The State As Mean For Food Systems Change

The last but not the least, high food prices make the situation even worse. According to FAO ' s data, the population of undernourishment increased by 75 million, which is higher than it in 2003 to 2005. The scientists analyzed it is caused by the rising food price (FAO, 2008). Additionally, in some countries in African, South American and Asia where average income is very low, to achieve the food security is almost impossible. For instance, Afghanistan is one of the most food-insecure countries. In Afghanistan, with 80% of the population living in rural place, the agricultural industry is most significant to this country. However, the households in Afghanistan still need to spend over 60 percent of their budgets on food. In 2008, it can be easily found in the chart, the wheat flour price experienced a sharp increase from 15 per kg to 45 per kg, which greatly increased the burden of the inhabitants (D’Souza, 2011). When the flour price rises, the local people will certainly spend more percentage of their incomes on wheat flour rather than some high-quality vegetables and meat. Unreasonable diet structure can directly contribute to lacking nutrition and influence their healthy. As a result, a vicious circle is created and makes the

Throughout human history, food has always been a major influence towards society. Whether it may advocate changes of culture, formulate emotional bonding, it can also aggravate towards poverty. According to modern society, the latter has it that food has become an abundant resource to some parts of the world, so much that they're even throwing it away. Articles "Half of US food goes to waste" and "In a world of abundance, food waste is a crime" speak briefly on the matter, mainly concerning of the US about how food is treated and the effects it has in contrast. Although "Half of US food goes to waste" does share interesting points along with some informative research data, "In a world of abundance, food waste is a crime" quantifies a rather

Child hunger is an ongoing problem all around the world, but it is statistically more severe in the developing world, with 1 out of 6 children suffering from malnutrition and malnourishment. Africa has the countries with the most staggering child hunger rates; with 2,500 children dying daily from starvation (Borgenproject). Starvation and malnutrition have significant negative impacts on a child’s cognitive and neurological function, organ function and formation, and their physical growth. More importantly, starvation leaves children vulnerable to other serious diseases, stunt growth, and eventually, death. As someone living in the United States, it is difficult to make child hunger in Africa a priority, because one is literally and figuratively so far away from the issue, as well as misinformed and lacking the resources necessary to tackle the different causes that lead to child hunger in Africa.

“In Europe and Asia the typical family lived close to the breadline. Whether in 1500 or 1800, in France or in China, Most families either owned no land or such a small holding that it could barely feed them even in a prolific year.” (Blainey, 2001) This quote is the first piece of the text, and summarises the differences between then and now. Whilst billions of people still live below the breadline in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia, and Latin America (Shah, 2013), the spread of wealth has changed in a way that we are able to track the changes by consumption. The countries colonised by European countries that were noted by Blainey and Crone as having been struggling with food are, from the 1800’s onwards, generally some of the best fed people in the world

Nutritional health according to Snarr has different objectives for example; N. America wants to achieve a trans-fat free food, while Africa and S. America people are undernourished. For our chapter, good nutrition means having good amounts of proteins, vitamins, fats, minerals, and calories to have good health and growth. Food security is explained as ability to get and keep food which depends on the amount of land for farming and the population of a region. Political conflicts, disease, welfare, and climate are major factors that affect food security. Undernutrition is a key problem in developing world and it has major consequences like speeding up the rate of disease and slowing down worker productivity. While overnutrition is a problem

Dr. Terry Leahy, Lecturer in sociology and anthropology at the University of Newcastle, spoke about establishing food security in rural South and South Eastern Africa. He particularly focused on current projects and the role of permaculture in addressing food insecurity.

Growing up, the commercials of starving children in Africa in need of food because of rampant starvation and the pervasive threat of death have been streaming on various media. World Hunger is one of the main problems that a large portion of the global population faces today. Hunger varies with severity but in this case it is the want of food in a third world country. World hunger is a problem that has existed for much of our known history; it has faded away from central concerns because it is barely brought up in everyday conversations. World hunger has many aggravating factors and principal causes, such as insufficient economic systems, misinformation, climate changes, etc. But the main debilitating factor is poverty as poverty always has led to people going without regular meals because they cannot afford to eat. There are vast quantities of people in third world nations and developing countries such as Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia that are so impoverished that are in desperate need for food. Whether a country is rich or poor, there are always tremendous numbers of people dealing with poverty and hunger. Perhaps most disheartening is the cruel reality that most of the victims are young children. Hunger is a very serious issue that cannot easily be remedied.

“Approximately 3.1 million children die from hunger each year” (“World Child Hunger Facts”). Hunger for a long period of time results in malnutrition which is the lack of proper nutrition, caused by not having enough to eat. Hunger and malnutrition is a serious problem faced by many children across the globe. It is even more prevalent among the developing countries of Asia and Africa where millions of children are underweight because they do not get enough to eat. Not only does the malnutrition severely affect children’s physical and mental health, it also affect their academics. Malnutrition has several negative effects on a child’s learning and school performance as it can lead to lower attendance, unsatisfactory student behavior, and poor academic performance.

Politically speaking, nationally the government can run programmes that support poor households in urban and rural areas to grow some food even though not all needs will be met. However, national governments can play a role to avert food insecurity and general instability associated with rising food costs. They are not entirely powerless. Income and food are inter-related. When people are unemployed and dependent on irregular sources of income, food inflation hurts the most. In addition, when ordinary people hurt and have no recourse to escape the ravages of food inflation, they will take to the streets. However, income in itself does not guarantee that one eats properly either. The consequence of having no income or low-income growth is that the poor either starve and are under-nourished or just fill themselves with things that lead to long-term poor health. The high unemployment and poverty rate in South Africa has already lead to

Hunger, in short, is a crisis that is marked by the inability to meet basic nutritional needs. The lack of nutrition brought by hunger leads to cognitive problems, bodily problems and ultimately death. While hunger is commonly correlated with third world countries such as Haiti, it is a global crisis experienced by every region in some form. The devastation of hunger is unmissable, claiming “the lives of 20,000 children a day” (Gitlin 1252). Additionally, with a population experiencing exponential growth, “the global demand for food will increase for at least another 40 years” (Godfray, H. C. J., et al 812). Ironically, the majority of people facing hunger are farmers and pastoralists living in marginal lands within Africa and Asia, “where

Each year more than 5000 New Zealand children become hospitalized because of malnutrition (Lewis, 2007). Malnutrition refers to the lack of sufficient nutrients in the body. This means it can affect both overweight-obese children and underweight children (The Press, 2008). This social problem needs to be addressed as the lack of nutrients in the body can affect organ function, concentration and increases the risk of infections (Gavin, 2012).

This paper focus is over to the World Food Crisis. As US Subprime credit and mortgage problems crunch harder into global national economies, Inflation is on sky rocket high. There is a surge in commodity prices particularly for food staples thus pushing up consumer prices across the globe. (The pain of inflation, 2008 pg.1) This paper will focus on this very point ‘the soaring global food prices’, it’s affects around the world. The paper will also try to point out the underlying causes for the historical food shortage this world has seen in the 21st century.

Malnutrition can lead to a variety of deficiencies in essential vitamins and nutrients needed for a child to properly develop. In a study of nutritional status in Ecuadorian school-aged children done by Freire (2014), 25% of children are affected by zinc deficiency, 15% are vitamin A deficient, and 38% are iron deficient (1639). Malnutrition that leads to a child being underweight or overweight, weakens the individual’s body, and increases susceptibility to disease or infection. Action needs to be taken to ensure that the future leaders of communities in Ecuador are able to grow up healthy.

Bantamen G, Belaynew W, Dube J., 2014. Assessment of Factors Associated with Malnutrition among Under Five Years Age Children at Machakel Woreda, Northwest Ethiopia.

In sub-Saharan Africa, just under one in every four people, or 23.2 percent of the population, is estimated to be undernourished in 2014–16 (FAO et al., 2015). This is the highest prevalence of undernourishment for any region in the World and, with about 220 million hungry people in 2014–16, the second highest burden in absolute terms. The number of undernourished people increased by 44 million between 1990 to 92 and 2014 to 2016. In the Central African sub region, the number of undernourished people more than doubled between 1990–92 and 2014–16 (FAO et al., 2015). The lack of progress in the rate of undernourishment in absolute terms reflects prevailing problems in the sub region, notably poor food consumption patterns caused amongst others by limited understanding on the dimensions of food security, political instability and forest degradation. It is therefore absolute to carry out investigations to properly understand the dimensions of food security especially with changing environmental conditions. Promoting the consumption of fruits in poor communities and amongst vulnerable groups could help in addressing problems of nutrient deficiency and malnutrition (Kehlenbeck et al., 2013; Place et al., 2013; Tchoundjeu et al., 2012).