Terrestrial food production systems and societies
Domain 6 examines terrestrial food production systems and their social and environmental dimensions: food security, farming methods, inputs, yields, waste and dietary change. The exam asks you to evaluate trade-offs, not just list impacts.
Core rules
- Food security has four pillars: availability, access, utilisation and stability. Enough food produced does not guarantee food security if people cannot afford or reach it.
- Intensive farming raises yields per hectare through inputs (fertiliser, pesticide, irrigation, mechanisation) but can cause pollution, soil degradation and biodiversity loss.
- Organic farming avoids synthetic inputs but often has lower yields per hectare; impacts per unit product depend on yields, land use and transport.
- Monoculture increases efficiency but reduces resilience to pests and disease.
- Food waste occurs at production, distribution and consumption; reducing it lowers demand on land and water.
Worked example
Farm A produces 8 t wheat ha⁻¹ using 120 kg N ha⁻¹. Farm B produces 6 t ha⁻¹ using 60 kg N ha⁻¹. Nitrogen use efficiency: A = 8,000 kg ÷ 120 = 66.7 kg grain per kg N; B = 6,000 ÷ 60 = 100 kg grain per kg N. Reasoning: B has lower yield but higher efficiency, so its nitrogen pollution risk per tonne may be lower. A may be preferable for total output, B for reduced nutrient loss. The exam rewards this trade-off reasoning rather than a single best farm.
Traps
- Equating food security with food production.
- Assuming organic always has a lower environmental impact per kg; lower yields can mean more land.
- Assuming local food always has a lower carbon footprint; production and storage can dominate.
- Ignoring food waste and dietary change as demand-side solutions.
- Confusing undernourishment (calorie shortage) with malnutrition (nutrient imbalance).