Will land loss lead to food shortages?

Year 9 - Humanities

Last Lesson

• What are the main causes of the growing water shortage?

• Food production. • Growth of urban and industrial demand. • Poor farming practices. • Over-extraction. • Poor management.

Learning Intentions (What you need to know and be able to do)

• Challenges to food production, including land and water degradation, shortage of fresh water, competing land uses, and climate change, for Australia and other areas of the world

Key Terms

• desertification • salinity• Biofuels• Jatropha• marginal • monoculture

Comparison of world population growth and arable land per capita

Land degradation

The main forms of land degradation are:• erosion by wind and water• salinity• pest invasion• loss of biodiversity• desertification.

Land degradation caused by deforestation in Madagascar

Growing fuel

• changing food crops to fuel crops, so less food is produced and crops have to be grown on marginal land rather than arable land

• increasing prices, which makes staple foods too expensive for people to purchase

• forcing disadvantaged groups, such as women and the landless poor, to compete against the might of the biofuel industry.

Growing Cites (Tehran 1985 – 2009)

Land grabs