Future of Food theory

Question 1

What is food insecurity?

Answer 1

When an an individual, community or population has a lack of access to safe, nutritious and healthy food

Question 2

What are the four pillars of food security?

Answer 2

Access
Availability
Utilisation
Stability

Question 3

What is access in terms of food security?

Answer 3

economic ability to access food

Question 4

What is the availability pillar?

Answer 4

The physical ability to supply food

Question 5

What is the utilisation of food?

Answer 5

the proper use of food and ability of an individual to digest this food
- for example if milk is a key staple and someone is lactose intolerant this may cause them to become food insecure
- or gluten in wheat based products which are key staple foods in many countries

Question 6

What is the stability food pillar?

Answer 6

the sustainability of the 3 other pillars

Question 7

What is undernourishment?

Answer 7

Not consuming enough calories to maintain a normal, active and healthy life

Question 8

What is overnourishment?

Answer 8

Caused by an excessive intake of nutrients and calories leading to an accumulation of fat that impairs health

Question 9

What is malnourishment?

Answer 9

When your body is not getting the correct amount of nutrition and calories - can be excess or a lack of
- Acts as an umbrella term for both over and undernourishment

Question 10

What are current trends of global food insecurity?

Answer 10

There are currently around 850 million people severely food insecure globally and 2.4 billion people experiencing food insecurity according to the UN
World bank predicts that there will be 956 million people severely food insecure by 2025
- Due to increasing inflation and increases of food prices - reducing access to food
Not going to reach the zero hunger goal by 2030 and it is predicted there is still going to be 600 million people food insecure by 2030

Question 11

What is the global food security index?

Answer 11

Annual set of measurements of food security based on multiple factors across a set of 113 countries
- Access, Availability, utilisation, safety, quality and stability

Question 12

Who are the current top 3 and bottom 3 on the global food security index and their scores?

Answer 12

top 3:
Finland - 83.7
Ireland - 81.7
Norway - 80.5
Bottom 3:
Syria - 36.3
Haiti - 38.5
Yemen - 40.1

Question 13

What may cause countries to be more food insecure then others?

Answer 13

Geography and climate - Access to fertile land - availability

Conflict

Economic development - better technology and infrastructure

Politics - how the government controls the distribution of food

International relations/trade policies - trading blocs, free trade agreements, WTO

Population growth

Question 14

How might food security vary within countries?

Answer 14

Variance in climate across the country - affects the productivity of crops

Uneven distribution of resources and food - social inequality

Proportion of rural to urban communities - rural communities often have a lack of infrastructure making it harder to ransport food to them - rely on subsistence farming

Question 15

What are the physical conditions required to grow food?

Answer 15

• Climate: different crops grow in different required climate conditions including: Temperature, rainfall, humidity and total sunlight
• Soil: Fertility of soil must be high to enable crop growth - must be rich in nutrients, water and stability of the ground
• Water availibility: to much water will damage the crops whereas to little will inhibit growth
• Air: clean air and air with appropriate levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen will affect rates of respiration and photosynthesis

Question 16

What is the Malthusian view?

Answer 16

The idea that our population is growing exponentially whilst our ability to grow food is growing in a linear fashion.
Meaning our population will outgrow our ability to grow food, when this occurs we will reach a crisis point.
Causing famine, conflict, disease etc.

Question 17

Boserupian view

Answer 17

The idea that we will continue to make ways to produce food faster then the growth of the population

Question 18

Why is feeding the world a complex system?

Answer 18

The food system consists of supply chains at majoratively a global scale but also at a local scale.
Processes involved in the supply chain:
growing, processing, transporting and disposal

Question 19

Explain why the food system being a supply chain makes it so complex

Answer 19

Growing - typically occurs in LIDCs which relates to problem with unfair trade and also requires the farmers to have as much productivity as possible

Processing - occurs after harvest to make the crops into edible products

Transport - requires complex transport systems (including pinchpoints) with high food miles and preservation of food to get them from ACs to LIDCs - much of this food is produced in LIDCs but very little goes to them -

Disposal - high rates of waste in ACs - 9.8 million tonnes a year in the UK

Question 20

What are pinchpoints?

Answer 20

Maritime (water) hotspots where there is large amounts of maritime traffic a day due to transport of goods
- The transport of food is usually required to travel through these hotspots
They are also known as chokepoints as they leave the supply chain vulnerable as if there is a disruption it can massively impact food security

Question 21

What pinchpoints are impacting food security?

Answer 21

Suez canal - Houthi (rebel group) in response to the gaza conflict have launched attacks on israel and impacted the flow of goods through the canal

Panama canal - faces severe droughts due to the El nino (weather phenomenon)

Question 22

Factors impacting our ability to feed the world

Answer 22

Population growth and resources - malthus and boserup

Climate change - becoming harder and harder to produce crops

Environmental sustainability - agriculture has a significant environmental impact so limits on their impact have reduced production of crops

Food distribution and access - uneven distribution of crops - much wasted in ACs which could have been used in LIDCs and EDCs - 2.5 billion tonnes of food wasted a year

Question 23

What is intensive compared to extensive farming

Answer 23

Intensive agriculture is often at a larger scale with higher inputs, outputs and levels of technology compared to extensive

Question 24

Who uses intensive farming and who uses extensive?

Answer 24

Intensive will be used by large compannies and tncs
Extensive - small scale local farmers

Question 25

What is subsistence farming?

Answer 25

Subsistence farming is when individuals, communities and farmers produce food to sustain their own living and feed themselves

Question 26

What is commercial farming?

Answer 26

The production of food for sale, often done at a larger scale and through more intensive methods by larger companies and TNCs

Question 27

How has globalisation increased food demand and global tastes

Answer 27

Increased consumer choices as a variety of foods are transported globally

Global supply chains have allowed year round availability of seasonal foods

Exchange and integration of different cultures

Marketing and advertising of different foods on a global scale

Increased awareness of dietary needs and healthy eating

Question 28

What issues does the globalisation of the food industry create

Answer 28

Increased food miles - increased emissions

Unfair trade - inequality between TNCs and small scale farmers

Leaves many vulnerable to challenges to food security - UK import 48% of their total food