Food Provenance Flashcards
When animals are farmed intensively there are often concern as about how they are treated. This is known as..?
Animal Welfare
What is used to in order to protect crops from pests and weeds?
Artificial pesticides
What is Animal Welfare?
When animals are farmed intensively and there are concerns about how they are treated
Name an example of a symbol used on foods to show that animals are treated with the highest standards of care
Freedom Food logo
What does the term ‘provenance’ mean?
The place of origin of food and ingredients
In the UK, what logo are organic foods labelled with?
Soil Association
Why are fertilisers used?
To replace nutrients in the soil when crops are grown intensively
What are used to replace nutrients in the soil when crops are grown intensively?
Fertilisers
In organic farming, are artificial fertilisers or pesticides used?
No
Intensive farming
Where large quantities of a crop such as wheat are grown together
Genetic Modification
Helps farmers breed new types of plants and animals to obtain desirable characteristics
Why was genetic modification developed?
Enabled farmers to breed new types of animals or plants that have:
Better resistance to pests and diseases
Faster or stronger growth rates
A different nutrient profile
A more intensive flavour or colour
How does GM work?
GM is a complex scientific technique whether the code for a particular characteristic in a gene is copied in a laboratory and inserted into a completely different plant or animal
Organic farming
Healthier and non artificial method of producing crops
What do farmers do in organic farming?
Farmers develop healthy, fertile soil by adding organic matter and compost so that the plants receive plenty of naturally produced nutrients
Farmers rotate their crops so that the soil doesn’t have all the goodness taken out
Farmers have a piece of land fallow for a year to break the life cycle of pests and allow the soil to naturally become fertile again
Pesticide use is severely restricted - farmers encourage wild, natural predators such as ladybirds and other insects to control pests
What do farmers do in organic farming to ensure soil fertility?
Crop rotation - growing different types of crops.
Leaving fallow - not growing anything
In organic farming, what do farmers do for natural pest control?
Using row covers, which are translucent insect barriers.
Using hot water to spray crops.
Using biological pesticides.
Using sticky traps (coloured material coated in a sticky substance to catch insects).
Bringing in natural predators.
Examples of organic farming methods
Use organic matter to add nutrients to the soil
Crop rotation
Leaving fallow
Natural pest control
Advantages 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
Disadvantages 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
Which farming strategy has the primary aim of achieving the highest possible yield?
Intensive farming
Advantages 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
Disadvantages of GM 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
What are the knock-on effects of farmers getting a higher yield from GM crops?
Lower production costs
Lower consumer prices
What are ‘reared animals’
When humans raise some animals purely for their meat and other food offerings
What is the environment like for factory - farmed animals?
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
What do factory farmers do 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
Advantages of factory farming
Factory-farmed products tend to be less expensive than free-range foods as the farming process is more efficient.
Less land is used.
Can grow animals faster in larger quantities
Disadvantages of factory farming
Animals are more prone to disease and are slaughtered young.
Animals cannot behave naturally.
Animals live in crowded conditions, which causes stress.
Drugs used in factory farming can enter the food chain and affect humans.
Factory-farmed products may be less tasty than free-range products
What are 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
Disadvantages of free - range food
Food production is lower because animals use energy moving around and grow more slowly than factory-farmed animals.
More land is needed for this form of farming, so production costs are higher than with factory farming.
As production costs are higher, free-range products cost more
What is fish farming?
Vast populations of fish are raised in river enclosures or sea cages.
What is trawling?
Trawling involves using a trawler (fishing vessel) to drag a trawl (fishing net) through the water to catch fish
What are the methods of trawling?
Bottom trawling - dragging a trawl along the seabed.
Dragging a trawl through the open water.
Dredging - dragging a metal basket along the seabed
Disadvantages of fish farming
Overcrowding is common.
Set-up and running costs are expensive.
Fish are prone to disease.
Pesticides may be used for disease control
Sustainable fishing
Sustainable fishing doesn’t use up non-renewable resources or cause environmental harm
Concerns over commercial fishing
Overfishing (catching fish at a faster rate than natural reproduction can occur at) can cause species to become endangered.
Bottom trawling can damage habitats and sea life on the seabed.
Other animals can get caught in trawls - such as albatrosses and sharks - which may threaten populations of these animals
Sustainable fishing methods
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
Longline fishing - the fishing line used holds baited hooks between 2 buoys. This process catches a smaller number of fish and reduces the likelihood of catching undesired species
What do we call it when fish are caught at a faster rate than natural reproduction can occur at?
Overfishing
Bottom trawling
Dragging a trawl along the seabed
Trawling
Dragging a trawl through the open water
Dredging
Dragging a metal basket along the seabed
