Food Production & Consumption (AQA A Level Geography)

Food production and consumption

• Global food production has changed over time
  • Increased significantly in the last 50 years (three times more food is produced today than in 1970) 
  • Due to more land being put aside to grow crops and technological advancements increasing crop yields
• Global food production is unevenly distributed over space
  • Physical factors (climate, soils, relief and water availability) influence how much food can be grown in some areas
• Human factors (economic resources and investment in technology) also determine the pattern

Global Pattern of Cereals Production (2020) with Annotations Explaining Regional Variation

• Global food consumption has also increased significantly in recent years and there are similar spatial variations across in the globe
• Linked to levels of development
• More highly developed countries can afford to invest in food production technology to increase yields and can also afford to import more food if it can’t be grown locally
• Consumption by lower income countries has also increased as they have developed, but total consumption by these countries is lower and increasingly more slowly than in developed countries

Global Pattern of Meat Consumption (quantity available for consumption per capita, 2019) with Annotations Explaining Regional Variation

• Agriculture is an example of an open system  
• Contains inputs, outputs and processes that turn inputs into outputs
• Also containsfeedbacks

Inputs, Outputs, Processes and Feedbacks in an Agricultural System

• Agricultural productivity is influenced by human factors such as the type of agricultural system

Productivity in Agricultural Systems

• Agricultural productivity is influenced by physical factors such as climate and soils

Climate

• Factors of climate that affect how crops grow include precipitation, temperature and wind
  • Precipitation levels and distribution determine water availability for plants and livestock
  • Steady year-round rain gives an area the best chance to capture and store water required
  • Extreme rainfall can damage crops and arid areas need to import water for crops to survive
  • Maximum and minimum requirements for high yield depend on the crop variety but in general mean annual temperatures between 6°C and 25°C allow for highest productivity and longest growing seasons
  • Higher temperatures require more water supply to replace that which is lost to evapotranspiration
  • High winds can restrict the growth of plants, particularly in grain crops, but in some locations local wind patterns can be beneficial
    • The ‘chinook’ is a warm wind that melts snow in the Prairies of North America, prolonging a cereal's growing season

Soils

• Soil quality is a key factor
• Level of nutrients in the soil varies across the world and different crop varieties require different soil characteristics to thrive
• Potatoes grown in the UK require the PH of the soil to be greater than 4
• Other important soil characteristics are depth, structure, mineral content, moisture retention and aeration
• Soil degradation and soil erosion can decrease productivity