Geography of Food

Food consumption

Food trends

1. Amount of food (Levels of food consumption)

– More food (>3000kcal) are consumed in DCs while lesser food
(<2500kcal) are consumed in LDCs
– General increase in food consumption in the world since 1960s
– Food consumption per capita Kilocalories per person per day= Total
amount consumed in a placenumber of people in that place
2. Variety of food (Changing food Preferences)
– DCs
→Increase in consumption of healthy food
⇒ More veg, Less fat
⇒ Organic food
→Increase in consumption of wider variety of food
⇒ Fusion food
⇒ E.G. Ice cream prata
– LDCs
→Fall in consumption of staple food
⇒ Shift from root and tubers to more processed foods
→Increase in consumption of non-staple food
⇒ Non-staple food replaces stable food
⇒ Proliferation of fast food

Reasons for variation in food consumption

1. Affordability
 Purchasing power is the amount of goods and services that can be
brought with a unit of currency
 DCs have higher incomes hence greater purchasing power. They are
able to afford more food and with more variety
 LDCs are opposite of DC
2. Stability of food supply
 When a country has a stable food supply, it is said to enjoy food
security
• Food security is obtaining sufficient food of acceptable quality
and variety at all times
 Food security can be achieved mainly by growing their own food and/or
buying from other countries
 Natural factors
• Natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes
 • E.G. Hurricane Katrina destroyed farmland and livestock in
August 2005. Many people were left without water and food for
several days
• Epidemics like Swine flu, Mad Cow
• E.G. 20 million poultry were destroyed in Asia in late 2003-early
2004 due to widespread of bird flu virus
 Human factors
• War and conflict.
• E.G. During the Iraq-Iran war, the US withheld food aid in an
attempt to strave the Iran
3. Accessibility to food
 Availability of transport facilities
• Food distribution refers to the movement of food from one place
to another
• People living in rural areas may find it difficult to have access to
food
 Availability of food outlets
• Large food chains and supermarkets are commonly found in
DCs, while such food outlets are usually found in the urban
areas of LDCs
• Limitations and inaccessibility to food sources could affect
consumptions
 Globalization
• Is the increase or exchange of information, ideas, cultures and
values due to advancement in transport and communications
• Globalization has created accessibility to a greater variety of
food
 Trade
• Is the exchange of goods and services between countries
• Trade barriers can hinder or encourage accessibility to food

Impacts of variations in food consumption

1. Starvation
○ Due to lack of food (<1000kcal)
○ Results in muscle tissue being burnt for energy
2. Malnutrition
○ Due to imbalance amount of nutrition over time
○ Caused by either natural or psychological factors
○ Results in illness, stunting in children, rickets, anemic, etc.
3. Obesity
○ Excess nutrients are stored as fat
○ Leads to health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart
disease
Responses to variations in food consumption

1. International Organisation
 United Nations
MOGs 2015 – World food summit
World Food Program E.G. Food for work in Somalia
 Red Cross
 Oxfam International
2. Government responses
 Exist in the form of money, free food or food sold at lower prices
 E.G. UK government provide free school lunches to children from low
income families
 Governments may practice stock piling - which is setting aside and
storing food, especially during emergencies
3. Food produces in LDCs
 Currently DCs buy food from LDCs
 And more LDCs are selling non-staple food crops to earn more money

Factors affecting productivity

Physical

1. Soil
 Type of soil
➢Wet, clayey soil (Wet rice)
➢Well drained, sandy soil (Coconut, ground nuts)
➢Well drained, loamy soil (Soy bean)
➢Slightly alkaline soil (Cauliflower)
 Fertility of soil
➢Location (Floodplains, deltas, volcanic regions)
➢Less time needed for fallowing
2. Relief
 Flat/ gentle sloping land
➢Encourages retention of water
➢Maintains nutrients
➢Easier for use of machinery
➢E.G. Canadian Prairies
 Steep areas
➢Terracing
➢Suitable for plantation crops (Tea, coffee)
➢Require more labour
3. Climate
 Tropics
➢Wet rice
➢Sugar cane
  Temperate
➢Potatoes
➢Wheat
➢Salmon farming (Chile, Ireland, USA)

Social

1. Land fragmentation
✔ Very small plots of land
✔ Not economical to use machinery
✔ E.G. China, North Korea
2. Land tenure
✔ Inefficient use of land, due to lack of incentive
✔ E.G. Brazil landlords make up 2% of the population, but owns 42% of
the land

Economic

1. Demand
 High demand encourages greater food products
 E.G. Coffee
2. Capital
 Agricultural inputs
Fertilizers
Seeds
Pesticides
 Daily maintenance
Energy
Water
Land use
 Research and development
Irrigation
Chemical fertilizers
GM

Political

1. Loans and subsidies

 Subsiding food production by faying farmers to produce a certain crop
 Providing low cost, grants or tax advantages to help farmers.
 Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) in Malaysia
2. Polices
 National
High technology farming in Singapore
 Regional
EU’s common fishing policy
Technological

1. The green revolution

 What
It is an agricultural revolution in developing countries during the
1960s and 70s employing high-yielding varieties and modern
technology to bring about increased food production
 Causes
Growing world population, especially in developing countries
Fear of mass starvation, when global food production is not
enough for increasing population
Competition for land, with lesser farming land, farmers are
cultivating land intensively
 Aims
To reduce food shortage by increasing food production
To increase income of poor subsistence farmers
 Features
High-yielding varieties
 Developed through genetic engineering with different
traits
 Faster than selective breeding in Traditional Varieties
 E.G. IR58-“wonder rice” produced by International Rice
Research Institute
 They have shorter growing seasons (150 days vs 100
days)
 They are resistant to pests and diseases
 They are resistant to harsh climates
Modern irrigation methods
 Supplying water to the land through artificial means
 E.G. Drip irrigation, sprinklers
 Irrigation helps to overcome physical constrains of
irregular or insufficient rainfall
 It also allows farmers to grow their crops 2 to 3 times a
year
Chemicals
 Fertilizers adds nutrients to the soil
 Pesticides destroy pests that affect crops
 Herbicides destroy weeds that may compete with crops
for nutrition
2. The blue revolution
 A social and technological movement started in 1970s to protect
marine life and to ensure sufficient seafood, especially fish, for present
and future generation
  Fish farming, where fish are reared in enclosed areas under special
conditions that promote growth
 E.G. FAO helped start Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture in
India

Developments in food production

Effects of intensifying food production

1. Salinization
 It is the upward movement of saline moisture from the soil to the
ground
 This causes a buildup of salt on the ground making the land hard to
grow crops on
 Caused by flood irrigation and dam irrigation
 In Pakistan, water brought for irrigation is saline and adds salt to the
farmland
 Thus almost 5.7 mha of Pakistan’s farmland is salt-affected, reducing
the crop yield
2. Waterlogging
 It is caused by too much water in the fields, causing the soil to be
saturated
 This prevents air and nutrients from reaching the root of plants
 Reducing the quality and growth of the crops
3. Imbalance in soil nutrients
 Chemicals supply 2 to 3 nutrients out of 20 types of nutrients needed
by plants
 Chemicals fertilizers do not add humus (compost) to the soil
 Hence resulting in lower soil quality
4. Eutrophication
 Due to many chemicals and fertilizers being used to increase food
production
 They may be washed away into rivers or lakes
 Because of the nutrient enrichment, algae can grow very fast
 They absorb oxygen in the water and block sunlight from reaching the
aquatic plants
 This causes aquatic plants and creatures to die due to lack of oxygen
or sunlight
 In the early 1990s, environmentalists found that half of the lakes in
Asia and Europe are eutrophic. Thus nutrient levels were considerably
greater than 30 to 40 years ago