Factors affecting food security — AQA GCSE Biology
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Factors affecting food security explained
Food security means having enough food to feed a population.
Read the full explanation
Students must describe specific factors affecting this. An increasing birth rate threatens food security as more people require feeding. Changing diets in developed countries mean scarce food resources are transported globally, depriving local populations. New pests and pathogens can destroy crops or livestock, drastically reducing yields. Environmental changes, such as failing rains causing widespread famine, limit food production. The high cost of agricultural inputs, like fertilisers or genetically modified seeds, restricts farming in developing nations. Finally, conflicts disrupt farming and water supplies, preventing food production and distribution.
Food security is having enough food to feed a population.
Food security means that a population has enough food to meet its needs. It is not simply whether food exists somewhere in the world, but whether people can reliably obtain sufficient safe, nutritious food. A country may have food available yet still experience insecurity if supply is disrupted, prices rise or distribution fails. Students should define food security clearly and distinguish it from related ideas such as food safety, which concerns avoiding contamination, and food supply, which is only one part of security. A useful example is a region where a poor harvest raises prices so that some families cannot afford enough food even though shops still stock some items.
The increasing birth rate has threatened food security in some countries.
A rising birth rate increases the number of people who need food. If food production or imports do not rise at the same pace, the amount available per person falls and food security is threatened. The pressure is greatest where farmland is limited, harvests are unreliable or incomes are low. Students should explain the link: more births lead to a larger population, which raises demand for food; if supply cannot keep up, food becomes scarcer or more expensive. A named example could be a country where rapid population growth outstrips local crop production, so more food must be imported or some people go hungry.
Changing diets in developed countries means scarce food resources are transported around the world.
As people in developed countries eat more varied diets, they demand foods that cannot be grown locally all year, such as tropical fruits, out-of-season vegetables or imported meats. These foods are transported globally by ship, air and road. Transport uses fuel and produces carbon dioxide, and it moves scarce resources such as water and fertile land away from producing regions. This can raise prices and reduce local food security where crops are grown for export rather than for local people. Students should explain the link between changing diets, global transport and pressure on scarce food resources, using an example such as air-freighted green beans or imported avocados.
New pests and pathogens that affect farming.
Food security means having reliable access to enough safe, nutritious food. A new pest or pathogen can reduce crop yields or livestock numbers, so less food reaches consumers and prices may rise. Pests include organisms such as locusts, which consume leaves and grains; pathogens include fungi, bacteria and viruses causing diseases like potato blight. When newly introduced, local crops may lack inherited resistance, and natural predators may be absent, allowing rapid spread. Farmers may respond with pesticides, resistant varieties, biological control or quarantine, but these cost money and have limits. This factor links directly to food security because it lowers the amount of food produced and makes it less affordable.
Environmental changes that affect food production, such as widespread famine occurring in some countries if rains fail.
Food production depends on environmental conditions such as rainfall, temperature and soil quality. If rains fail, crops may wilt and die, and grazing land may become too dry for livestock. The result can be a poor harvest, less food available and higher prices. In severe or repeated cases, widespread famine can occur in some countries, especially where people rely on rain-fed agriculture and have limited stored food or money to buy imports. Other environmental changes, such as floods, drought, storms or rising temperatures, can also reduce yields. This factor shows that food security is not only a human or economic issue but is closely tied to weather and climate, and that countries with fewer resources may be affected most severely.
The cost of agricultural inputs.
Agricultural inputs are the resources farmers need to produce food, such as seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, animal feed, fuel, water and labour. If these inputs become more expensive, the cost of producing food rises. Farmers may respond by using less fertiliser or pesticide, which can lower yields, or by increasing prices, which can make food less affordable. In poorer regions, farmers may not be able to afford inputs at all, so they grow less food. Higher fuel costs also increase the cost of transporting food and running machinery. Therefore the cost of agricultural inputs affects both how much food is produced and whether people can afford to buy it, making it an important factor in food security.
Conflicts that have arisen in some parts of the world which affect the availability of water or food.
Conflicts can disrupt food and water supplies in several ways. Fighting may force people to leave their homes and farms, so crops are not planted or harvested. Roads, markets and water pipelines may be damaged, making it difficult to transport or distribute food and clean water. Conflict can also divert money and workers away from farming, and may contaminate water sources or make them unsafe to reach. In some regions, disputes over shared rivers or water sources can themselves cause conflict. The result is that food and water become less available, more expensive or unsafe, which reduces food security. This factor shows that food security depends not only on biology and environment but also on social and political stability.
Sustainable methods must be found to feed all people on Earth.
Food security means having reliable access to enough safe, nutritious food. The human population is rising, while factors such as climate change, pests, disease and conflict can reduce yields, so demand can outstrip supply. Sustainability means meeting present needs without damaging the ability of future generations to meet theirs. For example, overfishing cod can collapse a fishery, whereas quota systems allow breeding stocks to recover and provide food long term. Students should link each factor to a consequence for food supply and evaluate whether a method can continue indefinitely. Sustainable approaches include improving yields, reducing waste, using renewable resources and protecting soil and biodiversity.
Your focus
- Describe the biological and human factors that affect food security.
- Explain how changing diets and increasing birth rates impact global food availability.
- Link environmental changes, pests, pathogens, costs, and conflicts to reduced food production.
Show all 27 objectives
- State that food security means having enough food to feed a population.
- Distinguish food security from food safety and food supply.
- Apply the definition to a simple scenario involving availability or access.
- Explain how an increasing birth rate raises demand for food.
- Describe how demand exceeding supply threatens food security.
- Apply the idea to a country with limited food production or resources.
- Explain why changing diets in developed countries increase global food transport.
- Describe environmental and food-security consequences of transporting scarce food resources.
- Use a specific imported food example to illustrate the effect.
- Define pest and pathogen and distinguish between them.
- Explain how a new pest or pathogen can reduce food production and affect food security.
- Evaluate at least one control method for a named pest or pathogen, including a limitation.
- Describe how failed rains can reduce crop and livestock production.
- Explain the link between environmental change, food shortages and famine.
- Identify why some countries are more vulnerable to environmental changes affecting food production.
- Define agricultural inputs and give examples.
- Explain how rising input costs can reduce food production or increase food prices.
- Assess how the cost of inputs can affect food security in different regions.
- Describe how conflict can disrupt food production and distribution.
- Explain how conflict can affect the availability of clean water.
- Link conflict-related disruption to reduced food security in affected regions.
- Define food security and explain why it is threatened by a growing human population.
- Describe at least two factors that can reduce food production or distribution.
- Evaluate a named method of food production for its sustainability.
Factors affecting food security exam tips
Marking Points
- An increasing birth rate increases the demand for food, threatening food security.
- Changing diets in developed countries can lead to food being exported from areas where it is needed locally.
- New pests and pathogens can cause disease in crops or livestock, reducing yields.
- Environmental changes, such as droughts or floods, can cause crops to fail and lead to famine.
- The high cost of agricultural inputs (e.g., fertilisers, pesticides) can prevent farmers from maximising yields.
- Conflicts can disrupt agriculture, destroy crops, and prevent the distribution of food and water.
- Food security means enough food is available to feed a population.
- It includes reliable access to sufficient food, not just one-off availability.
- Food security can be threatened by poor harvests, conflict, poverty or distribution problems.
- Food safety is different: it concerns food being safe to eat, not whether enough is available.
- A population can be food insecure even when some food is present if people cannot obtain it.
- An increasing birth rate raises the population size.
- A larger population needs more food in total.
- If food production or imports do not increase at the same rate, food per person falls.
- Food may become scarcer or more expensive, threatening food security.
- The effect is greater where farmland, water or income is limited.
- Changing diets in developed countries increase demand for imported and out-of-season foods.
- These foods are transported around the world by ship, air and road.
- Transport consumes fuel and releases carbon dioxide, adding environmental cost.
- Producing export crops can use scarce local resources such as water and fertile land.
- Land used for export crops may not feed the local population, affecting local food security.
- Global transport links distant consumers to distant producers, so diets affect food resources elsewhere.
- State that a pest is an organism that damages crops or livestock, while a pathogen is a microorganism that causes disease.
- Explain that new pests or pathogens can reduce crop yields or kill livestock, lowering the total food available.
- Describe how a newly introduced pest or pathogen may spread quickly because crops lack resistance and natural predators or controls may be absent.
- Give a named example, such as locusts eating cereal crops or potato blight reducing potato yields.
- Explain that control measures such as pesticides, resistant crop varieties, biological control or quarantine can reduce the impact but add cost and may not be fully effective.
- Link the reduced food supply to food security by stating that less food is available or that prices rise, making food harder to obtain.
- State that environmental changes include drought, failed rains, floods, storms and temperature changes.
- Explain that failed rains can cause crops to wilt and die and can reduce grazing for livestock, lowering food production.
- Describe the sequence from poor harvest to less food available, higher prices and difficulty obtaining enough food.
- Explain that widespread famine can occur when food production falls severely and people cannot grow or buy enough food.
- Recognise that some countries are more vulnerable because they depend on rain-fed agriculture or lack money to import food.
- Link the environmental change to food security by stating that reliable access to sufficient food is reduced.
- Identify agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, animal feed, fuel, water and labour.
- Explain that higher input costs increase the cost of food production.
- Describe how farmers may reduce inputs such as fertiliser or pesticide, which can lower crop yields.
- Explain that higher production costs can lead to higher food prices, making food less affordable.
- Recognise that farmers in poorer regions may be unable to afford inputs, reducing the amount of food they can produce.
- Link the cost of inputs to food security by stating that less food may be available or that people may struggle to afford it.
- State that conflict can force people to leave their homes and farms, so food is not produced or harvested.
- Explain that conflict can damage infrastructure such as roads, markets, water pipes and irrigation systems, disrupting food and water distribution.
- Describe how conflict can make water sources unsafe or inaccessible, reducing the availability of clean water.
- Explain that money and workers may be diverted away from farming, lowering food production.
- Recognise that disputes over shared water or land can themselves be a cause of conflict.
- Link conflict to food security by stating that food and water become less available, more expensive or unsafe.
- State that food security means reliable access to sufficient safe and nutritious food for a growing human population.
- Explain that factors such as climate change, pests, pathogens and conflict can reduce food production or distribution.
- Define sustainability as meeting current food needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs.
- Apply the idea to an example, such as fishing quotas or crop rotation, and judge whether the method can continue long term.
- Recognise that feeding everyone requires a balance between increasing food production and protecting ecosystems.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Memorise the specific list of factors affecting food security from the specification, including both biological and human elements.
- 💡When describing a factor, always link it to how it reduces the amount of food available or disrupts its distribution.
- 💡Give a precise definition using the phrase enough food for a population.
- 💡Contrast food security with food safety in one sentence to show clear understanding.
- 💡Apply the definition to a short scenario, such as a poor harvest raising prices.
- 💡Use the chain: more births, larger population, greater demand, pressure on food supply.
- 💡Include the condition that food supply must fail to keep pace for security to be threatened.
- 💡Refer to a specific context such as limited farmland or low income to show application.
- 💡Link a named diet change, such as eating more tropical fruit, to increased transport.
- 💡State both an environmental cost and a food-security cost of transporting scarce resources.
- 💡Use the phrase scarce food resources to refer to limited land, water or crops.
- 💡Use the phrase food security in your answer and explain what it means in context, rather than leaving it as an unconnected term.
- 💡Include one named pest or pathogen and state the specific crop or livestock it affects, so your example is precise.
- 💡When describing control methods, add a limitation such as cost, resistance or harm to non-target species to show deeper understanding.
- 💡Use a cause-and-effect chain: failed rains → crops wilt → lower yield → less food → higher prices or famine.
- 💡Refer to a specific region or type of farming, such as rain-fed subsistence farming, to make the answer concrete.
- 💡Avoid claiming that famine happens everywhere when rains fail; use wording such as in some countries or where people are most vulnerable.
- 💡Give at least two named inputs and explain how the cost of each could affect food production or price.
- 💡Use an economic chain such as higher fuel costs → higher transport costs → higher food prices → less affordable food.
- 💡Mention a specific farming context, such as a farmer in a low-income country who cannot afford fertiliser, to make the answer precise.
- 💡Use a clear chain such as conflict → people flee farms → crops not harvested → less food available.
- 💡Include one water-related point, such as damaged pipes or unsafe water sources, to cover the whole statement.
- 💡Use cautious language such as can, may or in some parts of the world rather than claiming conflict always causes famine.
- 💡Use the phrase reliable access to enough safe and nutritious food when defining food security.
- 💡Link each limiting factor to a specific effect on food supply, such as reduced crop yield after drought.
- 💡When evaluating a method, state one benefit and one limitation before reaching a justified conclusion.
Common Mistakes
- Thinking food security only relates to biological factors; correct this by including human factors like conflicts and the cost of agricultural inputs.
- Stating 'climate change' without a specific mechanism; correct this by giving an example, such as failing rains causing drought and crop failure.
- Confusing food security with food safety; correct this by stating food security means having enough food available, not whether the food is safe to eat.
- Defining food security as food being safe to eat; correction: food security is about having enough food, while food safety is about avoiding contamination.
- Assuming food security means food is equally available to everyone; correction: access and distribution matter, so some groups may still lack enough food.
- Confusing food security with food production alone; correction: production is one factor, but supply, affordability and distribution also affect security.
- Saying a higher birth rate directly reduces crop growth; correction: it increases demand for food, which threatens security if supply cannot keep up.
- Ignoring supply; correction: food security depends on both the number of people and the amount of food available.
- Assuming all countries are affected equally; correction: the statement says some countries, because impact depends on local resources and economy.
- Saying transport creates food; correction: transport moves food from where it is produced to where it is eaten, using resources.
- Ignoring the effect on producing countries; correction: export crops can use scarce water and land, reducing food available locally.
- Treating all imported food as wasteful; correction: the issue is the scale of demand and resource use, not every single import.
- Confusing pests with pathogens: a pest is an organism that damages crops or livestock, whereas a pathogen is a disease-causing microorganism. Correct by defining each term separately.
- Assuming all pests and pathogens can be easily controlled with pesticides: some pests become resistant, and pathogens such as viruses cannot be treated with pesticides. Correct by mentioning a range of control methods and their limitations.
- Writing only that pests eat crops without linking this to food security: the answer must explain the consequence for food availability or cost. Correct by adding a sentence that connects reduced yield to less reliable food access.
- Writing that famine is caused only by overpopulation: environmental factors such as failed rains are also major causes. Correct by explaining how drought reduces crop growth and food supply.
- Confusing weather with climate: a single failed rainy season is a weather event, while long-term changes in rainfall patterns are climate-related. Correct by using the term environmental change broadly and giving a specific example.
- Stopping at crops dying without explaining the human consequence: the answer must link reduced yield to food shortages, higher prices or famine. Correct by adding the consequence for people.
- Listing inputs without explaining their effect: simply naming fertiliser or seeds does not explain how cost affects food security. Correct by adding the consequence for yield, price or availability.
- Assuming higher input costs always mean farmers use more inputs: in reality, farmers may use fewer inputs to save money, which can reduce yields. Correct by explaining both possible responses.
- Confusing agricultural inputs with agricultural outputs: inputs are what farmers put into the system, while outputs are the crops or livestock produced. Correct by defining each term clearly.
- Writing only that conflict kills people without explaining the effect on food or water supplies: the answer must focus on availability and access. Correct by describing disruption to farming, transport or water infrastructure.
- Assuming conflict always causes famine: conflict increases the risk of food insecurity, but the outcome depends on other factors such as aid and stored food. Correct by using cautious wording such as can lead to or may cause.
- Ignoring water and mentioning only food: the statement includes both water and food, so both must be addressed. Correct by giving at least one water-related consequence.
- Confusing food security with simply having enough food in shops; the correction is that security also requires reliable access, affordability and nutritional quality.
- Treating sustainability as any method that increases yield; the correction is that a method is sustainable only if it can continue without depleting resources or damaging the environment.
- Assuming the human population is falling; the correction is that it is increasing, which raises demand for food.