Food Security Lesson | GCSE Biology Edexcel Higher Triple

Food Security

This lesson covers:

What food security is
The factors that affect food security

What is food security?

Illustration showing a lock and chain around food representing food security challenges.

Food security occurs when all people are able to access enough safe and nutritious food to meet their requirements for a healthy life, in ways the planet can sustain into the future.

Illustration showing a person standing next to a plant with flowers.

However, food security faces a number of challenges, which means that many people across the world don't have access to adequate food.

What are the 2 key features of food security?

Can't be genetically modified organisms

All food must be organic

Sustainable for the planet into the future

Access enough safe and nutritious food to meet their requirements for a healthy life

Methods for producing food to achieve food security must be sustainable.

What does this mean?

We must meet the demands for food today at any cost.

We must only use finite resources to meet food demand.

We must meet the demand for food today without affecting the ability to meet the demand for food in the future.

Factors affecting food security

Illustration showing the impact of population growth on different regions of the world.

1Rising populations across the world mean there are now more people to feed.

2Diets change as countries become wealthier, and this means food is often transported around the world, and more meat is being consumed (which is less efficient to produce than plant-based foods).

Illustration showing various microorganisms including bacteria and viruses.

3New pests and pathogens can kill crops or livestock, which may lead to famine.

Illustration showing the impact of climate change on Earth, with a transition from a green and blue planet to a yellow and brown planet.

4Environmental changes due to climate change, such as higher temperatures or reduced rainfall, can decrease food yields.

Illustration of a money bag and stacks of cash with currency symbols.

5Agricultural inputs can be expensive. Fuels, pesticides, fertilisers, animal feed etc are all expensive and these costs are often passed onto the consumer, which means food becomes more expensive.

6Conflicts such as wars can disrupt the production and transportation of food, so often cause food prices to rise, and in some cases can cause famine.

How could the spread of pathogens across the world affect food security?

Give 2 ways in which changing diets could negatively affect food security.

Give 3 factors that could negatively affect food security.