001 - Solutions to Food Insecurity

Geographic Knowledge and Understanding

Possible solutions to food insecurity, including waste reduction.

Concepts

The process of waste reduction can create possibilities to improve food security at different scales.

Aims

Case Study

One case study of attempts to tackle food insecurity.

Key Terminology

Activity One - Describe

We waste around one third of the food that we produce each year. We reject food by how it looks and that happens at all stages of the food chain from when the food is picked to what you choose when you hit the supermarket. Not only that we automatically throw away food that is past its sell by date. We have become conditioned to look at the dates and believe that if it is beyond that date and we ate we may get sick. But actually they are manufacturing sell by dates and it is their best guess when that item may go off. 


Activity Two - USA - National (State) Scale 

It is a common misconception that if we donate food to charity and someone becomes ill from what they have eaten we will get sued, but that is not true.  100 billion pounds of food are thrown away in the USA every year and 40% of that is still edible.  Yet 16 million children are foo insecure. The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act is a federal law that is aimed at 'encouraging the donation of food and grocery products to nonprofit organisations for distribution to needy individuals'. 


Activity Three - UK - Local Scale

In London people waste on average £230 per person per year. This amounts to approximately 19 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. So what is London doing about it? The schemes are much more on the local scale from individual campaigns to Boroughs organising waste collections. Watch the YouTube clip and read the articles below to develop a detailed example on how food waste is being tackled in London. Make sure you link it to technology.

Activity Four - Revisit - Yemen 

Using the Codrington text book Page 100 - add to your case study on the famine in Yemen the solutions that have been put in place to reduce food insecurity. Make sure you say whether it has been successful or not. 

Activity Five - Linking - Climate Change

Now you have learnt about different proposals and schemes to reduce food waste in the USA and the UK as well as general programmes answer the following questions which help to tie different elements of the course together.


Exam Style Question

'Reducing food waste is the key to addressing food insecurity.' Discuss [10 marks]

This lesson was development in collaboration with Richard Allaway from geographyalltheway. For more resources please visit www.geographyalltheway.com