food minitest 3 answers

1. Elective Geography Food
mini test 3
Suggested answers

2. List the health and economic impacts of inadequate
food consumption. (4m)
Inadequate food consumption leads to major health and
economic impacts. The human body is prone to illness,
diseases and growth limitations. With shortages in key
vitamins like Vitamin A, the human body will show
problems like loss of vision. Other essential minerals like
calcium will also affect the body and make it more
susceptible to diseases like osteoporosis.
Economically, inadequate food consumption will lead to a
loss of productivity as a worker who is ill is unable to
function at maximum capacity. Secondly, when a student if
sick and misses work days this will impact the economy.
Students will also lose out on education opportunities and
this will affect their future employment.

3. With reference to an example you learnt about, explain how increases in food
prices can result in political instability. (3m)
Increases in food prices affect developed countries (DC) and
less developed countries (LDC)in different ways. In DC, the
population will often opt to eat less expensive choices. In LDC,
the population does not have such luxury and often the
population will suffer starvation and malnutrition with sudden
food price increases.
In LDC, with increases in food prices there is often much
anger. This leads to unrest and riots. In China in 2008, there
was large scale food price rises and riots in some locations
where discounts were offered for particular staple food
products like oil. The Chinese government had to intervene to
prevent it from becoming a bigger problem.
In situations where the government is unable to control the
increase in the price. The local population may demand for a
change in the government.

4. Briefly explain how a child whose diet is made up entirely of fast food can
suffer from malnutrition. (3m)
Fast food are generally high in sugar and fats. There
are some vitamins found but the spread is much
lesser than what is required by humans to grow
properly.
When a child’s diet is made up entirely of fast food,
the child could end up lacking severely in key
nutrients like calcium and that would lead to
potential growth problems.
Other health issues like diabetes and heart
conditions may also arise as a result of the high
amount of fats found in such diets. Children with
such diets may be obese but have malnutrition at
the same time.

5. What are some potential health hazards faced by people who
scavenge at rubbish dumps in less developed countries like
Philippines and Mexico? (3m)
Scavengers at rubbish dump often live off food items
that are scavenged from the dumps as well as hunt for
materials and items to sell for profit. Hygiene
conditions at rubbish dump are very bad and there is
rampant spread of diseases. With consumption of food
scavenged, there is high risk that the food has
decomposed and is exposed and breeding bacteria and
viruses. This will lead to high contamination risks.
In the worst case scenario, this will lead to the
scavengers potentially dying from poisoning or
contamination.