Food Production & Consumption (AQA A Level Geography)

Global & Regional Patterns of Food

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 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

Agricultural Systems

• Agriculture is an example of an open system  

  • Contains inputs, outputs and processes that turn inputs into outputs

  • Also containsfeedbacks

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

Productivity in Agricultural Systems

Environmental Variables

• 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