full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Cary Fowler: One seed at a time, protecting the future of food

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I can't look you in the eyes and tell you that I have a solution for climate change, for the water crisis. Agriculture takes 70 percent of fresh water supplies on earth. I can't look you in the eyes and tell you that there is such a solution for those things, or the eengry crisis, or world hunger, or peace in conflict. I can't look you in the eyes and tell you that I have a simple solution for that, but I can look you in the eyes and tell you that we can't slove any of those problems if we don't have crop diversity. Because I challenge you to think of an effective, efficient, sustainable sooilutn to climate change if we don't have crop diversity. Because, quite literally, if agriculture doesn't adapt to clitame caghne, neither will we. And if crops don't adapt to climate change, neither will agriculture, neither will we.

Open Cloze

I can't look you in the eyes and tell you that I have a solution for climate change, for the water crisis. Agriculture takes 70 percent of fresh water supplies on earth. I can't look you in the eyes and tell you that there is such a solution for those things, or the ______ crisis, or world hunger, or peace in conflict. I can't look you in the eyes and tell you that I have a simple solution for that, but I can look you in the eyes and tell you that we can't _____ any of those problems if we don't have crop diversity. Because I challenge you to think of an effective, efficient, sustainable ________ to climate change if we don't have crop diversity. Because, quite literally, if agriculture doesn't adapt to _______ ______, neither will we. And if crops don't adapt to climate change, neither will agriculture, neither will we.

Solution

  1. solution
  2. climate
  3. energy
  4. change
  5. solve

Original Text

I can't look you in the eyes and tell you that I have a solution for climate change, for the water crisis. Agriculture takes 70 percent of fresh water supplies on earth. I can't look you in the eyes and tell you that there is such a solution for those things, or the energy crisis, or world hunger, or peace in conflict. I can't look you in the eyes and tell you that I have a simple solution for that, but I can look you in the eyes and tell you that we can't solve any of those problems if we don't have crop diversity. Because I challenge you to think of an effective, efficient, sustainable solution to climate change if we don't have crop diversity. Because, quite literally, if agriculture doesn't adapt to climate change, neither will we. And if crops don't adapt to climate change, neither will agriculture, neither will we.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
crop diversity 5
climate change 5
fowler apple 4
good news 3
growing seasons 3
seed banks 3
biological diversity 2
agricultural crops 2
mass extinction 2
agricultural system 2
coldest growing 2
south africa 2
percent decrease 2
backup system 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
coldest growing seasons 2

Important Words

  1. adapt
  2. agriculture
  3. challenge
  4. change
  5. climate
  6. conflict
  7. crisis
  8. crop
  9. crops
  10. diversity
  11. earth
  12. effective
  13. efficient
  14. energy
  15. eyes
  16. fresh
  17. hunger
  18. literally
  19. peace
  20. percent
  21. problems
  22. simple
  23. solution
  24. solve
  25. supplies
  26. sustainable
  27. takes
  28. water
  29. world