Food production - done Flashcards
What is foo security?
Having sufficient food to feed the population
What factors affect food security? (6)
- Changing population
- Changing diets
- Changing environment
- Pests and pathogens
- Costs
- Conflicts
How does changing population affect food security?
An increased population due to increasing birth rate means more food required
How does changing diets affect food security?
Changing diets in developed countries means scarce food resources (usually from developing countries) are transported around the world.
Meaning these food sources become more scarce in the countries that need them most
How does changing environment affect food security?
Environmental changes can affect food production, leading to famine occurring in some countries
How do pest and pathogens affect food security?
They can kill crops or livestock
How do costs food security?
Farming has high input costs. Sometimes the costs are too expensive leading to a lack of farming and food production in some areas
How do conflict affect food security?
Can affect the availability of water or food. The resources will become scarse
What does sustainable methods of farming lead to?
Involves making enough food but ensuring this is done without using resources faster than these resources can be renewed and used again
How do farmers restrict energy transfer?
limiting their movement – livestock are kept in small pens or cages so that they use less energy moving around
controlling the temperature of their surroundings – livestock are kept at their optimum temperature so that they use less energy regulating their body temperatures themselves
What does limiting their movement and controlling the temperature of their surroundings lead to?
Increase growth. More energy is converted to biomass
What are the ethical objects people have about farming?
- Keeping livestock in very confined spaces (factory farming) can spread disease easily
- Unnatural and uncomfortable conditions
5 examples of modern farming techniques?
- Livestock raised in small pens and cages
- Livestock fed antibiotics in their food
- Monocultures
- Fertiliser use
- Hedgerow removal
Adv. and disadv. of livestock raised in small pens and cages?
Livestock use less energy for movement, leaving more energy for growth
Keeping animals confined in such as small space is seen as unethical. Disease can spread easily is they are kept close together
Adv. and disadv. of livestock fed antibiotics in their food
Antibiotics prevent disease and bacterial infects in livestock
Scientists think it may lead to antibiotic resistant bacteria
Adv. and disadv. of monocultures?
Farmers only grow a single crop type across vast areas of land as this maximises the amount of food produces and their profits
Monocultures only support a low level of biodiversity
Adv. and disadv. of fertiliser use?
Increases plant growth and therefore maximizes food production
Runoff occurs from land and if it is too high a concentration, when it enters watercourses it can lead to the dead of aquatic organisms
Adv. and disadv. of hedgerow removal?
This has made fields bigger and easier to maintain with big farm machinery
Reduces biodiversity as hedgerows provide a habitats for a large number of species
What are fish stocks and what is happening to them?
Fish stocks (the populations of fish that we catch for food) in the oceans are declining
This is mainly due to overfishing
What can fish stocks decreasing result in? (3)
Some species of fish completely disappearing in certain areas or even going extinct
Ocean food chains being disrupted, affecting many other aquatic species
Fewer fish for human consumption
What are sustainable fisheries?
Fisheries in which the overall population size of fish species does not decrease, because the number of fish caught does not exceed the number of new fish born
What does increasing the size of gaps in fishing nets help sustainability?
Fewer unwanted species (that are often simply discarded) will be caught and killed, as they can escape through larger net gaps
Juvenile fish of the fish species being caught can escape through larger net gaps, meaning they can reach breeding age and have offspring before they are caught and killed.
What is a fishery?
Where fish are caught for commercial reasons
What is bycatch?
Mammals caught that you don’t want when fishing
What are fishing quotas?
Each fishery is allowed a number/mass of fish allowed to be caught at different times of the year
Have a net sizes used for sustainable fishing?
Fisheries have to use nets of a specific size for each type of fish caught
How to avoid bycatch?
Different fish are more active in certain times of day. So only fish at times when the fish you want are present
