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