Syllabus concepts to know

• 5.2.1 Land is a finite resource, and the human population continues to increase and require feeding.
• 5.2.2 Marginalized groups are more vulnerable if their needs are not taken into account in land-use decisions.
• 5.2.3 World agriculture produces enough food to feed eight billion people, but the food is not equitably distributed and much is wasted or lost in distribution.
• 5.2.4 Agriculture systems across the world vary considerably due to the different nature of the soils and climates.
• 5.2.5 Agricultural systems are varied, with different factors influencing the farmers’ choices.
• 5.2.6 Nomadic pastoralism and slash-and-burn agriculture are traditional techniques that have sustained low-density populations in some regions of the world.
• 5.2.7 The Green Revolution (also known as the Third Agricultural Revolution in the 1950s and 1960s) used breeding of high-yielding crop plants—combined with increased and improved irrigation systems, synthetic fertilizer and application of pesticides—to increase food security.
• 5.2.8 Synthetic fertilizers are needed in many intensive systems to maintain high commercial productivity at the expense of sustainability.
• 5.2.9 A variety of techniques can be used to conserve soil, with widespread environmental, economic and sociocultural benefits.
• 5.2.10 Humans are omnivorous, and diets include fungi, plants, meat and fish.
• 5.2.11 Current global strategies to achieve sustainable food supply include reducing demand and food waste, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from food production and increasing productivity without increasing the area of land used for agriculture.
• 5.2.12 Food security is the physical and economic availability of food, allowing all individuals to get the balanced diet they need for an active and healthy life.
• 5.2.13 Contrasting agricultural choices will often be the result of differences in the local soils and climate.
• 5.2.14 Numerous alternative farming approaches have been developed in relation to the current ecological crisis.
• 5.2.15 Regenerative farming systems and permaculture use mixed farming techniques to improve and diversify productivity.
• 5.2.16 Technological improvements can lead to very high levels of productivity, as seen in the modern high-tech greenhouse and vertical farming techniques that are increasingly important for supplying food to urban areas.
• 5.2.17 The sustainability of different diets varies.
• 5.2.18 Harvesting wild species from ecosystems by traditional methods may be more sustainable than land conversion and cultivation.
• 5.2.19 Claims that low-productivity, indigenous, traditional or alternative food systems are sustainable should be evaluated against the need to produce enough food to feed the wider global population.
• 5.2.20 Food distribution patterns and food quality variations reflect functioning of the global food supply industry and can lead to all forms of malnutrition (diseases of undernourishment and overnourishment).