Food Production (AQA GCSE Biology)

Over the last 120 years, the human population growth has been rapid, increasing from around 1.6 billion in 1900 to an estimated 7.7 billion in 2019.

Calculate the percentage change in human population size between 1900 and 2019.

You must show your working.

Ensuring that a population has enough food to eat (food security) is a global problem.

Chickens can be reared outdoors (‘free-range’ chickens), or intensively indoors.

Explain how indoor intensive farming of livestock, such as chickens, increases the efficiency of food production.

Table 1 shows the energy inputs and outputs for both methods of rearing chickens.

Table 1

Rearing chicken indoors has a percentage efficiency of 0.57 %.

Calculate the energy output, X, for rearing chickens indoors.

Show your working.

Give your answer to 3 significant figures.

Compare the efficiency of farming ‘free-range’ chickens with chickens reared indoors.

Pigs can be farmed intensively for food production.

Intensive farming is just one way in which modern farming techniques are attempting to address food security.

Explain what is meant by the term ‘food security’.

The number of individuals following a plant-only diet has increased rapidly over the last ten years.

Figure 1 shows how the number of internet searches for ‘plant-only diet’ from individuals in the UK compares to the rest of the World.

Figure 1

Calculate the percentage change in the number of individuals from the UK searching for ‘plant-only diet’ on the internet from 2009 to 2019.

Those that follow a plant-only diet cite the impact of intensive animal farming on the environment as one of their main reasons for not consuming animal products, as well as having concerns with how livestock is reared intensively for meat.

Describe some of the advantages and disadvantages of intensive animal farming.

In many places worldwide, there is a lack of food security.

Those that follow a plant-only diet argue that if we all stopped eating meat, there would be less poverty and higher levels of food security for everyone.

Suggest why.

Many vegetarians substitute meat in their diet with mycoprotein.

Describe how mycoprotein is produced in a fermenter.

Protein is essential for cells to grow and function.

In recent years, environmental concern regarding the impact of farming animals for meat has grown.

Suggest why it may be considered more advantageous for people to eat mycoprotein as a source of protein over farmed meat.

Fish are the largest traded food commodity in the world, with over 3 billion people relying on fish as their main protein source.

There is a high level concern regarding the decline of fish stocks as a result of overfishing worldwide.

Many governments are trying to bring in measures to ensure that fishing is sustainable. 

Suggest what is meant by the term ‘sustainable fishing’.

Figure 2 shows an example of a food chain in the Atlantic Ocean.

Figure 2

Suggest the impact that would be caused by the extinction of cod in the Atlantic Ocean.

Describe and explain how different fishing techniques could be used to promote the recovery of fish stocks.

Biotechnology can potentially help provide sufficient food for the increasing human population.

Describe what the term 'biotechnology' means.

"Biotechnology is a modern technology resulting from our development of genetic modification techniques".

With reference to food production, suggest why the above statement is not necessarily accurate.

In some regions of Africa and Asia, many people consume diets deficient in Vitamin A.

Golden rice is a genetically-modified (GM) variety of rice that has been genetically engineered to produce beta-carotene.

A lack of beta-carotene in the diet can lead to blindness and death in children.

Beta-carotene can be converted into Vitamin A in the human body.

Describe how genetic engineering could have been used to produce golden rice.

Some countries are sceptical about growing GM crops, like golden rice.

The government in Zimbabwe has prohibited the growth of GM crops, like golden rice, arguing they ‘had yet to see the benefits’ of them.

Evaluate the production of GM crops as means of meeting the demands of a growing human population.

In Malawi, the local human population produces a food called kunga cake from the bodies of millions of small insects that swarm seasonally around the shores of Lake Malawi. 

The flies are caught in frying pans waved through the swarms; a light coating of oil in the pan causes the insects to stick and they are then crushed into a patty for cooking. Cooking can be by shallow frying which produces a burger-like product (Figure 1), treated as an important element of the diet by the locals.

Figure 1

Kunga cake is cheap and nutritious and even tastes good, according to those that eat it. 

Explain how the production of kunga cake has ecological benefits. 

The insects used to make kunga cake are cold-blooded, whereas livestock is warm-blooded.

Explain how this gives ecological benefits when making food from insects. 

A company in the USA has pioneered the use of crickets (Figure 2) as a source of nutrients in its products, made for human consumption.

Crickets (as pictured below) are crushed and processed into a flour-like product that can be used in many different food recipes.                                                                 Figure 2

In its marketing brochure, the company makes certain claims about crickets as a food source, in direct comparison to traditional livestock animals like cattle.

These are summarised in Table 1.

Table 1

Skeptics reading the brochure would point to reasons why cricket-based foodstuffs have not been commercially successful yet.

Use the data in Table 1 and your knowledge of eating habits to evaluate the claims made by the company making cricket-based food products. 

Figure 3 below shows a fermenter used to grow microorganisms. 

Figure 3

Explain how temperature is controlled in a fermenter like this one. 

Explain why temperature must be controlled in the fermenter. 

Explain the purpose of the air filter in the fermenter.

Name a type of food manufactured in a fermenter such as the one shown in Figure 3 and name the microorganism used in the manufacture. 

In the UK, there are four official classifications of egg production methods by commercial companies keeping hens for the supply of eggs. These are:

1. Organic

2. Laying cage

3. Barn

4. Free-range

Place these four methods in Table 2 below in increasing order of intensity. 

Table 2

Figure 4 shows data on egg production in the UK between 2008 and 2018, with details of the numbers of eggs produced on commercial farms using the four methods described in (a). 

Figure 4

Calculate the percentage change in the number of free range eggs produced in the UK between 2011 and 2018.

Figure 5 shows a group of free range ('backyard') hens in an outdoor pen. 

Some owners of such hens claim that the eggs these hens produce are larger and tastier than eggs that are farmed using the other methods and sold in supermarkets. 

Figure 5

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Evaluate the claim made by these owners of backyard hens and comment on the sustainability of free range farming methods like this one. 

The data in Figure 5 shows an increase in free range egg production. Much of this extra production is sold outside the UK via export.

State the meaning of 'food miles' and explain how food miles have a detrimental effect on the environment. 

Organic crop farmers employ methods that they claim are more sustainable than traditional, high-intensity methods. 

Describe two such methods and explain an advantage of each of these methods. 

Figure 6 shows data on the area of land in the UK has been used for organic farming between 2002 and 2021. As well as fully-organic land, the amount of in-conversion land is also shown; this is land that is in the process of being converted into organic farming use, both arable and for livestock grazing. 

Figure 6

Source: UK Government Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs 2021

Describe the trends in organic land use between 2002 and 2021. 

With reference to the data in Figure 6, suggest two reasons why the overall amount of land being devoted to organic farming in the UK has decreased in the period 2002 - 2021. 

Insulin can be manufactured through the genetic modification of bacteria.

Describe the steps in the processes of genetic modification of bacteria and manufacture of the insulin. 

Until 1982, when the process described in part (a) was developed, human diabetics had to inject insulin from a cow or pig pancreas as their therapy. 

Explain two advantages of the new human insulin produced by genetic modification.