New
New
Year 11
AQA

Food resources in the UK

I can explain how changing demand for food in the UK creates opportunities and challenges.

New
New
Year 11
AQA

Food resources in the UK

I can explain how changing demand for food in the UK creates opportunities and challenges.

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Changing demand for food in the UK creates opportunities and challenges.
  2. There is growing demand for high-value food exports from LICs, seasonal food (all-year) and organic produce.
  3. There is a move towards local food sourcing to reduce carbon footprints.
  4. There is a trend towards agribusiness.

Keywords

  • Organic produce - food grown without the use of artificial chemicals, such as fertiliser and pesticide

  • Carbon footprint - a measurement of all greenhouse gas emissions associated with a good or service (or lifestyle), expressed as tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent

  • Agribusiness - an intensive farming system often involving high capital costs to maximise profits

  • Food miles - the distance food is transported from the producer to consumers

Common misconception

Organic farmers do not use fertiliser on their crops.

Organic farming does involve the use of fertiliser but not the use of artificial chemical fertiliser (e.g. derived from fossil fuels). For example, farmyard manure is a good source of nutrients for crops on an organic farm but so too is seaweed.


To help you plan your year 11 geography lesson on: Food resources in the UK, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Your students' understanding of agribusiness and the impacts of different methods of food production on the environment will be further developed, if you do the food option within the global resources topic. If not, this is a key lesson for help students understand their role as consumers.
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Equipment

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Match the keywords with their definitions:

Correct Answer:renewable,A resource that naturally replaces itself

A resource that naturally replaces itself

Correct Answer:non-renewable,A resource that will eventually run out

A resource that will eventually run out

Correct Answer:resource,Something we use to meet our needs

Something we use to meet our needs

Correct Answer:water stress,When water demand is higher than supply

When water demand is higher than supply

Q2.
Which of these is a non-renewable resource used in the UK?

Solar energy
Wind
Correct answer: Natural gas
Hydroelectric power

Q3.
What is the main use of water in the UK?

Correct answer: Domestic and industrial use
Farming only
Transport
Generating electricity

Q4.
Which part of the UK generally receives the most rainfall?

Correct answer: Western uplands (e.g. Wales, Lake District)
South East England
East Anglia
London

Q5.
Which UK region is most likely to suffer from water stress?

North West
Correct answer: South East
North Wales
Scottish Highlands

Q6.
The UK imports a lot of its food and energy, which reduces its energy .

Correct Answer: security

Assessment exit quiz

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4 Questions

Q1.
Match the keywords to their definitions:

Correct Answer:organic produce,food grown without synthetic fertilisers or pesticides

food grown without synthetic fertilisers or pesticides

Correct Answer:carbon footprint,the total emissions linked to a product or lifestyle

the total emissions linked to a product or lifestyle

Correct Answer:agribusiness,large-scale, intensive commercial farming

large-scale, intensive commercial farming

Correct Answer:food miles,distance food travels from source to consumer

distance food travels from source to consumer

Q2.
Which of these is an example of reducing food miles?

Correct answer: Buying apples from a farm in your county
Eating imported tropical fruits
Getting takeaways from another country
Shopping online for food flown from overseas

Q3.
Which farming method is most common in agribusiness?

Correct answer: Intensive, large-scale farming with machinery
Small-scale hand farming
Urban rooftop gardening
Growing crops in forests

Q4.
What do people often wrongly believe about organic farming?

That it uses crop rotation
Correct answer: That it doesn’t use fertilisers at all
That it uses natural methods
That it’s better for soil health