A growing population brings with it a necessity to produce more food. However, the potential impact on the local and global environment must be considered. Part of the solution lies in careful management to reduce energy losses in food chains, as well as looking to new food sources. It is necessary to find a compromise between the priority of obtaining food and the priority of protecting ecosystems.

The efficiency of food production

Both biomass and the energy within it decrease up to a food chain. At each level in the chain, energy/biomass is lost through waste (eg faeces) or through respiration and associated processes (such as movement and maintaining body temperature).

The efficiency of food production can be improved by reducing the number of levels in the food chain. This is because fewer energy losses occur along a shorter food chain, meaning a greater proportion of the energy that entered the food chain is available to humans and more people can be fed.

The amount…