Food security
widely seen as major concern for governments in their attempts to sustain their
population.
exists in a country when everyone has access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food
enabling them to maintain healthy and active life. food available for pop at price
that can be afforded. provides for dietary needs and food preferences.
food availability: sufficient food quantities available at all times
food access: people have enough money/land to obtain food for nutritious diet
food use: people know what is involved in good diet and they have means to
prepare and cook their food to provide themselves with this diet.
Causes of food shortages
soil exhaustion: leads to low crop yields, soil erosion and desertification. caused by
over cropping and monoculture. crops take too many nutrients, aren’t replaced by
manure of fertilizer
drought: tropical areas have seasonal rainfall. if rain fails, crops/animals die +
famine is result.
Floods: rice grown on floodplains of large rivers. floods fertilise soil and provide
water for fields. severe floods can damage entire crop.
Tropical cyclones: dangerous coastal areas, tidal surges lead to severe flooding by
sea. destroys crops, drowns animals and poisons soil with salt.
Pests: farmers have to be vigilant but hard to prevent. a locus swarm can destroy
200 000 tonnes of crops in a day. 10% of world pop at risk.
Disease: fungal diseases can affect stored cereal crops and toxins make people ill if
the cereals are eaten. foot and mouth disease reduces milk and meat yields in
brazil and Swaziland.
Low capital investment: poor people have no money to improve farms so just keep
ordering low yields. never have a surplus to sell so stay poor, vicious circle.
Poor transport: farmers in remote areas can’t get their crops to market, even if
they have a surplus.
Wars: DR Congo have had wars for years. people leave their land and become
refugees. stop producing food and rely on aid.
Biofuels: in MIC’s, rapeseed and elephant grass has been produced on land that
used to grow food, leads to food shortages and increased food prices.
Consequences of food shortages
Under nourishment: big effect on children’s health. adults aren’t able to work hard
which causes further food shortages.
Famine: people can die because of lack of food. usually the result of a major crop
failure due to a natural disaster
Viscous circles: poor people are under nourished, they can’t work hard, can’t fulfil
the potential of the land, less food is grown, they stay undernourished.
Aid dependency: aid agencies provide free food for those affected by a famine. the
farmers not affected can’t sell their food. ruins agricultural economy of the country
and leads to long term dependency on food aid
Case study: Swaziland’s food shortages
unemployment led to food shortages; many migrants return home. increased
unemployment caused greater poverty and food shortages. under-nutrition is
severe problem for children, leads to slower growth and many underweight
children.
Factors: 2010: GDP/person was $4500. 1970-1990 life expectancy rose from 48 to
61 years, 2011 dropped to 49yrs. pop weakened by HIV/AIDS. 2009, 26% of 15-49-
year olds were infected (highest amount in world). 96000 orphans in total pop of
1.4m
Extent of the problem: drought in 1991-2 caused maize output to decline.
international food aid had to be seeked. by 1999 crop pop was up again to 90% of
what it was in 1989-91. 2000-2010 2/3’s of pop relied on donor food aid. annual maize requirement is 140000 tonnes. 2008-09 harvest only produced 71000 (half
amount required).
world food programme been moving away from distributing food aid, towards
programmes that instead encourage self-sufficient food production. organisations
supplied food aid directly during emergency situations and via governments during
non-emergencies, (and supplied seeds).
led famers to think they’d also be supplied so became dependent on aid, even sold
what they were given. children born after 1990 know nothing but food aid as
parents have given up on farming. children won’t have agricultural skills.
2006-2010 world food prices rose dramatically. many street protests about this
(Indonesia, Egypt and Philippines)
small-scale farmers have to decide whether to grow crops to feed family or to sell.
many have decided to produce cotton and sugar cane rather than staple foods.
sugar is biggest industry; 2012 sugar industry employed 93000. last 30 years
famers have abandoned food crops and grow cooperatives instead. cooperatives
have relied on Swaziland’s guaranteed access to markets in other countries to
repay bank loans used to irrigate land and buy equipment. if world sugar prices fall
or trade agreements change and cut off key markets, severe difficulties will arise.
Role of tech and innovation in resource development
medical and technological improvements ensured mortality rates have fallen.
has not led to massive over pop as of other tech improvements in food production.
without increase in food production, increase in population that global economic
development has produced couldn’t have been supported.
innovations and improvements in food production were stimulated by green
revolution.
Green revolution and subsequent changes
explain the huge increase in global food supply between 1960-present day.
reasons why food supply has kept up with population growth.
features of these changes are as follows…
new hybrid seed varieties that increases yields of cereal crops. known as HYV crops
(high yielding varieties)
better irrigation systems which mean more land can be cultivated or that existing
cropland can be cultivated in dry season.
increasing the use of chemical fertilisers which boost plant growth
increasing use of herbicides and pesticides to destroy weeds and insects which
damaged or destroyed crops in past.
mechanisation of farming — by using machines, more work can be done more
quickly, so boosting yields.
land reform programmes which mean that farmers work for themselves, pay less
rent and have money left over to improve farms.
improvements in rural transport infrastructure, allowing food to be transported to
market more easily
new GM (genetically modified) varieties of crops e.g. golden rice that has higher
levels of vitamin A than natural rice
green revolution and subsequent changes in agricultural practices has been very
successful in increasing crop yields and therefore providing food for everincreasing global pop.
has improved SoL of people in rural areas and moved farming away from a
subsistence system towards a commercial, money-based system.
increase in rural income has encouraged more farming improvements, has led to
greater food production.
peasant farmers who were caught in vicious circles are now commercial farmers
who benefit from a virtuous spiral.
improvements introduced by green revolution have caused problems…
some new varieties required expensive fertilisers to grow properly and not all
farmers were able to afford them without getting into debt
some new varieties were susceptible to pests and diseases so large amounts of
pesticides had to be used
increased use of agrochemicals (fertilisers and pesticides) led to pollution of water
supplies and impacted on people’s health
irrigation if not properly managed, can lead to the salivation of soil. salty soils are
infertile and will not produce crops
mechanisation has increased rural unemployment and encouraged rural-to-urban
migration, putting pressure on towns and cities
some of new HYV’s can be low in minerals and vitamins, reducing nutritional
quality of diet
Role of constraints in sustaining populations
work of Thomas Malthus showed pop can grow at faster rate than growth in
resources needed to support them. when pop size exceeds the resource, ability
needed to support it, DR rise and growth of pop is constrained. demographers refer
to this as death control.
Poverty: lack of money/capital means an individual cant purchase resources
needed to sustain life and a country can’t afford the developments of infrastructure
that would allow economic development. both can constrain pop growth.
Famine: crops failure can be due to natural cause such as drought and human
activity overusing resources, especially the soil. poverty combines with a growing
pop can contribute to soil exhaustion and food shortage which leads to starvation
and death.
Plague: disease can be controlled but only at a price. most likely to affect poor
people who have poor nutrition as poverty and famine contribute to disease
spread. kill the most vulnerable members of society first.
War: resource shortage can lead to conflict over the use. wars kill people.
Natural disasters: kill people and destroy society means of supporting itself,
leading to more death. causes death, damage and destruction.
Political instability and corruption: avoided if country is to attract foreign
investment that will help it develop and sustain population.
Unfair trade policies: difficult for LIC to use natural resources to support and
sustain economic and social development.
Overpopulation
occurs where available resources are unable to sustain the pop living there
can become over pop if its pop grows to outstrip the resources or if resources
reduce to a point where they can no longer support people.
result of unsustainable development
potential problems for LICs as they develop economically and go through DTM.
characterised by low per person incomes, high unemployment and outward
migration
Underpopulation
occurs where there are too few people in an area to use all resources efficiently for
current level of technology
characteristics by high per person incomes, high unemployment,
underemployment and outward migration
Optimum population:
reached when pop in balance with available resources of an area, given the current
tech level.
It’s an economic concept and refers to tech development of a society
when technology improves, new resources become available and more people
supported
hard to achieve so hard to maintain
concept derived before ideas of sustainability become widely accepted.
governments will try to achieve correct pop resource balance
implement pop policies
could reach optimum but then pop growth/decline in available resources could
result in over pop
optimum is unlikely to be permanent as concept is example of unstable equilibrium
Carrying capacity
max no of people that can be supported in given region without damaging the area
to unsustainable extent
complex concept devised by biologists