 |
Environmental Science: A Global Concern 5/e Cunningham/Saigo | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Student
Online Learning Center |
||||||
 |
||||||
|
Environmental Science: A Global Concern 5/e Cunningham/Saigo | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Student
Online Learning Center |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Chapter Summary |
Chapter 10: Food, Hunger, and Nutrition |
In recent years, world food supplies have been rising at an unprecedented rate and have grown faster than populations in every continent except Africa. There now is enough food to supply everyone in the world with more than the minimum daily food requirements, but food is inequitably distributed. The FAO estimates that 750 million people are chronically
undernourished or malnourished, and 15 to 20 million (mostly children) die each year from diseases related to malnutrition. Additional millions survive on a deficient diet, suffering from resulting stunted growth, mental retardation, and developmental disorders. Among the essential dietary ingredients for good health are adequate calories, proteins, lipids (especially unsaturated ones), vitamins, and minerals. Marasmus and kwashiorkor are protein-deficiency diseases; anemia and goiter are caused by mineral deficiencies; and pellagra, scurvy, beriberi, and rickets are vitamin-deficiency diseases that affect millions of people worldwide. The three major crops that are the main source of calories and nutrients for most of the world's people are rice, wheat, and maize. About a dozen other types of seeds and grains, a few root crops, twenty or so fruits and vegetables, six mammals (and their milk), a few domestic fowl, and a variety of seafoods comprise nearly all the food that humans eat. Some new crops or unrecognized traditional crops hold promise for increasing the nutritional status of the poorer people of the world. Scientific improvement of existing crops and modernization of agriculture (irrigation, fertilizer, and better management) are potential sources of greater agricultural production. Over the past thirty years, the total amount of food in the world has increased faster than the average rate of population growth, so there is now more food per person than there was in the 1960s, even though the total number of people has doubled. The biggest gains have been in Asia, North America, and Latin America. The only major region in which food production has failed to keep pace with population growth has been sub-Saharan Africa, where adverse weather, insect infestations, wars, inept governments, social and religious factors, economics, and international politics have intervened. World food trade and international food aid help transfer food from areas of abundance to areas of shortage, but they also undercut local food supplies by encouraging the conversion of land from production of food for local consumption to production of cash crops for export. They also widen economic and social disparities that increase food insecurity and make it even more difficult for the poorest people to feed themselves.Hunger, poverty, population growth, environmental degradation, and social problems form a complex, interconnected web. Each is a cause, as well as a consequence, of the others. One of the most important questions in environmental science is: How many people, and at what level of civilization and environmental quality, can the world feed?
MHHE Home | About MHHE | Help Desk | Legal Policies and Info | Order Info | What's New | Get Involved
