Feeding a Hungry World (Global Connections)

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Author: Charles F. Gritzner

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FEEDING A HUNGRY WORLD

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glbal CnneCtins America’s Role in a Changing World Changing Climates The Changing Global Economy Environment and Natural Resources Feeding a Hungry World The Human Population Human Rights One World or Many? Pandemics and Global Health Terrorism and Security


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FEEDING A HUNGRY WORLD CHARLES F. GRITZNER


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Feeding a Hungry World Copyright  2010 by Infobase Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Chelsea House An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York, NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gritzner, Charles F. Feeding a hungry world / by Charles F. Gritzner. p. cm. — (Global connections) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60413-290-8 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4381-2950-1 (e-book) 1. Food supply—Juvenile literature. 2. Food consumption—Juvenile literature. 3. Hunger—Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series. HD9000.5.G745 2009 363.8—dc22

2009005491

Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can fi nd Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Text design by Annie O’Donnell Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi Printed in the United States of America Bang EJB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. All links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.

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Contents

1

introduction: a global Community

7

Food for a Hungry World

9

2 do too many People Cause Hunger?

17

3 diet: We eat What We are

31

4 nutrition: We are What We eat

45

5 Can a growing Population be Fed?

59

6 are We making the most of the

Food We Have?

7 Why are so many People

still Hungry?

8 the Future: Feast or Famine?


74 86 100

glossary

106

bibliography

108

Further resources

110

Picture Credits

111

index

112

about the author

117

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introduCtion

a global Community G

lobalization is the process of coming together as a closely connected global community. It began thousands of years ago, when tribal groups and small hunting parties wandered from place to place. The process accelerated following Columbus’s epic voyage more than five centuries ago. Europeans—an estimated 50 million of them—spread out to occupy lands throughout the world. This migration transformed the distribution of the world’s peoples and their cultures forever. In the United States and Canada, for example, most people speak a West European language. Most practice a religious faith with roots in the ancient Middle East and eat foods originating in Asia. Today, we are citizens of a closely interwoven global community. Events occurring half a world away can be watched and experienced, often as they happen, in our own homes. People, materials, and even diseases can be transported from continent to continent in a single day, thanks to jet planes. Electronic communications make possible the instantaneous exchange of information by phone, e-mail, or other means with friends or business

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Feeding a Hungry World associates almost anywhere in the world. Trade and commerce, perhaps more so than any other aspect of our daily lives, amply illustrate the importance of global linkages. How many things in your home (including your clothing) are of international origin? What foods and beverages have you consumed today that came from other lands? Could Northern America’s economy survive without foreign oil, iron ore, copper, or other vital resources? The Global Connections series is designed to help you realize how closely people and places are tied to one another within the expanding global community. Each book introduces you to political, economic, environmental, social, medical, and other timely issues, problems, and prospects. The authors and editors hope you enjoy and learn from these books. May they hand you a passport to intellectual travels throughout our fascinating, complex, and increasingly “intradependent” world! —Charles F. Gritzner Series Editor


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1 Food For a Hungry World M

any people believe the world faces a food crisis. Some believe that the crisis is of catastrophic proportions. Today, the human population is rapidly approaching 7 billion, an almost unimaginable number. By the middle of this century, many experts believe that number will swell to around 9 billion. Just think—9 billion hungry mouths to feed! That is nearly as many people as the combined populations of China and India. Whether such a huge population can be fed adequately is an issue that raises many questions. Will there be enough food for everyone? Where will the food come from? How can such huge amounts of food be distributed from where it is produced to where it is needed? Who will (or will not) be able to afford an adequate supply of food? Is the world’s population doomed to wither away by starvation? Will providing enough food and water for the world’s growing population become the number one challenge of the twenty-first century? Many people believe that it will. But many others do not. They believe the “food crisis” has

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10

Feeding a Hungry World little, if anything, to do with how much food is produced. Which view is right? What are the problems? These are the kinds of questions this book attempts to answer. Many experts see signs of a growing food crisis. According to United Nations (UN) sources, nearly 40 of the world’s approximately 200 countries have, or soon will have, a major food emergency. Half of them are located in Africa, home to nearly one billion people, most of whom are impoverished. The World Bank has identified 33 countries it believes are at risk. They face destabilization of their governments because of food shortages and high food prices. In a number of countries, food-related protests have already occurred. Some were violent, resulting in extensive property damage and even death of protesters and innocent bystanders. The government of Haiti, a poor Caribbean country, fell following riots over the price of rice and beans. Five people were killed in the clash. In Mexico City, thousands of people violently protested the surging price of maize (corn). The grain, increasingly used for fuel in the United States, is a staple of the Mexican diet. In Italy, citizens protested loudly over the rising cost of pasta, a national food staple made from wheat flour. In India, protests occurred over the high price of onions and other foodstuffs. These are but several of many recent examples in which people have grown desperate. Even if it is available, in many lands people are unable to buy food for their families. Soaring costs outstrip their meager incomes. Those who believe that the world’s current 6.8 billion people face a serious food crisis can draw from many horrendous statistics to support their position. For example: 5

5

An estimated 800 to 900 million people, or about 12 to 14 percent of the world’s population, suffer from hunger and malnutrition. According to various estimates, about 35,000 people, including 15,000 children under five years of age, die


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5

5

5

5

5

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of starvation each day. That is about one person every second, or nearly 13 million people each year. In 2008, world grain supplies withered to about 5 million tons, roughly a 10-week supply. This is the lowest grain reserve in a quarter century. The United Nations World Food Programme, the major source of world food aid, faced a $500 million funding shortfall in 2008. Between 2006 and 2008, the global food bill rose nearly 85 percent, the fastest and largest worldwide increase in recent history. As many as 3 billion people make less than $2 a day, many of whom spend 50 percent or more of their total income to feed their families. About 75 percent of the world’s hungry people live in rural areas and, surprisingly, about 50 percent of the undernourished are farmers.

Is the Situation That Dismal? The foregoing figures are, indeed, alarming. They suggest that the human population faces a tragic food shortage. Further, they seem to point to a very bleak future as the population continues to grow. Such information must not be taken lightly. If even one person goes to bed hungry in the world, that is one person too many! But let’s begin with these figures and ask, historically speaking, are they really as dismal as they appear? Is the world really on the brink of massive starvation? Other information presents an entirely different picture, one that provides plenty of room for optimism. During the mid-1950s, about 100,000 people died of starvation each day throughout the world. And at the time, an estimated two-thirds of humankind was on the brink of starvation! You must remember that a half century ago, the human population was about half what it is today. In other words, given the


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12

Feeding a Hungry World

Women in India protest rising food prices, which they blame on the government, in 2007. About one fifth of the world’s countries are experiencing a food crisis. Despite an epidemic of obesity in many parts of the world, starvation continues to kill too many people. But is the root of the problem an insufficient supply of food?

populations then and now, more than six times as many people starved to death each year then than do now on a per capita basis. As is true of all issues, whether a hungry world can be fed adequately is one with several “sides.” Let’s consider some data that shed a different and more positive light on the situation. For example, did you know that: 5

5

As a percentage of the human population, fewer people are hungry or starving today than at any previous time in all of human history? The number of people and the density of population have little if any influence on whether a country’s people will


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5

5

5

5

5

5

5

13

be hungry or well fed? In other words, population itself is not the cause of hunger. Today, most people spend less of their income or work time to provide themselves and their families with food than ever before in human history? There is enough marine life off the coast of Southern California alone to feed the entire world’s population adequately (particularly if people learned to like kelp, a type of seaweed!)? Widespread hunger has nothing to do with the planet’s ability to provide an adequate supply of food and beverage? For the first time in human history, more people suffer from obesity (being overweight) than from hunger? Half the world’s people feed themselves from agricultural land occupying an area about the size of Texas (or Canada’s Alberta province)? About 50 percent of the world’s potential farmland is not producing crops, and vast frontiers exist for agricultural expansion (particularly if Earth’s climate warms)? Today, 17 percent more calories per person are produced by farmers than were available in 1980, despite a 35 percent population increase? There is enough food to provide an average 2,720 calories each day to everyone in the world. (The United Nations has established 2,100 as the minimal daily caloric intake.)

You are not likely to see this kind of information in the media. A huge food-related problem does exist, and its importance must not be downplayed. But why do nearly all information sources express a “gloom-and-doom” viewpoint on the issue of hunger? There are several reasons. First, most agencies that offer food aid to the hungry depend on charitable contributions to support their efforts. It would be tragic if donations shriveled away, because they are desperately needed. An alarmed public is willing to help


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14

Feeding a Hungry World by making donations. In terms of the media, bad news “sells.” People are much more interested in horror stories than they are in happiness and success. Finally, most people simply do not know the “facts.” The population-food issue is a very complex puzzle with many different pieces. Most public (and often scholarly) attention is focused on nonissues. For example, most “experts” suggest that hunger and malnutrition are the result of too many people. Others suggest that the problem is the result of too little food being produced. Yet neither “answer” could be farther from the truth! Unless people—particularly those in decision-making roles—understand the problems, causes, and issues, they will not be resolved. As you have seen, the issues that relate to food and population are very complex. The amount of time, effort, or cost people spend to obtain food varies from place to place and time to time. Hence, both geography and history play a very important role in helping us better understand food-related issues. So does anthropology, the science of culture. (Culture is the totality of a people’s way of life. It includes everything they know, believe, possess, and are able to do.) Culturally speaking, of perhaps greatest importance are factors that relate to economic and political situations. How are resources (in this case, food-related) produced, distributed, and consumed? These factors, in turn, can be strongly influenced by various political conditions. Do government policies promote food production and distribution? Social practices and customs also play an important role in food availability and consumption. Because eating is essential to life, diet may be the single most important topic within the social studies. And certainly few topics are more closely tied to or dependent on growing global connections than is the food supply! In this book, you will learn about food (what is available to eat), diet (what people eat), and nutrition (benefits of what is eaten) from many different viewpoints. Chapter 2 investigates the relationship between the human population and food supply.


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15

Food for a Hungry World Chapters 3 and 4 focus on diet and nutrition as they examine two seemingly opposite positions: people eat what they are (diet) and are what they eat (nutrition). You may be shocked to learn that

A Loaf of Bread The time one must spend to provide food for him- or herself is one of the most reliable indicators of an economy’s strength and a peoples’ standard of living. This reality is illustrated by the following tale (of unknown origin): A man appeared on a street corner with a loaf of bread that he offered to give to anyone who was willing to work one hour for it. P In Stockholm, Sweden, a large crowd gathered to heckle and laugh at him. P In Dallas, Texas, he was arrested and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. P In Dhaka, Bangladesh, two dozen people were willing to work three hours for the bread. P In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, several hundred people were willing to work all day for the loaf. P In Harare, Zimbabwe, a thousand people gathered to compete for the bread and caused a riot. What conditions can you think of that would help to explain the behavior of people in each of the five scenarios? In what other parts of the world might people behave in ways similar to the five locations listed above? Can you think of global connections that might help to explain the huge differences in food availability that exist between various places in the world?


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Feeding a Hungry World people—millions of them—would prefer to starve to death than to eat some food that they find culturally unacceptable! Chapter 5 is devoted to food production. Basically, it investigates ways in which the world’s food supply can be increased. In Chapter 6, we will consider some ways in which the world’s food supply can be increased without increasing production. Huge amounts of food are lost to spoilage, waste, and even various cultural practices. Chapter 7 ties together a number of factors and issues that relate to hunger. It seeks to explain why so many people—given the abundance of Earth’s food production—are still hungry. Finally, in Chapter 8, we will look to the future and attempt to answer a nagging question: “Can the 9 billion people expected by mid-century be adequately fed?”


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2 do too many PeoPle Cause Hunger? W

hy are so many people—about 800,000 of them according to United Nations figures—hungry most, if not all, of the time? Most experts point to the population itself. They believe that existing food supplies simply fall far short of being able to feed the world’s current population of 6.8 billion people. In this chapter, we will take an in-depth look at the population-foodhunger issue.

grim Warnings For several centuries, some experts have pointed to population growth as the primary cause of widespread hunger. In 1798, British economist Thomas R. Malthus fi rst published his classic work, An Essay on the Principle of Population. Its theme was chilling. Malthus believed that the human population would soon outstrip the world’s food supply. Once this occurred, he cautioned, catastrophe would strike. One of the outcomes would be

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Feeding a Hungry World massive deaths by famine. Since Malthus’s time, a great number of others have expressed a similar view. In 1968, American biologist Paul Ehrlich’s book, The Population Bomb, carried a message that was even more alarming than Malthus’s dismal warning. In the preface, Ehrlich made the shocking announcement that “The battle to feed all of humanity is over.” He went on to predict that “In the 1970s the world will undergo famines—hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon . . . At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate [as a result of starvation] . . .” In 1969, Ehrlich further predicted that by 1985, so many people would have died of starvation that Earth’s population would stand at a “more acceptable” level of about 1.5 billion. Now, of course, there are more than four times that many people. And the population has more than doubled since Ehrlich began to make his grim forecasts. Furthermore, never in history have more people been well fed than they are today. Many other well-known and widely respected American scholars joined the gloom-and-doom chorus. Among them were Carl Sagan, Garrett Hardin, Lester Brown, and Werner Fornos. The following book titles from the middle decades of the twentieth century clearly illustrate the widely held concerns of the time: Famine–1975! Moment in the Sun Geography of Hunger Geography of Famine Standing Room Only Our Crowded Planet The Population Dilemma Population Crisis During the mid-twentieth century, many of the fears expressed by these titles were quite justified. The human population was more than 3 billion and expanding at a rapid rate that approached 2 percent per year. Two-thirds of humankind, according to some estimates, was undernourished. An estimated 100,000 people died of starvation each day.


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Do Too Many People Cause Hunger?

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What Really Happened? But something happened! Clearly, fears expressed by so many alarmists several decades ago have not materialized. In fact, never in history have fewer people, as a percentage of the human population, suffered from hunger. Famine stalked the planet from the dawn of human existence. The Health Organization of the League of Nations suggested in 1928 that nearly seven of every ten people suffered from chronic hunger and malnutrition. In The Geography of Famine, William A. Dando documented all famines in history for which some record exists. Going back in time, they were commonplace, occurred nearly everywhere, and often resulted in millions of deaths. Famine is mentioned in the Christian Bible. In the book of Revelation, it is listed as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, each of which is a force of human destruction. Earth can produce a tremendous amount of food (primarily plant and animal life). It is culture—in this context, what people know, are able to do, and are willing to do—that determines whether or not they will be able to feed themselves adequately. This idea will be returned to time and time again in the pages of this book.

Food Supply and Population Growth It is reasonable to assume that through time, population growth has gone hand in hand with an increase in food supply. If food is available, there will be people to eat it! In other words, as the availability of food expands, the human population increases. According to demographers (population scientists), for perhaps 90 percent of human history, the population grew at a rate of only a fraction of 1 percent each 1,000 years. Humans obtained their food by hunting, fishing, and gathering. They practiced a meager subsistence economy. Many humans lived on the brink of starvation much of the time. It was a feast-or-famine existence. By


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Feeding a Hungry World 300,000 years ago, the rate of increase had jumped to a still very slow 1.0 percent to 1.5 percent gain per century. Hunting and fishing techniques had improved, and more food was available.

THOMAS MALTHUS’S STERN WARNING Have you ever heard someone refer to the “dismal science”? This phrase appeared in the nineteenth century in response to Thomas R. Malthus’s dire prediction of famine. Malthus was a minister and an economist (the “dismal science”!). He was alarmed over the rapid growth of the human population and wondered how a growing population could continue to be fed. In 1798, he published An Essay on the Principle of Population. The now famous essay basically asked “How many people can Earth support?” This, of course, is a question that many people have asked for centuries. But Malthus was the first to write a detailed essay addressing what he believed to be a growing problem of overpopulation. Malthus believed that the human population increased geometrically (2 x 2 = 4 x 2 = 8 x 2 = 16 x 2 = 32, and so on). On the other hand, he believed that food production increased arithmetically (1 acre + 1 acre = 2 acres + 1 acre = 3 acres + 1 acre = 4 acres, and so forth). Because the population grew much faster than food supply, Malthus foresaw a time when Earth could no longer provide enough food to go around. He suggested that the future held two possible outcomes. Ideally, humans could limit rapid population growth by limiting family size. If that failed, he believed that humankind would face catastrophe. Population growth would be brought under control by disease, famine, or war. Malthus’s stern warning seemed to make sense to many people. But he, like so many others, failed to foresee the ability of culture (particularly technology) to come to the rescue. During the past two centuries, there have been countless improvements in food production, preservation, and distribution. Since Malthus’s time, the population has grown from around 900 million to some 6.7 billion, an


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do too many People Cause Hunger?

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Around 10,000 years ago, a huge leap occurred in the food supply. Humans learned how to plant and harvest crops and care for animals. This process of domestication not only made

increase of more than seven times. Yet agriculture and other types of food production have far outpaced population growth. Malthus was but the first of many observers to sound a “gloom-and-doom” alarm. Today, neo-Malthusians—people who realize that Malthus’s prediction did not happen then, but who believe it is on the brink of happening now—keep this more than two-century-old idea alive. What do you think? Was Malthus right or wrong?


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Earth contains more than enough land on which to grow food, yet people around the world continue to go hungry. Victims of the imbalance of food availability rely on international agencies such as the United Nations World Food Program, which distributes food around the world.

more food available, it also made the supply more reliable. By the dawn of the Christian era, the population was growing at about 6 percent to 10 percent each century. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution about two centuries ago, it increased to 1.5 percent a year. About four decades ago, the Green Revolution—made possible by better seeds and farming methods—gave agricultural production a huge boost. By the 1970s, the rate of natural population increase soared to 2.0 percent a year. This is the highest rate of gain in history, and things seemed to be spinning out of control. During recent decades, a remarkable change has begun to occur. For the first time in human history, food production


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continues to expand, but the rate of population growth has begun to decline. The explosive 2.0 percent annual increase of four decades ago has been cut almost in half, to a much more manageable 1.15 percent.

Does Crowding Cause Hunger? Overpopulation is a very difficult concept to define. Most often, it is associated with widespread poverty and hunger. Many social scientists (and others) believe that these conditions are caused by too many people in one place. That is, the population density is too high to adequately be provided for. Crowded conditions, they argue, are the cause of a food shortage and resulting hunger. Is this widespread belief supported by facts? Let’s see. Ask yourself why so few people live in portions of the western Great Plains of the United States and Canada, for example. Or, on the other hand, why are some places like coastal Southern California so densely crowded? (You might want to look at the map of world population distribution on the next page for help finding answers to these questions.) When people leave one location and move to another, it is almost always for economic reasons. They believe that they can improve their livelihood. Economists, demographers, geographers, and other social scientists have long recognized that people live in places where they can make a living. Some provide for themselves and their families by raising their own food. High yields of rice, for example, help account for the very high population densities in such locations as southern and eastern Asia. More than half of the world’s people live in monsoon Asia, and nearly all of them depend on rice as their staple foodstuff. Rice is very high-yielding crop that provides about 30 percent of all calories consumed in Asia. It is also very nutritious. Amazingly, this 50 percent of humankind feeds itself from crops grown on an area about the size of the two Dakotas and Nebraska! They have a very unique and highly productive agricultural system


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Feeding a Hungry World that involves intensive hand labor. Instead of cultivating fields, as is common in Northern America, each plant receives individual attention and care. In other words, it is culture—in this case, the


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unique way people farm and what they grow—that makes a very high population density possible. Elsewhere, dense clusters of population appear in industrialized areas. More than 3 billion people live in urban areas because that is where most jobs are found. They go to work and earn an income. With cash, they are able to purchase food and other materials and services that they need. Earth’s surface also has many areas that support very low population densities. People tend to avoid areas where it is difficult to make a living. Some areas have very harsh natural environments, have few useful natural resources, or are extremely isolated. Jobs are scarce or not available at all. Transportation and communication facilities may be lacking. There are few, if any, services or other amenities available. Unless there is something to attract people, life there can be difficult. Few businesses choose such areas because there are few people to provide a labor force or market. Isolation adds to the cost of shipping. Worldwide, a great number of rural people face hunger. In fact, more people are hungry in rural areas with low population densities than in crowded urban areas. Is there a direct relationship between population density and a country’s economic well-being? The answer may surprise you. Look at the table on the next page. Some of the world’s most densely populated countries rank among both the richest and the poorest. However, so do some of Earth’s most sparsely populated lands.

Is “Carrying Capacity” a Valid Idea for Humans? Many scientists use the concept of carrying capacity when discussing the number of people that a particular area can support. The idea was first used in reference to livestock grazing. It referred to how many head of cattle (or other livestock) a plot of land can support given existing grazing conditions. If too many livestock are placed on a plot of land, it can become severely


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Population Density and Gross Domestic Product at Purchasing Power Parity (GDP-PPP) Country

Density mi2/km2

GDP-PPP

Country

Density mi2/km2

GDP-PPP

Iceland

8/3

$38,800

Luxembourg

1,026/430

$80,500

Canada

7/3

$38,400

Singapore

24,590/6,369

$49,700

Australia

7/3

$36,300

Netherlands

942/395

$38,500

Guyana

9/4

$3,800

Haiti

1,040/307

$1,300

Mongolia

4/2

$3,200

Bangladesh

2,494/1,045

$1,300

Mauritania 6/3

$2,000

Rwanda

820/343

$ 900

Data from 2008 CIA World Factbook and other sources

overgrazed. With plant cover gone, the grazing animals will go hungry or even starve to death. Further, the land can be permanently damaged. Should this happen, it will be unable to support the livestock grazing population in the future. At first glance, the idea of carrying capacity may seem to make sense when applied to humans. Why, after all, would a condition that applies to grazing animals not also apply to people and the environment? Through time, humans have vastly increased their ability to produce food and obtain resources. The land itself has changed little. What has changed is culture—what people actually are able to do with the land and its potentials. Increased knowledge and awareness, better tools and techniques, and enhanced skills have all contributed to a vast increase in Earth’s carrying capacity. In regard to food production, productivity has greatly increased. Much of the gain has been on the same land and soil that previously produced much lower yields. Throughout much of the world, modern crops and farming methods are now used. This has resulted in a great boost in agricultural production. In some farming systems, yields have increased up to 10 times over those of a century ago.


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Many other changes have occurred to increase crop production, including in the United States. At the turn of the twentieth century, many areas of the desert Southwest were wastelands for all practical purposes. Today, through irrigation—made possible by massive water storage and diversion projects—thousands of acres have been brought into production. They are now some of the nation’s most productive agricultural lands. Some observers suggest that the limits of productivity have been reached, if not exceeded. Others believe that we are on the brink of another food-production revolution. Such a breakthrough occurred with the Green Revolution, which began in the mid-1900s. Yields of corn, wheat, rice, and other crops soared. Looking ahead, they point to the tremendous potential offered by genetically modified (GM) crops.

Culture plays a significant role in a nation’s ability to feed its citizens. In southern and eastern Asia, rice—a crop that can be raised and harvested without harming the environment—allows the population to maintain proper nutrition.


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Global Connections Feeding 6.8 billion people is, of course, a challenge. In all probability, it will continue to be a challenge by mid-century, when the population soars to around 9 billion. But as you have learned in this chapter, most of the world’s people have known hunger throughout history. Today, in fact, a smaller percentage of humans go to bed hungry than ever before. Major famines that resulted in huge death tolls have not occurred in decades. Many things have combined to make this possible.

The “Adam and Eve Dilemma” Decades ago, I heard a speaker who suggested that with a population of two—Adam and Eve in the biblical Garden of Eden—our planet suffered a condition of severe overpopulation. Premises P In the beginning, and for centuries thereafter, it is likely that 100 percent of the world’s population was hungry. Overpopulation and hunger have always existed. Today, however, hunger affects fewer people, as a percentage of the global population, than during any previous time in human history. P Earth’s carrying capacity is a function of culture. It is particularly dependent on agricultural technology. The planet is capable of producing a vast amount of food, much more than the human population can possibly consume. Conditions P What natural elements, or potential food supply, existed within the Garden of Eden?


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Early people depended on their scant knowledge and immediate surroundings to provide for their needs. Only very small amounts of food were produced. Foodstuffs were not traded or transported over long distances. Most early humans never traveled farther than the horizon that was visible when they were born. In many environments, it was difficult if not impossible to store foods for long periods of time. An early frost, a poor hunt, a pot run empty—and famine lurked. There was no supermarket to turn to for help!

P What things within the Garden of Eden did the first supposed occupants recognize as being edible food sources? P What tools, technology, and skills did they possess that could be used to expand and preserve their food supply? Expanding the Garden’s Carrying Capacity Through Time Throughout history, humans have continuously developed new means to increase their food supply. This process continues today, and some believe at an ever-faster rate. What kinds of things can you suggest that might have contributed to an expansion of the original food supply? P By increasing the diversity of their resource base? P By increasing greater local productivity? P By expanding the area of their resource base? P By transforming the environment to make it more productive? P By improving means of food preservation? P By increasing the food supply through trade with other peoples and areas?


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Feeding a Hungry World Think for a moment of the foods and beverages that you consume in a single day. Where did they come from? Was the frozen orange juice from Brazil? Did you eat a banana from Ecuador? How about the sugar that sweetened your food or drink? What was the source of the rice, potatoes, flour in the bread, or meat you ate? Today, there is a worldwide network of food distribution. For most readers, not a single thing that you eat or drink (other than water) today will have been produced locally! Many, if not most, of the world’s people depend on global connections for nearly all of their food supply. In the case of the 50 percent of the world’s population that now lives in cities, all of their food must come from elsewhere. Throughout much of the less developed world, people can find it difficult to feed themselves. Here, again, global connections are important. Scientists are at work in many less developed countries (LDCs) trying to increase crop yields. International agencies are busily at work trying to educate subsistence farmers in techniques that will improve their production. When famine threatens, massive international food aid comes to the rescue. In a very real sense, we are all in this together. Globalization helps to create closer links between and among lands and peoples worldwide. It creates a much better balance between food production, distribution, and consumption. Hopefully, as the human population continues to grow, hunger will continue to decline and, perhaps, ultimately be erased from the planet altogether.


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3 diet: We eat WHat We are P

eople have long debated the question “Which came fi rst, the chicken or the egg?” A similar question is often asked about the human diet. One approach suggests that “We are what we eat.” Another argues that “We eat what we are.” The chicken-egg question will be left for you to answer. In the case of eating, however, the two opposing positions are quite important. Which do you think is correct? If your answer is “Both are!” you are correct! This chapter and the following chapter will attempt to explain why.

terms and ConCePts A great American thinker, John Dewey, once said that “thought is impossible without words.” If we are going to think clearly about nutrition and its consequences, it is important to know some key words and what they mean.

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Feeding a Hungry World 5

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Food and beverage. Anything and everything that is available for people to eat or to drink. Diet. The foods and beverages that people actually eat and drink as culturally and individually selected from among available foods and beverages. Staple foodstuffs. The most important food(s) in a peoples’ diet. Foodways. A collective term often used by social scientists that includes all ingredients, methods of food preparation, and any other practices associated with diet and dining.

Culture and Diet All humans are members of a culture—a human group that shares a common way of life. Important culture traits (things we do and create because we are human) include language, religion, customs, patterns of social interaction, and foodways. Each culture has its own preferred foods, methods of preparing them, and ways in which they are eaten. This is why it is so easy to associate certain diets and other foodways with a particular group of people or region of the world. Over the centuries, each culture has developed its own dietary practices. Through time, such practices become deeply ingrained as a part of a national character and identity. Let’s use Mexican food as an example. Typical Mexican dishes use a particular combination of ingredients, many of which are native to the region. Long before Europeans arrived, Amerindians grew crops such as maize (corn), beans, squash, tomatoes, avocados, and spicy hot peppers. The preparation of Mexican food, including methods of cooking and the use of seasonings, follows age-old traditions. Dining practices also follow deeply ingrained customs. Men, for example, might eat before women. Rather than using a knife, fork, and spoon, food may be rolled in or scooped up with tortillas.


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Each culture, then, has its own set of dietary practices. Perhaps you are familiar with foods and some dining practices common to several foreign areas. China, India, Thailand, and Japan have dietary traditions that are popular in the United States and Canada. So, too, are various European foods such as Italian, French, Greek, and German. Most modern societies offer a great variety of foods from which people can select. Given these options, people can choose for themselves what to eat and drink. In this way, such selections also reflect who we are as individuals. Each of us, after all, has certain likes and dislikes when it comes to eating. Therefore, both culturally and as individuals, it can be said that we eat what we are. Because foodways are such an important part of a people’s way of life, they are often looked down upon, or made fun of, by persons of other cultures. “Eskimo,” for example, is taken from the French word esquimaux, meaning “eaters of raw meat.” We may not even want to know the name origin of Canada’s Dogrib tribe! In Louisiana, many “Cajun” jokes are based upon these swamp dwellers’ seemingly strange dietary practices. Yet today, restaurants that feature Cajun foods have gained widespread popularity. And many stores throughout the country carry crawfish and other Cajun staples, including fiery Tabasco sauce, andouille sausage, and various spices. In the upper Midwest, Norwegian “Ole and Lena” jokes frequently include reference to lutefisk. (The reader is urged to put “lutefisk jokes” in his or her Internet search engine and enjoy a smorgasbord of regional humor!) Similar humor applies to the diets of many, if not most, ethnic groups worldwide.

Geography of Diet Regional foods and diets are influenced by many factors. Of greatest importance to most people is access to ingredients—the foodstuffs that are available locally. In most folk (traditional) societies, diets vary little. Most people eat the same things


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Feeding a Hungry World prepared the same way day after day throughout their entire lives. They do not have a choice. Individual choice becomes a dietary factor only when a person has a number of options from which to choose. Simply stated, diets of people living in traditional folk cultures are limited to what they can catch, hunt, gather, or grow locally. In a modern urban society, of course, most foodstuffs are purchased at a grocery store or supermarket. There, a great variety of foods can be purchased, many of which come from distant lands. Groceries provide a wonderful example of the importance of today’s global connections. How many things can you identify in your local grocery that are produced locally? Taste and preference are other important factors that determine people’s diet. Most people have a number of options from which they can choose. Given the variety of food items available, what do people of a particular culture prefer to eat? Also important is what they choose to avoid eating. Most riceeating southern Chinese, for example, would not think of eating wheat. Many wheat-eating northern Chinese, on the other hand, would rather starve than eat rice (as millions of them have done in the past). Most Northern Americans (residents of the United States and Canada) love meat. But in Hindu India, in which all life is held to be sacred, most people would never consider eating beef or the flesh of any other animal. They are vegetarians. During the mid-twentieth century, an estimated 80,000 people died of starvation each day in India. Yet the country was then home to more than 200 million cattle! But to Hindu Indians, beef was not an acceptable foodstuff, so cattle were not a food resource. In Mexico, most people of Spanish origin would not think of eating maize (corn). They prefer the Old World crop—wheat— and associate maize with rural peasants, whom they look down upon socially. (For this reason, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find “Mexican” food when traveling in Mexico. Poor rural farmers, after all, do not dine in restaurants!)


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During festivities celebrating the birth of Krishna, a Hindu priest offers 108 vegetarian dishes as prayers to the deity. Religion has an impact on what a culture eats. Many Hindus eat a vegetarian diet because they believe in the sanctity of higher forms of life.

Other Factors Influencing Diets Many other things help to determine what people eat. Physical geography, for example, can play a major role in the availability of various foods. This is particularly true of traditional societies and other people who are dependent primarily upon local food production. Cultural factors such as income, religion, and social position also influence diet. As you will see, history has also played a very important role in what is available for people to eat.

Food and the Land Most, but by no means all, crop farming occurs on relatively flat land. The world’s primary breadbaskets are plains regions of Northern America, Europe, and South America. In some areas,


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Feeding a Hungry World such as parts of Asia, very rugged landscapes have been turned into productive farmland. This has been done by terracing mountain slopes and diverting water used to flood rice paddies. Nonetheless, a detailed map of the world’s cropland shows that most farming occurs on plains. People living in mountains, plateaus, and hills often have very limited diets. Because such lands are better suited to grazing livestock than raising crops, diets often feature a great deal of meat.

Climate and Agriculture Climate, perhaps more than any other natural element, influences what can be grown in a particular location. All plants, after all, have environmental limits. If it is too cold, too dry, or too wet for a particular crop, it will not grow. The distribution of major agricultural regions clearly shows a close relationship between climate and farming. Areas that experience an extreme climate are not agriculturally productive. Most crops are adapted to a particular climate. Date palms, for example, thrive in desert regions with scant moisture and scorching heat. Therefore, the date is a dietary staple in many Old World desert regions. Rye is a hardy grain that is well suited to cool northern latitudes. As a result, rye bread is a staple throughout much of northern Europe. Bananas, papayas, and coconuts can survive only in a wet tropical climate. Tropical diets feature these and other foods that are adapted to the region’s heat and moisture. As is true of mountainside terracing, most climatic limitations can be overcome culturally. Arid regions can be irrigated and become extremely productive where water is available. In cold regions, hardy crops can be selected. Potatoes, for example, thrive in cold areas like Alaska and Russia. Greenhouses can also protect crops against the cold. Overcoming nature’s obstacles, however, can be very costly. A single irrigation project or wetland drainage scheme can cost billions of dollars. As a result, what people ate in the past and what most individuals consume


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today is strongly influenced by what can be grown under natural conditions of climate and soils.

soils Soils are more than dirt. They include organic matter (humus) and various minerals. Just as humans depend upon vitamins and

SHOPPING IN A GLOBAL SUPERMARKET Have you ever stopped to wonder where your groceries come from? Odds are that the various items came from many states (or Canadian provinces) and a number of different countries. Following is a list of all the items found in a single large produce case in one United Kingdom supermarket. What a wonderful example of global connections and their importance in today’s closely linked and interdependent world! Apples Avocados Bananas Coconuts

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Cranberries Grapefruit Grapes Granadillas Kiwis Lemons Limes Mangos

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England Israel Suriname Dominican Republic United States Israel Chile Colombia New Zealand Greece Mexico Brazil

Melons (various) Nectarines Oranges Papayas Passion fruit Pineapples

- Brazil, Ecuador - Italy - Spain - Brazil - Kenya - Costa Rica, Ivory Coast Plums - Spain Pomegranates - India Prickly pear - Colombia Tamarillos - Colombia Tangerines - Morocco

Next time you go to a grocery store, or even dine at your own table, try to determine where various items came from. You might be very surprised at the “geography” of your food and its places of origin!


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Feeding a Hungry World minerals, plants depend upon soil nutrients. If soils are poor, so too will be the crops that are grown on them in terms of nutrition. In some parts of the world, diets lack vitamins, minerals, and other essential elements. (This theme is discussed further in the following chapter.)

Economic Means In traditional societies, the ability of an individual or family to raise crops and produce food is a key to diet. People must own or otherwise have access to land. In many less developed countries, large numbers of people are landless. Unable to provide adequately for themselves, many go hungry. Surprisingly, perhaps, an estimated 80 percent of the world’s hungry people are rural. And many of them are farmers. In developed countries such as the United States and Canada and throughout most of Europe, income is a major factor in what people eat. Most people can afford to eat well. In Northern America, for example, the average family spends about 9 to 10 percent of its income on food. Nonetheless, many poor people here and in other affluent societies have inadequate diets. Surprisingly, a disproportionate number of poor people are obese. Because they are poor, they are unable to buy “wise choice” healthy foods. Others go hungry much of the time simply because they cannot afford to buy enough food. Diets of most people with limited incomes also lack variety. They eat pretty much the same things much of the time—the items that they can afford.

Religious Taboos and Diet In some cases, religious beliefs can have a strong influence on diet. Mention already has been made of India’s dominant Hindu faith and the fact that all life is sacred. Therefore, most Hindus do not eat meat of any kind. There are a great number of food taboos based on religious beliefs. Muslims and Jews do not eat pork. Members of many faiths do not consume alcoholic beverages. For a very long time, most Roman Catholics ate no meat, other than


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fish, on Fridays. Once again, what we are (in this case, religious faith) influences what we do (or do not) eat or drink.

Social Factors Social relationships also influence diet. In some societies, for example, women prepare the food, but men are the first to dine. Women eat whatever is left over. Hunger is widespread throughout much of Africa. In parts of East Africa, women are the farmers and men herd cattle. But the men raise their livestock on the best land. To make matters worse, the cattle are raised for status, rather than for food. Women, whose responsibility it is to feed their family, are left to grow crops on marginal lands. These are just two of many examples in which social patterns can influence what people do or do not eat.

Preparation and Dining The way in which food is prepared is a very important factor in diet. What ingredients are used? How is the food seasoned? (Some cultures prefer very spicy foods, whereas others like their food bland.) How is it cooked (boiled, fried, roasted, barbecued, or by some other means)? How is it served? How is it eaten (by hand, using a knife/fork/spoon, with chopsticks, with bread, wrapped in tortillas, or in some other way)? What are the preferred beverages that people drink with their meals? In what sequence are foods eaten? How many times a day do people dine, and at what hours? These are just some of the differences that set people apart in terms of their foodways.

History and Foodways It is said that history defines who we are. Certainly the foods we eat, the way they are prepared, and how they are eaten reflect our past. The same can be said for the beverages we drink. Following the European discovery and colonization of the Americas (and elsewhere), a massive exchange of food crops and animals began. Potatoes, maize (corn), and beans of various


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Feeding a Hungry World types were among the many New World crops that became popular worldwide. Cattle, swine, and sheep were Old World livestock that became important sources of food in the Americas

While in many parts of the world poverty leads to starvation, it can foster obesity in some Western nations. Low incomes lead many people to buy the cheapest food available, which in most cases is high-calorie fast food.


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and elsewhere. Wheat, oats, barley, and rice were among the Old World grains that became staples in the New World. Most of our fruits and vegetables also came from Europe or Asia. Each region of the world has its own unique food history, a subject that is discussed in detail in many books. Let’s select one region, the Caribbean, to illustrate how historical events can shape foodways. Few areas of comparable size and population in the world have a more diverse diet. Ingredients used in Caribbean cooking come from many sources. Items such as beans, cassava (manioc), hot peppers, bananas, and coconut are native to the New World. From Africa came okra, (white) yams, and many ways of preparing foods. All islands of the Caribbean were colonized by European powers. Each of them— Spain, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands—introduced its own crops, ingredients, and dietary preferences. Many foods and spices came from other European colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. When island hopping within the Caribbean, one finds vastly different dietary traditions from island to island. These differences reflect the colonial history of each island nation. On Puerto Rico, for example, a diner is treated to foods rich in the Spanish tradition. On nearby Antigua (and other former British colonies in the region) food tends to be rather bland. On Guadeloupe and Martinique, now departments of France, one can dine on the finest French-style cuisine. Native Amerindian and African crops and dietary preferences have also made an impact on each of the islands’ foodways. At least a part of the Caribbean region’s complex food heritage is expressed in the lyrics of a well-known folk song, Jamaican Farewell. As the song goes, “Ackee, rice, salt fish are nice and the rum is fine any time of year.” Soon after colonizing the region, Europeans began to grow sugar cane on the rich soils of their tropical Caribbean possessions. The African slave laborers, of course, had to be fed and fed well. After all, they were forced to work long, hard hours under the blazing tropical sun. But sugar brought tremendous wealth to the plantation owners.


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Feeding a Hungry World They had no desire to raise food crops on land that could grow valuable sugar cane. Most Caribbean islands, however, had small areas where land was too rugged, or the soil too poor, to grow a good crop of cane. A tropical African tree, the ackee, was well suited to such environments. It took little space; thrived on poor, rocky soils; and produced a huge yield of fruit. The ackee was introduced to the Caribbean from its native Africa to produce food for slave laborers. Soon, it became a food staple throughout much of the region. Rice, once dried, will last for years. It was introduced to the Caribbean by the British from their rice-growing colonies in South Asia. Laborers also needed a source of protein. There was little wildlife on the islands. Plantation owners and managers

The Irish Potato Famine In the early sixteenth century, Spanish explorers and conquerors arrived in South America. There, in the central Andean region (present-day Peru), they discovered the Incan civilization. The Spaniards were introduced to a strange new crop—the potato. The Incan diet largely depended upon this edible, starchy tuber. Spaniards quickly recognized the crop’s potential. It was very nutritious and grew under even the harshest conditions. They believed that it could make an important contribution to their own food supply. Soon, the potato was carried across the Atlantic to Spain. From the Iberian Peninsula, the tuber spread rapidly throughout much of Europe. Eventually, by 1780, the root crop reached remote Ireland. There, it very quickly became the country’s most important food staple. By the fourth decade of the nineteenth century, however, Ireland was on the brink of a horrible tragedy. The unfolding event would forever change the country and its estimated (then) 8 million people.


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Diet: We Eat What We Are certainly were not going to fish; neither were they going to give slaves boats and send them to sea! The answer was dried and salted codfish. Cod were plentiful in the waters of Canada’s (then a British colony) Grand Banks, rich fishing grounds in the Atlantic. When dried and salted, cod withstood the tropical heat and humidity for long periods of time. Rum, of course, is made from sugar cane, which was and continues to be the main crop of most Caribbean island nations. Slavery was discontinued throughout most of the Caribbean more than 150 years ago. But once tastes are established, they tend to endure. For this reason, these foods—introduced out of necessity during the slave era—remain dietary mainstays throughout much of the Caribbean region even today.

It would also have a major impact on the ethnic population of many foreign lands, including those of Northern America. A devastating blight wiped out the potato crop every year from 1845 to 1850. The country’s major source of food vanished almost overnight. Very quickly, hunger began to stalk the land, resulting in widespread famine. More than one-third of the Irish population, after all, depended almost exclusively on potatoes as their staple food. By the time it was over, about one million Irish had died of starvation. Another million had left the country, migrating to the United States, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere. Global linkages have increased greatly since the Irish potato famine occurred more than 150 years ago. Do you believe that such a tragic event could take place today? In regard to food production and distribution, how are things different today than during the midnineteenth century? If a country did experience a massive famine today, what factors do you believe might be responsible? What would be the response of the global community?


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Eating What We Are In this chapter, you have seen that the foodways of a people— what they eat, how food is prepared, and how it is eaten—is a reflection of what they are. To a very large extent, culture determines all aspects of diet and dining. Most people simply follow their culture’s traditions in terms of eating. This is why it is so easy to identify particular foodways with the cultures to which they belong (Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, for example). Each culture, of course, has a considerable variety of foods and beverages with which it is associated. Individual members of a culture are free to select from among the food options offered by their culture. In this way, each of us also eats what we are as a member of a culture. But diets also reflect individual likes and dislikes. Both cultures and individuals may impose dietary restrictions. These may be based on personal considerations such as health, religion, income, avoidances, or some other limiting factor. This chapter has focused on the ways in which foodways reflect who we are both culturally and as individuals. In the following chapter, you will learn how diet determines nutrition. And nutrition, in a very large part, determines what we are in terms of body and health.


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4 nutrition: We are WHat We eat I

n Chapter 3, you learned that in many ways, people eat what they are. They are members of a culture, which, in turn, is the primary influence on diet. Other factors include those crops that can be grown in a particular natural environment and economic considerations. Finally, given the options available, individuals can make personal choices about what they want to eat. In this chapter, we will investigate an opposing view, one that suggests “We are what we eat.” This is because the nutrients contained in a person’s diet influence that individual’s growth, health, and vitality. Think of the “inputs” an automobile needs to work properly. A car requires fuel to run its engine. Oil and grease make it run smoothly. Brake and transmission fluids play a vital role in its operation. So, too, the human body needs fuel to survive. It also needs water, vitamins, minerals, and other inputs to function properly. It is one’s diet that provides these essential elements for human survival. Nutrition is the result of one’s diet. It is the

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Feeding a Hungry World “fuel, oil, grease, and fluids” the body receives from things consumed. As you can see, diet and nutrition go hand in hand. In this chapter, too, there are some key words and ideas that must be understood before progressing further. 5

5

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Nutrients/nutrition. Energy-producing elements that nourish the body. They include carbohydrates and fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. Malnutrition. A condition in which the body does not receive adequate nutrients. Hunger. A strong desire for food and the condition that results from an inadequate supply of food. Famine. The condition that results from widespread hunger affecting a large area and population. Starvation. The result of an inadequate intake of food, which can lead to death.

Several factors determine whether or not a specific population has enough food to provide everyone with adequate nutrition. First, of course, is availability—what is on hand for people to eat and drink? Availability is just the beginning. In Chapter 3, for example, you learned that culture, a people’s way of life, plays a very important role in what they eat. You saw that in India, for example, there are about 280 million cattle. Yet for centuries, people there have starved because their religious beliefs forbid Hindus from eating meat. Culture strongly influences how a society obtains its food. It can produce most, if not all, of its food by itself. In a traditional folk culture, people are self-sufficient. They must produce their own food or starve. Among the world’s people, there are many different ways that foods and beverages are obtained. How this is done is also determined by a people’s culture. Many other factors are involved. For example, what capital resources and technology are available to help in food production? Does a country’s government play a positive or negative role in food


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In India, stray cows roam freely through the streets. While Americans’ love of steaks and burgers drive a thriving cattle industry, cows in India go untouched because of their sacred status. Thus, availability is not the only factor in solving world hunger.

production and distribution? Does a country’s economy make it possible for food to be imported and distributed among most of its citizens? Do social and cultural practices encourage a good diet that provides citizens with adequate nutrition? These are just some of the conditions and questions that will be considered in this chapter.

Culture and Food Production In Chapter 1, you learned that through time, even as the population numbers exploded, fewer and fewer people suffered from hunger and malnutrition. Massive famines have all but been erased, and starvation is nearly unknown today. For most of


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Feeding a Hungry World the world’s people, diets are much improved, and so is human nutrition. What factors account for these improvements through time? The answer, again, is found in culture. In this case, it is the methods people use to obtain their food. Basically, are they scavengers or food producers? And in either case, how successful are the methods they use to obtain their food?

Hunting, Fishing, and Gathering For more than 99 percent of human history, people were food scavengers. They hunted birds and animals and gathered fruits, nuts, seeds, and other edible plant parts. A small number of people fished. Most of the human population lived on the edge of starvation much, if not most, of the time. How do we know this? For a very simple reason: Historically, when the food supply increased, the human population grew. And for most of human history, population grew very slowly, by about 1 percent every 1,000 years. Hunting weapons and methods were quite primitive. When a hunt was successful, the tribe gorged itself on the kill. Much of the time, however, people went hungry. Outside the tropics, plant life was seasonal. During the colder periods of the year when plants were dormant, much of the food supply was not available. Most social scientists agree that many early people experienced a feast-or-famine diet. Throughout most of human history, people also lived very short lives, often no more than 20-some years. An unreliable food supply and poor nutrition were major factors contributing to the short life spans.

The Dawn of Agriculture Perhaps 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, some humans took a huge forward step in expanding their ability to feed themselves. Probably through trial-and-error processes that occurred over thousands of years, plants and animals became domesticated. This marked the dawn of agriculture. It was such an important development that social scientists refer to it as the Agricultural


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Revolution. Instead of gathering and hunting, humans gained some control over Earth’s flora and fauna. Instead of being harvested by gathering, useful plants began to be planted and cultivated deliberately. Gradually, they were changed from their wild form to become more productive. Through time, they even lost their ability to survive in the wild. (Have you ever seen corn, tomatoes, or celery growing in the wild?) Domesticated animals followed a similar pattern. They provided food, milk, leather, fiber, and a new source of power and mobility. In those places where plants and animals were domesticated, food production exploded. So did the human population. With a reliable food supply, not everyone had to work as a food provider. Some people began to cluster in communities. There they could specialize and become more skilled at what they did. A system of organization beyond the tribe became necessary. Religious and political leaders emerged to organize and rule over society. Writing and mathematics were developed to keep records. These were the first steps toward the development of early civilizations. And with agriculture and associated civilization, the human population boomed.

The Second Agricultural Revolution During the twentieth century, agricultural production experienced a huge jump. Scientists refer to these developments as the Second Agricultural Revolution. You have already learned that hunger, famine, and starvation dropped sharply during the past century. These improvements in diet and nutrition occurred during a 100-year period in which the human population grew at a faster pace than during any previous time in history. Today, throughout much of the developed world, crop yields grew by as much as 10 times during the past century. Plant genetics improved, and new varieties of crops were created. Today, nearly all plants have much higher yields than in the past. They can also grow under more difficult environmental conditions. Fertilizers have improved, as have the means of


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Feeding a Hungry World coping with plant diseases, weeds, and insects. And, of course, improved transportation networks have greatly increased regional and global connections. Today it is much easier and faster to ship food from where it is produced to those places where it is needed.

Diet and Nutrition Good nutrition depends upon a well-balanced diet. Food provides the energy (measured in calories) and other building blocks that our bodies need to function. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) visually illustrates a well-balanced diet in its nutritional pyramid. It includes grains; fruits and vegetables; dairy products; meat, fish, beans, and nuts; and fats, oils, and sweets. Not all of the world’s people, of course, are able to eat a diet that includes all of these items. The traditional Inuit (Eskimo) of far northern North America had a diet based almost exclusively on meat, whale blubber and animal fat, and fish. In the Arctic, after all, there are few, if any, edible plants. Yet the Inuit were very healthy (at least until sugars and processed foods were introduced to their diet). How could this be? The secret appears to be that they ate their meat, fish, and even fat raw! Many East Asians are lactose intolerant; their bodies cannot digest milk or other dairy products, so they do not consume them. For religious and various other reasons including personal choice, many people are vegetarians. They avoid meat. In areas with harsh winters, people may go months without eating fresh fruits and vegetables. These are just some of the reasons why not everyone can eat the “balanced” diet recommended by the USDA’s nutrition pyramid. Body tissues must also grow and be maintained if one is to be healthy. This is the job of various chemical elements: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and vitamins and minerals. Each of them plays an essential role in keeping bodies healthy.


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Proteins Proteins are the most important dietary elements. They help body tissues grow. Meat is the primary source of protein, but beans and nuts are also a rich source. Many vegetarians are protein deficient. When traveling in India, for example, one cannot help but notice that the largely non-meat-eating population is very slim. And for centuries, India was the country in which the greatest number of people died from starvation. This condition is at least partially the result of a protein-deficient diet. (Protein, of course, is available from foods other than meat. Beans, nuts, eggs, grains, and dairy products are among the many other sources of this essential element.)

Carbohydrates Carbohydrates are sugars and starches that are the body’s favorite energy source, or fuel. Simple “carbs,” those most easily digested, come from sugar, pasta, and white bread. More complex and difficult-to-digest carbs are found in vegetables, whole grain pasta and breads, brown rice, and legumes such as beans. Most of the world’s people have access to foods that provide carbohydrates for their diet.

Fats In today’s health-conscious Northern America (and elsewhere), fats often get a bad rap. They are blamed for everything from bad cholesterol and heart disease to obesity. But they are also very important. They are essential to brain function, learning, and memory. (Did you ever think that eating more fat might help improve your score on the next math test?) Nerves, the lungs, and the heart depend on fats for energy and protection. So do many organs and the body’s immune and digestive systems. Fat is even essential for the eyes to work properly. Fats come from many sources, some of which are much better than others. Many good oils come from seeds. These include olive,


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Feeding a Hungry World sesame, canola, pumpkin, and peanut oils. Various nuts are also a good source. Oils from soybeans, corn, and sunflowers are also widely used. Meat and dairy products are a major source of fat, but these saturated fats contribute to “bad” cholesterol, which can contribute to heart disease. Trans fats—vegetable oils that have been heated with hydrogen gas to make them less likely to spoil—are the least healthy. They are found in many commercial

A TALE OF TWO COUNTRIES Many factors influence diets and nutrition. As has been noted, there is more than enough food to go around. There is no excuse for people to suffer hunger or malnutrition. Having a reliable food supply and adequate nutrition should be a fundamental human right. And ensuring food security should be a primary responsibility of a country’s government. Unfortunately, neither condition holds true in a number of countries. As you have seen, during the past century great progress has been made in reducing hunger. But there are still some 800 million people who are hungry, and around 14 percent of the world’s population is undernourished. Obviously, there is still a long way to go before all of the world’s people have access to adequate food and nutrition. Each year, the United Nations Development Programme publishes the Human Development Index (HDI). A number of factors, such as literacy, health care and life expectancy, and income, are taken into consideration. Basically, it ranks countries in terms of their standard of living and human well-being. Let’s look at data for the top and bottom countries and see what they reveal. They are the remote North Atlantic island country of Iceland and the West African nation of Sierra Leone. What differences stand out when you compare and contrast the figures for Iceland and Sierra Leone? Can you spot conditions that help to explain why few, if any, Icelanders are undernourished? What


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Nutrition: We Are What We Eat processed foods, including candy, cookies, most fried foods, and other snacks that are so popular in much of today’s world. It is best to avoid them when possible.

Vitamins and Minerals The function of many vitamins and minerals is not fully understood. What is known is that they are essential to good health and

do the data suggest as causes of the whopping 51 percent of Sierra Leone’s people being undernourished? How might global connections, including the United Nations, assist Sierra Leone to improve the nutrition of its people?

Iceland

Sierra Leone

HDI ranking (2008)

#1

#177

Undernourished Population

0%

51%

Area

38,707 mi2 (100,250 km2)

27,653 mi2 (71,620 km2)

Climate

Cool and wet (cold oceanic)

Hot and wet (tropical)

Area in cropland

0%

8%

Natural resources

Hydro and geothermal energy

Gold, diamonds, iron, bauxite

Literacy

99%

35%

Per capita income (in U.S. dollars)

$34,000

$1,000

Government

Stable democracy

History of conflict and turmoil

Life expectancy

81 years

48 years


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Feeding a Hungry World sustaining life. All food contains some nutrients. A well-balanced diet will supply a person with all the vitamins and minerals the body needs to function properly. During recent decades, taking

The Nutrition Pyramid The key to good nutrition is eating a well-balanced diet. For decades, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published various lists urging Americans to eat well. Recommendations of today’s USDA nutrition pyramid are much different than those that appeared on the nutrition chart in classrooms 50 years ago. Such lists are updated on a regular basis as more becomes known about diet and nutrition. The latest nutrition pyramid is divided into six food groups, with recommended daily servings of each. According to USDA/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommendations, the ideal diet includes the following: Base your diet on 6–11 servings of [grains] bread, cereal, rice, and pasta with 3–5 servings from the vegetable group and 2–4 servings from the fruit group. A daily consumption of 2–3 servings of [dairy] milk, yogurt, and cheese products balanced with 2–3 servings of meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts will be sufficient. Fats, oils, and sweets should be avoided as much as possible.

Do you believe that the nutritional pyramid is suited to the entire world population? What factors can you suggest that might limit access to certain recommended foods? Even where available, what conditions might limit or restrict the eating of certain foods? Based upon the pyramid’s guidelines, do you eat a well-balanced diet?


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supplemental vitamins and minerals has become increasingly popular. Some health experts now believe, however, that this can be overdone. Too much of a “good thing,” they believe, can become a “bad thing” for the human body. Eat a well-balanced diet and you do not need to worry about taking extra vitamins or minerals.

Nutrition and Human Well-Being Attention to the relationships that exist between diet, nutrition, and regional patterns of human health and well-being is a relatively recent concern. In fact, scientists still do not understand many of the relationships that exist between the three variables. For example, we are just beginning to understand some of the links between diet and various diseases. Ideas relating to the taking of many vitamins and minerals swing back and forth like the pendulum on a grandfather clock. Even the foods recommended by the USDA keep changing on a regular basis. One thing is certain. Worldwide, there are huge differences in the availability of foodstuffs, methods of food preparation, and diets. This, in turn, results in great differences in human nutrition among the world’s people. There is a direct relationship, for example, between financial well-being and nourishment. In the developed world, fewer than 2.5 percent of people are undernourished. In less developed countries, the figure averages about 35 percent. In some of the very poorest countries, more than half of all people are undernourished. Nearly all countries with large undernourished populations are in Africa or in parts of central, southern, and southeastern Asia.

Hazards of Malnutrition Dietary deficiencies, depending upon their nature, can give rise to serious physical problems. Specifics are far too detailed and complex to discuss at length in this book. Briefly, several examples include:


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Malnutrition affects our global well-being because of the connection between hunger and poverty. Organizations such as WHO and the UN fight to eradicate famine and malnutrition. Here, an infant hangs from a scale at a Save the Children clinic in Haiti.

5

5

5

5

Marasmus. A severe form of malnutrition, particularly in youngsters, caused by a deficiency of caloric intake and protein. It is most common in arid and semiarid regions of the middle latitudes. Marasmus results in the withering away of body tissue and weight. Kwashiorkor. A disease similar to marasmus in both cause and effect, but it is more common in hot, wet tropical environments. It is characterized by loss of body tissue and weight, resulting in a skeletal appearance, but with a bloated stomach. Xerophthalmia. A disease of the eyes caused by an inadequate intake of vitamin A in the diet. Scurvy. A potentially fatal disease that causes a withering of various body parts and functions. It is caused by


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5

5

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a lack of vitamin C, which is found in many fruits and vegetables. The disease is found today almost exclusively in poor countries. Anemia. A blood disorder resulting from an iron deficiency. Meat is a primary source of iron. Some vegetables, such as spinach, are rich in the essential mineral. Diets in some areas, particularly the tropics, are deficient in iron. Beriberi. A disease caused by a lack of thiamine (vitamin B1). It affects mainly the nerves and heart. The illness is widespread in southern and eastern Asia, where most diets do not include the meats, fruits, or vegetables that provide thiamine.

Not all malnutrition is caused by an inadequate diet, at least not directly. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to half of all malnutrition results from disease. For example, HIV/AIDS and malaria cause tens of millions of people to be undernourished. On the other hand, nearly 60 percent of all malaria-related deaths, according to WHO, are caused by malnutrition. So nutrition and disease go hand in hand. When people are hungry and undernourished, they lose much of their energy. This takes a huge toll on economic productivity. According to some estimates, the world’s economy would be boosted by 10 percent if hunger was erased. We see, then, that poverty often leads to hunger. In turn, hunger can also lead to poverty. The relationship between hunger and poverty is a vicious cycle that affects nearly a billion people worldwide.

Global Connections Diets and nutrition vary greatly from place to place around the world. Food intake, alone, does not ensure good health. Many people, for example, eat too much of the wrong things. This may cause them to become ill or obese. Obesity, in fact, has become a major health concern in many countries. Amazingly,


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Feeding a Hungry World worldwide, more people are overweight than are chronically hungry! In many lands, people eat adequate amounts of food in terms of mass. But their diets lack the nutrients needed to maintain good health. As you have seen, many factors come into play when diet and nutrition are concerned. Available foodstuffs, food preferences, and methods of food preparation all play a role. So do economic means, social factors, and environmental conditions. As will be discussed in greater detail in following chapters, food production is not the major problem relating to poor (or adequate) nutrition and diet. The key factors influencing peoples’ food intake relate to distribution and access. Our planet can easily provide adequate supplies of food. It is left to humans—as governments, agencies, and other institutions—to ensure that all people receive adequate nourishment. This, of course, will not be an easy task. But it is essential to the well-being of humankind.


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5 Can a groWing PoPulation be Fed? C

an a constantly growing population be fed? This question has been asked countless times since Thomas Malthus raised the issue more than two centuries ago. In short, the answer is: “Absolutely!” As you will learn in this and following chapters, producing enough food to keep pace with a growing population is not the problem. In this chapter, our attention will be focused upon the many ways the world’s food supply can be increased. Obviously, more food must be produced to meet the needs of a growing population. Growing more food is just the first and perhaps easiest step in solving the food problem. Other things must be done as well. Providing ample food for a growing population is a challenge that must be met in many ways. Obviously, this includes increasing the world’s food supply. But it also includes such things as decreasing food losses, improving food distribution, and changing what people eat. Implementation of strategies designed to improve the global diet must receive the highest priority of

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Feeding a Hungry World attention. After all, by mid-century there will be some 9 billion people—an increase of 2 billion more people than today—eating at the global dining table.

Agriculture Today About 40 percent of Earth’s land surface can be used for farming or raising livestock. About two-thirds of this land is only good for livestock grazing. This leaves one-third of the area, or 10 to 15 percent of Earth’s land surface, suited to raising crops under normal conditions. And more than half of this land, according to experts, is of only marginal quality. Actually, a very small part of Earth’s surface produces most of the food. The United States is the world’s largest food producer. Yet only about 18 percent of its land area is suited to agriculture of any kind, and less than 1 percent (0.21 percent) is in permanent crops. In Canada, only about 5 percent of the total area is suited to agriculture. During recent decades, cropland worldwide has increased by nearly 10 percent. Most of this growth has occurred in less developed countries (LDCs). In developed countries, in fact, agricultural land has actually decreased during recent decades. Much of it has been lost to urban sprawl—cities spreading out over farmland. At the same time, however, agricultural production has increased dramatically. Farmers and stock raisers have simply become much more efficient and productive. Today, one of every two people lives in a city. In more developed countries, the figure is three of every four. Worldwide, only about one-third of the population is engaged in agriculture, and this number is dropping rapidly. In the mid-1990s, the figure stood at about 42 percent of the population. By 2003, the world economy experienced a major shift. For the first time in history, more people worked to provide services than were involved in agriculture. In the United States and Canada today, less than 1 percent of the workforce is engaged in any kind of agricultural activity.


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Can a Growing Population Be Fed?

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What the foregoing suggests is that farmers, livestock growers and dairymen, poultry growers, and other food producers are doing an amazing job. But agricultural production is not evenly spread across Earth’s surface. Some areas are highly productive. Others, such as much of Africa and portions of Asia and Latin America, struggle. They are unable to produce enough food to feed even local populations adequately. The remainder of this chapter focuses on some of the general ways that agricultural production can be increased.

Increasing Agricultural Production About 20,000 edible plants have been identified worldwide. Throughout history, humans have used an estimated 3,000 of them for food. Today, however, most of our food comes from about 20 species. In terms of staples, the great majority of the world’s food supply and caloric intake comes from only four crops. In terms of annual production, wheat is the world’s leading crop, followed closely by rice. Not far behind are corn and potatoes. Most corn is fed to livestock and poultry, with an increasing amount being used to manufacture fuel (ethanol). What this suggests is that nearly 3,000 edible and nutritious plants have the potential to enter the food chain. Yet the human diet depends upon only a small number of them. Many things can be done to increase agricultural production. Some are quite harmless to the environment. Others, such as clearing dense forests to create farmland or grazing land, can be quite destructive. Most increases will require large investments of money, technology, and human effort. It will be more difficult for some regions of the world than for others. For example, only about 28 percent of Africa’s potential farmland is in production. Yet large areas of the continent have soils that are well suited to farming. Much of this potential cropland is located in semiarid or arid regions. Many dry areas, however, have nearby water sources, such as the Nile or Niger rivers. To tap these water


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Corn is one of the world’s top crops, although most of it is not used to feed humans. A great percentage of corn is raised to feed cattle and to produce fuel.

sources for irrigation, however, will cost billions of dollars. This places such development far out of reach for most moneystrapped African nations. In the Sahara Desert, a huge aquifer (ground water deposit) lies beneath the surface. Oil-rich Libya has spent an estimated US$18 billion to tap this water supply. The desert country built a 2,500-mile (4,050 km) network of huge pipes and canals. The aqueduct carries water from the central Sahara Desert to the parched coastal zone where most Libyans live. A project of this size, however, is far out of reach to most North African countries because of the astronomical cost.


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Making Use of New Lands As much as half of the world’s potential agricultural land is not under cultivation today. Such lands exist in most of the world’s ecosystems—regions of similar climate, vegetation, and soil. This is important because crops grow best under certain growing conditions. Very few crops can grow just anywhere. And additional land suitable for agriculture can be found in all continents except frigid Antarctica. Large areas of arable land in Africa, Asia, Australia, and North America, for example, are not yet producing crops. To bring them into production would require adequate irrigation. This will be environmentally challenging and also very costly. There is, after all, only a limited supply of freshwater. And as you learned in the case of Libya’s massive project, moving water over a long distance can be very expensive. Many forested areas can be cleared, although this, too, comes with often high environmental costs. Large forests are found in Canada, Russia, and countries lying in the tropics and the subtropical zones of Africa, Asia, and South America. Grassland and scrub areas appear to offer the greatest opportunity to increase productive farmlands. Again, in these drier regions many crops must be irrigated. During recent decades, southern Brazil has written a huge success story in farmland development. About 110,000 square miles (285,000 sq km) of formerly nonproductive savanna has been converted into productive farmland. This is an area about the size of Arizona. Soybeans are the major crop grown on the new farmland. Yields are so high that Brazil recently became the world’s second largest producer of this important crop, just behind the United States. Large areas of other Latin American countries, including Bolivia, Argentina, and Colombia, can also become agriculturally productive. If the climate continues to warm (and there certainly is no guarantee that it will), vast areas of land will become more productive. Imagine what would happen if presently cold areas of the Northern Hemisphere became


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Feeding a Hungry World warmer. Growing seasons would lengthen and the threat of late or early frost would lessen. Huge expanses of Canada, northern Europe, and Russia could become much more productive than they are today. Production of hardy grains and potatoes, in particular, could experience huge gains.

improve existing Farm and grazing lands About 85 percent of the world’s agricultural land contains areas that are in some way degraded. Erosion has taken a huge toll throughout much of the world. So has the loss of nutrients from the soil. In some areas, particularly those dependent upon

ARE POTATOES THE ANSWER? The answer to the world’s food problem may have been discovered in South America more than 7,000 years ago. In the central Andes, scientists have identified more than 3,500 different edible tubers, several hundred of which are potatoes. The potato itself has nearly 5,000 different varieties! A stroll through a Peruvian or Bolivian marketplace reveals an incredible variety of potatoes. The tubers have many sizes, shapes, and colors (both the skin and flesh). Today, however, only about 25 varieties are grown commercially in Peru. Scientists have long marveled at how well adapted the potato is to various environmental conditions. In its Peruvian homeland, it thrived in the world’s driest desert. The plant seemed at home growing on the humid tropical slopes of the eastern Andes. And the hardy crop flourished at frigid elevations more than 2 miles (3.2 km) above sea level in the Andean highlands. Few crops, if any, can survive and thrive in a greater variety of natural environments. Therefore, the potato can be grown almost anywhere in the world. It needs very little moisture. From planting to harvest can take less than two months. And it can produce between two and four times more food per acre than rice, maize (corn), or wheat.


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irrigation, salinization (the toxic buildup of salts) has occurred. Soil compaction and pollution from agricultural chemicals have also reduced productivity. Grazing lands, too, have suffered. Overgrazing can degrade or even destroy the cover of nutritious grasses and other forage. Once gone, they are often replaced by plants unsuited to grazing. This has happened in many locations in the western United States. In only about 15 percent of the world’s agricultural lands are soils as fertile as they were when first farmed. About one-third of the world’s soils are only slightly degraded. But more than 40 percent of all farmland has been moderately degraded, and about

Today, potatoes are the world’s fourth crop in terms of production, behind wheat, rice, and corn (most corn is fed to livestock). Only rice and wheat are eaten by more people. But the potato has an edge over these other crops. It thrives in many different environments, including those far too harsh for rice, wheat, and most other food crops. Therefore, it has much greater potential for growth as a dietary staple. Additionally, potatoes are very nutritious. They are an excellent source of carbohydrates, protein, and calcium, as well as several essential vitamins and minerals. Is it any wonder that the United Nations named 2008 the International Year of the Potato and called the crop a “hidden treasure”? Unfortunately, the potato is highly vulnerable to blight, which can easily destroy a crop. As you have seen, in the mid-nineteenth century, blight caused massive famine in Ireland that resulted in a 20 to 25 percent loss of population. Even today, about 20 percent of the worldwide potato harvest is lost to blight. But scientists believe they have found an answer. They have found a way to introduce blight-resistant genes from wild species into cultivated potatoes.


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Feeding a Hungry World 10 percent has been totally destroyed. Most of the ruined soil is found in less developed countries, those that can least afford to lose this precious natural resource. Clearly, preserving and improving soil quality must be a top priority of the world’s governments and agriculturalists. If soil quality continues to drop, it will seriously jeopardize the longterm ability to produce food. Fortunately, pedologists (scientists who study soils) and agriculture experts have done their homework. Much more is known today than even several decades ago about how to protect and improve soil fertility. In many locations, including the Northern American grain belt, new methods of tilling the soil have been developed. Today, for example, many farmers no longer clean till their fields after harvest. This practice greatly reduces wind and water erosion and leaves organic matter on the fields. It also saves time and money because it reduces the number of times a farmer must work the land with a tractor. The soil is saved, money is saved, and in many instances yields actually increase. Grazing lands, too, can be improved. This is accomplished mainly by improving the nutritional quality of the forage. In many tropical lands, cattle graze on lush savanna grasses. Yet many of the animals are little more than skin and bones with huge bloated stomachs. They are full, but are starving. How could this be possible? In the wet tropics, huge amounts of rainfall leach (remove) nutrients from the soil. As a result, the grasses themselves, although seemingly healthy, lack nutrients. In eating the nutrientdeficient grasses, the cattle fill their stomachs but lack the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients needed to be nourished. In the small South American country of Guyana and elsewhere in the tropics, a solution was found. Types of grasses introduced from Australia were much better adapted to the savanna environment. These new grasses are better able to draw nutrients from the poor soils, resulting in much improved grazing conditions for the cattle.


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Increase Yields A typical farmer in the U.S. Corn Belt can produce around 200 bushels of corn on an acre (.40 ha) of land. In much of the rest of the world, the yield is about 30 bushels an acre. Even in the United States, yields of most crops have greatly increased (in some cases by 1,000 percent or more) during the past century. Many things have made these advances possible. Scientific research has greatly improved the crops themselves. Improvements include greater tolerance to various environmental conditions and higher yields per plant. Fertilizers have improved, as have means of reducing insects, plant diseases, and weeds in fields. Tractors, harvesters, and other farm equipment have been greatly improved. Better methods of irrigation have also greatly increased yields in some places. There is one technological development that perhaps more than any other holds great promise for the future. Many experts believe that the genetic modification (GM) of crops will usher in a new Green Revolution. Some go so far as to suggest that GM crops will even make the world hunger free. Unfortunately, some others are not so optimistic. They strongly oppose “messing” with the genetic makeup of plants (or animals). In Europe, many people fear what they call Frankenfoods (clearly a reference to the genetic meddling that created Frankenstein). In fact, a number of European and other countries ban genetically modified foods altogether. Currently, only about two dozen of the world’s almost 200 countries grow GM crops commercially. Critics are concerned primarily about the unknown. For example, might GM crops lead to allergic reactions? What environmental hazards might they present? Will their cost place farming out of reach of the world’s poor and put it into the hands of the rich? What is known is that today, more than half of the world’s soybeans are genetically modified. So is about one-third of the


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Feeding a Hungry World corn, including much of the crop grown in the United States. And so far, the results have only been highly positive. Genetic modification involves taking a gene from one plant and placing it in another. This can greatly improve yields, as has occurred with rice, corn, soybeans, wheat, and several other crops. GM plant strains can be designed to be resistant to certain diseases, thereby reducing the need for spraying toxic chemicals. In the past, diseases have wiped out the banana industry in much of Central America. The papaya industry has also been destroyed in many tropical lands. Such events bring poverty and suffering to many people in the world’s LDCs. With GM strains of these and other crops, such countries can once again become economically productive. Environmentally, genetically modified crops also offer many advantages. The use of chemicals as fertilizer can be greatly reduced. So can the use of highly toxic weed and pest killers. In much of the world, GM crops could greatly improve human health. An estimated 250 million young people living in LDCs suffer from poor diets. A major deficiency is their inadequate intake of vitamin A. As a result, up to half a million of them go blind every year and 250,000 others die as a result of vitamin A deficiency. Yet a strain of GM rice has been developed that is rich in vitamin A. The “cure” has been found, yet many organizations and individuals continue to clamor against the use of GM crops. Rice is just one of many crops that can be improved in terms of its vitamin, mineral, protein, or other nutritional content.

Improve Farming Practices Throughout much of the world, and particularly in LDCs, farming practices produce very low yields. The quality of seeds is often poor. Fertilizer is far too expensive for most farmers to buy. Insects and plant diseases take their toll on crops. Pesticides and disease-resistant strains of plants are simply unavailable or too costly. Many farming practices in LDCs contribute to


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Genetically modified foods may solve many of the world’s problems regarding nutrition. However, critics believe it is a dangerous practice. Above, a California farmer harvests a crop of genetically modified corn. His corn is more resistant to weeds, allowing him to use fewer chemicals, and it provides cleaner feed for his dairy cows.


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Feeding a Hungry World severe soil erosion. Throughout the wet tropics, farmers practice a traditional form of shifting cultivation. Tropical rain forest is destroyed as trees are slashed and the rubble is burned. But within several years, the heavily leached tropical soils become infertile. The plots must then be moved, resulting in even more forest being destroyed. Problems related to farming practices basically stem from two factors. First, many farmers simply do not know how to increase their yields. By definition, rural folk societies are very traditional. Generation after generation the same practices are followed. New crops and farming methods are adopted very slowly, if at all. The second problem is cost related. Modern farms can produce very high crop yields, but production costs can be huge. In 2008, a farmer in the U.S. Corn Belt could easily spend up to $700 per acre (.40 ha) to produce a crop. Costs include preparing the field for planting, buying seeds, and planting the crop. Fertilizer must be applied, and fields must be kept clear of weeds, insects, and plant diseases. Finally, the crop must be harvested. In addition to the towering cost of seeds, fertilizers and other chemicals, and fuel, the farmer must have the equipment to do all of this. The cost of a tractor, tilling equipment, a planter, a sprayer, and a harvester can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Farmers in economically less developed countries simply cannot compete.

A Lesson from the Past Recent history has shown that agricultural yields can be greatly increased. During the next half century, the human population is expected to increase by about 25 percent. During the past half century, however, agricultural production has increased by several hundred percent. Much of this gain happened simply because of a massive cultural change. Fifty years ago, about twothirds of the population was rural. Most of these people practiced a traditional folk economy. They produced enough food, beverage, and fiber to provide for their own family’s needs. Yields


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were very low, but they got by. They bartered (traded) for the things they were unable to produce themselves. During the past half century, several billion people have adopted a more modern way of life. In contemporary living, most

Western Australia’s Agricultural Dilemma The state of Western Australia (WA) is Australia’s breadbasket. But during recent years, wheat yields have been declining. Pests have begun to take a toll on the crop, and soils have become increasingly saline. Genetic modification (GM) can easily reverse the downward trends in production. But in 2004, Western Australia’s liberal governing Labor Party passed a law that banned growing GM crops in the state. The state’s anti-GM law has taken a heavy toll in ways other than wheat yields. Many agricultural corporations involved in biological technology have left WA. Few people are willing to invest in the state’s agriculture, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars. Many major companies are leaving WA, the result being a massive loss of jobs. And dozens of agri-scientists have left for greener pastures. An Australian governmental agency has made a chilling estimate. It cautions that if the law currently banning GM crops in WA were to spread, the country could lose more than $1 billion during the next decade. In addition to wheat, the country’s barley, cotton, soybean, banana, and thriving wine industry could be threatened. If you were a resident of Western Australia, how would you urge your political representative to vote on the GM issue? What factors would you emphasize to support your request? How would other areas of Australia and, for that matter, the world, be influenced if your position on the issue was approved?


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Feeding a Hungry World people work at a job, earn an income, and buy what they need. One of the most basic laws of economics states that if there is a market for something, someone will meet that need. Agriculture, then, changed. It adapted to new market-oriented conditions. Farming became a big business, rather than just something one did to feed a family. Because they could earn a profit, farmers began to make many improvements in all aspects of crop and livestock raising. This at least partially explains the huge jump in agricultural production during recent decades. This cultural process—a switch from traditional to commercial farming—is ongoing. Today, millions of farmers are growing crops and raising livestock and poultry to sell. They farm to make a profit. Because of the profit incentive, we can expect to see further huge increases in the amount of food produced. Fortunately, this cultural change is occurring in those places that are most in need of food—poor countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

A Global Dining Table Throughout most of history, people ate whatever they could find, catch, or grow within a few miles of where they lived. How things have changed! The food and beverage served at today’s global dining table offer a wonderful example of global connections. Why is this important in terms of the future availability of food? Again, we must turn to geography for an answer. Some places are better suited to raising a particular crop (or livestock) than others. For example, rice is well suited to warm, humid regions with a reliable supply of water to flood fields on terraced mountainsides. Wheat, on the other hand, grows best in somewhat cooler and drier regions. It can thrive on the vast, cool, semiarid plains of interior Eurasia and North America. Corn needs ample moisture and a relatively long growing season. Why is the foregoing important? The answer lies in the fact that nearly every place in the world can produce some


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agricultural product. In many areas unsuited to crops, livestock can be raised. Rather than trying to raise a variety of crops, many of which are poorly suited to the environment, commercial farmers can specialize. They can grow a crop or crops that are best suited to the temperature, moisture, and soil of the area in which they live. Wheat, corn, or soybeans grown in South Dakota, for example, find their way to tables in distant continents. In a global economy, everyone eventually benefits.


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6 are We maKing tHe most oF tHe Food We HaVe? W

hen leaving a restaurant, have you ever noticed how much food is left on so many plates? According to some sources, Northern Americans waste more food than many of the world’s people eat each day! In this chapter, we will take a close look at how a staggering amount of food never reaches hungry mouths. You will also learn that there are many things that can be done to increase the amount of food that is available. Producing enough food to feed a growing world population, as noted elsewhere, is not the problem. There is more than enough food to adequately feed the world’s population. Why, then, you might logically ask, are 800 million people still hungry? In this chapter and the next, this question will be investigated. Here, we will look at food losses. The focus is on various ways the world’s food supply can be increased without an actual increase in food production. In Chapter 7, we will consider

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Are We Making the Most of the Food We Have?

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factors related to the distribution and availability of food. You will learn how political, economic, social, and other cultural factors play an important role in the food supply. Once food is produced, many things can happen to it that result in loss. Potential food can be lost during harvest, transport, storage, and processing. Other losses result from economic factors, spoilage, and waste. Let’s begin with a brief look at some of the reasons potential food is never eaten.

Harvest-Related Losses Have you ever passed a field after harvest and been shocked to see how much of the crop was either left standing or scattered about on (or in) the ground? It is impossible to estimate harvestrelated crop losses worldwide, but they are substantial. In some countries, losses are related to weather and climate. A heavy rain (or snowfall in cold climates) that occurs during harvest season can result in a delayed harvest or even a lost crop. In some areas, such as large portions of Africa and southern Asia, rainfall is seasonal. When the rainy season begins, roads can become impassable for months on end. Crops that cannot be distributed simply rot in the fields or where they were stored after harvest. Harvest-related losses are greatest in those areas that can least afford to lose food—the world’s poorest regions. But they can also occur in developed countries. Before it broke up in 1991, the Soviet Union was notorious for crop losses. Huge amounts of grain, for example, never made it from the field to market. In the Soviet system of central (government) planning, agricultural decisions were made in Moscow. Farms, however, were often several thousand miles away from the capital. In farming, many decisions relating to planting, cultivating, and harvest must be made on the spot and immediately. So the problems with Soviet agriculture began long before harvest time. Once the harvest occurred, railcars often showed up by the hundreds in places


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Feeding a Hungry World they were not needed. Areas with a bumper crop, however, often waited in vain for cars to arrive. The grain simply sat, and Soviet people went hungry.

AFRICA’S FOOD PROBLEMS No area of the world suffers from hunger more than Africa. Yet no other place loses more food than the hungriest continent. It is estimated that more than 10 percent of Africa’s agricultural product never reaches the mouths of hungry Africans. Some of the crop, of course, is lost to natural causes. Crop pests and diseases take their toll. So do floods and droughts, weeds, and increasingly poor soils. In central Africa, the area in which hunger is most widespread, the climate is hot and humid. Under these tropical conditions, most foods spoil very quickly. This is particularly true of cassava and tuber root crops upon which millions of people depend. Once harvested, facilities in which to store, process, and preserve foods are scarce. Many African countries, and certainly the continent’s rural farmers, are very poor. They do not have the money to buy needed technology that could better preserve crops after harvest. Even something as basic as ice is not available in many rural African areas. Poverty also plays a huge role in whether food is available in adequate amounts. At the family level, poverty determines how much and what kind of food people are able to buy. Poverty also influences what a country can do to combat hunger. If, for example, a nation is too poor to build an adequate system of roads, it is difficult, if not impossible, to move foods from farm to market. Finally, much of rural Africa is too poor to support an integrated commercial economy. Grocery stores simply do not exist in small rural villages. Many such communities do, of course, have small, often outdoor, markets. As you can see, Africa’s food problems are very complex. They will not be solved easily. It will take time, money, and political leadership. It also will require some basic improvements in the way of life of Africa’s rural population.


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Problems with Storage In the U.S. Corn Belt, in years with a good corn crop, grain elevators throughout the region burst at the seams with their golden harvest. Once the elevators are filled, however, corn is piled outdoors, often forming huge yellow mountains of grain. This is a common sight in communities throughout the region. When exposed to the elements, corn can easily spoil. And this, you must remember, is in one of the world’s most highly developed countries. Can you imagine the storage problems and resulting crop losses that farmers have in poor countries? India faces many storage-related problems. As you have learned previously, most Indians follow the Hindu faith, and people of that religion respect all animal life. Many Indians will not kill living things, including rodents and insects. As a result of these beliefs, rats and mice eat tons of grain, insects feast upon crops, and cattle roam the land untouched. It is little wonder that some estimates place India’s crop loss at around 40 percent each year! And the country’s 282 million cattle (in 2008) are not a food resource to most of India’s people. Elsewhere in South Asia, nearly three of every four people live in a rural area where most families must produce their own food. Their lives literally depend upon what they are able to grow, catch, or provide by some other means. In rural India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and elsewhere, transportation linkages are generally poor. Because of widespread poverty, storage facilities and means of preserving foodstuffs are primitive or lacking altogether. The adequate storage of food for distribution in times of need is essential to achieving food security. Many people living in the world’s poorer countries, including most of Africa, simply do not have this protection. Therefore, they are vulnerable to any disruption of the food supply. Under these conditions, they live with the threat of food shortages and resulting hunger much of the time. It is perhaps confusing to think of all the food that is thrown out by restaurants and grocery stores. Next time you are in a


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Feeding a Hungry World grocery store, look at the dates on eggs, dairy products, and even many canned and bottled goods. What about the produce? Do the fruits and vegetables all look fresh? Most foodstuffs spoil if not used within a certain period of time. In the United States and Canada, a considerable amount of food is lost from grocery store shelves and display cases simply because it is too old. If the losses are substantial in well-developed countries, you can imagine what they must be in less economically developed lands.

Consumption-Related Losses In Chapter 4, you learned that in many countries, more people eat too much and have become obese than suffer from hunger. Some people believe that overeating is a global problem. Many of those who hold this view believe that our gluttony is responsible for hunger elsewhere. In other words, if we eat more than we need, they believe that we are taking food from the mouths of hungry people in distant lands. This simply is untrue. If you regularly eat an extra helping of food when dining, you might add unnecessary weight. But you will not deprive someone in central Africa or Bangladesh of food. Particularly in the economically developed world, food waste is a huge problem. Food is lost in transportation and storage, in stores and restaurants, and in homes. It might be said (sadly) that such waste is a luxury that we can afford! Figures on waste vary greatly, simply because they are hard to nail down. No one, after all, is weighing the food left on your plate after a meal. Various sources suggest that as much as 40 or even 50 percent of the food available in the United States never gets eaten. Every year, an estimated 100 billion pounds (more than 45 billion kg) of food is thrown out in the United States alone. That amounts to almost one pound (.45 kg) of food being wasted by each person every day of the year! Economically, the loss amounts to some $40 billion to $50 billion, or about $150 of food wasted by each man, woman, and child in America. If these figures are correct, a


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Crop loss is one obstacle impeding the quest to stamp out famine. Production of food is only one step; storing it is yet another. Surpluses of grain eventually spoil and go to waste if they are not stored properly.

typical family of four wastes $600 worth of food each year. These losses include food that is tossed out because it is too old. Most such losses are spoiled fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat, and breadstuffs.

Food Avoidance As has been mentioned previously, dietary habits are deeply entrenched. Because they are so deeply rooted within a culture, such habits are very difficult, if not impossible, to change. This is true even in the face of hunger or starvation. Many people, as members of a culture, refuse to eat certain things. As a result, they can suffer from hunger or even starvation because of their beliefs. The food is available, but people simply refuse to eat it.


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Feeding a Hungry World This may be a difficult concept for many readers to grasp. But if you were hungry, would you eat a fish eyeball or slab of whale fat? Traditional Inuit (Eskimo) youngsters consider both to be a delicacy!

India’s Sacred Cattle For centuries, the residents of India have suffered from extreme hunger. Yet, as you have seen, most Indians are vegetarians.

Crops for People or Fuel for Vehicles? Throughout much of the world, potential food is being used to make biofuels (ethanol) for vehicles. About 70 percent of all ethanol is produced in the United States and Brazil. But because they are “clean” fuels, their use is spreading elsewhere. And, unfortunately, nearly all biomass from which biofuels are made comes from edible foods. In the United States, most ethanol is made from corn and soybeans. For three decades, Brazil has made fuel from sugar cane. In Europe, canola, sugar beets, and wheat are also used. In portions of Asia, ethanol is made from crops such as cassava and sorghum. Biofuels are popular in many circles. They reduce a country’s dependence on petroleum imports. They are clean in the sense that they do not produce greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide. Many scientists believe that burning fossil fuels, including gasoline, is a major contributor to a warming global climate. If we can reduce such emission, they argue, the atmosphere will be cleaner and atmospheric warming will be reduced. They fail to consider, however, the fact that a vast amount of potential food is going into cars, rather than into hungry mouths. Biofuels are hailed as being the fuel of the future. Some nonfood alternatives, such as switchgrass and hemp, show great potential for


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Because of their religious beliefs, they will not eat any flesh. All life, to them, is sacred. When one dies, they believe that he or she will return, though perhaps as some other life form. Therefore, the sacred cow, for example, may be a deceased relative who has returned. Under this belief system, would you eat beef? Yet we know that for decades, more people starved to death in India than anywhere else in the world. This is yet another example of how culture, in this case a religious belief system,

conversion to fuel. But for years to come, increases in ethanol production will probably continue to come from food crops. In 2008, an estimated 30 percent of the U.S. corn crop was used to make fuel, rather than eaten by humans or fed to livestock or poultry. It takes nearly 400 pounds (181 kg) of corn to make 25 gallons (95 liters) of ethanol. If a vehicle averages 20 miles per gallon (8 km/per liter), that amount of ethanol would power a vehicle for about 500 miles (800 km). The same amount of grain, however, would feed an adult for one year. As you can see, this issue offers a classic example of trade-offs: Should crops be used for food or for fuel? Which do you think it should be? Should we encourage the production of food crops for energy and thereby reduce atmospheric pollution? Or should we continue to use gasoline and raise crops for food? What do you believe to be important global connections, both positive and negative, based upon the use of crops for fuel? How, for example, might using crops for fuel affect countries that depend primarily upon food imports? Competition for corn and soybeans within the biofuel industry has caused grain prices to soar. How will poor countries be able to compete for the same crops that they need for human food? How might ethanol production affect the economies of petroleumexporting countries?


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Feeding a Hungry World can influence diet—and starvation. The potential food is there; it simply is not eaten. India’s cattle are also the source of an indirect food-related problem. Each day, India’s cows eat more than half a billion pounds (226,796,185 kg) of grass and other forage. That is the equivalent of about half a pound (.23 kg) per person in the country. Now we certainly cannot assume that all the vegetation eaten by cattle could have been eaten by India’s vegetarian population. But we can wonder about the land on which some of the vegetation eaten by livestock was grown. Could that land have grown food for humans? This is another example of how potential food is produced, but not eaten. Humans certainly could eat grass, but we simply do not want to!

China’s Varied Diet When you think of the Chinese diet, what basic foodstuff comes to mind? Most people would answer rice. Did you? Well, you would be wrong! Rice is the major crop and staple foodstuff in southeastern China. In northern parts of the country, however, nearly everyone prefers wheat. In 1931, China’s Huang He River (nicknamed the Yellow River or the “River of Sorrow”) flooded. As the floodwater spread out over a vast area, crops were destroyed throughout a large area of northeastern China. A massive famine followed. The United States responded to the tragedy by sending a large supply of rice. Little did the Americans know that northern Chinese do not eat rice. In fact, they look down upon the rice eaters of the country’s subtropical south. Rather than eat a grain they associated with the “lesser people” of the south, an estimated 3 to 4 million Chinese starved to death. History records numerous examples of people starving to death, rather than eating a food that they associate with people they look down upon for some reason.

Other Association-Based Food Avoidances Food avoidances can be based on class-related issues. People of a higher socioeconomic class tend to look down upon rural


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peasants and others of lower social or economic position. Hence, they avoid any and all “peasant” traditions, including foodstuffs. This is true, for example, with corn in Mexico. Corn is the basic crop and staple foodstuff of Mexico’s rural population. But it is almost totally avoided by those of the upper class. They associate corn with rural poverty. When visiting Mexico, do not expect to go to a fine Mexican restaurant and find tamales or corn tortillas! The British long avoided the potato, particularly during much of the nineteenth century. In Ireland, the potato became the staple crop. The haughty English, however, looked down upon the Irish who were not only poor, but also mainly rural. Unlike the British, the Irish were also devoutly Roman Catholic. Therefore,

How hungry would you have to be to eat a bowl of whale blubber (above)? What about cow brains? Insects?


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Feeding a Hungry World many British, particularly those of the upper class, avoided the potato. They simply did not want to eat a crop they associated with “peasants.” In southern Louisiana, many African Americans and Cajuns enjoy barbecued nutria (a type of rodent), raccoon, or opossum. But because they are associated with people marginalized by the dominant local society, they are avoided by most white, Anglo Louisianans.

Food Choices Sometimes people make choices that can increase or decrease the amount of food available to a population. Here in the United States and Canada, for example, we use food crops such as corn and soybeans to make fuel. We also consume tremendous amounts of meat. The average North American eats more than 200 pounds (90 kg) of beef, pork, and poultry each year. It is a luxury that we can afford. But what about poor people living in LDCs? Can they? Let’s look at some figures. To begin, how much grain does it take to produce a pound of meat? Scientists call this ratio the grain-to-meat conversion, and the figures might surprise you. In fact, in terms of waste the answer is rather staggering! For example, it takes between 8 and 21 units (pounds, kilograms, etc.) of grain to produce one unit of beef. The conversion rate for pork and poultry is a little better but still incredibly wasteful. Looked at another way, about one-half of America’s cropland is used to grow feed for livestock, rather than food for people. And more than 70 percent of all grain grown in the country is fed to cattle, swine, or poultry, rather than to humans. Some people believe that Americans and others should stop eating meat. They think that many of the world’s poor suffer because of our meat-rich diet. Some suggest that if we all became vegetarians, an additional one billion people could be fed worldwide. Unfortunately, as you will learn in Chapter 7, it isn’t


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quite that simple. If you prefer a steak to tofu, don’t feel guilty! On the other hand, if you prefer a soybean burger to one made of beef, that is personal choice. But your decision to avoid eating meat will not put food in the mouth of a hungry child in Zimbabwe or elsewhere.

Global Connections As you have learned in this chapter, food production is only one of many pieces of a very complicated food puzzle. Feeding a hungry world is a very complex task and one that is influenced by many factors. Several things, however, stand out. For example, great differences exist in the geographical aspects of food production, distribution, and consumption. Some areas are very productive. Others, for a variety of reasons, are unable to produce enough food to feed their people. Given these spatial differences, income—the ability to purchase food—is also a major variable. Famine is all but unknown among societies that are able to buy food on the world market. For the poor, however, hunger is a constant companion. As you have seen, what people are willing to eat or refuse to consume is also important. Beyond production, many cultural factors can affect the availability and consumption of foodstuffs. In the following chapter, you will learn why so many people continue to be hungry in some parts of the world.


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7 WHy are so many PeoPle still Hungry? F

ar more food is available worldwide today than at any previous time in history. Yet given the global abundance of food, why are so many people still hungry? As you have learned elsewhere in this book, there are about 6.8 billion people in the world today. And an estimated 800,000 of them continue to suffer from severe hunger and resulting malnutrition. That is about 12 percent of the human population. Although these numbers are alarming, they show a marked improvement over past conditions. You must remember that fewer people (as a percent of the population) suffer from hunger today than ever before. However, hunger remains a major problem in the world today. With the population expected to leap to around 9 billion by the middle of the century, it is a problem that demands our most serious attention.

a geograPHiC looK at Hunger In order to gain a better understanding of global hunger, let’s look at the issue through the eyes of a geographer. Doing

6


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so will provide some valuable clues that will help us better understand why so many people continue to suffer from an inadequate food supply. Geography, like history, is a methodology. It is a unique way of organizing and analyzing information. Historians ask, “When?” Geographers ask “Where?” Both social sciences, of course, ask “Why?” In the case of geography, geographers want to know “What is where, why there, and why care?” in regard to the various features and conditions on Earth’s surface. In this book, the “what?” is food production, distribution, diet, and nutrition. The “where?” question is answered by identifying areas of adequate versus poor diets and nutrition. From this information, we can then begin to search for interrelationships—things that help us understand “why there?” And, of course, we all should care about the world’s less fortunate, hungry people. If the problem is to be solved, we must know where hunger persists and why it occurs. With this knowledge, perhaps the problem can be erased once and for all from our planet.

A Culturally Divided World Have you ever heard labels such as “less developed,” “underdeveloped,” or “third world,” used in reference to the world’s poor countries? Such terms really refer to marked cultural differences that exist between well-developed and less-developed lands. Culture, as defined and used throughout this book, refers to the way a people live, including everything that they know, possess and are able to do. You have learned, for example, that religion and other cultural (and personal) choices can influence what people eat or avoid eating. In this chapter, we will look more closely at cultural systems and food availability. Of greatest importance are the ways different people make their living and how the countries in which they live are governed.


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Traditional Societies vs. Modern Living

© Infobase Publishing

Perhaps the greatest differences exhibited by the human population today are those that separate traditional rural cultures from


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modern urban societies. Throughout nearly all of history, as you have learned, most of the human population went hungry. Only during recent centuries has this gloomy situation changed for the better. How can this be explained? The answer is really quite simple: Culture has changed. For most of human history, people constantly struggled to provide food for themselves. They hunted and gathered. A few people fished. After a successful hunt, catch, or harvest, they feasted. Most of the time, however, they faced the threat of famine. In the lengthy span of human history, agriculture is a very recent development. And for thousands of years, it, too, produced but a meager and often unreliable yield. Only recently, mainly during the past century, has crop production been improved greatly. New lands have been brought under the plow. Better equipment has made farming much larger expanses of land possible. Imagine how much land can be worked using a huge tractor, as opposed to a field worked by someone using a hoe! Irrigation has expanded and irrigation techniques have improved to bring water to thirsty crops. Better plant strains have been developed. New ways have been found to combat weeds, plant diseases, and pests. And the use of chemical fertilizers has expanded greatly. These and other cultural developments have vastly expanded the food supply in many parts of the world. But not everyone has directly benefited from these changes. Half the world’s population remains rural. Of this nearly 3.4 billion people, the United Nations estimates that about 75 percent of them are hungry much of the time. In fact, hunger is much more common among rural people than among those living in cities. Does this seem a bit strange to you? How can rural people—people who live off the land—possibly be hungry? Again, the answer lies in culture and culture change. You must remember that in times past, nearly everyone lived in a rural setting. And hunger constantly stalked the land. Populations were low, simply because there was not enough food to support more people. Several thousand years ago, however, a major change—one of humankind’s great cultural “revolutions”—occurred in


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Feeding a Hungry World some locations throughout the world. Some people became more productive than others. They became food producers, rather than food scavengers. In other words, it is the developed (wealthy) world that has experienced change. For the one-half of the world’s population that is rural, things are pretty much the same as they have been, often for thousands of years. The question that should be asked, then, is not “Why are they hungry?” Rather, it should be “What changes occurred that made it possible for some of the world’s people to have an adequate food supply?”

Poverty and Hunger In times past, hunger resulted from many factors. Environmental elements, such as bad weather or a locust plague, could destroy a crop. Even during good times, yields were generally quite low. Meat on the table depended upon a successful hunt. There were no means by which food could easily be distributed from places of abundance to areas of need. Even when food became available, left unprotected it often spoiled. Today, in a global economy with countless interconnections, this has changed. There is more than enough food to adequately feed the world’s population. Why then, you might ask, are 800 million people still hungry? The answer is simple: poverty. The food is there; many people simply lack the financial means to buy it. Hunger has been called the most extreme form of poverty. It poses a direct threat to health and even life. In wealthy countries such as those of Western Europe, the United States and Canada, and Japan, buying food is not a problem for most people. In these lands, less than 10 percent of an average family’s income is spent on food. Food, of course, is essential to survival. There are many things a family can go without, but food is not one of them. Therefore, all families must spend a portion of their money (or in a subsistence economy their labor) to feed themselves. The less money a family has, the higher the percentage of its income must be spent to put food on the table.


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Hunger is the most extreme form of poverty. Even in a country as rich as the United States, where food is so abundant that much of it is thrown away, some people cannot afford to spend their income on food. They must rely on charitable organizations and donations.

During recent years, the cost of food has risen sharply. What does this mean for the approximately one billion people who live on $1 a day or less? More and more of their income must be spent on food. In portions of rural Asia and Africa, families must spend up to 75 percent of their income on food alone! For families living in poverty, this leaves little money left over for housing, clothing, education, medical attention, and other needs.

Government and Food Supply Many factors help to determine the financial status of individuals, families, and countries. Perhaps none is more important than government. Study after study has shown that good government, a strong economy, an adequate diet, and other aspects of human well-being are very closely related.


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Would You Build There? Imagine that you are the chief officer of a corporation that wants to expand its operation overseas. It plans to spend several billion dollars building a huge new factory that will create thousands of jobs in an economically depressed region. More schools, medical facilities, financial establishments, stores, and other businesses will be needed. Roads, railroads, and port facilities will have to be built or improved. If your factory is built, thousands of people will be drawn to the area. Incomes will boom. As a result of the new prosperity, living standards will be boosted to new highs for the region. People will be able to buy all the food that they need. Farmers and herders in the region will share in the newfound prosperity. There will be a sharp increase in demand for their crops, livestock, and poultry. Foods and beverages that are not produced locally can be imported. But would you be willing to invest your capital resources in a country with a corrupt, inept, strong-arm government? Probably not! You would not want to risk investing in such a poorly governed nation. Although your decision was wise in a business sense, think of its consequences on the well-being of the country and its people. Widespread poverty will continue to plague the population. Unable to buy much food, hunger will continue, as will widespread malnutrition and its consequences. Who or what is to blame for this situation? Is the fault yours for deciding not to invest in the country? Or does the fault lie with the country’s bad government? After all, it was poor leadership that discouraged your investment and the economic growth that it could have introduced. Unfortunately, this sad story is played out in country after country throughout the less developed world.

Safety and Food Production and Distribution Governments can do many things to encourage (or discourage) food production and distribution. Of greatest importance is creating a stable environment in which people feel safe as they go


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“Empty Stomach” Countries The most important key to overcoming hunger is good government. There is not a single country with a stable democratic government and free market economy that can be considered overpopulated. Each of the countries in the following list is notorious for its very poor, unstable government. As a result, hunger, poverty, and other forms of human

Rank Country

% of pop Pop Per Human underfed density capita Development (2002–2004) sq. mi. GDP-PPP Index Ranking

1

Somalia

75

36

$ 600

No data available (world’s lowest)**

2

Eritrea

75

112

$ 800

157

3

Congo (DRC)

74

73

$ 300

168

4

Afghanistan*

70

130

$1,000

No data available (2nd lowest)

5

Burundi

66

827

$ 300

167

6

Tajikistan

56

133

$1,600

122

7

Sierra Leone

51

198

$ 600

177

8

Liberia

50

78

$400

No data available (3rd lowest)

9

Zimbabwe

47

88

$ 200

151

10

Haiti

46

853

$1,300

146

Ethiopia

46

187

$700

169

* Data based on 2000 data ** The United Nations Human Development Index ranks 177 countries. Somalia, Afghanistan, and Liberia are unranked; their numerical totals, however, place them in the given rank order as the world’s three lowest rated countries. The index is based upon a country’s life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and economic development.

(continues)


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Feeding a Hungry World (continued)

suffering are rampant within each of them. The countries are ranked according to the percentage of population that is underfed. What conclusions can you draw from the countries and data listed? Can you explain the relationship between government, human development, and hunger? Can you think of things the global community might do to help improve conditions in areas of hunger?

about their daily tasks. In many countries, people live in constant fear because of military or civil conflicts, guerrilla groups, terrorist threats, or other disruptions. In the countryside, farmers and herders who fear for their lives will abandon their fields and flocks. Even if some food is still being produced there, conflicts in rural environments can disrupt or even destroy transportation linkages. When this happens, crops cannot be sent to distant markets. In the cities, people may be afraid to leave the relative safety of their homes to shop. The shops themselves may close as owners and workers fear for their lives. Food production, distribution, shopping, and marketing—each link in the chain of food supply—become severely disrupted. Under such conditions, famine can easily occur. Situations such as these have become commonplace in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Saving Face Occasionally, a country will not acknowledge that famine is occurring. This is particularly commonplace in communist states or countries with totalitarian (dictatorial) governments. Leaders simply do not want the outside world to know of their failure. One tragic example occurred in Ethiopia during the mid-1980s. A Communist government was in charge. Unwise government policies resulted in a sharp drop in agricultural


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production. So did civil conflicts that were taking place throughout the country. Severe drought also contributed to the problem. But the Ethiopian government would not admit to the problem. To mask its failure, it blocked all outgoing information. In the absence of international food aid, at least one million Ethiopians starved to death. Although the human toll is unknown, a similar situation has occurred in communist North Korea during recent decades.

Robin Hood Economics Sometimes even a government’s good intentions fail. Land redistribution is one example. This practice has been described as “Robin Hood economics”—taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Poor, landless, rural peasants can become a sharp thorn in the side of an urban-oriented government. One way to resolve the problem is for the government to take land from large (and agriculturally successful) landholders and divide it among the rural poor. Socially, such programs have been somewhat successful in some countries. But economically, in terms of food production, the results can be (and usually are) disastrous.

Lagging Rural Development Earlier in this chapter, you learned that most of the world’s hungry people live in rural environments. Throughout the world’s less developed countries (LDCs), rural development lags far behind that of urban places. The sharp contrast between rural (folk) and urban (modern) culture can explain some of the differences. But there are many other problems. Most governments within poor countries depend upon urban populations for their support. Therefore, most government attention and resources are directed toward keeping cities and their residents happy. In LDCs throughout the world, few resources go toward rural development. One of the most common ways to gain support of urban populations is to keep food prices in the cities


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In the 1980s, Ethiopia’s communist government preferred to let its citizens starve to death instead of admitting its own failures. Refugees such as those shown in this photo received aid from the United States and the Soviet Union.


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ridiculously low. To do this, a government will adopt policies that cheat farmers and herders of a fair profit. This means that people engaged in agriculture are unable to make an adequate living. Many of them simply give up and move to the city. Little attention is given to rural education in many LDCs. As a result, people often lack the knowledge and skills needed to compete in a commercial economy. The result is widespread poverty. Poor farmers are unable to buy good seeds, fertilizer, or equipment needed to successfully till the land and raise a healthy crop. As a result, yields are very low, often only a small fraction of that experienced by midlatitude farmers. Many country people do not even own land. They are unable to raise the food they need and are too poor to purchase enough food to feed their families adequately.

Environment and Hunger Throughout most of history, people avoided settling in places where food was difficult to obtain. Such places include many desert regions, dense tropical rain forests, cold areas with short growing seasons, and places with rugged terrain. Hunger was not a major factor simply because there were so few people. Environmental conditions can, however, have a very serious impact on hunger, famine, and starvation. Many places support high populations because they are usually productive. In normal times, plenty of food can be produced to offer everyone an adequate diet. But occasionally nature strikes back. Some of history’s worst famines have occurred when crops and people have felt nature’s cruel wrath. Cold, frost, snow, and hail can destroy crops. So can strong winds that level fields and heavy rains that result in widespread flooding. Drought is perhaps the single most common cause of crop failure. It can strike nearly any country outside of the wet tropics. In portions of Africa and Asia, locusts sweep across millions of acres, destroying all plants in their path. In China


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Feeding a Hungry World during the nineteenth century, nearly 45 million people died of starvation. The country experienced four devastating famines during the span of 100 years. Crops were destroyed by an array of natural conditions. They included severe droughts, widespread

GOVERNMENT POLICY AND HUNGER IN ZIMBABWE Few places in the world better illustrate the relationship between hunger and poor government policies than Zimbabwe. This former British colony (Southern Rhodesia) in southern Africa was once a model of political stability within the region. Because it was well governed, it became one of Africa’s most agriculturally productive countries. Most of its people— both white and black—were well-off, and hunger was all but unknown. Since gaining full independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has been governed by an authoritarian leader, Robert Mugabe. Initially, Mugabe allowed the country’s very productive white farmers to keep their land. Agricultural production and the country’s economy continued to prosper. By 2000, however, Mugabe’s popularity began to drop sharply as he became increasingly authoritarian. In the hope of gaining additional popular support, he began a land redistribution program. Land was taken from the highly successful white farmers and given to landless blacks who had no farming experience. Socially, the program had some merit. But in terms of agricultural production it was a total disaster. Agricultural production plummeted. With it, food supplies dwindled away, the country’s economy was crippled, and inflation soared to more than 1 million percent. By July 2008, an item that once sold for $1.00 cost Zimbabweans $231,000,000. In 2005, Mugabe attempted to restore order to his strife-torn country. His plan was to destroy the political opposition, anyone who was critical of his rule. To accomplish this goal, he ordered the destruction of 700,000 homes and businesses. Is it any wonder that today Zimbabwe’s people rank among the world’s poorest and hungriest?


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floods, swarms of locusts, raging typhoons (hurricane-type storms), and terrible earthquakes. These environmental hazards caused severe crop failures that covered wide areas and brought famine to millions of families.

Global Connections By now, you should be keenly aware of several factors. First, there is more than enough food available to feed the world’s population and to do so quite adequately. Second, hunger is the result of problems within the food distribution system. There are imbalances between where food is produced and where it is needed. Third, modern means of transportation ensure that food can be transported anyplace in the world. Fourth, poverty is the primary condition that contributes to hunger. Finally, in much of the world, poor government is the major cause of poverty, hence, of hunger. During the past century, many things contributed to a sharp drop in the frequency and intensity of famines. When an alarm is sounded warning of famine in a distant land, the global community can respond immediately. Because of the rapid global response to famine, the threat of starvation has nearly been erased. Additionally, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, there is cause for political optimism. More countries are politically stable and democratically governed today than ever before. And fewer countries are engaged in military conflicts than during any time in recent memory. Dare we hope that hunger and malnutrition will finally vanish?


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8 tHe Future: Feast or Famine? F

or at least two centuries, visions of “gloom and doom” have dominated many predictions of the human population’s future well-being. Such dismal forecasts were most often based on the belief that the world’s supply of food and other resources will simply run out. Yet as you have learned in the pages of this book, this has not happened. In fact, over the past century food production has far outstripped population growth. Hunger and malnutrition have declined sharply. Today, a scant 12 percent of the global population is undernourished. This figure, although still alarming, is much lower than at any previous time in history. Yet many people believe that humankind’s future remains bleak. They worry over the fact that by 2050, the human population is expected to grow by about 25 percent. How in the world, they wonder, can 9 billion people be fed adequately? As you have learned, however, there are many ways to increase food production. The problem in the past, today, and in the future is based not on Earth’s available biomass (plant and animal life). Rather,

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it is a problem of distribution. Simply stated, an ample supply of food can be produced. But how does it get into the mouths of hungry people often located thousands of miles away? Clearly, one of the great problems facing humankind is that of improving global connections as they relate to food distribution and availability. This will involve many factors other than agriculture. Chief among them is breaking through barriers to distribution. Such obstacles often involve political instability, poverty, and a variety of social factors. There are many reasons for optimism. In 2008, agriculture expert Pedro Sanchez, quoted in an interview by Mariana Gosnell in Discover magazine, made a shockingly bold prediction. Sanchez believes that within 50 years hunger will be completely erased! Could this possibly happen? A glimpse at the progress made during the past century suggests that it may. A century ago, about 80 percent of the world’s population was hungry and undernourished. Today this figure has dropped to 12 percent. (Some sources indicate 14 percent; the differences result from different criteria used in defining hunger.) There is ample reason to believe that the downward trend of the past century will continue well into the future. During recent decades, the percentage of household spending for food has dropped sharply. In fact, of a dozen categories of normal expenses, the amount of family income spent for food has experienced the sharpest drop. There are also some possible storm clouds building on the horizon. One of them, rather ironically, is that so many people today are enjoying a much higher standard of living than in the past. As incomes rise, people’s tastes expand. They want and are able to buy more and better items, including food. For example, China’s economy has boomed for several decades. As incomes rise, the Chinese people’s diet expands to include more poultry, beef, pork, and other meats. But do you remember the grain-to-meat conversion ratio that was explained in Chapter 6? During recent decades, China’s consumption of meat has grown at a rapid pace. If the growth continues, China will soon


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Feeding a Hungry World need to buy as much grain as is currently sold internationally! What would this do to the price of grain? Would wheat, corn, and other small grains suddenly be priced out of reach of the world’s poor?

Is the Ocean the Answer? You may have noticed that nowhere in this book has mention been made of turning to the global sea as a major source of food. Is it possible that marine resources would easily solve the world food problem? During the past five decades, fishing technology—the ability to make huge catches using state-of-the-art equipment—has grown along with the population and hunger for seafood. Today, planes and sophisticated detection equipment search for schools of fish. When located, fleets of small fishing boats leave huge refrigerated “mother” canning ships to make the catch. Much of the catch is made in international waters located beyond territorial limits. There, few restrictions limit fishing or the size of the catch. The result has been catastrophic. Many of the world’s leading fishing banks (areas with environmental conditions that contribute to an abundance of fish) have been overharvested to the point of depletion. At one time, prized fish such as cod, halibut, salmon, and tuna were plentiful. Today, because catches are only a fraction of what they were in the past, most seafood is very expensive. The same is true of lobster, crab, oysters, and other marine delicacies. Although preferred fish and other edible marine life are becoming increasingly scarce and costly, the oceans still offer some options. As mentioned previously, there are vast amounts of edible and nutritious seaweed. And it is available anywhere people have access to the sea. But do you want a kelp sandwich for lunch? And rough fish—the equivalent of freshwater carps or suckers—are still plentiful.


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The Future: Feast or Famine? The growing use of soil and edible crops such as corn and soybeans for fuel also creates a potential problem for the world’s food supply. Fortunately, scientists are busily at work searching for nonfood plant sources from which biofuels can

Some rough fish have already entered the human food chain. One example is the orange roughy. This rough fish was renamed to be more attractive to buyers. After all, would you want to buy and dine on a “slimefish”? See, the name change worked! The fish became extremely popular in markets throughout much of the world. In just four decades of overfishing, however, orange roughy populations have dwindled to near extinction in some places. Conditions are no better in regard to freshwater fisheries. There, too, stocks are dwindling rapidly. The plight of the Pacific king salmon serves as a stark reminder of what can happen when humans and nature collide. Salmon are unique in that they live part of their lives in the ocean and part in freshwater rivers. Today, king salmon numbers are greatly diminished. Thirty years ago, thousands of Pacific Coast fishermen depended upon the annual catch for their livelihood. Several thousand fishing boats went to sea and entire coastal communities depended upon the success of the catch. In 2008, government officials closed down ocean salmon fishing off the coasts of California and Oregon. Fishermen stood to lose some US$300 million. And the dining public is left with artificially raised fish, the quality of which cannot compare to wild salmon. What happened to the salmon is typical of many species. The habitat (environment) in which the fish thrive and spawn has been severely changed by human activity. Dams, canals, and pollution are just some of the changes that have affected freshwater spawning. Overfishing and pollution at sea have also contributed to the catastrophic drop in numbers.


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Feeding a Hungry World be processed. It is almost certain that their efforts will be successful. Our study of “feeding a hungry world” would not be complete without mention of possible weather changes and their potential impact on the global food supply. Many people believe that global warming is occurring. If, indeed, it is, a warmer Earth could be a blessing in disguise, at least in terms of food production. Vast stretches of the upper midlatitudes—the northern United States, much of Canada, and huge portions of Europe and Russia—would experience longer growing seasons. Planting

Chinese supermarket customers shop for a selection of meat that would have been unfamiliar to them just a few decades ago. Although a higher standard of living and greater availability of food are positive developments, the exposure to different foods and the resulting demand for them could have a negative impact on the global community.


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season would come earlier in the year and harvest time would be later. Unfortunately, there are also rather convincing signs that our planet may be entering a lengthy cooling phase. This would have an opposite effect on the growing season and crop production. With either warming or cooling, changes will also occur from place to place in the amount of precipitation received. Some places will receive more rainfall and others will become more susceptible to drought. This, too, will have an impact on agricultural production from place to place. In conclusion, perhaps it is best that we turn to history to determine whether we can expect feast or famine in our future. During the past century, the human population soared to its current 6.8 billion. But as the population has exploded, hunger has experienced a remarkable decline. Widespread famine has become little more than a horrible distant memory. Starvation is all but unknown. Good government is the primary key to human development, including an adequate diet. Democracy is spreading and with it increased economic stability in countries throughout much of the world. I am an optimist; I join agricultural expert Pedro Sanchez in the belief that hunger will be nearly erased by 2050. Some 9 billion people will be dining at the global table, and they will eat well. Do you agree?


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glossary culture The totality of the way of life practiced by a people. It includes everything they know, believe, possess, and are able to do. diet Food and drink that are regularly consumed by an individual or group. famine An extreme scarcity of food that can lead to mass starvation. food Everything available to a culture or individual that can be eaten. foodways All aspects of diet possessed by a particular culture, including foodstuffs, food preparation, and traditions related to diet and dining. genetically modified (GM) crops Plants in which the genetic makeup has been altered through genetic engineering. human development index (HDI) A United Nations ranking of countries from #1 to #177 in terms of human well-being based on such factors as life expectancy, education, literacy, and standard of living. hunger

The feeling of desire or need for more food.

malnutrition The condition in which the body does not receive adequate nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and protein. nutrients Energy-producing elements that nourish the body. They include carbohydrates and fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water. nutrition

The process of nourishing the body with nutrients.

overpopulation More people than a cultural system, including environmental, economic, political, and social conditions, can provide for adequately. staple The most important food(s) in a peoples’ diet. starvation The extreme result of inadequate food and nutrition that can lead to death.

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Glossary

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sustainable Describes a practice that can be continued indefinitely. For example, if properly cared for, soils will produce crops and will permanently retain their fertility.


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bibliograPHy Barer-Stein, Thelma. You Eat What You Are: A Study of Ethnic Food Traditions. Toronto: McLelland and Stewart, 1979. Borgstrom, Georg. The Food & People Dilemma. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury Press, 1973. Castro, Josué. The Geography of Hunger. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1952. Central Intelligence Agency. The 2009 World Factbook. Available online. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/. Dando, William A. The Geography of Famine. New York: John Wiley & Sons/Halsted Press, 1980. Ehrlich, Paul R. The Population Bomb. New York: Ballantine Books, 1968. Ehrlich, Paul R., and Anne H. Ehrlich. Population, Resources, Environment: Issues in Human Ecology. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1970. Ehrlich, Paul R., and Anne H. Ehrlich. The Population Explosion. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990. Fieldhouse, Paul. Food and Nutrition: Customs and Culture. Dover, NH: Croom Helm, 1986. Finkel, Elizabeth. “Australia’s New Era for GM Crops,” Science (September 19, 2008), p. 1629. Gardner, Gary, and Brian Halweil. Underfed and Overfed: The Global Epidemic of Malnutrition. Paper #150, 2000. Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute. Gosnell, Mariana. “Pedro Sanchez: Interview Green Revolutionary,” Discover (October 2008), p. 38.

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Bibliography

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Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues. Famine: A Man-Made Disaster? New York: Vintage Books, 1985. Lappé, Frances More. World Hunger: Twelve Myths. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1986. Peters, Gary L., and Robert P. Larkin. Population Geography: Problems, Concepts, and Prospects, 9th ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/ Hunt Publishers, 2008. “Plant Genomes” (series of 13 articles pertaining to genetically modified crops). Science (April 25, 2008), pp. 465–497. Ronald, Pamela C., and Raoul W. Adamchak. Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Simoons, Frederick J. Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances in the Old World. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1961. Tucker, Abigail. “Farewell to the King?” Smithsonian (October 2008), pp. 84–95.


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FurtHer resourCes Fridell, Ron. The War on Hunger. Brookfield, Conn.: Twenty-First Century Books, 2003. Gritzner, Charles F. The Human Population. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2009. Hunnicutt, Susan C., ed. World Hunger. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007.

Web sites U.S. Department of Agriculture. “MyPyramid.” http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/

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indeX a ackee trees, 42 “Adam and Eve” dilemma, 28–29 Afghanistan, 94 Africa culture and, 39, 41 food emergencies in, 10 food losses and, 75, 76 need for improved productivity in, 61–62 nutrition and, 55 Agricultural Revolution, 48–49 agriculture climate and, 36–37 current status of, 60–61 diet and, 36–37 existing farm and grazing land improvement and, 64–66 food losses and, 75–78 globalization and, 72–73 historical lessons of, 70–72 increasing productivity of, 26–27, 61–62, 68–70 increasing yields of, 67–68 land use changes and, 63–64 nutrition and, 48–50 population density and, 22, 23–25 technology and, 28 anemia, 57 anthropology, 14 Apocalypse, 19 aquifers, 62 Asia, 23, 55, 75, 77 Australia, 71–72 authoritarianism, 98

b bananas, 68 beans, 39–40, 51 beriberi, 57 beverage, defi ned, 32

Bible, 19 biofuels, 61, 80–81, 84, 103–104 blights, 43, 65 Brazil, 63, 80 bread, 15–16 breadbaskets, 35–36 Brown, Lester, 18

C Cajuns, 33, 84 caloric intake, statistics on, 13 carbohydrates, nutrition and, 51 Caribbean Islands, 41–43 carrying capacity, 25–27 cattle, 34, 77, 80–81 China, 82, 98, 101–102 choice, diet and, 34 civilization, 49 class status, 82–83 clean tilling, 66 climate biofuels and, 80–81 diet and, 36–37 effect of changes in, 104–105 food losses and, 75, 76 land use and, 63 codfish, 43 commercial farming, 72–73 corn cost of growing, 70 ethanol and, 80 exchange of food crops and, 39–40 increasing price of, 10 increasing yields of, 67–68 Mexico and, 34, 83 uses of, 61 Corn Belt, 67, 70, 77 corruption, 92 crowding, 23–25 culture carrying capacity and, 28 diet and, 32–33, 44

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Index food waste and, 79–82 hunger and, 87–90 importance of, 24–25 nutrition and, 46, 47–48

F

Dando, William A., 19 date palms, 36 Dewey, John, 31 diet climate, agriculture and, 36–37 culture and, 32–33, 44 defined, 32 economics and, 38 geography of, 33–34 history, culture and, 39–43 importance of, 15–16 land characteristics and, 35–36 nutrition and, 50–55 preparation, dining and, 39 religion and, 38–39 social relationships and, 39 soils and, 37–38 terms and concepts of, 31–32 diseases, 55, 57 domestication, 49 domestication of plants and animals, 21–22 drought, 97–98

famines, 19, 28, 42–43, 46–47, 82, 94–95 farmland, 13, 60, 64–66 fats, nutrition and, 51–53 fertilizers, 49, 67, 68 fish, 43, 48, 102–103 food, defined, 32 food avoidance, waste and, 79–84 food losses. See Waste foodstuffs, 32 food supplies, population growth and, 19–23 foodways, 32, 39–41 forests, 63 Fornos, Werner, 18 fossil fuels, 80–81 Frankenfoods, 67 fuel supplies, 61, 80–81, 84, 103– 104 funding, 11, 13–14 future of food supplies, 100–105

economics Africa and, 76 diet and, 38 of food waste, 78–79 hunger and, 90–91 increasing productivity and, 61–62, 70–72 Robin Hood, 95 role of, 23–24 Eden, Garden of, 28–29 education, 97 Ehrlich, Paul, 18 environment, hunger and, 97–99 erosion, 64–65, 70 Eskimos, 33, 50, 80


Essay on the Principle of Population, An (Malthus), 17–18, 20–21 ethanol, 61, 80–81, 84, 103–104 Ethiopia, 94–95

D

E

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G Garden of Eden, 28–29 gathering, nutrition and, 48 genetically modified (GM) foods, 27, 67–68, 71 geography, 33–34, 86–87 Geography of Famine, The (Dando), 19 globalization, 30, 37, 43, 57–58, 72–73, 90 global warming, 104–105 GM foods. See Genetically modified foods Gosnell, Mariana, 101 governments, 10, 14, 91–95, 98 grain elevators, 77 grain supplies, 11. See also Specific grains grasses, 66 grazing lands, 65, 66

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Feeding a Hungry World greenhouses, 36 Green Revolution, 22, 27, 67 grocery stores, 34, 37, 76 Guyana, 66

H Haiti, 10, 15 Hardin, Garrett, 18 harvest, food losses and, 75–76 HDI. See Human Development Index Health Organization of the League of Nations, 18 hemp, 80–81 Hinduism, 34, 38, 77 HIV/AIDS, 57 Human Development Index (HDI), 52 humus, 37 hunger. See also Malnutrition culture and, 87–90 defined, 46 environment and, 97–99 geography of, 86–87 government and, 91–95, 98 poverty and, 90–91 rural development and, 95–97 statistics on, 10, 12, 18, 19, 89, 100 hunter-gatherers, 19–20 hunting, nutrition and, 48 Huang He River, 82

I Iceland, 52–53 Incas, 42 income. See Economics India, 10, 34, 51, 77, 80–81 Industrial Revolution, 22 industry, population growth and, 25 inflation, 98 Inuit, 33, 50, 80 Ireland, 42–43, 83–84 Irish Potato Famine, 42–43 iron, 57 irrigation, 27, 36, 61–62, 63, 65, 67 Italy, 10


J Jamaican Farewell, 41

K kelp, 13, 102 Kwashiorkor, 56

L Labor Party, 71 lactose intolerance, 50 land redistribution, 98 land use changes, 63–64 LDC. See Less developed countries leaching, 66 League of Nations, 19 less developed countries (LDC), 30, 60, 68–70, 84–85, 95–97, 98 Libya, 62 literature, 18 livestock, 25–26, 39–40, 49, 60, 84 locusts, 97–98 lutefisk, 33

M maize. See Corn malaria, 57 malnutrition, 46, 55–57. See also Hunger Malthus, Thomas, 17–18, 20–21 marasmus, 56 marine life, 13 meat, 34, 38, 50, 51, 57, 77, 84 Mexico, 10, 83 mice, 77 minerals, nutrition and, 53–55 money, 11, 13–14 monsoons, 23 mortality, 10–11. See also Starvation mountains, 36 Mugabe, Robert, 98

N neo-Malthusians, 21 North Korea, 95 nutria, 84 nutrients, defined, 46

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Index nutrition Agricultural Revolution and, 48–49 culture and, 47–48 diet and, 50–55 globalization and, 57–58 human well-being and, 55–57 hunting, fishing, gathering and, 48 importance of, 15–16 overview of, 45–47 Second Agricultural Revolution and, 49–50 nutrition pyramid, 54

O obesity, 13, 38, 57–58, 78 oceans, 102–103 oils, 51–52 orange roughy, 103 overpopulation, 14, 23–25

P papaya, 68 pegologists, 66 Peru, 64 petroleum, 80 Population Bomb, The (Ehrlich), 18 population density, role of, 12–13 population growth decline in, 23 food supply and, 19–23 future of, 100–101 statistics on, 9, 20–21 warnings on, 17–18 population size, 14, 23–25 pork, 38, 84–85 potatoes, 36, 39–40, 42–43, 61, 64–65, 83–84 potato famines, 42–43 poverty. See Economics preparation, diet and, 39 productivity, carrying capacity and, 26–27 proteins, nutrition and, 51 protests, 10


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R rats, 77 refrigeration, 102 religion, 34, 38–39, 77, 79–82 rice China and, 34, 82 culture and, 41, 42 genetic modification and, 68 growing conditions for, 72 importance of, 23 increasing productivity and, 61 Robin Hood economics, 95 rough fish, 102–103 rum, 43 rural areas, 11, 60, 70–71, 88–90, 95–97 rye, 36

S safety, food production, distribution and, 92–94 Sagan, Carl, 18 Sahara Desert, 62 salinization, 65 salmon, 103 Sanchez, Pedro, 101 scurvy, 56–57 seaweed, 13, 102 Second Agricultural Revolution, 49–50 shifting cultivation, 70 Sierra Leone, 52–53 slavery, 43 slimefish, 103 social relationships, diet and, 39 socioeconomics, 82–83 soils, 37–38, 42, 61, 64–66, 70 Soviet Union, 75–76 soybeans, 63, 67–68, 80 specialization, 73 spoilage, 76, 78 staple foodstuffs, defined, 32 starvation, 12, 18, 46, 47, 51 storage, food losses and, 76, 77–78 subsistence farming, 90 sugar cane, 41–43, 80

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Feeding a Hungry World supermarkets, 34, 37 switchgrass, 80–81

T Tabasco sauce, 33 taboos, diet and, 38–39 technology, 20–21, 28 terracing, 36 thiamine, 57 third world countries. See Less developed countries traditional societies, 88–90 trans fats, 52–53 transportation, 50, 77, 101

U under-developed countries. See Less developed countries United Nations Development Programme, 52 United Nations World Food Programme, 11 urbanization, 60, 71–72, 88–90 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 50, 54


V vegetarianism, 34, 51, 84 vitamins, 53–55, 56–57, 68

W WA. See Western Australia waste consumption-related, 78–79 food avoidance and, 79–84 food choices and, 84–85 harvest-related, 75–76 overview of, 74–75 storage and, 77–78 water supplies, 61–62 well-being, nutrition and, 55–57 Western Australia (WA), 71–72 wheat, 34, 41, 61, 71, 72, 82 World Food Programme, 11

X xerophthalmia, 56

Z Zimbabwe, 94, 98

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about tHe autHor CHARLES F. GRITZNER is Distinguished Professor of Geography at South Dakota State University in Brookings. He began college teaching and conducting geographic research in 1960. In addition to teaching, he enjoys travel, writing, working with teachers, and sharing his love for geography with readers. As a senior consulting editor and frequent author for Chelsea House Publishers’ MoDeRn WoRlD nations, M aJoR WoRlD CUltURes, e XtReMe enViRonMents, and Global ConneCtions series, he has a wonderful opportunity to combine all of these “hobbies.” Dr. Gritzner has served as both president and executive director of the National Council for Geographic Education and has received the council’s highest honor, the George J. Miller Award for Distinguished Service to Geographic Education, as well as other honors from the NCGE, Association of American Geographers, and other organizations. He has taught population geography and topics related to feeding a hungry world for nearly 50 years.

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Global Ethnography: Forces, Connections, and Imaginations in a Postmodern World

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