The Geography of Food and Health

The Geography of Food and Health

- global availability of food

- areas of food sufficiency and deficiency

- case study Ethiopia

Political factors

Food Production and Markets

• Various political-agricultural practices contribute to food insecurity worldwide. These include substituting commodity crops for food crops (e.g. growing corn instead of vegetables) and heavy exportation of food crops at the expense of food security of the exporting country.
• In addition, the recent demand for biofuels, currently produced primarily from corn and soy, has further decreased the amount of viable arable land being used for food production.
• The United States overproduces commodity crops (particularly corn, wheat, and soy) in part due to government subsidisation; healthful food and sustainable agriculture has not been historically promoted in US food and farming policy. The FAO’s definition of food security includes a provision describing access to “nutritious” food; however, in many low-income areas, it is easier to access cheap, unhealthful food (such as fast food), often produced primarily from commodity crops.
• In addition, the US exports a high proportion of its commodity crops to the rest of the world. For example, in 2010, over 53 percent of all corn exports in the world were from the US. The exportation of these commodity crops affects farmers in the rest of the world – especially small farmers with limited resources. A large influx of commodity crops from the US can affect local food security, as small farmers cannot compete with less expensive (subsidised) US-produced agricultural products.

Social factors

Demographic factors

• The 2009 World Summit on Food Security noted that low-income households, women, and farmers with small holdings can face unequal access to food supplies and markets.
• Women and children, particularly pregnant and breastfeeding women and infants, are often the most severely affected by a lack of food.
• Pregnant and breastfeeding women require 300 to 500 extra calories each day, requirements that are difficult to meet in situations of food insecurity. An estimated 17 million infants are born underweight each year, a risk factor that contributes to more than half of all newborn deaths.

• Certain groups in Australia are more susceptible to food insecurity - including unemployed people, single parent households, low-income earners, rentals households and young people (Burns, 2004)
• Indigenous, culturally and linguistically diverse, and socially isolated people may also experience food insecurity at a higher rate
• The reasons why people experience food insecurity include: a lack of resources (including financial resources and other resources such as transport); lack of access to nutritious food at affordable prices, lack of access to food due to geographical isolation; and lack of motivation or knowledge about a nutritious diet.

Free trade allows a country to trade competitively with another country. There are no restrictions regarding what can be exported or imported. By contrast, protectionism creates restrictions to trade.

Indigenous people (24%);

unemployed people (23%);

single parent households (23%);

low-income earners (20%);

rental households (20%); and

young people (15%).

Farm Subsidies

Environmental factors

• Natural hazards such as drought and floods can severely disrupt agricultural production
• The 2010-2011 La Niña caused drought in northern Mexico and Texas and floods in Queensland, Australia.
• 2011 Queensland Flood: resulted in crop loss, rain damage, waterlogging, quality downgrades, delays or disruptions to harvests, and transport problems due to flooded fields, roads and damaged infrastructure. The agricultural sector made a loss of over $1.6 billion. IBISWorld estimated a 27% decline in revenue for sugarcane farmers.
• 2011 Drought in northern Mexico and Texas: slowed plant growth and was the worst drought in northern Mexico in 71 years, the Mexican government reported. On January 17, the Mexican government announced that it was distributing food to particularly hard-hit indigenous Tarahumara communities in northern Mexico’s Chihuahua state.

Food sufficiency and food deficiency

Economic factors

• The global rise in food prices in the last several years has been precipitated by a number of factors, including natural disasters such as drought; increased demand for biofuels; the US dollar’s decline; and an increase in the middle and upper class in countries like China (this has created increased demand for meat and dairy, and thus increased demand for grain).
• Oil price increases mean fuel input costs are higher

Worksheet:

1.) Explain how changes in agricultural systems, scientific and technological innovations, the expansion of the area under agriculture and the growth of agribusiness have increased the availability of food in some areas, starting with the Green Revolution and continuing since.

2.) Examine the environmental, demographic, political, social and economic factors that have caused areas of food deficiency and food insecurity.

Food Security Definition

Two commonly used definitions of food security come from the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)

FAO: "Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life."

Alleviating Food Shortages

Global Patterns of Food Intake

USDA: "Food security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active healthy life. Food security includes a minimum i) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and ii) an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies."

Examples.....

WHO and FAO recommend a minimum daily intake of 400g of fruits and vegetables (excluding potatoes and other starchy tubers); levels lower than this are thought to increase the risk of chronic diseases.

A compelling need or desire for food.

Actual ___________ is what we think of in history, where a certain region simply does not produce enough calories to support its population, and additional calories cannot be imported in time to alleviate the _________________.

The Great _______________ or the Great Hunger was a period of mass ___________, disease, and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato _________, because about two-fifths of the population was solely reliant on this cheap crop for a number of historical reasons. During the _________, approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%.

Distinguish between malnutrition, temporary hunger, chronic hunger and famine.

• Technological Solutions (GM crops, expanding irrigation, seeds and fertilisers, sustainable practices)
• Socio-economic Solutions (agricultural investment, better credit, food aid, land reform, improved infrastructure, trade reform, fair trade)