Areas+of+food+sufficiency+and+deficiency


 * Ways of increasing food output. **
 * Increasing the amount of land used for cultivation.
 * Adopting high yielding varieties of crops
 * Irrigation
 * Mechanization of farm labour
 * Application of chemical fertilizers
 * Fair trade
 * Adopting genetically modified food

5. Affluence (Economic factor). That is, many people are getting richer/wealthier, leading to wealthy people buying more food, which is often wasted.
==== 6. Biofuels. There is an increase in the demand for agricultural food products to provide energy resources. E.g. Maize is converted into diesel. In 2008, about 30% of the US corn crop has been diverted into bio-fuels. ====

// Question: Suggest three reasons why energy efficiency ratios vary within a country or region. //

 * 1) ==== Food is preserved, processed and package branded and marketed so that food is becoming increasingly unrecognizable. For example, it is becoming increasingly difficult to link processed meat products to the actual type of animal ====
 * 2) ==== The use of chemicals, ====
 * 3) ====Food is preserved, processed and package branded and marketed so that food is becoming increasingly unrecognizable. For example, it is becoming increasingly difficult to link processed meat products to the actual type of animal====
 * 4) ====The use of chemicals====

The Green Revolution can be defined as the application of western-type science and technology to increase food production in LEDC. Started with the dev’t of high yielding varieties of crops such as rice, maize, wheat in Mexico and India. These crops grew rapidly, required large doses of fertilizers and pesticides.
 * Case Study - The Green Revolution **




 * __Agri-Business__**

Agri-business refers to farming undertaken by large-scale business corporations that embrace the **production, processing, distribution of agricultural products, and the manufacture of farm machinery, equipment and suppliers.** More recently, it has become synonymous with large agro-chemical industries involved in the research and production of high-yielding seed varieties and genetically modified seed varieties alongside the chemical inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides that support them. Agri-businesses are participating in large land grabs that are buying or renting large strands of land area to produce monocultures for either export or for their domestic food security. Examples of agro-businesses are: Some of the food-processing TNCs are Nestle, Unilever, Kraft foods, Cargill.
 * BASF
 * Dupont
 * Mosanto
 * Syngenta

//**Criticisms of Agribusiness**//
 * At the input stage, the natural environment and natural breeding selection is losing out to genetically modified seeds.
 * Large land grabs by TNCs deny the people to cultivate food for domestic consumption.
 * Food is preserved, processed and package-branded and marketed such that food is becoming increasingly unrecognizable. For example, it is becoming increasingly difficult to link processed meat products to the actual type of animal.
 * The use of agro-chemicals and heavy machinery all contribute to environmental degradation.

//**Advantage of Agri-Business**//
 * 1) The production of food on a large scale makes food available to areas that do not have sufficient food supply, because they are able to export food.
 * 2) They create employment opportunities.
 * 3) They create revenue for the governments through the taxes that they pay.
 * 4) Agri-business also leads to the development of infrastructure in many developing countries
 * 5) They eliminate middle men who contribute in increase the prize of agricultural produce.

Possible human factors include:
 * The variety of causes responsible for a recent famine **
 * Case study: Famine in Ethiopia. **
 * age and education of agricultural workforce;- they are not physically strong to carry out heavy duties that machinery could have performed.
 * extent to which population is concentrated in a few large cities, or dispersed or across a wide area; migration flows. This means that a lot of people are migrating from one place to another.
 * increasing population size that has led to a decrease in the amount of land available for farming. Large population sizes also led to an increase in the demand for food which is below the supply.

Economic factors include:
 * ability to purchase food supplies from outside the area or country;
 * deficiencies in the transport system reducing the effectiveness of food distribution; lack of capital to replant or restock farms.

Political factors might include:
 * war and refugee movements;
 * refusal to accept international food aid.

Possible physical/environmental factors include:
 * soil degradation due to over cultivation of the land.
 * climate change;
 * natural hazard events such as hurricanes, drought and earthquakes.

Case study: Famine in Ethiopia



The economic causes of food deficiency include:
 * Questions:**
 * 1. Explain two economic causes of food deficiency.**
 * price increases in staple food items (regardless of why or how they arise, whether from local changes or changes in other regions or countries);
 * transition from food-based agriculture to non-food commercial or export agriculture;
 * inadequate transport infrastructur for food (including food aid) to be supplied and/or distributed efficiently;
 * failure to invest in irrigation projects meaning that the area is unable to cope in times of low rainfall or drought.

You are expected to consider a range of human factors and other factors (such as physical/environmental, economic and political) in their responses. Answers should clarify how each factor affected the occurrence, severity and outcome of a particular famine.
 * 2. To what extent were human factors responsible for a recent famine?**


 * 3. Examine the factors which have led to more food becoming available in some areas in recent years. [10 marks]**

Numerous factors can result in more food becoming available. The first major group of factors is those related to the improved productivity and/or total production of food-related agriculture. These factors include:
 * increased area under cultivation as a result of land clearance and/or irrigation;
 * higher yields due to better technology (e.g. drip irrigation instead of flood irrigation), mechanization, improved varieties (including GM crops and livestock).

Distribution and storage is also important. More food may become available because To obtain high scores consider a variety of factors, and support their ideas with accurate examples.
 * less is lost or damaged in transit as a result of improvements in the distribution network (highways, rail, planes) or in the vehicles used (e.g. refrigeration).
 * Improved packing methods may also be important.
 * Subsidies to local farmers for food crops, and reductions in food exports may also raise the amount of food available locally.
 * Equally, a rise in income may also increase the availability of food within some sectors of society.
 * Increased food imports also play a part, and this means that increased availability of food may depend on the success of harvests a long way away from their eventual destination.
 * Changes of climate may bear some responsibility for increased food availability in some areas, but this will normally be restricted to those areas which were previously suffering from a prolonged condition such as an extreme
 * drought.


 * 4. To what extent was one recent named famine caused by crop failure?**

Famines usually result from the interaction of a variety of factors including not only physical factors (for example, adverse climate, soil failure) but also demographic (for example, rapidly expanding population), economic (lack of resources) and political (for example, war zones, refugees), among others. Stronger responses are expected to look at one example of a recent famine and display some understanding of the different factors involved in causing it to occur/develop. Crop failure need not be a significant factor for the chosen example and full credit is available for answers that mainly focus on the role of alternative factors.

Responses that do not focus primarily on a specific recent famine are unlikely to score high marks. Responses that look at the combination of causes that led to a specific famine occurring, and then draw some conclusion about the relative importance of crop failure, are likely to obtain higher marks (Both factors stated above are required with a well balanced attempt at evaluation)

5.“**Free trade is more important than food aid in helping to solve (alleviate) food shortages.” Discuss this statement.**

Responses are expected to show a clear understanding of the differences between food aid and free trade, and also indicate that there are many different kinds of food shortages, such as short-term/seasonal/long-term/chronic (temporal) and local/national/regional (spatial).

Strong responses are likely to show that the relative importance of food aid, as opposed to free trade, will depend on the temporal and spatial extent of the food shortage in question. The very best answers may challenge the role of free trade and/or food aid in alleviating food shortages and offer examples where the reverse is true.

Responses that clearly distinguish between food aid and free trade, discuss most aspects of the question with examples, and attempt some conclusion in a well balanced manner are likely to score all the marks to this question.

Source: International Baccalaureate Organization