Food Matters And Production Of Food

The Impact of Rising Food Prices

Describe about the Food Matters for Production of Food.

Is food security really just about food?

Brown, LR. “The New Geopolitics of Food.” The Food Issue, 2011: 57-62.

The impact of the rising food prices was felt differently by people in New York, New Delhi and Jakarta. The higher the percentage of one’s income is spent on buying food, greater is the impact of the rising food prices. The inflation in food prices can push the world’s poorest into greater poverty and hunger.

Food production is largely dependent on the availability of water for irrigation. As the world’s aquifers get depleted of this valuable resource, more and more countries will be to depend on food imports, particularly that of wheat and rice. While several countries in the middle east are fast reaching such a state, India and China are at a high risk. With 20 million bore wells, India’s farming is dependent on over-pumping of water. Soil erosion and poor quality of the soil have also begun to threaten crop yields in recent times. Influence of the rich nations over the poorer nations is now visible in the form leased crop lands. Most of the leased land is in Africa where the economically rich countries now grow crops to meet their demand of food. Among the countries that leased out or sold lands to richer nations are Ethiopia and Sudan. Even as millions go hungry and depend on United Nations program to meet their needs for food, their leaders have taken an anti-people decision. The availability of irrigation water to Egypt from the Nile is likely to fall because water will be used for irrigation in Ethiopia and Sudan. What is worse is that these are secret deals that compromise the ability of indigenous people to till their own land and grow food.

With climate change the dangers of low crop productivity loom large. The world needs to find ways to increase crop yields with less water and improve the condition of soil, this is the requirement of the future.

Caswell, JA, and AL Yaktine. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Examining the

Evidence to Define Benefit Adequacy. Washington (DC): National Academies Press

(US), 2013 .

The choice of which food to consume is made by consumers based on preferences within the household and the availability of resources to buy the food. But income is not the only driver of how food is consumed. Consumption also depends on the availability of time taken to procure the food from the market, time spent on cooking, consuming and cleaning after the process of cooking and eating is over. The value of time when factored in gives the indirect value of time required in consuming and procuring the food.As the size of a household increases more time is available because the time spent on preparation of food per head decreases. Just as the rich are too busy to prepare food on their own, time constraints may hamper cooking healthy meals for a poor household also. The need to do multiple jobs, work in night shifts and work in jobs that involve more physical effort may leave them less time for cooking healthy meals at home.

Dependence of Food Production on Water

The choice of foods consumed in a household can depend on several factors. Taste preferences, personal and social factors (eating unhealthy food or binge eating), employment status, acculturation, access to personal transport, availability of time, knowledge , skills and abilities about cooking, nutrition-related education, access to personal or public transport and food prices are factors that affect a person’s ability to procure and consume food.

Kearney, J. “Food consumption trends and drivers.” Philosophical Transactions About the

Royal Society B, 2010 : 365(1554): 2793–2807.

The availability of food has improved over the past few decades due to improvements in agricultural practices. Food shortages and dependence on seasons for food has reduced to a great extent. Food consumption had increased by about 400 calories per person per day between 1971 to 2001. The developing countries saw an increase in the consumption of meat and vegetables, the developed countries registered an increased consumption of oil. A decline was seen in the consumption of tubers, roots and pulses in the forty year period between 1963 and 2003. A marked increase in consumption of sugar animal and dairy products and oil has been seen in the developed and the developing countries.

The consumption of cereals is currently 70% in the developing countries, while in industrialized countries the intake of cereals is just 50%. By 2050, it is estimated that the decline will be up to 46 %. The global increase in consumption of wheat can be attributed to the increase in production  in India and China. In Africa the calories obtained from maize have increased and shall continue to register an increase by the year 2050.

Consumption of meat has registered an increased, while the developed world sources most of the meat from pigs, sheep and cattle. In India and Africa, goats and camels are the main source. The UK depends on chicken for most of its meat requirement. Processed meats are also consumed to a great extent.

Eggs and dairy consumption patterns vary by country. Chin has seen its demand for eggs double in the past few decades while no increase was registered in India. Demand for butter and cheese has risen cross all countries. But the demand for milk dropped in North America but increased in the developing countries. These trends are projected to remain the same by the year 2050.

Quisumbing, AR, LR Brown, HS Feldstein, L Haddad, and C Pena. Women: The Key to Food

Factors Affecting Food Consumption

Security. Food Policy Report, Washington DC: The International Food Policy Research

Institute, 1995.

When women manage the food economics of the household the major fraction of the income is spent on ensuring food security of the family and the children are more likely to receive adequate nutrition than when men manage the spending of income. 90% of the Agricultural labour is done by women in Africa. In South Asia women are responsible for10-40% of the agricultural labour. The nutritional status of women and their weight before and during the pregnancy is a critical factor in weight of the baby at the time of birth. Lower than 2.5 kg weight at the time of birth puts the health of the child at significant risk till the age of seven. Discrimination in the distribution of nutritional requirement leads to higher mortality among girls as infants and in early childhood. Unmet nutritional needs are also accompanied with reduced attention from the mother and therefore care required by the infant girl child is deficient. In Latin America and Africa pro-male bias does not exist.

Poverty is the main reason behind gender based inequities in food distribution in families. As the economic status of the family improves so does the nutritional status of the women. The role of women in ensuring that the vulnerable members of the household, such as, children get adequate nutrition in terms of protein, energy, micronutrients, minerals, clean water and hygiene is an important but overlooked contribution. Ensuring that more women can be trained and educated and get some form of employment other than agriculture might improve the food security of households. If women are empowered they would be able to ensure better nutritional status for the family and specifically focus on obtaining food rich in iron to meet the needs of lactating and nursing women in the family. Women’s rights to own and till land can also help them guarantee the food security of the family.

Satterthwaite, D, G McGranahan, and C Tacoli. “Urbanization and its implications for food

and farming.” Satterthwaite D, McGranahan G, Tacoli C. Urbanization and its

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365(1554):2809-2820.

The pattern of the way food is produced impacts the manner in which it is consumed. The number of people engaged in producing food is much smaller than the number of people who consume food. With increasing urbanisation trend is likely to remain the same. The changes in crop science have made agriculture more dependent on availability of energy, more land is now under cultivation than ever before, there is n increased dependence on water for irrigation, and green house gas emission due to mechanised farming has now increased. But even though agricultural production has increased, the problem of under-nutrition among urban populations has increased. The demands of increasing agricultural production will have to be met while keeping the green house emissions low, and adopt resilient agricultural practices.

The number of people engaged in production of industrialized goods is constntly rising, but the contrary is true for the number of people engaged in primary production. And the growth of numbers of urban dwellers depends directly on the food produced by the rural population. The increase in the number of the urban aged is also a cause for concern. If they move to the rural areas it will cause urbanisation of the rural areas because the aged will require health services to be provided close to where they live.