 'sustainable' a useful test when judging farming strategies?

    • It checks how many chemicals each farm sells to shops
    • It checks the price of food in the local market each week
    • It checks which farm produces the highest yield in one season
    • It checks whether food can be produced now without harming future needs

All KS3 Geography quizzes