7.5 - food production

What is food security?

Having enough food to be able to feed the population

State the biological factors threatening food security

Rising birth rates

Changing diets and develop developed countries

New pests and pathogens

Environmental changes affecting food production

Increased costs of agriculture

Armed conflicts

How does intensive farming increase the production of animals?

Feed animals higher protein foods to increase growth

Reduce their energy loss to the environment by limiting movement and regulating surrounding temperature

Feed animals, antibiotics to prevent diseases

Advantages of intensive farming

Higher yeild of food

More efficient

Allows easier quality control

Disadvantages of intensive farming

May lead to antibiotic resistance

Cost as high

Ethical objections

Reduce biodiversity

How can fish stocks be conserved?

Control the size of gaps in fishing nets to prevent juvenile fish from being killed

Introduce fishing quotas

What is a transgenic organism?

An organism that has been genetically modified to contain genetic material from another source

Given an example of genetically modified food

Golden rice

How might crops be genetically modified?

To improve nutritional value

To be pest resistant

To be pesticide resistant

Advantages of golden rice

It contains additional beta carotene which can be converted to vitamin A in the body supplementing people who do not obtain enough vitamin A in their diet due to prevent preventing night blindness from forming

What is mycoprotein?

A protein rich substance used to make meat substitute feuded for vegetarians vegan

How is mycoprotein produced?

In a fungus fusarium

Fungus is grown on glucose syrup in aerobic conditions and then bio mass is harvested and purified to get micro protein