2.8.1: Introduction

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe the international nature of the contemporary agri-food system
• Explain the factors that are used to create estimates of how many people worldwide are malnourished and food insecure

Choices and Constraints During Food Crises

In 2002, Southern Africa experienced a food crisis. Many people lacked the food they needed to survive and so international donations were requested from the global community. The World Food Programme organized a massive transnational humanitarian effort to provide food to affected countries (Harsch, 2003). However, two countries, Zimbabwe and Zambia, made a choice to reject some grain donations from the United States because they included genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The world community was shocked and the governments of the two nations faced widespread condemnation of their decision. The controversial choice left the citizens of these two countries with less food and more people suffered from food insecurity as a result. Why, then, did Zimbabwean and Zambian leaders make this choice?  

There were two primary reasons. The first was widespread uncertainty among members of the public about the safety of GMOs. This concern has proven to be largely meritless, but at the time there was significantly less scientific evidence of their safety and many other countries imposed similar import restrictions, including the European Union, which banned many forms of GMO products (Manda, 2003).  

Figure 8.1.1: "Markets in Kitwe" by Adam Annfield is licensed under CC BY 4.0

The second reason for Zambia’s and Zimbabwe’s decision was a fear of “out-cropping”, a term that refers to the potential for GMO grain to germinate and cross-pollinate with local crops. Several other nations in the region milled grain donations to ensure that there was no risk to their agricultural stocks. Out-cropping could have had ecological impacts, but would also have prevented exports to the European Union, which, as noted above, restricts imports of genetically modified organisms. This may be a reasonable concern given that EU nations are the primary trading partners for these Southern African countries (Manda, 2003).  

As this example demonstrates, addressing the hunger of the nearly 3 billion people worldwide who experience undernourishment or some degree of food insecurity can present unforeseen challenges (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2023). It can be difficult to craft a response to global hunger events because the systems through which most people secure food are increasingly global. In nearly all countries, some portion of the food is imported and/or transported long distances from rural to urban communities. Food products may, therefore, be subject to multiple and sometimes conflicting regulatory systems. Another important takeaway of this story about Zambia and Zimbabwe is that countries dependent on food imports, and even countries dependent on food aid, are often also food exporters. In the Twenty-first Century, very few countries are self-sufficient when it comes to providing an adequate diet for their citizenry.  

Agri-Food Systems

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) uses the term agri-food system to describe the complex networks through which food flows from both small-holding and corporate farms across the world, into the hands of those who need it. National agri-food systems link rural and agricultural communities to cities, while the global system links countries through trade but also through international food commodity markets. Products like sugar, vegetable oil, beef, and corn, among others, are traded in such large quantities that their prices are established based on the relationship between global supply and demand. Reducing the number of hungry people around the globe will require changes to the transnational agri-food system, to reduce waste and ensure distribution to regions in need.

Figure 8.1.2: "Lokichokio" by Matt Murphy, U.S. State Department is in the Public Domain

According to estimates by the FAO, between 691 and 783 million experienced undernourishment in 2022 (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2023). This represents approximately 9 percent of the world’s current population. In 2015, the member nations of the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which together make up the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda which include the goal of ending hunger (UN, 2015). The SDGs are intended to spur coordinated action to improve the condition of people throughout the world by 2030. The United Nations also identified two key sub-goals that will contribute to curbing the experience of hunger around the globe: 1) to support local and small-scale agriculture; and 2) to reduce the amount of food wasted each year. Unfortunately, the ability of the countries of the world to make meaningful progress toward the goal of “Zero Hunger” has been greatly limited by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These two global crises have resulted in a significant increase in the number of people who are experiencing chronic hunger. Current indications are that without significantly more action, 600 million people will likely still be left hungry in 2030 (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2023).  

Measuring Hunger

Among the contributions made by the United Nations is clear language that can be used to both study and discuss the problem of hunger. Persistent hunger is studied by measuring indications of undernourishment, widely called the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU). The UN defines undernourishment as the condition by which a person doesn’t have access, on a regular basis, to the amount of food that is sufficient to provide the energy required for conducting a normal, healthy and active life, given his or her own dietary energy requirements. There are four key indicators of undernourishment that global researchers track. The first is stunting in children under 5, which is defined by being too short for one’s age. Stunting is a consequence of malnutrition, the lack of proper nutrition, which is an indirect indicator that people within a community may not have access to a healthy or sufficient diet. The second indicator of undernourishment is wasting in children under 5. Wasting is the condition that is often seen in photographs of extremely thin children from countries in the midst of a food crisis. Long periods of malnutrition can create health conditions that prevent the body from being able to absorb nutrients, leading to those extremely thin limbs and making one vulnerable to myriad illnesses. The third condition that is tracked as a measure of undernourishment is being overweight. While overweight may be a surprising indicator of undernourishment because of its association with higher income countries, in the larger global context it may also be a consequence of early childhood stunting. The final indicator of persistent hunger is low birth weight, which refers to a weight of less than 2500 grams (or less than 5.5 pounds) at birth.  

While the Sustainable Development Goals include the goal of ending the types of chronic hunger that can cause stunting, wasting, and the other indicators of undernourishment, the SDGs also seek to end the experience of severe food insecurity. Severe food insecurity is defined by the United Nations as having such limited or inconsistent access to food supplies that people must go without any food for a day or more. You may wonder how it is possible to know what portion of the world’s nearly 8 billion people run low on food or must go to bed without eating. Since 2014, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has partnered with Gallup Global Polls to ask people (FAO, 2017). The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) is based on a regional project aimed at measuring hunger in Latin America. The scale relies on a survey of 8 simple questions, which has been translated by the FAO into 200 world languages, ensuring the survey is easy and cheap to conduct. Survey responses may be rated on a scale from moderate to severe food insecurity based on the number of positive responses. 

Food Insecurity Experience Scale Survey:

“During the last 12 months, was there a time when, because of lack of money or other resources:

1. You were worried you would not have enough food to eat?
2. You were unable to eat healthy and nutritious food?
3. You ate only a few kinds of foods?
4. You had to skip a meal?
5. You ate less than you thought you should?
6. Your household ran out of food?
7. You were hungry but you did not eat?
8. You went without eating for a whole day?”

Figure 8.1.3: Food Insecurity Experience Scale Survey

In addition to these measures of chronic and long-lasting hunger, it is also important to consider how to define famine, which is an acute crisis caused by a lack of access to food. The United Nations describes famine as the most severe form of food crisis, which is “caused by extreme shortages of food in a particular region or country” and “causes widespread malnutrition, starvation, and increased mortality” (UN Famine Response and Prevention Coordinator). This final measure is very important- increased mortality. It is important to recognize that famines will create conditions of poor health, leading to death as often from disease as malnutrition itself. Those deaths caused by disease are included in the overall death toll attributed to a famine event. World Peace Foundation executive director, Alex de Waal, has gone further in describing the causes for mortality that may be associated with famine, noting that lack of access to food causes large movements of people and increasing conflict over scare resources, which also may result in increased mortality during a famine period (De Waal, 2017). 

Because hunger is such a routine human experience, even among the food secure, it is important to note that it is often interpreted using a comparative lens, seeking to understand which regions, which environments, and which people experience chronic hunger with a greater or lesser frequency. In particular, the global community has sought in recent years to understand how the experience of hunger varies by region, varies between urban, peri-urban, and rural environments, and varies by personal characteristic- especially gender. Let’s take a look at how this comparative approach can inform our understanding of hunger around the globe.  

Regional Variation

Recent data from the FAO indicates that fewer people in Latin America experienced moderate and severe food insecurity in 2022 than in 2021 (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2023). This represents a positive trend after the very challenging years of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a closer look at the data indicates a more complicated trend. While many fewer people in South America experienced moderate and severe food insecurity in 2022 (a decline of 4.5 million), more residents of Central America (an increase of 400,000) and Caribbean (an increase of 1.1 million) went hungry (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2023). Within just this one region of the world there were sub-regions that experienced opposite trends which require investigation.  

It is notable that while many South American nations are food exporters, Caribbean countries have far less land area and are all food importers. That fact alone may seem to suggest a reason for the improvement in South America and the decline in Central America and the Caribbean; however, domestic politics and relative wealth are also important factors. Progressive governments in South America have been more successful at crafting social safety nets that can provide support to people who face extremes of hunger.  Several South American countries have also benefited from the increasing value of petroleum on the international market, and can use the profits from their oil industries to offset the increasing prices of food products (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2023). States in the Caribbean and in Central America do not have access to these same resources and face the continued prospect of importing food at a higher overall cost.  

Urbanization

The growth and expansion of city living has significantly impacted the means by which people can secure food and avoid hunger. Cities generally produce less food that can be used by residents, although there have been urban greening and even urban agriculture initiatives in cities around the globe. Because cities do not produce large amounts of food, but do have large numbers of residents, one might expect a larger amount of hunger in cities. This trend does exist, but only in North American and European cities. In Latin America and Africa, hunger is far more common in rural environments, and as a result many more rural residents in these regions report severe food insecurity and/or chronic hunger (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2023).  

There may be many reasons for this difference. People living in urban areas consume differently than rural residents, perhaps because they can afford to do so. Additionally, incomes are often higher in urban communities. However, they may also consume differently because of access. Cities tend to be well connected to networks of regional and global exchange that facilitate more consumption of meat, dairy, and fresh fruit. As a result, the demand for traditional food products customarily produced in rural communities can decline, leaving those communities with fewer resources to produce and/or purchase food. The consumption of processed foods also increases with urbanization, which can be problematic from a nutrition standpoint and increase the cost of a healthy diet.  

All of these changes to the agri-food system may help to explain the opposing trends that we have identified. Meat, dairy, imported foods, and processed foods are likely to cost more than traditional rural food stuffs. Urbanization creates conditions where more people eat a higher cost diet. In High Income Countries (HICs), which are more common in North America and Europe, this higher cost diet is more easily born by the population but people still struggle in those places where poverty is most prevalent, likely in cities. In Low and Lower Middle Income Countries (LICs and LMICs), urbanization still leads to higher cost food, but poverty in those countries is most prevalent in rural communities where wages are often lower. In this way the variation among regions is reflective of the unequal distribution of wealth across the globe. 

Gender Food Gap

 

Figure 8.1.4: "Helping rural women farmers in Nepals Terai" by Robert Stansfield/DFID is in the Public Domain

Gender disparities are another case in which comparative methods help us to more fully understand the nature of hunger in the Twenty-first Century. Around the world, women often “eat last and least”, in the words of the FAO (Mitra, 2023; Taylor et. al, 2017). In 2022, the FAO estimated that 2.4 percent more women than men experienced food insecurity (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2023). This was a notable decline from the prior year, when the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had caused the gender food gap to nearly double. Those percentages may seem small, but they represent hundreds of millions of women around the world who experience chronic hunger and food insecurity. Because gender has such a clear impact on the experience of hunger, one key strategy for improving rates of hunger around the world is to ensure fewer women go hungry. To accomplish this goal, it is important to understand why women are more likely to go hungry. There are many of reasons, including care-work responsibilities that are often left to women, fewer resources that result from lower rates of participation in wage-labor, and the practical conditions that exist within a community (Taylor, et. al, 2017). For example, women are more likely to be primarily responsible for the care of home, children, and elderly family members. This association of women with care can leave women hungry in two distinct ways: there may be a cultural assumption that they can give their share to those for whom they care and they may have limited income because this care work is unpaid. Challenging these assumptions, as well as creating new opportunities for women within the broader economy is essential if hunger is truly to end by 2030.