Food production

• Food security


  Having enough food to be able to feed a population
• Biological factors threatening food security

  • Rising birth rates
  • Changing diets in developed countries → food is transported around the world
  • New pests and pathogens
  • Environmental changes affecting food production
  • Increased cost of agriculture
  • Armed conflicts
• How intensive farming increases the production of animals

  1. Feed animals high protein foods to increase growth

  2. Reduce their energy loss to the environment: Limiting movement, Regulating their surrounding temperature

  3. Feed animals antibiotics to prevent diseases
• Advantages of intensive farming

  • Higher yield of food
  • More efficient
  • Allows easier quality control
• Disadvantages of intensive farming

  • May lead to antibiotic resistance
  • Cost is high
  • Ethical objections eg. limiting movement of animals may cause them harm
  • Biodiversity may be reduced
• How fish stocks can be conserved

  1. Control the size of gaps in fishing nets to prevent juvenile fish from being killed before reaching reproductive maturity

  2. Introduce fishing quotas
• Transgenic organism


  An organism that has been genetically modified to contain genetic material from another source
• Genetically modified foods


  • Golden rice
• How crops may be genetically modified

  • To improve nutritional value
  • To be pest resistant
  • To be pesticide resistant
• Advantages of golden rice

  • It contains additional beta-carotene which can be converted to vitamin A in the body, supplementing people who do not obtain enough Vitamin A in their diet to prevent night blindness from forming
• Mycoprotein


  A protein-rich substance used to make meat substitute food for vegetarians and vegans
• How mycoprotein is produced

  Fusarium, a fungus, is grown on glucose syrup, in aerobic conditions and the biomass is harvested and purified to get the mycoprotein