Food Resource Management

GeographyAQAGCSEUnit: The Challenge of Resource Management
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The basics

The Hunger Paradox

🌾 The Hunger Paradox

Last night, 828 million people went to bed hungry. That is one in every ten people alive on Earth — and the number is rising for the first time in decades. At the same moment, an average British family throws away £800 worth of perfectly edible food every year. In California, farmers bulldozed millions of kilograms of almonds in 2022 because supermarkets rejected them for being the wrong shape. Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, smallholder farmers who grow coffee for £4 lattes in London earn less than £1.50 for every kilogram they produce.

But here is the sharpest paradox of all: the world currently produces enough food calories to feed 10 billion people — roughly 2 billion more than exist right now. Food insecurity is not a production problem. It is a distribution, access, and power problem. Understanding that distinction is the most important thing you can do for your exam answers on this topic.

What is food security?: Reliable access to enough safe and nutritious food.
Key terms

Geography glossary

What is food security?
Reliable access to enough safe and nutritious food.
Spotlight
What Is Food Security — and Why Are the Four Pillars Important?

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) defines food security as existing when "all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food." That single sentence packs in four distinct things that all need to be true at once — and geographers call thes

Exam tip

Earn the mark scheme marks

🧠 Exam Framework: CAPED

Use CAPED to remember the main causes of food insecurity. In an explain or evaluate question, you can work through each cause systematically and show how they interconnect:

C — Climate change — Rising temperatures, more erratic rainfall, and more frequent extreme weather events reduce crop yields, especially in already-vulnerable sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. A 2°C global temperature rise could cut yields in sub-Saharan Africa by up to 20%.
A — Access and affordability — Poverty is the core access barrier: families on £1/day cannot afford food even when it is available. Conflict (affecting 60% of the world's hungry) destroys supply chains, forces displacement, and prevents food aid reaching civilians. Infrastructure failures in LICs mean food cannot physically reach remote communities.
P — Population growth — The global population is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. Sub-Saharan Africa's population may double. More people require more food from land that is not expanding — placing ever-greater pressure on soil, water, and farming systems.
E — Environmental degradation — Soil erosion, desertification, deforestation, and aquifer depletion reduce the productive capacity of agricultural land over time. The UN estimates a third of the world's topsoil is already degraded. Pest outbreaks (desert locust swarms in East Africa, 2019–21) can devastate crops across multiple countries in a single season.
D — Distribution and food waste — 30–40% of all food produced is wasted — at consumer level in HICs (£800/yr per British household), and at harvest/storage in LICs due to lack of refrigeration and roads to market. Improving food distribution and reducing waste could significantly increase effective food supply without growing a single extra crop.

For evaluating strategies, use: PEACE

  • Productivity — Does it increase food production?
  • Environment — What is the ecological cost?
  • Access — Does it reach the people who need it most?
  • Cost — Is it affordable for LIC governments and farmers?
  • Externalities — What are the long-term side effects?

Use PEACE when evaluating Green Revolution, GM crops, vertical farming, Fairtrade, or food aid questions. A full Level 3 answer uses at least three of these five dimensions.

Now try it yourself

Quiz · Question 1 of 16

Which of the following best defines food security?

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This topic in real past papers

Every real exam question we've found on food resource management, with a full worked answer.

AQA Paper 2

Look at a map or choropleth and describe the pattern it shows, naming real places or regions from the source, not just a vague impression.

2 marks

AQA Paper 2

Give a brief, accurate definition of a key term from the resource management topics, in one sentence.

1 marks

AQA Paper 2

Explain a quoted statement using specific evidence drawn from two given sources, rather than general knowledge alone.

6 marks

AQA Paper 2

Interpret how a scheme or strategy contributes to security or sustainability in your chosen resource option, using the source material given and your own understanding.

6 marks

AQA Paper 2

Give one reasonable cause of a difference between countries in a resource management topic, developing it with a second, linked point.

2 marks

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