Enviromental impact and sustainablility of food

• food provenance


  where foods and ingredients originally come from
• pesticides


  chemicals sprayed onto plant crops to prevent insect and mould attack and weed growth, and produce strong plants
• grown ingredients


  plants grown for food (herbs, fruits, vegetables, cereals, nuts) in fields, greenhouses, orchards and gardens
• reared ingredients


  animals, birds, and fish bred in captivity and brought up for meat and their products
• gathered ingredients


  plant food (herbs, edible fungi, berries and seaweed) gathered from the wild for eating

  wild foods have been gathered for many thousands of years
• caught ingredients


  wild animals (deer/venison, boar/pig, snails, rabbits, hare), birds (pheasants, grouse, quail), fish, and shellfish (salmon, trout, and seafood such as mussels and oysters) hunted and caught in the wild for eating

  often called wild game
• intensive farming


  growing or rearing large numbers of the same type of plants or animals in one place
• poly-tunnels


  long, curved plastic structures that plants are grown under to protect them from the weather

  they provide sheltered conditions and are large enough for people and machines to work inside
• where are many intensively farmed crops grown?

  in large glass houses or plastic poly-tunnels
• hydroponic production


  plant crops are grown in special troughs containing water (instead of soil) which has had nutrients added to it
• artificial ferilisers


  used to put nutrients back into the soil that are removed by intensive farming
• concerns about pesticides and fertilisers


  health effects on people

  health effects on soil, streams and rivers

  effects on the natural ecology of the environment
• organic farming


  producing food using manure, compost and natural methods of weed, pest and disease control rather than chemicals
• organic matter


  develops fertile soil so plants receive plenty of naturally produced nutrients
• crop rotation


  different crops grown on the same piece of land each year
• Soil Association


  organisation that sets and checks organic standards
• factory farming


  livestock (animals, birds, fish) are reared in large numbers
• where are factory farmed animals kept?

  in large sheds, cages or tanks
• why is intensively farmed food cheap?


  less land is used as it is expensive, so intensive farming costs less
• what are intensively farmed animals fed on?

  manmade food rather than feeding naturally on grass, insects etc
• concerns about intensively farming animals


  diseases can spread easily

  livestock may become stressed and fight as they are not used to living in large numbers
• rearing animals organically


  livestock must be fed organic food and live as naturally as possible

  must not be given drugs, antibiotics, growth promoters and other medicines

  kept in smaller numbers