Chronic Hunger and Food Insecurity in the Global Environment

Culinary Studies: Theory and Nutrition 2 (Module B) (CUT 200B)

Lecturer: Nina Septoe

Guillaume Bester
209172339

30 August 2010
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Contents

1.Intoduction 2

2.Chronic hunger: Concept and impact 2

3.Food Security 3

4. Factors affecting global food supply and security 4

5. Countries affected by hunger 5

6. Nutritional ailments associated with chronic hunger 6

7.Conclusion 7

8.Bibliography 8
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1. Introduction
No one can claim to be ignorant of the devastation of poverty and hunger in the
developing world. We are bombarded by images of it on a daily basis in the media.
But to we really understand the origin of the situation of these suffering people? In
this project we set out to explore the idea of chronic hunger and its impact on global
society. We are going to investigate the formulation concept of food security and how
it is a contributing factor to chronic hunger. After an understanding of food security is
gained we are going to look at the factors that contribute to it and affect global food
supply. Two countries suffering from chronic hunger and food insecurity will be
researched and discussed. Lastly we will look at the micro nutritional effects of
chronic hunger and ailments resulting from this.

2. Chronic hunger: Concept and areas of impact

One might expect that it is easy to understand the concept of hunger, as all humans
need to consume food. Normally the feeling of being hungry, or more specifically, the
sensation of an empty stomach, would be experienced at numerous stages
throughout the day.

The hunger that is the focus of this project is something completely different to that
sensation. It is the state were a person has prolonged and involuntary access to only
a fraction of the calories (a minimum of 2000) that is need on a daily basis to lead a
normal productive life. This state can be defined as under-nourishment or chronic
hunger (FAO, Online, WPF Online). Chronic hunger has become a major
contemporary humanitarian crisis and a daily reality for more than a billion of the
world’s population (Powledge, 2010).

Under-nourishment’s impact cannot be underestimated. It can have dire health

consequences, especially in the physical development of children, where it results in
severely inhibiting mental development, an impaired immune system and in many
cases death (FAO, Online). According to Gordon Conway (2000), the president of
the philanthropic Rockefeller foundation, a minimum of 17 million children under the
age of 5 die each year as a result of chronic hunger. Chronic hunger is a massive
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contributor to the current level of mortality on a worldwide. Because of this lack of

physical and mental growth, under-nourishment may also further contribute to
poverty, forming a developmental downward spiral.

The developing countries of the world have the highest prevalence of chronic
hunger, as poverty is directly related to under-nourishment. It is important to note
that it is not limited to these and can also be observed in first world countries as well
(Singh, 2009). The food and agriculture organisation (FAO) of the United Nations
(Online) identifies 3 groups that suffer from chronic hunger:

The rural poor: This is the biggest group. They don’t have the resources or access
to food. They also lack the infrastructure to receive or produce ample amounts of
food. In most cases, they are difficult to reach and thus difficult to supply aid too.

The urban poor: They live in cities and have access to food, but lack the financial
recourses to buy food.

Disaster victims: Natural disasters can cause the destruction of infrastructure,

homes and the livelihood of those affected. This may reduce access to food or the
resources to buy food.

These 3 groups suffer what is called food insecurity. To gain a better understanding
of this concept it will be discussed in the next section.

3. Food Security

Food security is a fairly recent idea, but has become a recognized one in the worlds
of politics and nutrition (Powledge, 2010). Forming a definition of this concept has
been an ongoing process and has changed with the perception and knowledge of
the scope of the global food problem.

When the term was first coined in the 1970s, its focus was only on the “volume and
stability of [the world] food supply”. Thus it only looked at the amount of food
produced in the world. There was added to this in the 1980 by including, “access by
vulnerable people to available food supplies”. This brought focus to the ability of
people to access food, but not to the state of the food and to what degree the
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access. In the late 1980s, food security was further expanded to include nutritional
requirements by stating that people should have access to, “enough food for an
active, healthy life”. (FAO,Online)

The most recent and complete definition of Food security is defined in the FAO’s
report on trade reforms and food security. It states that food security exists when:

“All people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe
and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy lifestyle. Household food security is the application of this concept
to the family level, within households as the focus of concern.” (FAO, Online)

Thus food insecurity would imply the inverse of this. Food insecurity can be seen as
the direct cause to chronic hunger on a worldwide level. There are numerous factors
that affect food security and the global food supply. They will be dicussed in the next
section.

4. Factors affecting the global food supply and security

Many people believe that the main contributor to global chronic hunger is that there
is not enough food produced to feed the planets population, but in actual fact there is
more than 150% of the food required to satisfy global demand (Singh, 2009). We live
in a time where food production has never been more effective and efficient
(Powledge, 2010). As mentioned in the previous section, food security is not just a
shortage of food but a shortage of access to the food supply. What then are the
factors that are affecting the state of the world’s food security and supply thus
leading to chronic hunger?

Lack of agricultural infrastructure and education in impoverished nations, is also

one of the biggest factors affecting food supply and security. Because of the
extensive subsidising of western agricultural industries, developing nations “have
been forced to let agriculture fall apart” (Singh, 2009).

Climate change has become a major contributor to food supply risk in countries
already suffering of food insecurity, especially those in sub Saharan Africa. Lush soil
is becoming arid waste land, reducing the ability of local agriculture. Australia has
also been affected with a 6 year long drought.
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The inability to distribute food also becomes a leading factor in the state of food
security. Without the needed infrastructure in many developing countries is nearly
impossible to provide sustenance to the impoverished rural populations. There is
also the damage that is done to the food that is being transported.

Change in worldwide eating habits due to the increase in demand for cattle and
meat products as also been a contributor. It requires 7 kg of grain to rear 1kg of
meat, it thus is a very ineffective source of nutrition (Singh, 2009).

In the last 3 years, food prices have been rising to record highs, pushing more
people under the bread line. According to the FAO (Online), these price hikes have
caused a food security crises in more than 33 nations. It is important to note that it
these don’t only include developing countries, but the effects can be seen worldwide.
The 2 major contributors to the price increase are. Firstly, the rise in the price of
fossil fuel, as it plays an integral part in the production of food. Secondly is the recent
popularity of bio-fuels. The production of bio-fuel requires the use of grains. As a
result of this, the demand for grain has gone up and its price as well. Another
negative result of bio-fuel production is the fact that edible grains are used, and so
doing reducing the supply of food (Powledge, 2010). The World Bank estimates that
food cost has increased with 75% due to bio-fuel production (Singh, 2009).

5. Countries affected by hunger

4.1 The Democratic Republic of the Congo:

According to the Global Hunger Index (Grebmer et al, 2008), published in 2008, The
Democratic Republic of the Congo is the country with the highest per capita
occurrence of chronic hunger in the world.

Since 1996 the country has been in the grip of civil war which and the struggle for
political power in the country has caused the death of millions (WFP, Online). The
reason for the level of under-nourishment is the destruction of most of the country’s
infrastructure needed for sufficient agricultural production; this has put the country in
a desperate situation. The war’s effect on the civil infrastructure has also made it
extremely difficult to distribute food and humanitarian food aid, making the dire
situation even worse.
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The country was also hit hard by the recent global financial crises, further crippling it
economically and causing food price increases of 52 percent (WFP, Online).

4.2 India:

India is home to the world’s largest population of chronically hungry people. Today
more than 200 million Indians suffer from under nutrition, and number that is greater
than that of the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa (BBC, Online).

This is due to India being one of the most economically divided countries in the world
with a large part of the population being extremely impoverished. This means that
they suffer from major food insecurity as they cannot financially afford to buy
nutritious food. Ironically most of these impoverished are the farmers themselves
that are driven into debt (WFP, Online).

Further matters causing food insecurity in India is the lack of transport infrastructure
in many areas and the fact that many of its provinces has suffered severe drought as
a result of global climate change, reducing crop yields to a very low level.

6. Nutritional ailments associated with chronic hunger and under

nutrition

Under-nutrition is not only a cause of death because it brings about a lack of energy
providing calories and resulting starvation, but because it brings about a number of
micronutrient deficiencies or malnutrition.

The Major micronutrient deficiencies caused by under-nutrition are those of Vitamin-

A, Iron, Iodine (WHO, Online). These are vitally important to daily human function
and bay cause a assortment of medical conditions if not consumed in required
amounts.

In most cases of undernourishment, Iron is the most common nutrient that is missing
from the diet. This is because the biggest source of iron is protein. Iron is vital for
energy production in the body (Anaemia). Thus people, who suffer from under-
nutrition, lack the iron to be productive (Gordon-Davis et al, 2007).
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Vitamin A or Retinol is a oil based Vitamin and can be found in oil and dairy based
products. Due to the expensive nature of these, it is obvious that people that are
severely under-nourished will have no access to these. Vitamin A is essential for the
growth and development of the human body (Gordon-Davis et al, 2007).

Iodine intake is difficult if the diet is lacking of vegetables and fish products. These
are also difficult foodstuffs to find in impoverished and drought ridden areas. Iodine
deficiency might cause thyroid problems and Goitre, a condition causing swelling in
the neck and stop blood circulation in the body (Gordon-Davis et al, 2007).

In terms of the above mentioned it is important to note what Fred Powledge states in
his BioScience Journal article (Powledge, 2010):“Many of the problems of
malnourishment can be easily and cheaply affoided if victems received adequate
quantities of micronutrients, such as iodized salt and vitamin A” Thus these should
be strategically incorporated in food aid products, to avoid the effects of their
deffientcies on the under-nourished.

7. Conclustion

Chronic hunger is a growing concern and is affecting more of the world’s population
on a daily basis. Through the conducted research we have gained an understanding
of the concepts of chronic hunger and food insecurity. We established what the
factors that contribute to this are many and varied, and that an unique and individual
combination of these factors exist for each nation affected.

The scope of those affected is an unprecedented 6 th of the world population. For

these people to be uplifted from their position of suffering it would take a global
social, political and humanitarian effort to tackle these challenges. We can only hope
that practical solutions are found and that humanity as a whole will contribute to this
fight,
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8. Bibliography

British Broadcasting Corporation. 2008. Hunger in Indian States alarming.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7669152.stm [29 August 2010]

Conway, G. 2000. Food for all in the 21st Centuary. Enviroment: 42(1): 9-18

Grebmer. K, Nestorova. B, Olofinbiyi. T, Pandya-Lorch, R. 2008. FAO: Global

Hunger Index. Food and agriculture organization of the United nations

Gordon-Davis, L. Van Rensburg, L. 2007. Hospitality industry handbook on Nutrition

and menu planning for South African students and practitioners. Cape Town: Juta &
co.

Powledge, F. 2010. Food, Hunger, and Insecurity. BioScience: 60(4): 260-265, April

Singh, S. 2009. Global food crisis: magnitude, causes and policy measures.
International Journal of Social Economics: 36(2): 23-36

Manson, B. 2003. Focus: Worsening food insecurity in Africa. Available at:

http://www.wsws.org/index [22 August 2010].

Food and agriculture organization of the United Nations. 2008 . Report on: Trade
reforms and food security. http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y4671e/y4671e00.htm
[25 August 2010]

Food and agriculture organization of the United nations .n.d. Frequently asked
questions on hunger. http://fao.org/hunger/faqs-on-hunger/en/#c41480 [

World Food Program n.d. Overview of huger in the Democratic republic of the
Congo. http://www.wfp.org/countries/Congo--Democratic-Republic-Of/Overview [29
August 2010]
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World Food Program n.d. Frequently Asked Questions.

http://www.wfp.org/hunger/faq [29 August 2010]