Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each…

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.

Imagine browsing your local grocery store on a cold winter day to pick up freshly lettuce, fragrant basil, juicy sweet strawberries, and ripe red tomatoes from the shelves, (1) ________ . It is likely that you will be buying fresh produce from vertical farms (2) ________ . Generally, food crops grown in vertical farms travel only a few miles to reach grocery store shelves compared to conventional ones, which must be transported thousands of miles by ship, truck or plane.

(3) ________ , vertical agriculture has the potential to add to food production and expand agricultural operations as the world's population is projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050. Producing fresh greens and vegetables close to these growing urban populations could help meet growing global food demands in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way (4) ________ . In addition, (5) ________ since the indoor space can be controlled to make it completely free of bugs, and plants can be grown in such clean conditions that there is no need to rinse them before eating.

(Adapted from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vertical-farming-fresh-produce-future-rosalia-rosalinova-ikonomov/)