Food SupplyCambridge IGCSE Biology: Flashcards

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Name five ways humans have increased food production.

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Name five ways humans have increased food production.: Agricultural machinery, chemical fertilisers, insecticides, herbicides, and selective breeding of crops/livestock.
What is selective breeding?: Choosing organisms with desirable characteristics to breed together over many generations.
Define a monoculture.: The large-scale growing of a single crop species over a wide area.
Give one advantage of monocultures.: Efficient use of machinery and labour, and higher short-term yields.
Give one disadvantage of monocultures.: Reduced biodiversity and higher risk of a pest or disease destroying the whole crop.
Give one advantage of intensive livestock production.: Higher yield of meat, milk or eggs at lower cost.
Give one disadvantage of intensive livestock production.: Animal welfare concerns, rapid disease spread, and pollution from waste.
Define a sustainable resource.: A resource produced as rapidly as it is removed from the environment, so it does not run out.
Name two resources that can be conserved and managed sustainably for food.: Forests and fish stocks.
What is a closed season in fishing?: A period when fishing is banned, usually during breeding seasons, to let fish populations recover.
Why are controlled mesh sizes used in fishing nets?: To let young or small fish escape and survive to reach breeding age.
What is a fishing quota?: A legal limit on the amount (mass or number) of fish that can be caught.
Why do insecticides and herbicides increase crop yield?: They kill pests and weeds that would otherwise damage crops or compete with them for light, water and nutrients.
Why can disease spread quickly in intensive livestock systems?: Because animals are kept close together in confined spaces.
Why can a pest wipe out an entire monoculture crop?: All the plants are the same species with no genetic variation, so none have resistance to the pest or disease.