Managing food production Flashcards
What are the 3 ways of increasing the efficiency of food production?
1) educing the number of stages in the food chain
2) Restricting the energy lost by farm animals
3) Developing new food sources like mycoprotein
There’s less [ ] and less [ ] every time you move up a stage in a food chain
energy
biomass
Why is it ‘better’ to grow crops on fields rather than animals?
For a given area of land, you can produce a lot more food by growing crops rather than by having grazing animals. This is because you are reducing the number of stages in the food chain.
If it is ‘better’ to grow crops on fields, why do we graze animals? (3)
1) People need a varied diet to stay healthy
2) There’s a lot of demand for meat products
3) Some land is unsuitable for growing crops. In these places animals (sheep, deer) might be the best way to get food from the land
Describe the conditions of animals when they’re farmed
Intensively farmed. They’re kept close together indoors in small pens so they are warm and can’t move about
What are the advantages of intensively farming animals?
It saves wasting energy on movement, and stops them giving out s much energy as heat. This makes the transfer of energy from the animals feed to the animal ore efficient. This makes things cheaper for the farmer and therefore the customer
What is mycoprotein?
Protein from fungus
What is mycoprotein used for?
Used to make meat substitutes for vegetarian meals
What is the main source of mycoprotein?
A fungus called fusarium
What is mycoprotein made in?
A fermenter, using glucose syrup for food
How is the glucose syrup for mycoprotein obtained?
Digesting maize starch with enzymes
What else (apart from glucose) is supplied to the mycoprotein to make it grow? Why?
Oxygen - it respires aerobically
Nitrogen (as ammonia) and other minerals
Mycoprotein: What happens once everything has been added to the fermenter?
It’s harvested and purified
What is a fermenter?
A big container full of liquid culture medium, which microorganisms can grow and reproduce in
What’s the advantage of mycoprotein? (3)
1) In some developing countries it’s difficult to find enough protein. Meat is a big source if protein, but animals need lots of space to graze and food etc. Mycroprotein is an efficient way of producing protein
2) Grows very quickly and doesn’t need much space
3) They can even feed on waste material that wouldn’t be able to feed animals
