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All 10 Flashcards — Food choices and diets
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Question
What are food miles?
Answer
Food miles are the distance food travels from producer to consumer.
💡 Hint
Distance travelled.
Question
What is the typical energy transfer between trophic levels?
Answer
About 10%.
💡 Hint
Rule of ten.
Question
What is trophic efficiency and what is a typical value?
Answer
Trophic efficiency is the proportion of energy transferred between trophic levels; it is typically around 10%.
💡 Hint
About 10%.
Question
Which diet typically has a lower ecological footprint: plant-based or meat-based?
Answer
Plant-based diets typically have a lower ecological footprint.
💡 Hint
Lower trophic level.
Question
Why are plant-based diets generally more energy-efficient than meat-based diets?
Answer
Eating plants means eating at a lower trophic level, avoiding the large energy losses (~90%) that occur at each transfer to higher trophic levels.
💡 Hint
Lower trophic level.
Question
Give one reason meat production is resource-intensive.
Answer
It requires more land, water, and feed because energy is lost between trophic levels.
💡 Hint
Energy losses.
Question
Name two non-environmental factors that influence diet.
Answer
Culture/religion and wealth/economic development (also technology).
💡 Hint
Socio-economic.
Question
List four factors that affect food choices between regions.
Answer
Climate, water availability, culture/religion, wealth/economic development (also technology and environmental value systems).
💡 Hint
Think environment + society.
Question
Why do food miles not always tell the full environmental impact story?
Answer
Because production methods and storage can cause more emissions than transport, so local food is not automatically lower-impact.
💡 Hint
Production can dominate.
Question
Exam-style: for “why diets differ” questions, what should you include?
Answer
A mix of climate/water constraints plus cultural/economic/technology explanations and at least one specific example.
💡 Hint
Mix factors + example.
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Topic 5.2 hub
Agriculture and food
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