OCR GCSE (9-1) Geography B: Geography for Enquiring Minds (J384) · Spec 8.1, 8.2a, 8.2b and 8.2c
Resource Reliance
Read the notes, then try the questions. Each one is marked the moment you press Check, and shows the right answer and why.
Key ideas
- A deficit is when supply is less than demand. A surplus is when supply is more than demand. Food security means everyone can always obtain enough safe, nutritious food.
- Food insecurity can come from physical factors (drought that destroys crops, pests, climate) and human factors (conflict, poverty, poor transport, technology).
- Fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) are non-renewable. Wind, solar and hydro are renewable.
- Humans modify environments to get resources. A reservoir stores water from wet periods for dry ones. Mechanisation of farming changes ecosystems by clearing land and raising yields.
- Malthus (1798) thought food shortage would limit population. Boserup (1965) argued that pressure on food leads to new farming methods.
- You need one country's attempt to achieve food security, at national scale. Then judge how sustainable food strategies are: environmentally, economically and socially.
- A sustainable scheme can keep working for future years, often with local people running it, and uses water no faster than it is naturally replaced.
Key terms
- Food security
- Everyone can always obtain enough safe, nutritious food.
- Food deficit
- Food supply in an area is less than needed.
- Food insecurity
- People cannot reliably get enough safe, affordable food.
- Famine
- An extreme, widespread shortage of food that causes mass hunger.
- Renewable energy
- Energy from sources that are naturally replaced, such as wind, solar and hydro.
- Bottom-up approach
- A small scheme chosen and run by local people.
Common mistakes
- Defining food security as 'most people have enough food'. It means everyone, always.
- Putting war and poor transport under physical factors, or drought and soil under human factors.
- Using a local scheme such as Goat Aid, or a food bank, as a national-scale attempt.
- Calling the Green Revolution or GM crops a bottom-up approach. They are led from the top.
- Saying a scheme is sustainable because it fed people. Check its environmental, economic and social effects over time.
- Saying a new reservoir solves a water shortage for good.
Exam tip
Q4 of Paper 2 ends on a food-security 6. Use words such as assess or evaluate as a prompt to weigh up strengths and weaknesses and finish with a judgement. Describing how a scheme works is not the same as saying how effective it has been.
Free practice questions
7 questions, 18 marks. Answer, then press Check. The marking guide explains how the marks are worked out. Nothing is saved.
- Question 1 · Multiple choice[1 mark]
Which statement best defines food security?
- Question 2 · Fill the gaps[2 marks]
A food ___ is when supply in an area is less than needed, while food ___ is when people cannot reliably get enough food.
Word bank: deficit · insecurity · surplus
- Question 3 · Matching[4 marks]
Match each food term to its meaning.
- Question 4 · Sort into groups[6 marks]
Sort each factor affecting food supply into the correct group.
Pests and disease
Conflict
Climate
Technology
Drought
Poverty
- Question 5 · Choose more than one[2 marks]
Which TWO features make a food-supply scheme more sustainable?
Choose 2.
- Question 6 · Fill the gaps[2 marks]
Wind, solar and hydro are ___ energy sources, while coal, oil and gas are ___ fuels.
Word bank: nuclear · renewable · fossil
- Question 7 · Multiple choice[1 mark]
Which statement correctly compares Malthus (1798) and Boserup (1965)?