Environmental Systems and Societies · Topic 5: Land

ES5.2 — Agriculture and food

Environmental Systems and Societies · SL / HL · syllabus-mapped notes

1. Feeding a growing, unequal world

   Finite land and a rising population, the vulnerability of marginalized groups, food waste and distribution, and food security.

2. Agricultural systems: variation and classification

   Why systems vary with soil and climate, how they are classified, and traditional low-density techniques.

3. The Green Revolution and sustaining soil

   The Green Revolution and its consequences, alternatives to synthetic fertilizer, and the full soil-conservation toolkit.

4. Sustainable diets and food strategies

   Why lower-trophic-level diets are more sustainable and the current global strategies for a sustainable food supply.

5. HL: Contrasting choices and alternative farming

   Soil- and climate-driven farming choices, alternative approaches, regenerative and permaculture methods, and high-tech production.

6. HL: Diet sustainability, wild harvesting and malnutrition

   What makes a diet sustainable, harvesting wild species, evaluating low-productivity systems, and the causes of malnutrition and famine.