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Quiz yourself on Food Resource ManagementGet your flashcardsBuild my revision planTrack my progress🧠 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.
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