Section 5: Food Provenance - Chapter 10: Environmental impact and sustainability - 2: Food and environment - Revision Notes in GCSE Design & Technology: Food Technology

Food and environment:
- Environmental issues associated with food production:
  - Impact on climate change - from greenhouse gases produced by food production
  - Meat and dairy food production causes a lot of greenhouse gas production
  - Lots of energy from non-renewable fossil fuels used to produce food, especially meat and dairy foods - causes production of greenhouse gases
  - Greenhouse gases trap heat and warm the planet, which causes climate change
- Climate change effects:
  - Drought (lack of water): crops fail, livestock die, soil blows away, forest fires damage farmland and kill livestock
  - Flooding: soil and soil nutrients washed away; land polluted by sewage, stones and rubbish; livestock drown; landslides damage farmland
  - Gales and hurricanes: damage to crops, farmland, buidlings, livestock killed
  - Higher or lower than normal temperatures: affects how crops grow; pollination of crops by insects affected; insects, moulds etc. will grow in large numbers; species of plants die out and get replaced by others; livestock may die
  - Extreme storms: crops damaged; livestock affected; water and soil polluted
Food packaging:
- Why is it used and what are the effects it has on the environment:
  - Packaging protects food from microbe contamination
  - Packaging preserves food…

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