Glossary of Environmental Science - F

F

• feedback – flow from the products of an action back to interact with the action.
• feedlot (feedyard) - a type of Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) (also known as "factory farming") which is used for finishing livestock, notably beef cattle, prior to slaughter.
• fertigate – apply fertiliser through an irrigation system.
• fertility rate - number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years cf. birth rate, mortality rate.
• fertilizers (also spelled fertilisers) - compounds given to plants to promote growth; they are usually applied either through the soil, for uptake by plant roots, or by foliar feeding, for uptake through leaves.
• flyway - the flight paths used in bird migration. Flyways generally span over continents and often oceans.
• food chain (food webs, food networks and/or trophic networks) - the feeding relationships between species within an ecosystem.
• food miles - the emissions produced and resources needed to transport food and drink around the globe.
• food security - food produced in sufficient quantity to meet the full requirements of all people i.e. total global food supply equals the total global demand. For households it is the ability to purchase or produce the food they need for a healthy and active life (disposable income is a crucial issue). Women are typically gatekeepers of household food security. For national food security, the focus is on sufficient food for all people in a nation and it entails a combination of national production, imports and exports. Food security always has components of production, access and utilisation.
• Footprint – (Ecological Footprint) in a very general environmental sense a "footprint" is a measure of environmental impact. However, this is usually expressed as an area of productive land (the footprint) needed to counteract the impact.
• forage - the plant material (mainly plant leaves) eaten by grazing animals.
• forest – land with a canopy cover greater than 30%.
• fossil fuel - any hydrocarbon deposit that can be burned for heat or power, such as coal, oil and natural gas (produces carbon dioxide when burnt); fuels formed from once-living organisms that have become fossilized over geological time.
• fossil water – groundwater that has remained in an aquifer for thousands or millions of years; when geologic changes seal the aquifer preventing further replenishment, the water becomes trapped inside and is then referred to as fossil water. Fossil water is a limited resource and can only be used once.
• freegan - a person using alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing - in opposition to materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed. The most notorious freegan strategy is "urban foraging" or "dumpster diving". This technique involves rummaging through the garbage of retailers, residences, offices, and other facilities for useful goods. The word freegan is compounded from "free" and "vegan". cf. affluenza, froogle.
• freon - DuPont's trade name for its odourless, colorless, nonflammable, and noncorrosive chlorofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon refrigerants, which are used in air conditioning and refrigeration systems Fair trade - a guarantee that a fair price is paid to producers of goods or services; it includes a range of other social and environmental standards including safety standards and the right to form unions.
• freshwater - water containing no significant amounts of salt; potable water suitable for all normal uses cf. potable water.
• front – (weather) the boundary between warm (high pressure) and cold (low pressure) air masses.
• froogle - a play on the word frugal; people who lead low-consumption life-styles: a person who is part of a new movement towards self-sufficiency and waste-reduction achieved by bartering goods and services especially through the internet, making their own products, soap, clothes, and breeding chickens and goats, growing their own food, baking their own bread, harvesting their own water and energy, and helping to develop a sense of community. Sometimes referring to people who have made a resolution to only buy essentials for a particular period of time cf. freegan, affluenza.
• fugitive emissions - in the context of the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, these are greenhouse gases emitted from fuel production itself including, processing, transmission, storage and distribution processes, and including emissions from oil and natural gas exploration, venting, and flaring, as well as the mining of black coal.
• full-cost pricing - the pricing of commercial goods—such as electric power—that includes not only the private costs of inputs, but also the costs of the externalities required by their production and use cf. externality.