FOOD

SECURITY
Geography 2016

Food Security Definition

Food

security exists when all people, at

all times, have physical and economic
access to enough safe and nutritious
food to meet their dietary needs and
food preferences for an active and
healthy lifestyle.
(World Food Summit, 1996)

To be food secure means that:

food

is available

How?
food is affordable
How?
food is utilised
How?

What is the impact of food insecurity?

For the 842 million people in the world

who do not get enough healthy food
regularly, ill health and a shorter life
expectancy are real risks. Children, and
especially very young children, who suffer
from food insecurity will most likely be
smaller and be less able physically and
intellectually.

FOOD For THOUGHT

Fast facts about global food production and food security

Read the above food fact statements. All statements are factually
correct, but not all are relevant to answering the question:
Can the world produce enough food to feed everyone?

Select those that are relevant and cut and paste them in order onto a
new blank sheet of paper. Put them in a logical order to write a
paragraph to answer the question.

Why is there food insecurity?

Create a mind map

Take notes from the next slides
Povert
y
?

Wh
y
?

?
?

Why is there food

insecurity?

Poverty
Poor people lack access to sufficient resources
to produce or buy quality food. Farmers who
lack sufficient equipment cannot grow enough
produce and may be forced to farm less
productive land. This could lead to further
environmental deterioration and continue the
cycle of poverty. Addressing poverty is critical
to ensuring that all people have sufficient food.

Health
A lack of sufficient calories and nutrients has huge effects on a
persons health. A hungry mother will give birth to an
underweight baby, who then faces a future of stunted growth,
frequent illness, learning disabilities and reduced resistance to
disease. A hungry community will struggle to work and produce
enough food.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has reduced food production in many
affected countries as productive adults become ill or die. Lacking
the labour, resources and know-how to grow staples and
commercial crops, many households have shifted to cultivating
survival foods or even leaving their fields, further reducing the
food supply. Addressing health issues will improve utilisation and
availability of food.

Water

& the environment

Food production requires massive amounts of water. It

takes one cubic metre (1,000 litres) of water to produce
one kilogram of wheat and 3,000 litres of water to
produce one kilogram of rice. Producing sufficient food is
directly related to having sufficient water. Where water is
scarce and the environment fragile, achieving food
security may depend on what has been called virtual
water, that is, importing food from countries with an
abundance of water.

Water Usage in Food

Production
Producing

adequate food supplies is directly

related to the availability of sufficient water.
Agriculture consumes 85% of the worlds
fresh water.
1 kg of rice= 3400 litres of water
Rain fed agriculture = 80 % of cultivated land
globally
Q. What happens when rainfall is erratic? How
does this affect food security in those regions
Q. What about water pollution?

Water Footprints of Food

The water footprint of food is water
taken in production as well as from
the land.
1 pot of tea = 90 litres (750 ml)
1 500g pack cane sugar = 750 litres
1 litre of milk = 1000 litres
1 block of cheese = 2500 litres
1 Hamburger = 2500 litres
1 steak= 4650 litres

Gender

Equity

Women play a vital role in providing food and nutrition for

their families through their roles as food producers,
processors, traders and income earners. Yet womens lower
social and economic status limits their access to education,
training, land ownership, decision-making, credit, and
consequently their ability to improve their access to and use
of food. Food utilisation can be enhanced by improving
womens knowledge of nutrition and food safety and the
prevention of illnesses. Increasing womens involvement in
decision-making and their access to land and credit will in turn
improve food security as women invest in fertilisers and better
seeds, labour-saving tools, irrigation and land care.

Facts:

Facts:

Case Study: Nestle Ivory Coast

https://www.youtube.com/embed/-W-Ca

JZLHB8

Gender Equity: Articles

You will be given 1 of 2 journal articles
regarding agriculture and gender equity
Read your article with a partner and
answer the following:
1. What surprised you in the article...ie,
what was new information?
2. What ideas from the article relate to food
security?
3. Add any other interesting points

Disasters

and conflicts

Droughts, floods, cyclones and pests can quickly wipe out large
quantities of food as it grows or when it is in storage for later use.
Likewise, seeds can be destroyed by such environmental dangers.
Conflict can also reduce or destroy food in production or storage
as farmers flee to safety or become involved in the fighting.
Previously productive land may be contaminated with explosive
debris and need to be cleared before it can again be used for food
production.
Stored food, seeds and breeding livestock may be eaten or
destroyed by soldiers, leading to long-term food shortages.
Governments need to prioritise spending on food security in the
aftermath of conflict.

Disaster and Conflict

Task

Choose an event from the list on the Whiteboard

Identify what happened in this event

Identify how the event affects Food Security

Mind map or list your answers

Population

and urbanisation

Population growth increases the demand for food,

placing greater pressure on productive land. Poor
harvests and higher costs lead many poor farmers to
migrate to cities to look for work.
Expanding cities also spread out across productive
land, pushing food production further and further away
from consumers. This increases the cost of all the
activities associated with producing and transporting
food, and decreases the food security of the poor in
cities.

Trade
Many poor countries can produce staples more cheaply than
rich nations but barriers to trade, such as distance from
markets, quarantine regulations and tariffs make it difficult
for them to compete in export markets against highly
subsidised farmers in rich countries.
This deprives poor farmers of income and entire countries of
the agricultural base that they need to develop other sectors
of the economy.
In addition, trade imbalances prevent poor countries from
importing agricultural products that could enhance their
food security.

North South Gap

While globalisation and transnational companies are
bringing the world together in terms of trade there is a
widening gap between the economically wealthy and
the poorer countries of the world. This gap between
the richer and poorer countries is often referred to as
the North-South Gap, or divide.
The North ( or developed) countries are mainly in the
northern hemisphere ( USA, Europe Japan). These
countries have a high levels of industrial development,
high standards of living, and are home to most of the
transnational companies.
Agree or Disagree? Support your opinion

The South

The Southern countries are mainly developing countries

( South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia) and are the
poorer countries. These countries have less industrial
development , lower standards of living , and weak
workplace protection laws.

Decide whether Australia is a northern country or a

southern country...provide evidence to support your answer.
Is China part of the North or the South? Why?
Do the concepts of North South Gap still apply to the trade
patterns of these countries? Is it relevant?( The original
concept was coined in 1980)

Fair Trade
Trade

based on buying and selling of

products (usually from poorer nations)
that have been mined , grown ,and
manufactured under humane working
conditions with appropriate wages for
the workers and minimal environmental
impact

Fair Trade Origins

1940: Edna Blyler discovered Puerto Rican linen
needlework: started selling to friends and neighbours
1952: Edna takes the craft global
1964: Oxfam begins marketing handicrafts from
developing countries aiming to give small scale
producers fair prices , training, advice, and funding.
1988: Labelling starts on products in the Netherlands
1997 : Fairtrade International starts as an umbrella
organisation to regulate Fair trade certification.
Write some Fair trade Products you know...

Fair Trade products

Food

products:
bananas, coffee, cocoa, dried fruit, fresh
fruit, honey, herbs and spices, tea,
quinoa, rice, nuts, wine, sugar, beans
Non food products:
Cotton, cut flowers, sports balls,
ornamental plants

Activity: Fair Trade

Benefits
Part 1: Worksheet: Who Benefits the most from Fair
Trade?
Fill in the grid based on what we have discussed in class
Part 2 : Written Reflection :
1 paragraph for each prompt:
The Fair Trade Movement has been able to make trade
between richer and poorer countries fairer
How does supporting the Fair Trade movement help
maintain food security for the farmers or growers that
produce the goods we are buying?
(You can refer to earlier notes for help)

HUNGER GAMES
On

the World map annotate with 3 colours to

determine each countries Nourishment Requirements
Under Nourished Red
Nourished Orange
Over Nourished Green
Compareyour

map with others anddiscusswhy you

have selected these countries.
Then using the 2013 Hunger map on V drive,
compare with your own interpretation of the question.

Hunger Games(cont.)
Answerthe following questions:
1. On what basis did you select the countries you thought were food secure
or food insecure? What influenced your thinking?

2. Were these assumptions accurate?

3. Analyse the difference between your map and the 2013 Hunger Map. Give
specific examples.
4. What are some characteristics of the countries which are not food secure?
(Think about their economic, social, political, and environmental situations.
Include reference ideas such as climate, culture, human modification of
environments, soil fertility, landforms, technology, labour and demand.Also
look back at your mind-map for hints.
5. Zoom in to find Haiti. What category does it fall in, why?
6. How would this map look different if the data was collected today rather
than a few years ago?

The Food Index

Explore the interactive snapshot of 125
countries showing the best and worst places
in the world to eat, and the challenges people
face getting enough of the right food.
Around the world, one in eight people go to bed
hungry every night, even though there is enough
food for everyone. This graph illustrates how
overconsumption, misuse of resources and waste
are common elements of a system that leaves
hundreds of millions without enough to eat.
Visitthis sitethat looks at global food levels in
125 countries across the world, to determine
whether a country has food security.

Food Wastage
Youtube Clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoCVrkcaH6Q
Agree or Disagree (or somewhere in between..)
The Howqua Community does its best to ensure
food wastage is minimised
Write a short response to the statement in your
book.

Which biomes are able to produce food?

Compare the map of Land Used for Agriculture

(on the next slide & found on the V drive)with
your map of biomes
Which biomes are mostly used for cropland?
Which biomes are mostly used for pasture, i.e.
animal grazing?
Which biomes produce the least food?
Is there an interconnection between biomes
and land used for agriculture? Give examples
to illustrate your answer.

Major Challenges to Food Production

1) CLIMATE CHANGE

Complete the Faces of Climate Change

Worksheet.
The videos can be access on the V drive
in the folder Faces of Climate Change

2) Competing for land use

Introducing Land Grabs
Read this article. In your own words, write an explanation of what
youthink the term land grab refers to.
Its not necessarily a problem when wealthy companies invest in agricultural
land in poor countries for commercial use. But when families are kicked off
the land or less food is grown as a result, thats a very big problem indeed.
And since the food price spikes of 2008, thats been happening more and
more.
Demand for land has soared as investors look for places to grow food for
export, or to grow biofuels, or simply to gain in value.
But in many cases, land sold as unused or undeveloped is actually being
used by poor families to grow food. These families are often forcibly kicked
off the land. Promises of compensation are broken. And then, to add insult
to injury, the land is left idle, despite promises to the contrary.
Source:Oxfam Australia website

LAND GRABS
Since the food price increases that occurred in 2008 during the
Global Financial Crisis (GFC), large food-producing companies have
expanded their farming practises across the world in an attempt to
make greater profit from growing food.
In some cases, the way this has been done has resulted in
small-scale farmers being forcibly removed from their land.
This oftenresults in people losing their homes and finding it
difficult to feed their families,and can also impact on the ability
to educate children and have access to health care.
Watch these videos to find out more:
https://youtu.be/5GL54O0QthE - animation on Land Grabs
https://youtu.be/JsTi8LrTLFg - does your sugar come from Land
Grabs
What is the message portrayed in each clip?
What methods are used to portray this message?
What clip was more affective to you? Why?

Study the pie graph of land areas that have been

grabbed.
On which continents do 75 per cent of the land
grabs occur?
Suggest why fewer land grabs occur in Europe.

Complete worksheet
LandGrabsinAsia
Land

grabs around the globe

Activity 2 Improving Food Security

Choose 1 of the below Case Studies

CASE STUDY # 1
Aquaculture in Thailand
What were the factors hindering food production
in north-east Thailand?
How was the problem solved?
Why were fish identified as the food supply to
solve the food security issues?

Case Study # 2
Sweet potato biodiversity in Papua New G
uinea
What was the aim of the 'sweet potato
project' in Papua?
Why were women considered a key
factor affecting the success of the
project?
How did the project impact on food
security in the Madang region?

CASE STUDY # 3
Fixing Food Security with Forage Legumes
in West Timor
Why is there a food security problem in
West Timor?
How can the production of legumes
solve this issue?
How has Australia assisted with this
problem?