Geography / Year 9 / Geographical Knowledge and Understanding / Unit 1: Biomes and food security

Curriculum content descriptions

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 (ACHGK063)

Elaborations
  • exploring environmental challenges to food production from land degradation (soil erosion, salinity, desertification), industrial pollution, water scarcity and climate change
  • identifying the impacts on food production from competing land uses (for example, sacred sites, urban and industrial uses, mining, production of food crops for biofuels, production of food crops for livestock, and recreation (such as golf courses))
  • evaluating whether some ways of increasing food production could threaten sustainability
  • investigating the impacts of alterations of biomes on the productivity and availability of staple resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (for example, murnong or yam daisy in Victoria)
General capabilities
  • Numeracy Numeracy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
Cross-curriculum priorities
ScOT terms

Environmental management,  Water resources,  Climate change,  Soil degradation,  Water quality

Video

ABC News: Getting your facts straight about water use

We hear a lot about water use in Australia. What are the real statistics about water use? What is the breakdown of water use for different groups across Australia? Watch this clip to find out who uses water and how much, and consider the value of water and the 'return' on this use for the Australian economy. The figures ...

Video

Landline: Improving crop production in Timor-Leste

Explore the challenges to basic survival that farmers in the agricultural regions of Timor-Leste (East Timor) face. Discover how the 'Seeds of Life' program works to improve the selection and planting of successful crops that have higher yields. See how these first steps are helping to address rural poverty in the nation.

Online

Food for thought: learn resources for science

This is a rich resource for teachers about the impact of climate change on small-scale farmers. It includes two sets of resources, one for the primary level and the other for the secondary level. Each set of resources includes: a teacher guide with learning activities; worksheets for students; crop cards; and a PowerPoint ...

Online

Food for thought: learn resources for English

This is a rich resource for teachers about the role of small farmers in the global food system. The resource includes two sets of lesson plans, one designed for the primary level and the other for secondary. Each set of lesson plans includes three downloadable documents: a teacher guide, activity sheets for students and ...

Image

Earthshots: satellite images of environmental change - Lake Chad, Africa

This resource is a series of satellite images of Lake Chad in Africa, showing its decline due to prolonged drought and increased water use from 1963 to 2003, accompanied by a text explanation, including a brief history of the lake. The text describes the geographical features of the freshwater lake, the effect of the region's ...

Text

World Food Programme: countries

This is a multilayered web page series produced by the World Food Programme (WFP) that comprises sections on individual countries where the WFP works in Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Middle East. The front page for each country includes links to an overview of the challenges it faces, information on WFP operations ...

Video

Landline: Feeding the hungry in Timor-Leste

It is often hard for a developing country to grow enough food to feed its population. In this clip you'll see the challenges encountered by the growing nation of Timor-Leste (East Timor). Listen to an AusAID organiser and the East Timorese president describe the importance of food, and the heartbreak of a hungry nation.

Text

Food security and global farming

The expected growth in world population from 6.8 billion in 2010 to over 9 billion by 2050, the demand for food will increase by around 70 per cent. This collection of articles from the CSIRO describes some of the research that is underway to improve the world's agriculture sector to address this growing demand. The web ...

Text

Sustainable table: meet your meat

This is a website about the environmental and animal welfare issues related to the consumption of meat. It contains sections on the amount of meat we eat; the environmental impacts of consuming meat; cattle, chicken, egg-laying-hen and pig-farming factories; and what can be done to improve the current state of the meat ...

Video

Landline: Feeding soils to grow hungry crops

How do today's farmers improve their crop yields? One school of thought is to go high-tech and use agricultural technologies designed to improve efficiencies and yields. See the role that soil condition plays in gaining those high yields.

Video

Food wastage footprint

This is an animated video about the extent of global food wastage, its short- and long-term effects and how it can be minimised. Stating that about one-third of the food produced in the world each year is lost or wasted, the video uses concrete examples to show what this means in terms of land area, water, natural habitats, ...

Video

The explorers’ diaries

When Sir Thomas Mitchell and Sir George Grey explored unknown regions of Australia in the 19th century, they found sophisticated examples of agriculture practised by Indigenous peoples. Writer Bruce Pascoe considers why Aboriginal agriculture, economy and civilisation were not taught to generations of Australians. Do you ...

Video

World’s first bakers?

When did humans begin grinding seeds to make flour? Many people believe bread-making began in Egypt or Mesopotamia as long as 17,000 years ago. Archaeologists have recently found evidence that Indigenous Australians were producing flour 65,000 years ago. Were they the world’s first bakers?

Text

Sustainable table: the coming famine

This is a website about the key issues related to global food insecurity. It contains sections on the scarcity of primary resources; land degradation; land scarcity; waste; climate change; consequences of inaction; and proposed solutions. Photographs, statistics, graphs, maps and figures support the information. This resource ...

Video

Reforestation as a climate change strategy

This is a video about an agroforestry project to restore the tree cover of microwatersheds in the High Andes of Peru in which the Chumbivilcas community worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund. Interviews with the local mayor and project officers emphasise ...

Video

Towards food security in Afghanistan

This is a video about the progress towards food and water security in Afghanistan. It includes images and information about how the global economic crisis has affected the people of Afghanistan; the value of investment in agriculture production to reduce poverty in this region; and a water security project that is jointly ...

Video

Marla Spivak: Why bees are disappearing

This is a video of a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk by Professor Marla Spivak about the dramatic decline in the number of bees. The 16-minute video begins with a discussion of why humans should care about bees, including their critical importance for the world's food supply. Professor Spivak explains that ...

Video

Water reservoirs as climate change adaptation

This is a video about water availability for people living in the Peruvian Andes. It includes vision and information about water scarcity in this region and details of a Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations funded project involving the creation of a sustainable water management program. The program involves ...

Video

Food production in the Murray-Darling Basin

This thirteen and a half minute video highlights the importance of food and fibre production in the Murray Darling Basin. It explores the perspective of the farm families involved in both irrigated and dryland farming and explains how their products are distributed to local, national and global markets. This video also ...

Video

Bali and Sumba: Paradise versus poverty

We all know the idyllic paradise called Bali, but have you ever heard of its poorer neighbour, the Indonesian island of Sumba, where the people struggle to grow food to eat? Watch this clip to learn about environmental conditions and agricultural challenges there. Find out also what people in Sumba are doing to prepare ...