1. Why do children and women need to be well-nourished?
It is vital for children to be well nourished so that they can successfully complete there
education as the future relies on them. If they are not able to fulfil their potential and study
or aren’t well nourished they will have difficulties working, and won’t be able to feed their
families in the future, entering the vicious cycle of poverty.
Well-nourished women are more likely to have healthy babies and their babies are lest likely
to suffer from birth defects, long-term metabolic disturbances, and babies who are too small
at birth.
2. What does UNICEF say about the links between nourishment and health?
Unicef believes that the less nourished you are, the more susceptible you are to diseases and
infection and have a decreased immunity to common childhood diseases. They also have a
higher chance of dying from childhood diseases.
3. What diseases are caused by poor diet?
A poor diet can cause various forms of malnutrition such as kwashiorkor and marasmus
which are deficiencies in dietary protein. Marasmus is more common amongst infants and
leads to severe muscle wasting and very prominent ribs. Kwashiorkor is characterised by a
protuberant belly and changes in hair colour.
4. Study figure 9.29. Describe the distribution of child undernourishment globally.
Child undernourishment occurs across Africa and the South-East.
In the western world, there is mild child undernourishment in Mexico and Guyana, Cayenne
in South America. Countries demonstrating the highest percentage of child undernutrition
are located in central Africa and south wast Asia such as Indian and Bangladesh. Most of
these are hot, developing LEDCS.
5.What was the Green Revolution, and what were the pluses and minuses?
The industrialisation and mechanisation of agriculture, newer and more advanced farming
techniques and improved crop varieties led to an increased food production across the world
between 1960 and 1990. This period was named the Green Revolution.
Pros
Increased food production (increased yield of crops)
More adequate and diverse diets
more profitable agriculture (plethora of crops, extra crops could be sold)
Sufficient food to feed the growing population
Newer varieties had shorter growing seasons
Cons
Mono-Culturing: Newer types of seeds needed a relatively larger amount of fertiliser, which
weren’t very affordable
New varieties were vulnerable to pests and disease
Newer varieties weren’t high in nutrition and failed to meet people’s dietary requirements
Rate of diseases causes by inadequacy of vitamins and minerals didn’t decline
price of the industrial farming and its equipment was too expensive for rural farmers
6. Construct a table or diagram (your choice) to represent the causes of food shortages.
Cause
Process
Effect
Soil exhaustion
Soil exhaustion occurs when
soil no longer has enough
carrying capacity to grow
plants well. It can be caused by
overcropping and monoculture
(growing the same variety of
crops which consume the same
minerals).
Heaving rainfall can also lead
to leaching which is the loss of
water-soluble plant nutrients
from the soil.
Unhealthy soils leads to limited
food production and increases
risk of soil erosion. Farmers
need to buy fertilisers and
minerals to helps decrease the
potential for soil exhaustion
and provide nutrition to the
soil.
Droughts
Droughts befall several tropical They have lead to massive crop
areas which don’t receive year- failures and loss of livestock in
round rainfall.
the horn of Africa and Central
America.The seeds preserved
for the following year are
consumed an year before.
Floods
Lots of rural populations are
based near or on flood plains,
meaning they are located near
rivers and are subject to
flooding )eg: Ganges/
Brahmaputra flood in
Bangladesh). These areas are a
favourable place for farming as
there is a direct source of
irrigation and the soils are
nutritious, alluvial and fertile.
Disastrous floods can wipe out
an year worth of crops and
annihilate fields. They can
disturb long-term food supply .
Cause
Process
Effect
Tropical cyclones
Large whirlpools of wind and
rain, tropical cyclones occur in
the Caribbean, America
(hurricanes) and South-East
Asia (typhoons).
Torrential rain and strong
winds can lead to degradation
of agriculture land. They
completely destroy all crops
grown, and hence there is a
lack of food supplies.
Pests
Pests such as desert locusts can
strip a field bare in an hour and
swarms can size up to 1200
square kilometre. These large
swarms can devour about 200
million kilograms of plans in a
24 hours. Their presence can
be catastrophic to provincial
agricultural areas and ‘threaten
the economic livelihood of
10% of the world’s
population’.
Regular pests like birds or rats
become daily visitors and
consume crops and seeds too.
They cause failed harvests,
threatening food security.
Measures taken to prevent this
or purchasing pesticides can be
expensive and harmful to
animal’s health.
Due to poverty, there is a
lack of capital which means
farmers are unable to
purchase machinery an end
up using primitive tools.
They use left over goods
and the variety of seeds is
very monotonous which
leads to soil exhaustion.
Farmers lack roads, proper
irrigation systems and other
key infrastructure that
conspire to limit farmers'
yields and families' access
to food.
A low
Low capital results in a lower
yield and inadequacy of crops.
This leads to low profits which
disable farmers from buying
fertilisers which leads to
decreasing yields, and then
eventually low capital.
Farmers get trapped in this
cycle of poverty,
disease
Low capital investment
Cause
Process
Effect
Poor transport
Bad connectivity and
inefficient and inaccessible
transport can cause lots of
problems. Poor trasbrattaion
hinders the spread of farming
practices and supplies. Farmers
in isolated areas find it difficult
to participate in the market and
sell crops due to trasnporataion
problems.
If they are unable to sell their
crops (high transport costs) and
earn money, they won’t obtain
any profits and remain poor.
They are left them vulnerable
to high food prices and
eventually enter the vicious
cycle of the poverty trap.
Wars
Conflict and social turmoil
forces families to flee their
congeries, and they are
often displaced without any
food available.
In war, food sometimes
becomes a weapon.
'Soldiers will starve
opponents into submission
by seizing or destroying
food and livestock and
systematically wrecking
local markets’.
War disrupts farming and
food production as they
exacerbate scarcity of food.
People’s farms and
agricultural lands are
destroyed. Families who
escape don’t have access to
food and with their refugee
status, are financially
restricted. Hence, they can’t
contribute to increasing food
production.
Increased use of fuels
Crops are being produced to
create biofuels.
As a result of increased
use of biofuels, world food
prices are witnessing
staggering rates of
inflation and decline in
food supplies.
1. What are the sustainable development goals?
The SDG’s are a list of 17 goals that the world would like to achieve through 2030. It has
been mooted and discussed over the duration of 2 years at the United Nations. Almost every
country was in accordance with this on 25th of September, 2015. The goals are universal
and focus on all kinds of areas such as business, education, sanitation and infrastructure.
The goals are created to overall improve living standards and transform the way our lives
function. They are designed to make sure that the future generation living healthy lives,
have access to adequate food and are able to fulfil their needs. It is a
GOAL 1: No Poverty : end poverty in all forms
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger : attain food security and encourage and practice sustainable
agriculture
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being : ensure everyone is healthy
GOAL 4: Quality Education : encourage life long
learning and establish an inclusive education system
GOAL 5: Gender Equality : empowerment of women
and girls
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation: use of green
power sources, sustainable and affordable
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth: increase
rates of employment
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure :
improve infrastructure, sustainable industrialisation
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality: no discrimination against any dimension
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
GOAL 13: Climate Action: build solutions to help resolve climate change and mitigate its
impacts
GOAL 14: Life Below Water : preserve the oceans and marine resources
GOAL 15: Life on Land: ‘Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and
reverse land degradation’ and bring a stop to biodiversity loss
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions: promote fairness and equality and create
an inclusive atmosphere for all communities to live in harmony
GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal : work together as a global community and
collaboratively work towards achieving sustainable development
2. Which ones relate to food security? Explain your answer.
1/3 of the goal listed focus on ending hunger and achieving food security, namely goals 2, 3
and 12. Goal 2 aims to eradicate hunger, which can only be accomplished when everyone
has access to adequate food. Goal 3 promotes the wellbeing of all ages, ensuring everyone
will be fulfilling their dietary requirements and have access to food rich in nutrition. Goal
12 focuses on increasing agricultural production and consuming food wisely, reducing food
loss or waste.
Goal 2 identifies the interdependence between sustainable agriculture, empowering small
farmers, promoting gender equality, ending rural poverty, ensuring healthy lifestyles,
tackling climate change, and other issues addressed within the set of 17 Sustainable
Development Goals in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Zero hunger challenge
‘The Zero Hunger Challenge was launched by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Kimoon in 2012. The Zero Hunger vision reflects five elements from within the SDGs, which
taken together, can end hunger, eliminate all forms of malnutrition, and build inclusive and
sustainable food systems.’
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