Food Production Flashcards

All 6 cards in this deck

What is meant by food security?

When all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.

True or false? An increasing human population reduces food security.

True. More people must be fed from a similar amount of farmland, so there is less food available per person.

True or false? The same area of land can feed more people if it is used to grow crops than if it is used to farm animals.

True. Energy is lost between trophic levels, so meat farming does not produce as much food per area of land as arable farming.

Name two biological factors that reduce crop and livestock yields and so threaten food security.

New pests and pathogens; environmental change caused by human activity, e.g. drought or flooding due to climate change.

Give two sustainability issues that affect food security.

Land used to grow biofuel crops instead of food crops; the high cost of agricultural inputs such as fertiliser, fuel and machinery.

What are the steps to calculate the number of people classified as malnourished from population data?

e.g. 13% of a world population of 7 billion are malnourished

1. Read the population from the data: 7 billion
2. Divide the percentage by 100: $13 \div 100 = 0.13$
3. Multiply: $0.13 \times 7 = 0.91$ billion