You are what you eat
Hunger and malnutrition
Key ideas:
- There are millions of people that have a poor diet which leads to malnutrition and then to poor growth in children and an increased risk of illness in all age groups.
- In many countries, the risk of famine and starvation remains very high.
- Food security is a basic human right but few governments are willing to guarantee that people have a good diet with sufficient food to stay healthy.
Key questions:
- What are the causes of malnutrition?
- Where is the problem of undernourishment most severe?
- What factors affect food security?
Key concepts:
Place
Space
Scale
Diversity
Although it is argued that the world as a whole is currently capable of feeding the 6-7 billion people that inhabit the planet, there are huge inequalities in terms of both the quantity and quality of food available to individuals in different countries. Students need to understand the difference between starvation and malnutrition and the implications of these two different but sometimes related issues. The relatively difficult concept of ‘food security' underpins much of the debate that goes on at both national and global levels.
It is difficult to separate out the problems associated with food shortages and poor diet from the many other issues facing countries in mainly the developing world e.g. conflict, trade, natural hazards, etc. In many countries where starvation and malnutrition are most common, there is a history of similar problems and in spite of the efforts made by both individual countries and the international aid community, the problems remain - countries in the Horn of Africa exemplify this situation (Ethiopia - Nov. 2009: more than six million people were facing starvation). In the UK, fruit is left to rot on trees, crops are harvested then dumped and meat is used as a source of fuel in power stations. At the same time, people in developing countries continue to die of starvation and suffer from preventable diseases that cause ill health and an inability to work.
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