Food Systems: Local and Global Impacts & Food Security

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, agricultural revolutions, food security definitions, supply chain logistics, and resource efficiency metrics from the Food Systems lecture.

Neolithic Revolution

The first agricultural revolution occurring approximately $10{,}000$ years ago independently in $4$ to $5$ locations, characterized by the adoption of the plow, draft animals, irrigation, seed selection, and cuttings, leading to the establishment of sedentary civilizations.

Second Agricultural Revolution

An agricultural transformation occurring concurrently with the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe, driven by urban and industrial food demand and characterized by the Enclosure Acts, commercial markets, transport technology, and the adoption of new crops such as potatoes and maize.

Enclosure Acts

Legislative measures in Western Europe during the Second Agricultural Revolution that privatized and fenced off common agricultural lands, shifting farming away from feudal subsistence toward commercial production.

Green Revolution

A series of agricultural research and technology transfers occurring from the $1930\text{s}$ to the $1970\text{s}$ that exported mechanization, synthetic fertilizers, hybrid seeds, agrochemicals, and fast-growing dwarf cereal varieties to low-income countries to drastically increase crop yields.

Dwarf Varieties

Selectively bred high-yielding cereal cultivars with shorter, sturdier stems developed during the Green Revolution to prevent lodging under heavy grain heads and prioritize grain growth over stem biomass.

Food Security

A condition defined by the $1996$ World Food Summit as existing when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life meeting their dietary needs and food preferences.

Food Availability

The first pillar of food security, defined as having sufficient quantities of food present and available on a consistent basis.

Food Access

The second pillar of food security, referring to individuals possessing adequate economic and physical resources to acquire appropriate and nutritious foods.

Food Use

The third pillar of food security, defined as the appropriate biological utilization of food based on knowledge of nutrition, proper care, adequate water, and sanitation.

Food Miles

The total geographic distance travelled by food items from the farm where they are produced to the consumer, measured to evaluate environmental impacts including greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, energy use, and traffic congestion.

100-Mile Diet

A local eating initiative and series created by J.B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, committing to consume only food and drink produced within a $100\text{-mile}$ radius of home.

Food Supply Chain

The entire network and sequence of stages involved in food production and distribution, spanning initial cultivation and harvest, transportation, industrial processing, distribution centers, retail sales, domestic consumption, and waste disposal.

Cold Chain Logistics

An uninterrupted temperature-controlled supply chain that maintains consistent chilling from production to point-of-sale to prevent pathogen growth and comply with HACCP requirements.

Food Desert

An area with inadequate access to affordable and nutritious food; specifically defined in Baltimore City as an area where the distance to a supermarket exceeds $0.25\text{ miles}$, median household income is at or below $185\%$ of the Federal Poverty Level, over $40\%$ of households lack a vehicle, and the Healthy Food Availability Index score is low.

Double Cropping

An agricultural practice where two different crops are planted and harvested consecutively on the same plot of land within a single year, such as winter wheat followed by summer soybeans.

Drip Irrigation

A micro-irrigation system that applies water directly to the plant root zone via tubing and emitters, substantially reducing evaporation and runoff in an agricultural sector where traditional irrigation accounts for $70\%$ of global water use.

Entomophagy Resource Efficiency

The high resource conversion rate of edible insects, exemplified by crickets requiring only $2\,\text{pounds}$ of feed and $1\,\text{gallon}$ of water per pound of edible meat, compared to beef which requires $25\,\text{pounds}$ of feed, $2{,}000\,\text{gallons}$ of water, and generates $100\times$ more greenhouse gas emissions.

Global Dietary Carrying Capacity

The projected population limits Earth can sustain based on per-capita food consumption tiers: $2.5\text{ billion}$ at the U.S. level ($800\,\text{kg/person/year}$), $5\text{ billion}$ at the Italian level ($400\,\text{kg/person/year}$), and $10\text{ billion}$ at the Indian level ($200\,\text{kg/person/year}$).

Biofuel Crop Pressure

The displacement of food production by bioenergy crops, demonstrated by ethanol production consuming approximately $20\%$ of the American corn harvest.

Livestock Land-Use Footprint

The global land area dedicated to animal agriculture, where $25\%$ of the Earth's surface (excluding Greenland and Antarctica) is used for grazing, $50\%$ of cropland is used to feed livestock, and $38\%$ of the world grain harvest is dedicated to animal feed.