Population and insecurity Flashcards
What are the key ideas in population and food insecurity?
- Population is increasing faster than agricultural production: Malthus
- Limited ability to increase land for agricultural production
- We do produce enough food to feed everyone, but we still have poverty + insecurity.
- How to address: educate girls + economic incentives for reducing inequalities.
What’s the trend for changing population distribution?
Expected that more and more people will live in the city (66% by 2050) than the country (34%)
Why does it matter that populations are moving into the city?
- Impacts supply chain bc it means people moving away from region of production: need to do more transport, storage, refrigeration etc.
What’re some funky poverty stats?
~ 10.5% live on under $1.90 a day ~ 10.5% have no access to clean water ~ 17% have no access to electricity ~ 25% live in slums ~ 34% have no access to sanitation
Why do we have to do sustainable intensification?
- The ability to increase land for agricultural production is limited, (some is high value, some not suitable) so higher yields must be achieved using current acreage. To achieve this, we need to employ sustainable intensification.
Why do we still have food insecurity, despite producing enough food to feed everyone?
- Poverty
- Changing proportions of income spent on food
- Food price (also as connected to political events)
- e.g. food price increased during GFC
- e.g. in Venezuela food shortages in 2016 led to rioting and looting following 700% inflation + currency devaluation.
- note: often food price increases in response to geopolitical events most significant in most poverty-stricken countries
What are some of the symptoms of global food security?
- 870 million people suffer from undernourishment (of which 16 million in developed countries)
- The no. of people suffering mineral shortages, temporary food shortages and food insecurities may approach 3 billion.
- Increasing soil and land degredation
- 11% of world’s population are undernourished (820 million people)
- areas with severe iron and iodine deficiencies
- “Double burden”: countries with both malnutrition and overweight issues.
- Many countries relying on foreign aid
What is an example of a challenge to food security?
The food vs fuel vs feed debate.
- If we only have limited land, what should it be used for? Any one of those means less of the others.
- Meat: 90% of energy lost at each trophic level: feed more inefficient than food.
- How to manage shortages when we reduce potentially up to 3% of food land land for biofuels?
Food waste.
- Worst in developing countries b/c issues with storage/preservation/transport: getting it to table before spoilage, and also reduced capability to deal with pests/disease weather events. Mostly through on-farm waste, processing and transport.
- In developed countries, more waste occurs at household + municipal level (60%)
- If food wastage was a country it would have the 3rd highest GHG emissions.
What are the possible solutions (of varying degrees of usefulness) to food insecurity?
- Use more land: potentially 1.5 billion ha could be added to current 1.4 billion ha, but over half of this is in Africa and Latin America and may be of high ecological value, low productivity, and subject to socioeconomic issues, may be indigenous land issues. Thus, not really an option
- sustainable intensification: to increase yields without increasing cultivated area without adverse environmental impact
- Changing diet? no comment apparently
- Reduce population? Connect to female education, reproductive health services, equality, also fertility rates, reducing infant and child mortality, economic incentives to help reduce gender equality and stimulate economies in poor areas e.g. microcredit.
Describe some of the reasons why millions of people are suffering from chronic undernutrition. Discuss some of the solutions that could be used to alleviate world hunger
668 words
Intro:
- Prevalence of food insecurity is a nagging issue in the modern world, despite producing enough food to feed everyone. The fact that millions of people are suffering from chronic undernutrition is the result of said food insecurity. Symptomatic of this reality is the fact that 870 million people suffer from undernourishment, and that up to 3 billion may suffer from mineral deficiencies, temporary food shortages and food insecurity. There are several reasons why this is the case. These include poverty, geopolitical factors, and the fact that in some regions, populations are increasing faster than yields and limited import infrastructure means that local suppliers struggle to meet demand.
Body:
- Thomas Robert Malthus was an English economist known for his theory of population growth. He made the controversial observation that agricultural growth would always struggle to keep up with population growth, resulting in an eternal food and fibre deficit and negative effects such as war and famine. While the green revolution partly served to show that this may not always be true, there may be some merit to his beliefs. In many parts of the world pressures are being felt as a result of rapidly growing populations in areas with low agricultural productivity and limited infrastructure. This means that there may be a greater amount of food spoilage due to reduced ability to address pests and disease for example, and to ensure proper food storage and support. Often due to higher fertility rates there is an association between areas of rapid population growth and poverty, so these areas may also be less able to afford to import food from other areas with a greater surplus.
Poverty works in combination with inequalities and changing food prices to make food insecurity more prevalent. This is reflected by the fact that as food prices increase a greater proportion of income is spent on food, which has the greatest effect on low income areas. Unfortunately, often as food becomes more expensive the more affordable options may be more likely to be of low nutritious value; undernutrition may be associated with the ‘double burden’ of countries facing both undernourishment and obesity.
One key strategy to address food insecurity is through addressing population growth rates. Perhaps the best way of achieving this is through the education of women and girls. Studies show that as levels of education increase, women are more likely to delay having children and to have fewer. Provision of reproductive health services and incentives to raise the economic status of women (such as microcredit) may help achieve this. Another strategy is to reduce infant and child mortality rates: assuring a child’s survival reduces the chance that parents will feel they need to have more children. These actions have the effect of slowing the rate of population growth relative to that of agricultural production, leading to reduced shortages, which can help lower the price of food and make it more accessible. This means that for those in poverty it will be easier to have a more nutritious diet, thus reducing rates of hunger and malnutrition.
Industry development through infrastructure growth and increasing education may also help address the food shortages that drive undernutrition. This is because much of the food that is produced is wasted at the farm level and in processing and transport. In developing countries the lack of adequate refrigeration and storage facilities is a particular driver of this wastage. If more of this could be saved, then it could be used to feed some of the world’s hungry and address undernutrition.
Conc.
While there is no silver bullet to the issue of undernutrition and hunger, reducing inequalities and encouraging industry development may help to reduce food insecurity and hence increase the accessibility of food. When caused by geopolitical events such as war it may be harder to address, but in some instances increasing food security can improve social sustainability and stability, and so for this reason addressing world hunger may help solve more than just the root problem.
Round 2 summary: Describe some of the reasons why millions of people are suffering from chronic undernutrition. Discuss some of the solutions that could be used to alleviate world hunger
intro:
- how do we know its a thing
- whats the cause
body:
- why the causes happen
- How to solve it
3 points on causes: poverty, geopoltical, high pop growth
3 points on solutions: ed, infras. mortality
- why the causes happen
Point: poverty causes undernutrition
Evidence: higher rates of undernutrition in areas facing poverty
Explain: poverty means less financial access and is associated with higher fertility rates and geopolitical events such as conflict that cause food insecurity, bad infrastructure
Link:
Point: high population growth causes undernutrition
Evidence: link between undernutrition and areas with high fertility/pop growth
Explanation: inability of ag to keep up, causes gap in production
Link:
concl.
Round 2 proper: Describe some of the reasons why millions of people are suffering from chronic undernutrition. Discuss some of the solutions that could be used to alleviate world hunger
Despite the fact that enough food is produced globally to feed everyone, chronic undernutrition is a nagging problem affecting millions of people worldwide. Amongst the 870 million people worldwide suffering from undernourishment, there are many different causes for their situation. Much of undernutrition can be attributed to the persistence of food insecurity. Some of the main causes of food insecurity are poverty, high population growth rates, and geopolitical events. While geopolitical causes are harder to address, actions can be taken to alleviate the effects of high population growth and poverty on food insecurity, hence reducing the implications in terms of undernutrition. These may include supporting industry development, educating and raising the status of girls and women, and improving infant and child survival rates.
Poverty is a driving force of food insecurity, as evidenced by the fact that of the roughly 870 million undernourished people in the world, only 16% are in developed countries. When food shortages occur the price of food often increases, which has the greatest proportional impact on people with lowest incomes. Often then the most affordable options remaining are of poor nutritional value. This can manifest in the double burden problem: where countries face both hunger and obesity issues. Food insecurity in these areas may be exacerbated by the fact that they may be less financially able to import food when insecurity threatens. Poverty may also drive some of the geopolitical issues that create food insecurity and hence undernutrition, as well as be reflective of limited infrastructure and technology which contributes to greater wastage of food which could otherwise be used to feed some of the worlds hungry.
High population growth rates may be a pressure in some regions contributing to food insecurity. This often has the worst effects when coupled with the effects of poverty; these issues often come hand in hand due to the association between areas in poverty and areas of high population growth through fertility rates and cultural trends. This is a problem because, as noted by the English economist Thomas Robert Malthus, there is a tendency for populations to increase more quickly than agricultural yields, resulting in shortages (which he suggested would have negative impacts such as war and starvation). The result is that when yields don’t keep up, a smaller portion of the population has access to suitable nutrition and nourishment.
Geopolitical events such as war and financial crisis may also exacerbate the effects of food insecurity. This may be through disrupting supply chains, scattering the labour pool, crop destruction, mass emigration, infrastructure damage or, in the case of economic troubles, hyperinflation or trade policy. For example, food prices increased during the Global Financial Crisis, and hyperinflation of the Venezuelan currency in 2016 led to food shortages, both of which negatively impact access to public access to affordable, nutritious food.
By slowing the rate of population growth, the gap in yields required to address food security and actual yields can be reduced, leading to improved food access. This reduces economic supply pressures and brings down the cost of food, making a healthier, more nutritious diet more accessible to all. This can be achieved through educating and raising the economic status of women and girls: studies show that as female education levels increase, it is more likely that women will delay having children and then have fewer. This can be achieved through incentives to help keep girls in school, provision of reproductive health services, and microcredit schemes to help women gain influence in the economy. Reducing rates of infant and child mortality can also have this effect: if parents are assured of their children’s survival, they may be more likely to have fewer children. Together, both of these actions reduce food insecurity and hence reduce rates of hunger and undernutrition.
Promoting industry development can also help address world hunger. This is because often in developing countries where the poverty and undernourishment are worst, the leading areas of food wastage are on-farm and in transport and processing. By improving access to pest control to reduce loss through pest and disease and improving storage facilities for example, the amount of food lost can be reduced. Often a lack of adequate refrigeration and storage is a key pressure on the supply chain that leads to produce loss. By retaining this product it can be then used to feed some of the world’s hungry, hence reducing undernourishment and improving food security.
While some level of hunger may be inevitable in a population, it doesn’t mean, therefore, that it can’t be reduced. Often the solutions to world hunger can have a range of positive flow-on effects, given that often food insecurity is at the root of many geopolitical and socioeconomic troubles. For example, addressing the position of women and girls in society has many implications in terms of social sustainability and leadership. While it is unrealistic to think it is possible to solve all of the world’s problems with one silver bullet, it is certainly true that understanding and addressing world hunger will help some of them.
