Download 16. Food Security, Equity, and the Environment

Chapter 16 Lecture
Chapter 16:
Food Equity,
Sustainability,
and Quality: The
Challenge of
"Good" Food
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Global Food Insecurity
• Food insecurity: unreliable access to a
sufficient supply of nourishing food and
inequities in agriculture and food-service
employment
• Global and domestic disparities in infant
mortality and life expectancy
• United Nations estimates one in nine people in
the world is chronically undernourished, 98%
live in developing nations
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Food Insecurity in U.S.
• In 2013,14% (about 75 million households) of
U.S. households experienced food insecurity
• During the year, household members were
uncertain of of having, or unable to acquire
enough food to meet their needs
• Over 5% of U.S. households (6.8 million
households) had very low food insecurity
• One or more household members had to
reduce the quality, variety, or desirability of
their food choices, and the amount
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Food Insecurity Risk Factors
• Households with incomes below 185% of the
U.S. poverty threshold, single parents, African
American households, and Hispanic households
• Physical, psychological, or social factors
• Chronic disease
• Disability
• Depression
• Alcohol and drug addiction
• Divorce (especially for women)
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Malnutrition
• Malnutrition takes different forms
• Undernutrition: results from not getting enough
to eat
• Overnutrition: results from excessive
consumption of energy-dense foods along with
inadequate physical activity
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Food Shortages
• Acute food shortages may be caused by
weather events and wars
• Famine: a severe food shortage affecting a
large percentage of the population in a limited
area at a particular time.
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Chronic Hunger
• The major cause of chronic hunger is unequal
food distribution
• Overpopulation occurs when resources are
insufficient to support the number of people
living in an area.
• Improving food supply:
• Slowing population growth can improve food
supply
• Educating girls and women can reduce
birthrates
• Increase food production and import foods
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Chronic Hunger – Agricultural Practices
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Deforestation
Overgrazing
Crop rotation
Use of agricultural land for cash crops (cotton,
coffee, tobacco) replaces subsistence crops
(sorghum and corn)
• Used for industry and livestock feed
• Less food available for local consumption
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Chronic Hunger – Lack of Infrastructure
• Roads and transportation
• Electricity and refrigeration
• Water management: irrigation, safe drinking
water, sewage systems
• Sanitation services
• Communication systems
• Healthcare delivery system
• Public education
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Chronic Hunger – Impact of Disease
• Disease and lack of healthcare to fight disease
reduce the work capacity
• Reduced ability to ward off poverty and
malnutrition
• Example: AIDS epidemic
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Climate Change
• Global warming contributes significantly to
climate change: any significant change in the
measures of climate over several decades
• Impact on global food security:
• Reduced crop yields
• Crop destruction
• Reduced seafood availability
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Problems With Limited Nourishing Food
• Nutritional imbalance with inadequate energy or limited
access to nourishing foods
• Wasting: very low body weight for height, or extreme
thinness
• A hallmark of severe acute malnutrition (SAM)
• Stunted growth: shorter than expected for an
individual's chronological age; chronically
undernourished
• 1 in 7 people in the world is undernourished
• Most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast
Asia
• In Central and South America, rates as high as 25% of
population
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Problems With Limited Nourishing Food
(cont.)
• Maternal mortality: death of a woman during
pregnancy, childbirth, or in the immediate
postpartum period
• Infant mortality: death of an infant between
birth and 1 year
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Decreased Resistance to Infection
• Reduced energy reserves and weakened
immune response
• Infection exacerbates malnutrition: reduces
appetite; causes vomiting, diarrhea, and weight
loss
• Vicious cycle of malnutrition and infection:
childhood diseases, HIV/AIDS
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Micronutrient Deficiency Diseases
• Impoverished countries experience severe
deficiencies in key micronutrients:
• Iron
• Iodine
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B12 and folate
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Iron Deficiency
• The most common micronutrient deficiency in
the world; considered an epidemic
• Most prevalent in pregnant women and young
children
• Iron deficiency anemia contributes to 20% of
maternal deaths
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Iodine Deficiency
• Prenatal iodine is critical for fetal brain
development
• Mild deficits in school-age children impair
cognitive performance, retard physical
development
• Occurrences have been greatly reduced in
areas where iodine added to salt or oil, or to
irrigation water
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Vitamin A Deficiency
• Leading cause of blindness in children
• Due to greater vulnerability to severe
infection, such children are at high risk for
death
• Estimated 250 million children are vitamin A
deficient
• International initiatives to supplement vitamin A
in deficient children have had a significant
impact
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Socioeconomic Problems
• Undernourishment of iodine, vitamin B12, folate,
essential fatty acids and other nutrients can
cause significant cognitive impairments (learning
and memory problems)
• Vision loss (vitamin A deficiency) can limit work
capacity
• Micronutrient deficiency prompts weakness
reducing labor, a global drain on work capacity
and productivity
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Limited Nourishing Food and Obesity
• Nutrition paradox: coexistence of stunting and
overweight/obesity in the same region,
household, or person
• Factors:
• Trend toward decreased physical activity
• Global shift in diet toward increased intake of
energy-dense foods low in micronutrients and
fiber
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Poverty-Obesity Paradox
• Obesity is more prevalent in low-income
populations
• In the United States, a reduction in family
income during early childhood increases the
child's risk for becoming overweight/obese
• Hunger-obesity paradox: low-income people are
obese while also deficient in one or more
nutrients, or even hungry
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Food Deserts
• Low-income and obesity may reflect
environment
• Food deserts are geographical areas that lack
access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food—
rural and inner-city
• Abundance of cheap, energy-dense foods with
longer shelf life, and higher satiety value
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Stress Contributes to Obesity
• Stress may be a link between obesity and
poverty—cortisol slows metabolism and
increases appetite while prompting short-sighted
decision-making, like eating empty-Calorie
"comfort foods"
• Sugar triggers a negative feedback loop and
"turns off" stress response—sugar may be
calming for people under stress
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Fetal Undernourishment
• Mother's poor nutritional status can affect
offspring in utero as well as throughout
childhood into adulthood
• "Fetal origins theory"
• Effects can be passed on to future generations
and may need four generations of improved
conditions to overcome risk for short stature and
overweight
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Equity in Food Production and Sales
• Working conditions in America's agricultural and
food service industries are "grossly inequitable"
• Contributing factors:
• Farm labor is dangerous and poorly paid
• Food service maintains the working poor
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Farm Labor
• Much of farm labor is "contingent work": little job
security, no healthcare insurance, no sick leave
or vacation leave, no retirement benefits, and
low wages
• "Migrant workers" move from one region to
another with changing harvest times
• Trend for contingent farm work in agriculture is
increasing
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Farm Labor (cont.)
• Migrant workers face hazardous conditions
• Majority live below the poverty line
• Children as young as 12 years can work on
farms
• No breaks for rest or meals
• Only 17% have healthcare insurance
• High fatality rate
• Long-term exposure to pesticides and UV
rays
• Housing is substandard
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Food Service Work
• Over 4 million food service workers; many work
at or below the minimum wage
• Majority of foodservice workers live below the
poverty line
• 30% receive Medicaid and 14% receive SNAP
benefits, which means American taxpayers are
subsidizing food service companies
• Many have no paid sick leave, and may work
while sick
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Sustainability
• Sustainability: the ability to satisfy humanity's
basic needs now and in the future without
undermining the natural resource base and
environmental quality of which life depends
• Sustainable practices can reduce pollution of air,
soil, and water and preserve resources for future
generations
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Sustainability of Food Supply
• Industrial agriculture has increased food security
but threatens the environment
• Green Revolution: a program that has led to
improved seed quality, fertilizers, pesticides, and
farming techniques to boost crop yields
• High-yield varieties (HYV) of rice, wheat,
corn, beans and other crops
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Industrial Techniques
• Total number of livestock and poultry farms has
decreased, but much larger operations
increased
• Cattle, pigs, and chickens are raised in confined
animal-feeding operations (CAFOs)
• Movement is restricted
• Animal is fattened with high-energy feed,
often containing growth hormones
• Increased global food supply and improved
nutrition for millions
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Environmental Costs
• Loss of topsoil due to erosion, pollution of soils
• Depletion of fossil fuels and ground water
• Development of insecticide-resistant insects and
herbicide-resistant weeds
• Increased release of greenhouse gases
• Deforestation
• Inefficiency of eating grain-fed meat for
resources required—contributes to global
warming and resource depletion
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Monopolization of Agriculture
• Industrial agriculture reduces food diversity
• Food supply monopolized by large-scale
industrial agriculture which produces a few
subsidized crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and
rice)
• "Monoculture" requires larger amounts of
stronger pesticides
• Global loss in variety with fruits, vegetables, and
whole grains, threatening food security
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Food Industry's Influence
• Livestock industries and large food companies
donate and spend millions of dollars to influence
the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the
American diet
• The U.S. food industry produces about twice as
many Calories per capita per year than
Americans require; to make a profit, the industry
encourages consumers to overeat
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Addressing the Challenges of "Good Food"
• International programs
• WHO and UNICEF breastfeeding initiatives
• Micronutrient Initiative
• Deworming and mosquito control
• Food assistance programs
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Addressing the Challenges of "Good Food"
• National and local programs
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants, and Children
(WIC)
• National School Lunch and Breakfast
programs
• USDA's Commodity Supplemental Food
Program
• CDC's Healthy Corner Store initiative
• Local soup kitchens and food pantries
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Sustainable Agriculture
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Crop rotation to control soil erosion
Organic farming
Family farms
Community supported agriculture
Farmers markets
School gardens
Slow food
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Promoting "Good" Food
• Support food security
• Purchase fair trade goods
• Choose foods that are healthful and good for the
environment
• Reduce meat consumption
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