food production b18

Question 1

what is the fungus Fusarium used for?
how is it grown?

Answer 1

• grown aerobically on glucose syrup and the biomass is harvested,
• used to produce mycoprotein: a protein-rich food suitable for vegetarians.

Question 2

what kind of genetically modified microorganism can help treat diabetes?

Answer 2

a genetically modified bacterium producing insulin which can be harvested and purified.

Question 3

what is food security?

Answer 3

food security: having enough food to feed a population

Question 4

factors affecting food security

Answer 4

• conflict,
• changing tastes/ demands for different foods,
• new diseases/pathogens,
• cost of agricultural inputs,
• increasing birth rate,
• environmental changes (e.g. droughts, floods).

Question 5

how to increase efficiency of food (meat) production

Answer 5

• limit movement of animals (so they use less energy/biomass for respiration),
• control temperature of surroundings (so animals use up ess energy/biomass for maintaining constant body temperature).

Question 6

why is it important to maintain a certain level of fish stock?

Answer 6

-because an entire species of fish could go extinct, reducing biodiversity and the profits of fishermen themselves.

Question 7

methods of conserving fish populations

Answer 7

• larger holes in nets (so only large fish are caught and small ones are left to grow, reproduce and replace the fish which are caught),
• quotas: you can only fish a certain amount,
• banning fishing during breeding season (to allows maximum breeding to produce maximum fish to replace those which will be caught).