Future of Food Flashcards
(52 cards)
1
Q
What is the definition of food security?
A
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation definition:
“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle”
2
Q
What are The World Food Programme’s ‘three pillars’ of food security?
A
- Availability (physical presence of food)
- Access (ability of people to get food)
- Utilisation (nutrients & energy)
FAO recognises ‘stability’ as a fourth pillar
3
Q
What are some ways to measure food insecurity?
A
- global hunger
- undernourishment
- daily calorie intake
- per capita food consumption
4
Q
What are some current trends in food insecurity?
A
- Conflict is the main cause (140 million people)
- Food insecurity is increasing
- ACs are the biggest consumers, with lowest food insecurity
- sub-Saharan africa has lowed consumption levels
5
Q
What are the physical factors affecting food growth?
A
- Temperature
- Sunlight
- Water
- Air
- Soil
6
Q
How does temperature affect food growth?
A
- Each crop type requires a minimum growing temperature and a minimum growing season.
- Several frost-free days are also required for crop growth
- In the tropics the growing season is continuous
- Temperature and length of growing season both decrease with height above sea level.
7
Q
How does sunlight affect crop growth?
A
- Photosynthesis requires sunlight. Crops vary in their light requirements.
- Both light intensity and duration of sunlight are important for crop growth.
8
Q
How does water affect crop growth?
A
- Water comprises 80% of living plants and is a major determinant of crop productivity and quality.
- Water is essential for both the germination of seeds and crop growth.
- In terms of biological functions, water is used in photosynthesis and acts as a solvent allowing transport of minerals and sugars through the plant.
9
Q
How does air affect crop growth?
A
- Photosynthesis involves the absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere and the release of O2.
- Plants also require some oxygen for respiration to provide energy for water and nutrient uptake.
10
Q
How does soil affect crop growth?
A
- Soils are the mixture of mineral and organic matter in which plants grow.
- They supply water, nutrients and material in which root systems can develop.
- Plants absorb essential minerals mostly through their roots. The main ones are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium.
11
Q
What is Pastoral farming?
A
- The raising of livestock.
- Sustainable only when the carrying capacity of the area is not exceeded.
e.g. Hill sheep farming in Wales, nomadic herding in the Sahel.
12
Q
What is Arable farming?
A
- The growing of food crops, often on fairly level, well-drained, good-quality soils.
e.g. The Nile Valley; the Great Plains.
13
Q
What is Subsistence farming?
A
- Farmers provide food for their own consumption and for the local community.
- Vulnerable to food shortages because of the lack of capital and other entitlements.
e.g. Wet-rice farming in India.
14
Q
What is Commercial farming?
A
- Farming for profit, often on a large scale with high capital inputs.
e.g. Cattle ranching in South America; oil palm plantations in Malaysia.
15
Q
What is Shifting Cultivation farming?
A
- Confined to a few isolated places with low population density, large areas of land and limited food demands (e.g. indigenous groups in tropical rainforests).
- The system is essentially a rotation of fields rather than a rotation of crops.
e.g. The Amazon Basin and Indo-Malayan rainforest.
16
Q
What is Sedentary farming?
A
- Farmers remain in once place and cultivate the same land year after year.
e.g. Dairy and arable farming in the UK.
17
Q
What is Extensive farming?
A
- Large-scale commercial farming, inputs of labour and capital are small in relation to the area farmed.
- Yields per hectare are low but yields per capita are high.
e.g. Cereal farming on the Canadian Prairies.
18
Q
What is Intensive Farming?
A
- Small scale with high labour / capital inputs and high yields per hectare.
e.g. Horticulture in the Netherlands.
19
Q
How has globalisation impacted the food industry?
A
- New trade routes and improved access to global food sources have had impacts on international trade in food. e.g. no Avocados in the UK 50 years ago.
- Changing global tastes - in many regions consumers don’t want to wait for food to be in season as it can be sourced internationally. e.g Strawberries from Spain.
20
Q
What are some issues created by globalisation in the food industry?
A
- Food miles (GHG emissions)
- Inequality between TNCs and small suppliers
- Obesity e.g 70% obesity in Tonga
- Price crises e.g 60% increase in sugar price (Russia v Ukraine)
21
Q
What are some opportunities created by globalisation in the food industry?
A
- Technological innovations e.g automated tractors
- Short-term food relief e.g Ethiopia gets 700,000 tons of food aid per year
- Consumer choice e.g wider range of food products
22
Q
What are some environmental factors influencing food growth?
A
- geology
- soil
- length of growing season
- temperature
- precipitation
- water supply
- sunlight
- altitude
- aspect
- slope
23
Q
What is leaching?
A
When soluble materials drain way in a soil. Starves soil of nutrients needed for crop growth.
24
Q
What are some economic factors affecting food security?
A
- Competition (markets & resources)
- Farm size
- Transport (food can travel faster now)
- Market demand
- Capital (farmers in some countries lack funds for machinery)
- Technology (new seeds, fertilisers, machinery, irrigation techniques)
25
What are some political factors affecting food security?
- Land ownership systems: owner-occupiers, tenants, landless labourers.
- Land grabbing e.g. in Ethiopia, $1 per hectare / year.
- Government Policy
26
What was Thomas Malthus's theory?
- Optimum population exists in relation to food supply, and an increase beyond that will lead to 'war, famine and disease'.
- In the absence of checks, human population will grow geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8 etc)
- Yet food supply increases only at an arithmetic rate (1, 2, 3, 4)
-Suggested preventative measures to limit population growth e.g abstinence from marraige.
27
What was Esther Boserup's theory?
- Countries have the resources, knowledge and technology to increase food supply in response to growth in population.
- Population growth is needed to trigger advancements.
28
How many people globally are hungry?
750 million people, 98% live in LIDCs
29
What % of hungry people live in rural areas?
75%
30
What proportion of the world's hungry are from small-scale farming communities farming on marginal land
50%
31
How many children in LIDCs suffer from acute or chronic hunger?
150 million
32
What is a pinch point?
Places in the chain where disruption occurs. Reasons can be SEPE, and can occur at the global, regional, and local scale.
e.g. 2011 Iceland, 2021 Suez Canal
33
What is the food supply chain?
The means by which food is transferred from a farm to people's plates. Flows of production, processing, distribution and consumption.
34
What is desertification?
When there is a reduction in agricultural productivity due to overexploitation of resources and natural processes such as drought.
35
Which countries are most affected by desertification?
Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, caused by lack of government focus + drought
36
What are the human causes of desertification?
- Poverty: lack of investment and money forces people to farm on any land, pushing them onto marginal land, which is overused.
- Changing farming practices: overgrazing and expansion of cropped areas. new, more intensive systems deplete soil nutrients as fallow periods and crop rotation are abandoned. On marginal land, soils are already fragile.
- High demand for irrigation water: irrigation is a human response to water shortages. Water scarcity causes crops to die and poor farming practices to be used.
- Demand for fuelwood: as land is cleared for fuelwood the soil is left exposed to wind and water erosion
- Political and economic instability: political instability sometimes leads people to stay in the same areas and land becomes overused.
37
What are the physical causes of desertification
- Climate change: increased periodic drought and changing rainfall patterns damage soil quality. Crops die and farming practices change, land degradation intensifies.
- Soil erosion: by wind and water, removing the top layer of soil which contains nutrients.
- Salinisation
38
How can water scarcity affect food production?
- Agriculture accounts for 70% of water drawn from rivers, lakes, aquifiers.
- Of the water available, up to 60% is wasted through poor irrigation systems and evapotranspiraiton.
- Water scarcity causes crops die to and poor farming and irrigation practices to be used.
- Countries are trying to find more efficient means of using water in agriculture
e.g Australia, caps on amount of water extraction, Kenya, drip irrigation
39
How can tectonic hazards influence food production and distribution
- Volcanic ash destroys pasture land
- Volcanic ash can increase levels of sulphur in soils and lower pH, killing plants.
- Ash-fall can destroy crops.
- Transport and food distribution many be disrupted by cracks from earthquake activity.
- Food stocks may be destroyed.
- Livestock killed.
40
How can attempts to increase food production and security impact the physical environment?
- Salinisation: when water evaporates, salts remain behind. If precipitation is low and evaporation is high, salt concentration increases to the point where it is toxic for plants.
- Poor irrigation techniques: intensify salinisation because it increases groundwater recharge rates, causing water tables to rise and allow salt to reach roots.
41
How do agrochemicals affect water quality?
- Herbicides, insecticides and pesticides have become increasingly important in crop production.
- When applied, only around 15% hits the target, and the rest is distributed in the soil and air - pesticide drift.
- Intensive use of these chemicals include eutrophication (nutrient enrichment decreasing oxygen levels), leaching of nitrates into groundwater, contamination of aquifiers, etc.
42
How do food security issues impact people?
- Nearly 30% of the world's population is malnourished
- Health issues as a consequence of food shortages include shortened lifespan, disability and sickness.
- A lack of energy due to food shortages leads to less productivity, deepening poverty (multiplier effect)
43
What are the health issues associated with food surpluses and poor diet.
- The number of overweight people now exceeds those underweight.
- Such is the spread that the term globesity is used.
- Poverty in ACs is leading to a dependence on low-value, energy dense foods with high fat, sugar and salt but low levels of nutrients.
- Health consequences of obesity include non-communicable disease such as type 2 diabetes
44
Who are the key players in the global good system?
- National governments
- International organisations such as the World Trade Organisation
- Profit-making organisations (agribusinesses, TNCs, and food retailers
- NGOs like the World Fair Trade Organisation
45
How can countries use agricultural trading policies to ensure food security?
- Trading blocs (e.g EU)
- Multinational agreements (e,g ACP nations given free trade access to EU)
- Bilateral trade agreements (e.g Sainsbury's with St Lucia for Bananas)
46
What are the impacts of unfair trade on farmers in LIDCs?
- Foreign buyers impose strict quality control, leading to waste
- Cash crops use the best land, leaving marginal land for subsistence farmers.
- Farmers can be exploited and kept in poverty through unfair pricing
47
What is the main role of the World Trade Organisation?
- To provide a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements and to settle trade disputes.
48
What are the types of aid?
- Project food aid
- Programme food aid
- Emergency or relief food aid
49
What are the criticisms of food aid?
- Food aid is a means of 'dumping' surplus food from ACs
- Can create long-term aid dependency
- Large quantities of food aid can swamp local markets and drive down prices, reducing the income of local farmers.
50
What are some examples where crisis food aid has been beneficial?
- Syrian conflicts
- 2015 earthquake in Nepal
51
What is an alternative method of aid to food aid?
Managing Environmental Resources to Enable Transitions (MERET) in Ethiopia, which helps farmers reclaim degraded land using simple techniques such as terracing hillsides to prevent soil erosion.
52
What are the different approaches to improving food security?
- Short-term relief (good for crisis)
- Capacity building (building a resilient system through economic development and access to fair trade deals)
- Long-term system redesign (e.g educating a population in lifestyle choices)
