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The most severe deficits in child nutrition typically occur between the ages of six months and two years, when children need to complement breastmilk with solid foods of higher nutrient density than the starchy staples consumed by older children and adults. Shortfalls in consumption of these high-density complementary foods lead to stunted growth in terms of both weight and height, and greater vulnerability to disease. The most underweight children face the greatest risks, but even small changes in bodyweights can signal important changes in nutrient balances and disease risks. This paper reviews new evidence on child bodyweights and child mortality, from recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) that cover 53 countries over a 20-year period. We then describe a new approach to making locally-produced complementary foods more widely available at lower cost, using third-party testing and labeling to reveal nutrient density which is otherwise unobservable by the buyer. This quality certification helps emerging producers compete with well-established brand names, so that consumers can buy larger quantities at lower prices and better meet their children’s nutrient needs. Quality certification programs of this type are widespread in high-income countries, but are rarely available in the poorest places where child undernutrition is most severe. Their potential impact in Africa is shown by initial projects in Mali and Ghana.
The politics of food is changing fast. In rich countries, obesity is now a more serious problem than hunger.- Consumers once satisfied with cheap and convenient food now want food that is also safe, nutritious, fresh, and grown by local farmers using fewer chemicals.- Heavily subsidized and under-regulated commercial farmers are facing stronger push-back from environmentalists and consumer activists, and food companies are under the microscope.- Meanwhile in developing countries, agricultural success in Asia has spurred income growth and dietary enrichment, but agricultural failure in Africa has left one third of all citizens undernourished.- The international markets that link these diverse regions together are subject to sudden disruption, as noted when an unexpected spike in international food prices in 2008 caused street riots in a dozen or more countries. The politics of food has become more polarized over the past decade, with conflicting claims and accusations coming from advocates on all sides. This polarization of positions has had a damaging effect on both the quality of policy making in the developing world and on quantity of assistance offered by donors for agricultural development.
Read Robert L. Paarlberg's bio
Climate change will affect food and human security through three mechanisms. First by triggering more extreme weather events – droughts and floods which lead to either short term crises or more longer term food insecurity. Second, though gradually shifting the geography of agro-ecological zones and thus what we can, and cannot grow, how well it will grow and when it will grow. Finally, Climate change will cause society, its economics and politics to change. If that change is rapid such that society cannot adapt in time, history tells us we will react with more controlling political systems and more violence. The changes triggered by climate change have parallels in the changes being triggered by economic globalization. Rapid change and unexpected shocks to the system will be the norm in future.
Knowing this, we need to plan now, not just for adaptation to climate change and the embracing of globalization, but to adjust the way we organize and run our countries, businesses and institutions to accommodate the certainty of uncertainty and to seek to deliberately mitigate the social cost of change. Climate change may be as powerful a force for political change in the future as republicanism or emancipation were in the past.
We live, in interesting times.
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