food gateway 1 - the consequences of varying food consumption patterns

Question 1

what are the 4 types of impacts of varying food consumption patterns?

Answer 1

1. Health (inadequate and excess)
2. Economic (inadequate and excess)
3. Political (inadequate)
4. Social (inadequate and excess)

Question 2

what are the health impacts?

Answer 2

inadequate:
1. malnutrition (when body does not receive sufficient nutrients/imbalance of nutrients) : results in long-term developmental problems or death. Can affect people in both DCs and LDCs but mainly LDCs

e. g each year, 5 million children under the age of 5, die from malnutrition in LDCs.
2. starvation (extreme form of malnutrition, state of extreme hunger or severe lack of food): body becomes skeletally thin and organs become permanently damaged. More common in LDCs due to a greater number of people living in poverty, lack of resources to recover from natural disasters and unstable political situations.
e. g in Mali, 2012, 5 million people were threatened with starvation due to civil unrest and poor harvest.

excess:
1. obesity and related illnesses (high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers): Caused by overconsumption of nutrients such as salt, sugar alcohol etc. More common in DCs than LDCs.

e.g From 1971 to 2000, obesity rates in the USA rose from 14.5% to 30.9%

Question 3

What are the economic impacts?

Answer 3

both excess and inadequate:
1. lower productivity: people fall sick more often, taking more days of leave, lowering their productivity. Children may also face loss of educational opportunities if they miss school due to health problems

2. diversion of financial resources to healthcare: government needs to channel more finances into healthcare, reducing the amount of funds available for economic development, or in LDCs, areas such as education, housing and transport.
3. (for inadequate only) long-term debt due to food and financial aid: food and financial aid can be given to countries who need it, but this may place receiving countries in long term debt.
   e. g food supplied as aid is 34% more expensive than if purchased locally

Question 4

social impacts?

Answer 4

inadequate:
1. scavenging: scavengers eat whatever they can find to prevent starvation, but scavenged food contains high bacteria or chemicals. Scavengers are also perceived as nuisances to the public and may face harassment.

e.g Manilla, Philippines, many poor families camp at Smokey Mountain landfill to scavenge for food

excess:
1. food wastage: large amounts of food is wasted when there is excess food available. resources used to produce the food is also wasted, such as water and oil.

e. g each year, consumers in DCs waste 230 million tonnes of food
2. dieting: inappropriate dieting may lead to depression or dieting-related illnesses such as iron-deficiency anaemia.

Question 5

political? can you tell im getting lazy to type out everything…

Answer 5

ONLY FOR INADEQUATE BTW

1. social unrest: people protest or behave violently to communicate their unhappiness about the situation.
   e. g a drought in Russia caused food prices in Mozambique to increase by 30% in 2010. This resulted in violent protests that injured 400 people and killed 10. (VIOLENCE IS NOT THE ANSWER PEOPLE. unless you want to kill people so you get more food then ig it is…?)