Lesson video

My name's Ms. Gilyeat, and I'm your geography teacher For today.

In today's lesson, we are going to be learning about food production and supply chains, which is the third lesson of the globalization is the world shrinking topic.

Okay, we've got loads of interesting things to learn about, so let's get going.

So our lesson outcome for today is that you can explain what a supply chain is and how this impacts the food that we eat.

We have got five key words for today's lesson.

So first of all, supply chains are all of the stages involved in producing goods, transporting them and selling them to customers.

And import is goods and services brought in from another country.

And export, goods and services sold to another country.

Processing, making changes to a food's natural state.

So for example, cooking beans into a tomato sauce and preserving them in tins.

And raw materials are things that can be grown or dug outta the ground and processed or used in the manufacture of goods.

All of the key words are highlighted in bold.

So if you need to refer back to them at any point, you can do.

We've got two learning cycles.

So first of all, we're gonna learn about what a supermarket is as a global company, and then we are going to learn about the supply chains of supermarkets.

So let's get going with the first learning cycle, supermarkets as global companies.

Now, 60 years ago, people used to go to lots of different local shops to get their food.

So for example, they might go to the butcher's to get meat, the greengrocer for fruit and vegetables, the grocer for tins, milk and cheese, the bakery for bread, a hardware shop for things for the house okay?

However, this has now changed okay?

So the first supermarket in the UK opened in 1948.

People's shopping habits have changed over time.

Now there's lots of different reasons why now people more go and do their food shop at a supermarket.

But these are some of them.

So for example, car ownership, refrigeration, and more processed foods, which has a longer shelf life, has meant that people can go to the shop less often and they can buy more food okay?

So a lot of supermarkets aren't located in the middle of town centers because they need more space.

So often they're located further out.

Now that might mean it is going to be quite tricky to get to on foot or via public transport.

Therefore, if more people can own a car, that means that more people can go to the larger supermarkets to do their shop.

Having items refrigerated means that you don't have to go to the shop as often.

So when people didn't have fridges, it meant that they had to go much more often because food such as milk and meat would go off so you wouldn't be able to buy as much of it.

Whereas now you can do a weekly shop, put it in the fridge, and know that it won't spoil after a week.

Also, more processed food has got a longer shelf life as well, okay?

And that means that people don't have to go to the shop as often.

So we're able to do one big shop during the week.

So now that's what most people do, okay?

They go to supermarkets once a week and get everything that they need.

Well, and one of the big reasons for it's more time efficient, you are not having to visit the shops as often.

Okay, let's check our understanding.

So why have people's shopping habits changed?

There's two that you can tick here.

So is it A, car ownership, B, refrigeration at home, or C, that there's less food available?

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, so the answer is there's an increase in car ownership and people can refrigerate at home.

There is not less food available.

If anything, there's a lot more food available.

So in the UK there are lots of supermarkets.

I want you to have a think which different ones can you think of?

It might be worth pausing the video and see how many you can get with the person that you sat next to or if you're working on your own, jot a little list.

Okay, so here are some of the main ones that we have in the UK.

So we've got Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Co-op, Morrisons, Waitrose, LIDL, ALDI, M&S Food and Booths.

Now there's actually a couple more that I could have added to the list, but those are the main ones.

Now, in the UK, most of our supermarkets are British.

However, some of the supermarkets in the UK are owned by companies from other countries in the world.

Now, for example, Asda is owned by Walmart, which is an American company.

Now here's a little bit of research for you to do.

Why don't you see when you get home, if you can find out where Aldi and Lidl come from.

Now, Tesco is the largest supermarket in the UK.

So here are some interesting facts about it.

It employs 330,000 people globally.

So not just in the UK but all around the world.

Okay?

So that gives you a little bit of a hint that it's also a company that doesn't just work in the UK, it also operates in different countries.

There are 4,942 stores around the world.

The company is worth over 20 billion pounds.

That's quite shocking statistics really about Tesco, isn't it?

It's a massive company.

So let's have a look at some of the countries that Tesco operates in.

Okay, so the Republic of Ireland, it operates in Turkey, India, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan.

There's another one, Poland and Slovakia as well.

Okay?

So lots of different countries that it operates in.

And if you think about it, all of those countries will have people from that country that work for the company.

Now, last lesson we learned about what globalization is okay, so we're going to think today about what global companies are.

So looking at that map and from what I've just told you, how is Tesco an example of a global company?

Let's see what Andeep says here.

So Tesco is an example of a global company because it operates in multiple countries of the world.

This is an example of globalization as it shows that countries can be connected through companies.

Andeep's absolutely spot on there.

Tesco is a fantastic example of a large global company.

Let's check our understanding, true or false.

Tesco is a global company and can you tell me why or why not?

Pause the video and have a go.

So that is of course true and can you tell me why?

Tesco is an example of a global company because it operates in more than one country in the world.

Well done if you got that right.

Okay, we're onto our first task for today's lesson.

Now the first one is you are going to define what a global company is, and then using the map, I want you to describe the location of international Tescos.

Pause the video and have a go at task A.

Okay, let's have a look at the answers.

So a global company is a company that operates in different countries in the world.

Tesco is an example of a global company.

Tesco is found in the continents of Europe and Asia.

Most of its stores are located in the UK with 1,898 supermarkets.

Well done if you got that right.

Okay, we are now moving on to our second learning cycle of the lesson, which is looking at the supply chains of supermarkets.

Now, all of the food and goods that we find in the supermarket have had their own special journey from where they were grown or made to ending up in the supermarket.

This is called, or this journey is called the supply chain.

So where it's come from, where it started to its journey to the supermarket.

A global supply chain is where this journey includes several different countries and it may be thousands of miles long.

Supermarkets have complex global supply chains.

Many of the food and goods in supermarkets have come from all around the world to meet the demand for different produce that we cannot grow in the UK okay?

So when we go to the shop, okay, and we go round buying food items, some of that stuff will have been grown and made in the UK, but a good chunk of it, roughly about 50% has actually come from different countries.

Now, that might be because we cannot grow or make that good ourselves because we don't have the correct climate, but also in some ways it's actually cheaper to import items from different countries than it is to make it in our own country.

Let's check our understanding.

So what is a supply chain?

Is it A, a shelf in the supermarket with lots of different goods?

B, the journey that food and goods takes from the raw materials to the shop, or C, a place where raw materials are processed into a good.

Pause the video and let's have a go.

The answer is B, the journey that food and goods take from the raw materials to the shop.

Now different food goods and food items will have different journeys.

Most items will have similar stages to the journey though.

So this is what most items that you find in the supermarket, this is the journey that they will have taken.

So sourcing the raw material.

So that's taking the raw material from the ground, processing the raw material.

So that's turning it into something, packaging the food item, transporting them to the supermarkets or shops, okay?

And then eventually of course, us as consumers then go and buy the item.

So we can see on the left, we've got some strawberries being grown.

These strawberries aren't processed into anything.

They are just going to be sold in the shop as strawberries.

However, sometimes the strawberries might be turned into something like strawberry jam.

So that would be the processing part of the journey.

Now either jam or fresh strawberries are packaged, okay, eventually they are transported and finally they end up in the supermarket.

Now let's have a look at a global supply chain of a loaf of bread.

So a farm grows and harvests wheat, the processing plant turns the wheat into flour.

A factory bakes the flour into bread.

The bread is then packaged and transported to the supermarket and the loaf of bread is sold in the supermarket okay?

So that is a supply chain of a loaf of bread.

Now, as I just said earlier, some things that we buy in the supermarket do not get processed okay?

So for example, fresh fruit and vegetables, they don't get processed.

They are sold as they are grown.

However, they still will require packaging, well most of them, but we are trying to move to using less packaging because it's bad for the environment.

But a lot of them still are.

Now many food items found in the supermarkets have lots of different raw materials.

And these different raw materials can come from many different countries around the world okay?

These will then be processed in a factory before being transported to a supermarket.

Now a chocolate bar for example, contains ingredients from all around the world.

So you might have cocoa from Brazil, sugar from India and milk from the UK.

Now all of these items, all of these raw materials eventually will come together and be processed into a chocolate bar.

When the materials are exported and transported across the world, it is important that the food items do not spoil okay?

So a lot of transportation devices that move food now have improved the technology so they can actually keep the items cool or they need to make that the transport journey isn't too long so that the food items don't go off before they reach the supermarket.

Yes, but as I just said, this may mean refrigerating the items as they are transported.

Food miles measure the distance between where a food is grown or made to where it is eaten.

So where that raw material has come from the distance to where it actually lands on your plate, where you are eating it.

This includes all of the ingredients within a product okay?

Now to move different food items around the world, different modes of transport will be used.

So most items will eventually have some part of their journey within a lorry because this is what brings the food to the actual supermarkets.

Some will be transported on a cargo ship if they are going across country borders, especially if they are traveling a long distance and fewer, but some still what may be traveled by airplane.

Now the ones that travel in the air are items which are either very quite fragile or they will go off if they are not transported quite quickly.

Food with more food miles has a greater impact on the environment.

For example, an avocado transported from Mexico to the UK has to travel approximately 5,500 miles.

Now approximately every avocado emits 0.

19 kilograms of CO2 through transport emissions.

And this all contributes to global warming.

So next time you go to the supermarket, have a look at what you are buying, especially if you are buying fruit.

Because often a lot of the fruit that we eat in the UK, we can't grow here because we don't have the right climate.

So it might just be worth looking.

Most items should say where they have been grown from.

So it'd be interesting to find out how far that food item has traveled to get into the supermarket.

Let's check our understanding.

So food with more food miles has a greater impact on the environment.

Is that true or false?

And can you tell me why.

That is true.

And the reason for that is food with more food miles is worse for the environment because transporting the food releases greenhouse gases, which adds to global warming.

Well done if you got that right.

Now many food items can only be grown in certain climates.

Okay, so if we have a look at the figure that I have got on the slide here, it shows where most bananas are grown, okay?

And where they are exported to.

So we can see that the majority of bananas are grown within the tropics okay?

So closest to the equator.

And that is because of the climate of the area.

So bananas need a warm, sunny climate to be able to grow.

They also need a decent amount of rainfall.

Now if we look at the arrows on the map, we can see that most of those bananas are traveling north.

So a good chunk, 27% ends up in the USA, 28% in the EU, 8% in Central Asia and Russia.

And seven, sorry, 12% up to Asia and 2% in the Arabic peninsula.

So most bananas are grown within the tropics and are exported, oh, sorry, yeah, they go to countries further north, such as the USA, Europe, and Northern Asia.

Now supermarkets import goods from all across the world.

The supermarket depends on other countries of the world to supply the food items.

The countries exporting the product rely on global supermarkets to buy the product.

They are interdependent.

So we can see here that the supermarkets are buying food from all across the world, okay?

And therefore those supermarkets rely on the countries to supply them with the products.

But on the flip side to that, the countries that are supplying the product, they are producing it are reliant on the supermarkets to buy the product okay?

They are interdependent, they are relying on each other.

Let's check our understanding.

Where are most bananas grown in the world?

Is it A, within the tropics, B, in Asia or C, in Europe and North America?

The answer's A, within the tropics.

Okay, we're moving on to our second task for today's lesson.

So for task B, you are going to research the supply chain of a pint of milk.

I would like you to create a flow diagram, which shows it as a raw material to where it ends up in the supermarkets.

So you may have to use the internet for this research.

Pause the video and have a go at the task.

Okay our second task here is explained.

So in the UK we use milk produced locally, but we also import milk from other countries.

Most of our imported milk comes from Ireland, France, Poland, Germany, and Belgium.

So for task 2A, I would like you to locate these countries on the map and use an atlas or digital map to measure the distance the milk would travel to us from these different countries.

You are then going to rank the countries from the least to the most food miles.

So yeah, you'll have to use an atlas or a digital map such as Google maps for this task okay?

So remember you need to be using this scale bar appropriately.

So pause the video and have a go at the task.

Okay here's my example of a supply chain of a pint of milk.

So cows are milked in a dairy farm is the first step to the journey because that's where the raw material is coming from.

Then the milk is pasteurized at a processing plant, the pasteurized milk is put into cartons and the cartons are transported to supermarkets.

Well done if you got that right.

If there's a stage that you are missing to your flow diagram, it might be worth pausing the video and just adding it in now.

Okay, and let's have a go or let's see what we got for task two.

So Belgium is 321 kilometers away.

So that was the closest.

France is 342 kilometers.

Ireland 465 kilometers.

Germany 935 kilometers.

Okay, and Poland 1,452 kilometers.

Now you might have got slightly different distances to me depending on whereabouts in the country you measured from.

So it's absolutely fine if you did get different measurements because, obviously these are not exact because it depends on where in the country you went from.

So if you got different measurements, it's likely that you might have got different rankings and that is absolutely fine.

Okay, here we have a summary for today's lesson.

So supermarkets are the main way that people shop for food.

Several supermarkets in the UK are global companies and operate in different countries around the world.

Supermarkets import goods and food from other countries of the world.

Items with more food miles can have greater impact on the environment as they produce greenhouse gases and supermarkets sell many different goods and food items, which all have their own complex supply chains.

Right, that's it for today's lesson.

Well done.

You've done a fantastic job there 'cause there were some tricky things to get your head around.

So that's it for today.

Well done and I'll see you next time.

Bye.