FOOD and AGRICULTURE

GLOBAL TRENDS in FOOD and

NUTRITION
Food production has been
transformed from small-scale,
diversified operations to vast
operations of thousands of hectares,
growing one or two genetically
modified crops with abundant inputs
of fuel & fertilizer for a competitive
global market.

These changes have dramatically

increased production, lowered food prices,
and provided affordable meat protein in
developing countries from Brazil to China.
Food production has increased.
Despite these changes, food costs have
risen in many areas, especially for the
poorest populations.

Supply problems have more to do with

distribution than with supplies. We continue to
produce surpluses, but hunger remains an
urgent problem. Revolutions in production have
also profoundly altered our environment and our
diets.

In general, global food supply problems

have more to do with distribution than
with supplies. We continue to produce
surpluses, but hunger remains an urgent
problem Revolutions in production have
also profoundly altered our environment
and our diets.

FOOD SECURITY IS UNEVENLY

DISTRIBUTED
Fifty years ago, hunger was one of the worlds
most prominent, persistent problems. In 1960,
nearly 60 percent of people in developing
countries were chronically undernourished, and
the worlds population was increasing by more
than 2 percent every year. Today, some
conditions have changed dramatically; others
have changed very little. The worlds population
has risen from 3 billion to about 7 billion, but
food production has increased even faster.

While the average population growth in

the past 45 years has been 1.7 percent per
year, food production has increased by an
average of 2.2 percent per year. Food
availability has increased in most countries
to well over 2,200 kilocalories, the amount
generally considered necessary for a
healthy and productive life.

But hunger is still with us. An estimated

854 million people almost one in every
eight people on earthsuffer chronic
hunger.
Increasingly, we are coming to understand
that food security , or the ability to obtain
sufficient, healthy food on a day-to-day
basis, is a combined problem of economic,
environmental, and social conditions.

Famines usually have political

and social roots
Globally, widespread hunger arises when
political instability, war, and conflict displace
populations, removing villagers from their
farms or making farming too dangerous to
carry on. Famines are large-scale food
shortages, with widespread starvation, social
disruption, and economic chaos.

Starving people are forced to eat their

seed grain and slaughter breeding livestock
in a desperate attempt to keep themselves
and their families alive. Even when better
conditions return, they have often sacrificed
their productive capacity and will take a long
time to recover. Famines often trigger mass
migrations to relief camps, where people
survive but cannot maintain a healthy and
productive life

Economist Amartya K. Sen, of Harvard, has

shown that, while natural disasters often
precipitate famines, farmers have almost always
managed to survive these events if they arent
thwarted by inept or corrupt governments or
greedy elites. Professor Sen points out that
armed conflict and political oppression are
almost always at the root of famine. No
democratic country with a relatively free press,
he says, has ever had a major famine.

How Much Food Do We Need?

A good diet is essential to keep you
healthy. You need a balance of foods to
provide the right nutrients, as well as
enough calories for a productive and
energetic lifestyle. The United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates
that nearly 3 billion people (almost half the
worlds population) suffer from vitamin,
mineral, or protein deficiencies.

These shortages result in devastating

illnesses and death, as well as reduced
mental capacity, developmental
abnormalities, and stunted growth.

A healthy diet includes the right

nutrients
Malnourishment is a general term for
nutritional imbalances caused by a lack of
specific nutrients. In conditions of extreme food
shortages, a lack of protein in young children can
cause kwashiorkor, which is characterized by a
bloated belly and discoloured hair and skin.
Kwashiorkor is a West African word meaning
displaced child. A young child is displacedand
deprived of nutritious breast milkwhen a new
baby is born.

Marasmus (to waste away) is another

severe condition in children who lack both
protein and calories. A child suffering from
severe marasmus is generally thin and
shriveled, like a tiny, very old, starving
person. Children with these deficiencies
have low resistance to disease and
infections, and they may suffer permanent
debilities in mental, as well as physical,
development.

Iodine deficiencies can cause goiter, a

swelling of the thyroid gland. Iodine is
essential for synthesis of thyroxin, an
endocrine hormone that regulates
metabolism and brain development,
among other things.

Dietary deficiencies
can cause serious
illness. Marasmus
results from protein
and calorie deficiency
and gives children a
wizened look and dry,
flaky skin.

Goiter, a swelling
of the thyroid
gland, results from
an iodine
deficiency.

Deficiencies in vitamin A, folic acid, and

iodine are more widespread problems. Both are
found in vegetables, especially dark green leafy
vegetables. Deficiencies in folic acid have been
linked to neurological problems in babies.
Dr. Alfred Sommer, an ophthalmologist from
Johns Hopkins University, has shown that giving
children just two cents worth of vitamin A twice
a year could prevent almost all cases of
childhood blindness and premature death
associated with shortages of vitamin A.

FOOD
PYRAMID

The best way to stay healthy is to eat lots of

vegetables and grains, moderate amounts of
eggs and dairy products, and sparing amounts of
meat, oils, and processed foods. Modest amounts
of fats are essential for healthy skin, cell
function, and metabolism. But your body is not
designed to process excessive amounts of fats
(or sugars). Unsaturated plant-based oils, such as
olive oil, are recommended by dietitians; trans
fats (found in hydrogenated margarine) are not
recommended.

Overeating is a growing world

problem
For the first time in history, there are probably
more overweight people (more than 1 billion)
than underweight people (about 850 million).
This trend isnt limited to richer countries.
Obesity is spreading around the world. Diseases
once thought to afflict only wealthy nations,
such as heart attack, stroke, and diabetes, are
now becoming the most prevalent causes of
death and disability everywhere

Being overweight increases your risk of

hypertension, diabetes, heart attacks, stroke,
gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, respiratory
problems, and some cancers. food insecurity and
poverty can contribute to obesity. In one study,
more than half the women who reported not having
enough to eat were overweight, compared with onethird of the food-secure women. Lack of good
quality food may contribute to a craving for
carbohydrates in people with a poor diet. A lack of
time for cooking, limited access to healthy food
choices, and ready availability of fast-food snacks
and calorie-laden soft drinks, also lead to
dangerous dietary imbalances for many people.

WHAT DO WE EAT?
Of the thousands of edible plants and animals in
the world, only a few provide almost all our food.
About a dozen types of grasses, three root crops,
twenty or so fruits and vegetables, six mammals,
two domestic fowl, and a few fish species make up
almost all the food we eat. Two grasses, wheat and
rice, are especially important because they are the
staple foods for most of the 5 billion people in
developing countries.

Rising meat production is a sign of

wealth
Meat is a good indicator of wealth
because it is expensive to produce in
terms of the resources needed to grow an
animal. Herbivores use most of the energy
they consume in growing muscle and
bone, moving around, staying warm, and
metabolizing (digesting) food

Only a little food energy is stored for

consumption by carnivores, at the next
level of the food pyramid. It takes over 8
kilos of grain fed to a beef cow to produce
a single kilo of meat. (Actually, we raise
mainly steers, or neutered males, for
beef.) Pigs, being smaller, are more
efficient. Just three pounds of pig feed are
needed to produce a kilo of pork. Chickens
and herbivorous fish (such as catfish) are
still more efficient.

THE END