SC NUT CANVAS 16 Food Equity Sustain and Quality.pptx

The Science of Nutrition
Fifth Edition
Chapter 16
Food Equity, Sustainability,
and Quality: The Challenge
of “Good” Food
Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
• Compare and contrast levels of food insecurity globally and in the United States.
• Discuss several ways in which human behavior contributes to food insecurity.
• Describe the health and societal problems associated with undernourishment.
• Explain how obesity can result from limited access to nourishing food.
• Identify inequities in agricultural and food retail and service labor, and their effects
on workers and the consumers they serve.
• Discuss the effects of industrial agriculture on food security, the environment, and
the diversity and quality of our food supply.
• Discuss international, governmental, philanthropic, corporate, and local initiatives
aimed at increasing the world’s supply of and access to good food.
• Identify several steps you can take to promote production of and access to good
food.

Global Food Insecurity
• Food insecurity: unreliable access to a sufficient supply
of nourishing food and inequities in agriculture and food-
service employment
• Global and domestic disparities in infant mortality and life
expectancy
• The Food and Agricultural Organization estimates 11% of
global population is chronically undernourished, the
prevalence varies greatly by region

Food Insecurity in U.S.
• In 2016, 12% (about 15.6 million households) of U.S.
households experienced food insecurity
– During the year, household members were uncertain
of having, or unable to acquire enough food to meet
their needs
• 5% of U.S. households (6.1 million households) had very
low food insecurity
– One or more household members had to reduce the
quality, variety, or desirability of their food choices,
and the amount

Figure 16.1Prevalence of food insecurity and
very low food security in U.S. households, 2016.

Food Insecurity Risk Factors
• Households with incomes below 185% of the U.S.
poverty threshold, single parents, African American
households, and Hispanic households
• Physical, psychological, or social factors
– Chronic disease
– Disability
– Depression
– Alcohol and drug addiction
– Divorce (especially for women)

Malnutrition
• Malnutrition takes different forms
• Undernutrition: results from not getting enough to eat
• Overnutrition: results from excessive consumption of
energy-dense foods along with inadequate physical
activity

Food Shortages
• Acute food shortages may be caused by weather events
and wars
• Famine: a severe food shortage affecting a large
percentage of the population in a limited area at a
particular time.
• Worldwide, estimated 489 million of 815 million
chronically undernourished people live in countries
affected by conflict

Chronic Hunger
• The major cause of chronic hunger is unequal food
distribution
• Overpopulation occurs when resources are insufficient
to support the number of people living in an area.
• Improving food supply:
– Slowing population growth can improve food supply
– Educating girls and women can reduce birthrates
– Increase food production and import foods

Chronic Hunger – Agricultural Practices
• Deforestation
• Overgrazing
• Crop rotation
• Use of agricultural land for cash crops (cotton, coffee,
and tobacco) replaces subsistence crops (sorghum and
corn)
– Used for industry and livestock feed
– Less food available for local consumption

Chronic Hunger – Lack of Infrastructure
• Roads and transportation
• Electricity and refrigeration
• Water management: irrigation, safe drinking water, and
sewage systems
• Sanitation services
• Communication systems
• Healthcare delivery system
• Public education

Chronic Hunger – Impact of Disease
• Disease and lack of healthcare to fight disease and
reduce the work capacity
• Reduced ability to ward off poverty and malnutrition
• Example: AIDS epidemic

Climate Change
• Global warming contributes significantly to climate
change: any significant change in the measures of
climate over several decades
• Impact on global food security
– Reduced crop yields and crop destruction by pests
– Reduced food production
– Reduced seafood availability

Problems with Limited Nourishing
Food (1 of 3)
• Nutritional imbalance with inadequate energy or limited
access to nourishing foods
• Wasting: very low body weight for height or extreme
thinness
– A hallmark of severe acute malnutrition (SAM)
• Stunted growth: shorter than expected for an
individual’s chronological age; chronically
undernourished
• 155 million children worldwide have stunted growth

Food (2 of 3)
• Maternal mortality: death of a woman during pregnancy,
childbirth, or in the immediate postpartum period
• Infant mortality: death of an infant between birth and 1
year
– Decreased resistance to infection resulting from
undernourishment
– Infection reduces appetite, causes vomiting, diarrhea,
and weight loss and weakening immune system

Food (3 of 3)

Figure 16.2

Micronutrient Deficiency Diseases
• Worldwide, 2 billion people in impoverished countries are
deficient in key micronutrients:
– Iron
– Iodine
– Vitamin A
– Vitamin B12 and folate

Iron Deficiency
• The most common micronutrient deficiency in the world;
considered an epidemic
• Leading cause of disease and disability among
adolescents
• Most serious effects in low-income countries in Africa and
Southeast Asia

Iodine Deficiency
• Prenatal iodine is critical for fetal brain development
• Mild deficits in school-age children impair cognitive
performance and retard physical development
• Occurrences have been greatly reduced in areas where
iodine added to salt or oil, or to irrigation water

Vitamin A Deficiency
• Leading cause of blindness in children
– Due to greater vulnerability to severe infection, such
children are at high risk for death
• Estimated 250 million children are vitamin A deficient
• International initiatives to supplement vitamin A have
reduced mortality by 23%

Socioeconomic Problems
• Undernourishment of iodine, vitamin B12, folate, essential
fatty acids, and other nutrients can cause significant
cognitive impairments (learning and memory problems)
• Vision loss (vitamin A deficiency) can limit work capacity
• Inadequate intake of energy and nutrients prompt
weakness reducing labor, a global drain on work capacity
and productivity

Limited Nourishing Food and Obesity
• Double burden of malnutritoin: coexistence of
undernutrition and overweight/obesity and diet-related
diseases in the same population, household, or person
• Factors:
– Trend toward decreased physical activity
– Global shift in diet toward increased intake of energy-
dense foods low in micronutrients and fiber

Fetal Undernourishment
• Mother’s poor nutritional status can affect offspring in
utero as well as throughout childhood into adulthood
• “Fetal origins of adult disease” theory
• Effects can be passed on to future generations and may
need four generations of improved conditions to
overcome risk for short stature and overweight

Poverty–Obesity Paradox
• Obesity is more prevalent in low-income populations
• In the United States, a reduction in family income during
early childhood increases the child’s risk for becoming
overweight/obese
• Hunger–obesity paradox: low-income people are obese
while also deficient in one or more nutrients, or even
hungry

Limited Money and Food Choices
• People with limited money are more likely to buy low-
cost, high-volume, energy-dense foods
– High in carbohydrates and fats
– Low in protein
• Cheap, low-protein foods are lower in satiety, and can
result in overconsuming Calories

Stress Contributes to Obesity
• Stress may be a link between obesity and poverty—
cortisol slows metabolism and increases appetite while
prompting short-sighted decision-making, such as eating
empty-Calorie “comfort foods”
• Sugar triggers a negative feedback loop and “turns off”
stress response—sugar may be calming for people under
stress

Food Deserts
• Low-income and obesity may reflect environment
• Food deserts are geographical areas that lack access to
a supermarket—rural and inner-city
• Limited options for nourishing foods and physical activity

Equity in Food Production and Sales
• Working conditions in America’s agricultural and food
service industries are “grossly inequitable”
• Contributing factors
– Farm labor is dangerous and poorly paid
– Food service maintains the working poor

Farm Labor (1 of 2)
• Much of agricultural labor is “contingent work”: little job
security, no healthcare insurance, no sick leave or
vacation leave, no retirement benefits, and low wages
• “Migrant workers” move from one region to another with
changing harvest times

Farm Labor (2 of 2)
• Migrant workers face challenges
– Majority live below the poverty line
– Children as young as 12 years can work on farms
– High rate of injuries and fatalities
– Long-term exposure to pesticides and UV radiation
– Housing is often overcrowded and substandard

Food Retail and Service Work
• 8.5 million food service workers; many work at or below
the minimum wage
• Majority of foodservice workers live below the poverty line
• 22.5 million U.S. households receive Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which means
American taxpayers are “making up the difference”
• Many have no paid sick leave and may work while sick

Sustainability
• Sustainability: the ability to satisfy humanity’s basic
needs now and in the future without undermining the
natural resource base and environmental quality of which
life depends
• Sustainable practices can reduce pollution of air, soil, and
water and preserve resources for future generations

Sustainability of Food Supply
• Industrial agriculture has increased food security but
threatens the environment
• Green Revolution: a program that has led to improved
seed quality, fertilizers, pesticides, and farming
techniques to boost crop yields
– High-yield varieties (HYV) of rice, wheat, corn,
beans, and other crops

Industrial Techniques
• Total number of livestock and poultry farms has
decreased but much larger operations increased
• Cattle, pigs, and chickens are raised in confined animal-
feeding operations (CAFOs)
– Movement is restricted
– Animal is fattened with high-energy feed, often
containing growth hormones
• Increased global food supply and improved nutrition for
millions

Environmental Costs
• 70% of world’s freshwater supply and 38% land used for
farming, increasing greenhouse gases
• Conversion of forests, grasslands, and wetlands to
farming, depletion of topsoil and ground water supplies
• Pollution of soils and water from pesticide and fertilizer
residues, animal waste and runoff, loss of clean water,
and arable land
• Agrochemical products increase insecticide-resistant
insects and herbicide-resistant weeds

Monopolization of Agriculture
• Industrial agriculture reduces food diversity
• Food supply monopolized by large-scale industrial
agriculture, which produces a few subsidized crops (corn,
soybeans, wheat, and rice)
• “Monoculture” requires larger amounts of stronger
pesticides
• Global loss in variety with fruits, vegetables, and whole
grains, threatening food security

Food Industry’s Influence
• Livestock industries and large food companies donate
and spend millions of dollars to influence the Dietary
Guidelines for Americans and the American diet

Food Industry’s Influence -- Lobbying
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries//lobbying.php?cycle=2022&ind=N01

Food Industry’s Influence
• The U.S. food industry produces about twice as many
Calories per capita per year than Americans require; to
make a profit, the industry encourages consumers to
overeat

Addressing the Challenges of “Good
Food” (1 of 2)
• International programs
– WHO and Unicef breastfeeding initiatives
– Micronutrient Initiative
– Deworming and mosquito control
– Food assistance programs

Food” (1 of 2)
• International programs
– Micronutrient Initiative
– Deworming and mosquito control
– Food assistance programs

Food” (2 of 2)
• National and local programs
– Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
Infants, and Children (WIC)
– National School Lunch and Breakfast programs
– USDA’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program
– CDC’s Healthy Corner Store initiative
– Local soup kitchens and food pantries

Sustainable Agriculture
• Crop rotation to control soil erosion
• Organic farming
• Family farms
• Community supported agriculture
• Farmers markets
• School gardens
• Slow food

• Family farms
• Community supported agriculture

• Farmers markets
• School gardens
• Slow food

Promoting “Good” Food
• Support food security
• Purchase fair trade goods
• Choose foods that are healthful and good for the
environment
• Reduce meat consumption

Fair Trade Certified

Choose Foods that are Healthful for
You and the Environment
• Buy Organic
• Buy local foods
• Choose whole or less-processed foods
• Be proactive at your local grocery store and when you eat
out
• Avoid empty calorie foods to discourage their profitability

SC NUT CANVAS 16 Food Equity Sustain and Quality.pptx

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