What Factors Affect Food Security?

Food security means having enough food to feed a population. It is affected by how much food can be produced and whether that food is available to the people who need it. For AQA GCSE Biology, the key factors include population growth, changing diets, pests and pathogens, environmental changes, farming costs and conflict.

How the factors affect supply

• Population growth: A rising birth rate increases the number of people who need food. If production does not keep pace, food security falls.
• Changing diets: Different diets place different demands on food resources. In developed countries, scarce food resources may also be transported around the world.
• Pests and pathogens: Pests can damage crops, while pathogens are microorganisms that cause disease in crops or farm animals. Both can reduce the amount of food produced.
• Environmental changes: Crops depend on suitable conditions. If rains fail, for example, harvests may be poor and famine may occur.
• Cost of agricultural inputs: Farmers need resources to produce food. If those inputs become too costly, maintaining production can be harder.
• Conflict: Conflict can disrupt the availability of food or water, leaving a population with less to eat even where food is produced elsewhere.

A useful distinction is between a factor that lowers production, such as crop disease, and one that disrupts access, such as conflict. Both threaten food security, but for different reasons. In an answer, make that cause-and-effect link explicit.

For example, a failed rainy season can reduce crop growth. That means a smaller harvest at the same time as the population still needs feeding.

Exam mistake to avoid: Do not treat food security as just the amount of food grown. A question may also ask why food is unavailable. Link each factor to its effect on food supply or availability. This topic is part of separate GCSE Biology rather than AQA Combined Science.