Food Security & Nutrition

food security = when at individual, household, national, regional and global levels 'all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active life' 1996 World Food Summit
1. shift from macro focus in 1940s (increasing supply to continents) to micro focus in 1980s (household and individual access)
  1. 1990s ecological tinge added - appropriateness of food supply rather than just nutritional sufficieny
    1. food security as a tool of analysis; index of poverty; indicator of maldistribution of power
2. 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights: right to food for health for all
3. more people die each year from hunger and malnutrition than from AIDS, TB and malaria combined (World Food Programme)
4. World Bank estimates that cereal production needs to increase bu 50% and meat production by 85% between 2000 and 2030
Food Banks in 'Developed World'
1. The Trussel Trust - UK
  1. 2012/3: food banks fed just under 350,000
    1. rising cost of food, fuel plus static income, high unemployment
  2. 170% rise in those using food banks in 2013
Food control vs. Food democracy?
Agricultural Paradigms: Lang & Heasman, 2004
1. Productionist
  1. developed post WWII with genral shift from small scale production to mass production
    1. success of this paradigm was rel to experience of food shortages during this period
  2. features: increased inputs, plant and animal breeding, growth of fewer but larger farms, mechanization, reliance on fossil fuels
  3. food supply chain became production led >> increase in quantity over all other goals
    1. also based on ability to preserve, store and distribute en masse
  4. irony that policy goal was to increase production surpluses are now being used to weaken self sufficiency policies of many countries who are being urged to open their local markets to global trade
  5. successful in raising production in line with unprecidented pop growth but current concerns such as oil shortages, climate change, water depletion, pollution, concern over animal welfare
  6. focus on monocultures, requiring fertilizers and pesticides
  7. CAP's butter mountains
2. Life Sciences Integrated
  1. medicalized interpretation of human health
    1. nutrigenetics: seeks to understand how diets interact with genes and gene expression
      1. diets tailored to individual needs to prevent disease onset? (Galileo Labs Inc)
        good for 'worried well' of the wealthy world but probably of little relevance to overall pubic health
  2. use of biotechnology e.g. GM
    1. golden rice - enriched with vitamin A
    2. 50 million hectares of GM planted in 2001
    3. Canola oilseed rape (GM) - 20% increased yield
  3. continued use of monocultures
3. Ecologically Integrated
  1. focus on sustainability and agroecology
    1. Cuba: organiponicos, first to sign Kyoto
    2. organic matter accumulation, nutrient cycling, soil biological activity natural control mechanisms, resource conservation
    3. yet to demonstrate widespread applicability
    4. move away from monocultures; mix up plant species rather than use GM
Food Security vs. Conservation?
2008 price hikes
1. wheat up by 130%, sorghum by 87%, rice 74%; caused riots in 36 countries; Haiti's PM kicked out (BBC)
nutritional transition: Popkin (1998)
1. occurring in developing world, primarily associated with rising wealth; 'disease of affluence' spreading; obesity, CDs
  1. associated with demographic (low fertility) and epidemiological transitions (malnutrition > obesity; rural >urban)
    1. questionable transitions....
  2. India & China - increased demand for meat; ecology of vegetarianism
why has food security declined in the past 20 years?
1. Population Growth
  1. Malthus
    1. diminishing returns from '2nd agro revolution'
  2. carrying capacity
  3. 9.1 Bn predicted by 2050 (UN, 2005); increase of about 2 billion from today; 'a strain on the world'
2. water stress & desertification
  1. farming accounts for 70% of the world's use of fresh water that is globally extracted for human use (UN)
  2. UN predicts irrigation demands will increase by 50 - 100% by 2025
  3. 2.8 Bn people currently live in areas of water stress; projected rise to 3.9 Bn by 2030
  4. irrigation has drained the Aral sea; the Dead Sea is shrinking
  5. water wars in over 30 countries
  6. amount of fresh water per person declining rapidly
3. resistance to or banning of pesticides/insecticides
4. climate change: migration of microbial diseases and pests, more extreme and unpredictable weather patterns
  1. 2009 - state of emergency in Liberia; non native species of caterpillar (Achaea catocaloides); 20,000 left homes spread to Guinea; regional food crisis
waste
1. 'developing' world: up to 37% lost after harvesting due to insufficient processing/storage/transport
  1. Vietnam: rice 10 - 25%
2. US: 43 Bn kg lost from retailer onwards (TAI); British families throw away six meals a week (BBC)

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Food Security & Nutrition

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	Created by rosiep almost 11 years ago