B15 Food production (triple only) Flashcards
What is food security?
Having enough food to feed a population
Why might some countries suffer from food scarcity?
Increasing population growth
Change in diet
Pests and pathogens that affect farming
Changes in environmental conditions.
Cost of agricultural inputs eg fertiliser
War
How have farming techniques changed to increased livestock productivity
Animals kept in small pens
Animals kept indoors
Fed high protein food
Animals given antibiotics
How does keeping animals in small indoor pens increase livestock productivity?
Reduces movement by animal
Less energy required for muscle contraction
Indoor temperature can be controlled
Less heat loss from animal
Reduced rate of respiration
Increased growth
Fewer animals lost to predators
How does giving animals a high protein food increase livestock productivity?
Proteins contain amino acids
Amino acids are needed for protein synthesis
More proteins leads to increased growth
How does giving animals antibiotics increase livestock productivity?
Reduce number of animals with bacterial diseases
Fewer animal death due to disease
Less energy and resources wasted in making antibodies and lymphocytes
Less respiration
More growth
How have farming techniques changed to increased crop productivity?
Use of machines to plant, weed and harvest crops
Use of fertilisers
Use of pesticides
Monoculture - growing one type of crop
Removal of hedgerows
How does the use of pesticides increase plant productivity?
Pesticides kill pests eg aphids, weeds
Weeds will compete with crop plants for light, minerals, space and water
Removal of weeds leads to increased photosynthesis by crop plants
Increased growth
Aphids feed on the sugar transported in the phloem of crop plants
Removing pests provide the crop plant with more resources for growth
How does the use of fertilisers increase plant productivity?
Fertilisers increase the concentration of mineral ions eg nitrates in the soil
Nitrates required to make amino acids
Amino acids used to make proteins
Increased resources for growth
How does the removal of hedgerows increase plant productivity?
Monoculture can be used (one crop grown)
Farmer can become an expert in growing this crop
Larger fields for crop production
Larger machinery can be used
What does a sustainable fishery mean?
Do not reduce the overall number of fish in an ecosystem
The fish caught and killed does not exceed the birth of new fish
What does overfishing mean?
The number of fish in an ecosystem declines
As too many fish are removed by fishing
The birth rate is not fast enough to replace the fish
What are fishing quotas?
Limits on the number and size of fish that can be caught in certain areas.
How does regulating mesh size help the situation?
Younger fish can slip through the net
More fish reach breeding age.
More fish reproduce
Before being killed
How can fish be factory farmed?
Keeping fish in a cage in the sea to restrict movement.
