Food security: supply, access and sustainable choices
Examine why adequate food production can coexist with hunger and evaluate farming and local supply strategies.
Separate food availability and access
Food security concerns dependable access to sufficient safe and nutritious food. Availability, access, utilisation and stability describe different constraints.
Climate, pests, conflict, prices and infrastructure can interrupt supply or access. Household income and water quality affect outcomes even where markets contain food.
Worked example
A fictional region produces 120,000 tonnes for an estimated 100,000-tonne requirement. This aggregate surplus does not show whether food reaches or is affordable to every household.
Common mistake: National supply is not proof of household food security.
Explain an agricultural intervention
Irrigation, improved seeds and protected growing conditions can alter yields. Costs, energy, skills, soils and water availability shape whether the change is feasible.
Higher output per hectare differs from a larger cultivated area. Irrigation can compete with other water users and create environmental effects.
Worked example
A fictional farm grows 4 tonnes/ha on 30 ha: 120 tonnes. At 5 tonnes/ha on the same area it produces 150 tonnes, a 25% output increase if losses are unchanged.
Common mistake: Higher yield alone does not establish profitability or sustainability.
Compare sustainable supply choices
Local growing, reduced food loss, efficient irrigation and changing diets address different parts of the food system. A strategy needs a defined objective and population.
Transport distance alone does not measure a food’s whole environmental impact. Production method, storage, mode of transport and waste also contribute.
Worked example
A fictional chain starts with 100 tonnes and loses 20. Reducing loss to 10 raises delivered food from 80 to 90 tonnes: a 12.5% increase without more initial production.
Common mistake: A 10-percentage-point loss reduction is not a 10% increase in delivered food.
Try a different resource
Percentage change
The starting year is the denominator. A negative percentage indicates a decrease.
| Year | Visitors |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 2300 |
| 2025 | 2530 |
Resource description
Fictional nature reserve annual visits
Write an explanation
Check your answer
- Identify whether each strategy changes availability, access or stability.
- Explain water and environmental trade-offs.
- Use a proper agricultural/local LIC or NEE case from your course; current linked cases are supporting comparisons.
- Judge outcomes for particular groups.
Practise and review a written answer
Case studies
Adapting livelihoods in the Mekong Delta · The shrinking Aral Sea · Managing hillside farming in Rwanda
These pages provide selected evidence. Check the whole case requirement with your teacher.
Read further
- www.fao.org — source or course reference
- www.aqa.org.uk — source or course reference
- www.aqa.org.uk — source or course reference
- qualifications.pearson.com — source or course reference
- www.ocr.org.uk — source or course reference
- www.ocr.org.uk — source or course reference
Water security and competing uses · Measuring development · Ecosystem interdependence
Course links
AQA GCSE Geography · OCR GCSE Geography B · OCR A-level Geography
Next topics
Water resources: reliable supply and competing uses · Resource security: stocks, conflicts and alternative futures
Selected teaching sequence with fictional worked data. The linked case records supply bounded evidence; they do not satisfy every course case requirement.