Managing Food Production

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  • Created by: Ellie
  • Created on: 20-04-14 13:22
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  • Managing Food Production-Making food efficient.
    • Reducing the number of stages in the food chain
      • There's less energy and less biomass every time you move up a stage in the food chain.
      • for a given area of land you can produce a lot more food by growing crops instead of farming animals
        • this is because you are reducing the amount of stages in the food chain.
          • Only 10% of what beef cattle eat becomes useful meat for us to eat.
      • We need a balanced diet
        • meaning we need some sort of protein in our diest
      • Some bits of land aren't suitable for farming crops like hillsides and moorlands where sheeps are farmed.
    • Restricting energy lost by farm animals
      • Intensive farming
        • animals are kept close together indoors in a small space
          • keeps them warm and stops them moving about so they get fat and provide more meat as well as reducing the risk of catching disease
            • this also makes the transfer of energy from the animal feed to our food more efficient
              • The animals therefore grow faster on less food
    • Developing Mycroprotein
      • 'proteins from fungi'
      • used to make meat substitutes like quorn
      • Fusarium is the main fungi used.
      • The fungus is grown in fermenters, using glucose syrup as food
        • The fungus respires aerobically, so oxygen is supplied with nitrogen and other minerals.
        • The fermenters have to be steerilized
          • To prevent other microorganisms growing in the fermenter
      • Used in 3rd World countries
        • to provide protein which is often in short supply
        • doesn't take up lots of space

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