Food Security
Biology: AQA GCSE Higher, topic 7.5.1
Food Security
Food security will be achieved when the whole global human population has access to enough safe and nutritious food to stay healthy. Currently, the most pressing obstacles to this goal are:
Birth rates
- Increasing birth rates, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
New pests and pathogens
- New pests and pathogens can reduce farming yields.
Extreme meteorological events
- The increase in frequency of extreme meteorological events associated with climate change.
Conflicts
- Conflicts often result in reduced accessibility to food and water.
Costs of agricultural inputs
- Agricultural inputs, such as fertiliser, are essential for ensuring that food is produced at sufficient yields.
- Their increasing price means farmers can afford less and yields suffer.
Diet shifts
- Diet shifts in developed countries are resulting in the accumulation of a massive quantity of food miles.
- This is because food is transported across the world in order to meet demands.
Test yourself on Food Security
Why does a rise in the price of agricultural inputs, such as fertiliser, threaten food security?
How do conflicts most directly threaten food security?
What is causing the rise in extreme meteorological events that threatens food security?
Why do diet shifts in developed countries increase food miles?
Why does a rapid rise in birth rates make food security harder to achieve in a region?