Knowledge Organiser: Food Security and Management
Part of Food Resource Management · GCSE GCSE Geography revision
This topic summary covers Knowledge Organiser: Food Security and Management within Food Resource Management for GCSE Geography. Revise Food Resource Management in The Challenge of Resource Management for GCSE Geography with 15 exam-style questions and 20 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 15 of 15 in this topic. Use this topic summary to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 15 of 15
Practice
15 questions
Recall
20 flashcards
Knowledge Organiser: Food Security and Management
Key Terms
- Food security: reliable access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food (4 pillars: availability, access, utilisation, stability)
- Agroforestry: growing crops under forest canopy; biodiversity-preserving farming
- HYV crops: high-yield varieties at heart of Green Revolution
- Fairtrade: guaranteed minimum price + community premium for LIC farmers
- Food miles: distance food travels; crude carbon measure
- The nexus: interconnection of food, water, and energy systems
- Monoculture: single-crop farming; efficient but fragile
Must-Know Statistics
- 733 million people chronically hungry (FAO, 2023) — yet world produces enough for 10 billion
- 60% of the world's hungry live in conflict-affected countries
- 70% of all freshwater withdrawals go to agriculture
- 1/3 of all food produced is lost or wasted (1.3 billion tonnes/yr)
- £800/yr: average British household food waste
- Beef uses 20x more land per gram of protein than lentils
- California: 25% of US food from 1% of US farmland
- Green Revolution India: wheat yields trebled 1965–85
- San Joaquin Valley: sinking 28 cm/yr from groundwater extraction
Case Studies at a Glance
- California Central Valley (HIC): 25% US food, drip irrigation, GPS tractors; subsidence 28cm/yr, soil salinisation, 2012–17 drought cut output 40%, migrant labour exploitation
- Ethiopia agroforestry (LIDC): 12m people depend on coffee; shade-grown, no pesticides, 5,000+ endemic species; Fairtrade gives £1.80/kg + community premium; climate change shifting optimal altitude
- Green Revolution: India 1960s–80s; trebled yields; averted famine; also depleted aquifers, degraded soil, increased inequality
- Desert locusts: East Africa 2019–21; 40 billion-strong swarms; 10 countries affected; 35,000 people's daily food eaten per swarm per day
CAPED + PEACE Frameworks
- CAPED (causes): Climate, Access, Population, Environmental degradation, Distribution/waste
- PEACE (evaluate strategies): Productivity, Environment, Access, Cost, Externalities
- Four pillars: Availability, Access, Utilisation, Stability
- L3 answers: compare strategies, acknowledge trade-offs, make a judgement
- Golden rule: Always link production back to access — who actually benefits?
Common Mistakes
- Saying food insecurity is caused by insufficient production: The world produces enough calories for 10 billion people — 733 million go hungry because of access, conflict and distribution failures, not global production shortfalls
- Praising the Green Revolution without evaluating costs: India's wheat yields trebled 1965–85 and famine was averted, but aquifer depletion, soil degradation and rising inequality were direct consequences — always balance benefits with environmental and social costs
- Using "food miles" as the only sustainability measure: A UK-grown tomato in a heated greenhouse can have a higher carbon footprint than a Spanish field-grown tomato transported by lorry — food miles is a crude and often misleading indicator
- Ignoring the nexus in food questions: Agriculture uses 70% of global freshwater withdrawals and is a major energy consumer — food security answers that ignore water and energy links miss the synoptic marks examiners award at Level 3
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Practice Questions for Food Resource Management
Which of the following best defines food security?
Explain one physical cause of food insecurity. [2 marks]
Quick Recall Flashcards
15 questions on Food Resource Management — practise free
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