Food Supply Factors

Why food supply is uneven

Food is not shared evenly around the world. Some countries produce far more than they need, while others cannot grow enough to feed their people. Several factors decide how much food a place can supply. Climate matters most: drought or flooding ruins harvests. Technology such as machinery and fertiliser raises yields where it is affordable. Pests and diseases destroy crops and livestock. Water stress leaves farmers unable to irrigate. Conflict drives farmers off their land, and poverty stops them buying seeds and tools. When supply falls short a place suffers food insecurity, which brings famine, undernutrition, soil erosion, rising food prices and social unrest. This module looks at those factors and impacts; the next covers ways to grow more.

Food supply words

Learn these before you match any factor, and keep the difference between having enough food and not in mind.

Food surplus against food deficit

The global pattern splits roughly into places that grow more than enough and places that fall short.

How to link a factor to a consequence

Marks come from the chain, not the label. Start with one factor, say what it does to the harvest, then follow it to a real impact on people. A failed rainy season means smaller crops, which means less food, which pushes prices up so poorer families go hungry. Pick a single factor, trace each step, and end at a named consequence for a place rather than listing causes and effects in two separate heaps.

Match the factor to its effect on supply

Which factor is this?

In one region, fighting forces farming families to abandon their land, so their fields grow no crops that year. Which factor is limiting the food supply?

• Conflict.
• Better technology.
• A perfect climate.
• A food surplus.

Impacts of food insecurity

Select the TWO impacts that food insecurity can cause.

• Undernutrition as people go without enough nutrients
• Rising food prices that hit the poorest hardest
• Food becoming cheaper for everyone
• Everyone being able to eat much more

Total wheat yield

A farm grows wheat at 4 tonnes per hectare across 30 hectares of land. Multiply to find the total yield, in tonnes.

Order how drought causes hunger

Put the chain from a drought to hunger in order, earliest first.

• A long drought hits a farming region
• Crops fail and less food is produced
• Food becomes scarce and prices rise
• Poorer families cannot afford enough and go hungry

Complete the facts

Having reliable access to enough healthy food is food _____. Not being able to get enough healthy food is food _____. When people do not get enough nutrients to stay healthy they suffer _____. The single factor that most affects how much a place can grow is its _____.

Match the impact to what it means

Spot the true food supply facts

Tap the TWO statements that are true about food supply.

• Climate is a major factor affecting food supply
• Food insecurity can lead to undernutrition
• Food is shared perfectly evenly across the world
• Conflict always increases how much food is grown

Diagnose the cause

Read each case and choose the best response, with a reason.

• A dry region has too little water to irrigate its fields, so harvests are small. Which factor is limiting the food supply?
• After a poor harvest, food becomes scarce and prices climb. Which impact of food insecurity is this?
• A student lists factors and impacts in two separate blocks with no link between them. How could the answer be improved?

Explain food supply and insecurity

A low-income farming region keeps suffering food shortages. Explain the factors that limit its food supply and the impacts of the food insecurity that follows.

• Explain how climate can limit how much food a place grows
• Explain one other factor, such as conflict, water stress or poverty
• Explain what food insecurity means
• Describe two impacts of food insecurity on the people there
• Finish with a judgement linking the main factor to its worst consequence