Food Provenance Flashcards
(19 cards)
Intensive farming
Uses range of methods to achieve highest yield. Procuring Hughes possible yield means getting most amount of food from the same plot of land. - large scale huge spaces dedicated to same crop
Issues of intensive farming
Fertilizer and pesticides - not everyone agrees as it can harm environment hurt wildlife and possibly harm human health.
Pesticides - insecticides, bactericide, fungicide, rodenticide, herbacise larvicide
Artificial to add nutrients to the soil
Organic farming
Doesn’t use artificial fertilizers or pesticides - all food is grown through natural methods. Food production by organic farming more costly
What technique farmers use for soil fertility
Crop rotation, leaving fallow.
Natural pest control
Row covers - insect barriers
Using hot water to spray crops
Using biological pesticides
Using sticky traps
Brining in natural predators
Adv of organic farming
Better for the environment than intensive farming, as chemical pesticides are not used and it uses few non-renewable resources.
Healthier for farmworkers as chemical pesticides are not used.
Food contains fewer residues.
Dis adv of organic farming
Crops tend to be of a lower yield.
Production costs are higher than for intensive farming, so organic food is more expensive.
GM foods
Have desirable characteristics because of gene modifications eg GM soybeans that are resistant to weed-killers like Roundup.
GM cotton and maize that is toxic to some pests. Farmers can get a higher yield if pests eat less of the crop.
How do u make GM plants
we take a desirable gene from one plant/animal/bacterium and place it into another plant.
GM crops grow from GM seeds.
Locations of GM crops
The UK does not crop GM crops.
The USA, Brazil, Argentina, India and Canada are among the countries that grow GM crops.
ADV of GM crops
We can make crops grow faster.
Farmers get a higher crop yield, so production costs are lower.
Lower production costs mean lower consumer prices.
We can modify GM crops to contain nutrients that people lack in their diets.
We can modify crops to have longer shelf lives to reduce food waste.
We can make some seasonal foods available sooner in the year by modifying crops to ripen earlier.
DISADV of GMZ CROPS
May affect the number of flowers and weeds and insect populations, so reducing farmland diversity.
Possible health effects (no science yet).
Sellers are restricted in parts of the world.
E.g. some GM foods cannot be imported under EU law.
People could develop allergies to GM foods.
GM genes could cause issues in the wider environment (e.g. creation of a ‘superweed’ that is resistant to herbicide).
Reared
Human raise animals for meat and food. Reared animals. Intensive farming
Environment in reared animals
Often, factory-farmed animals are crammed into small spaces (like enclosures/cages).
They are kept in warm environments so that energy waste from movement and keeping warm is minimised.
If this kind of energy wastage is minimised, the animals have more energy for producing food.
Hormones and force feeding
To speed up animal growth, factory farmers may force-feed animals or supply them with growth hormones.
This speeds up and cheapens the meat production process.
Free range animals
We get free-range food from animals that can freely roam or animals that live in a more spacious environment than factory-farmed animals.
Free-range animals are never given growth hormones.
Their welfare is of a higher standard than factory-farmed animals, meaning they usually enjoy better lives.
Sustainable fishing
Doesn’t use up non renewable resources or cause environmental harm Government fishing quotas - can help to preserve endangered species.
Quotas restrict the quantity and size of fish that fishermen and women can catch.
Spearfishing - using a spear gun to catch fish. This method is relatively sustainable as one first is targetted, so there is little bycatch.
Regulations for net sizes - holes must be large enough for small and unwanted fish to get out.
