Geo: Opt F Food and Health

Global Health Indicator - Global Food Security Index

• Established in 2016

• Composite, 28 indicators

• Qualitative AND quantitative

• 0 (worst) - 100 (best)

1. Affordability

• Govt. programmes

• Consumer purchasing power

• Food price risks

2. Availability 

• Agricultural production

• Supply chain infrastructure

• Research effort

3. Quality 

• Nutritional value

TOP 3

1. Finland 85.3

2. Ireland 83.8

3. Netherlands 79.9

BOTTOM 3

1. Syria 36.3

2. Haiti 38.5

3. Yemen 40.1

Global Health Indicator - Health Adjusted Life Expectancy

: measure of population health that estimates the average number of years someone can live in ‘full health’

• Composite indicator

• Calculated through HALE = Life expectancy - Years lived with disability

• Comprehensive, measures QOL, not just length

• Examines differences between LE and HALE, can indicate need for improved healthcare systems

• Excludes certain groups/disparity

• Only collected once every 5 years

• ‘Disability’ is not clear

Global Health Indicator - Infant Mortality Rates

:annual number of deaths of infants under 1 year old per 1000 in an area

• Shows healthcare access

  • Affordability

  • Availability

  • Quality

• Environmental quality (hazards, sanitation)

• Levels of development in an area

TRENDS: high by equator - Chad, Niger, Afghanistan have 20%

• Easy comparison

• Predictive power - early warning sign for instability

• Leading indicator

• Doesn’t account for QOL

• Doesn’t account for those surviving, but with disabilities

• Does not explain cause

Agribusiness TNC - Cargill

: agriculture conducted on strictly commercial principles involving production, processing, manufacturing, transporting, distributing etc.

• Responsible for all aspects of agricultural supply chain

• Involved in movement of goods from start to end (grows crops, gives farming advice, manufacture animal feed)

• Part of the ABCD group that controls over 70% global grain trade

• $165bil revenue

ISSUES WITH POWER

• Overreliance

• Corruption threatens food security 

• Cargill and other group Monsanto now owns 60% world seed supply - affects price and method

ISSUES

• Farmers get less than 6% retail price

• Intensifies systems 

• Commits to eliminating deforestation but 2017 accusation of illegal deforesting in Ivory Coast

POWER

• Reinvented sugar in their lab in Shanghai, creating Truvia, a 0 cal alternative to sugar

  • TRUVIA: used in Coca Cola

  • $500mil in sales 

  • Expected to grow by 7% in the next 8 years

Intl Organisation - Disease - WHO

• Part of the UN, coordinates world response to health emergencies, promotes wellbeing, prevents disease, increase healtchare access

1. Promoting health

2. Protecting health

3. Providing health

• Funded by member countries

STRATEGIES - MALARIA in MALAWI

• $6.7bil aid for international malaria combatting

• WHO provided 2mil doses of RTS,S vaccine, with 13% drop in child mortality in Malawi

• 9mil bed nets provided in Malawi

NGO - Disease - United to Beat Malaria

• Partnership with celebrity ambassadors, grassroot leaders, professional sports leagues, civil society, corporations, foundations

• Raise awareness and funds

MALARIA

• Since 2006 they prevented 42mil malaria cases

• Distributed 13mil bed nets

  • MADAGASCAR 

  • Provided 43,000 vaccine doses

  • Educated 380,000

• Focuses on ordinary people to drive change

• Prioritises those in poverty

• Focuses on technocentric approach - genetically modifying sterile male mosquitoes to eradicate virus (malaria only in female mosquitoes)

CRITICISM

• Less govt. support

• Opposition for GM mosquitoes - police raid in Singapore shut them down

Govt - Food Insecurity - HK

• Trying to reduce food waste to improve food security

ISSUES

• 3100 tonnes food waste/day

• 0.41kg/person (world avg. is 0.35kg/day)

PLAN

• 2014-2022 Food Waste plan to reduce food waste at source

• Collab with ‘Food wise’ campaign to educate and change perception of food waste in HK

• Recycling facilities - OPARK - use of anaerobic digestion to convert 200 tonnes of food waste daily into biogas

• Support for NGOs - Feeding HK - helps to redirect surplus to Feeding HK

• Wanted to reduce 40% of food waste in 2023

  • Only 11% reduction achieved

NGOs - Food Insecurity - Feeding HK

• Preventing food waste on a restaurant level

• Aims to redistribute food surplus and prevent it from going to waste

• Volunteers go on ‘bread runs’ to collect extra food from restaurants and redistribute to homeless

• Works with 440+ donors and 150+ charity organisations

• 250,000 meals distributed per month

• 1250 tonnes surplus food collected

Intl Organisation - Food Insecurity - Food and Agricultural Organisation

• Agency of UN that aims to defeat hunger

• Operates in 130 countries

GOAL:

• Better production - increased productivity and sustainable agriculture

• Better nutrition - decrease undernourishment, better food security

• Better environment - protects forest and marine ecosystems

• Better life - increased income of small scale food procedures

SOUTH SUDAN

• 56% pop food insecure

• 2mil children acute malnutrition

• 3.6mil emergency livelihood kits - seeds, fishing kits

• Satellite imagery for Nile basin flooding for sandbag reinforcements to prevent saltwater intrusion of fields

• 15,000 women provided with small scale vegetable farming kits to provide for themselves - gender roles link - quick harvests in 4-12 weeks 

• 60% income increase for women

Gender Roles

SOUTH SUDAN - FAO

• Women do 40% of agriculture labour

• Women in agriculture earn 20-30% less than men due to lack of resources 

• FAO provided 250,000 fishing kits to women

• 15,000 women provided with small scale vegetable farming kits with quick harvests in 4-12 weeks

• 60% income increase for women 

Diffusion of Technology - Vertical Farming - Singapore

:growing crops vertically to reduce amount of space required, done under controlled conditions

SINGAPORE

• Imports over 90% of food due to unfavourable physical conditions

• Less than 1% land is arable

• 30x30 goal - be able to locally provide 30% nutritional needs by 2030

GREENPHYTO 

• Largest indoor vertical farm opened in 2026

• Costs $800mil

• Produces 2000 tonnes/yr

• 70+ types of crops

• Uses tech to control climate - fully automated

• Uses 1/50th of water compared to traditional farming

• 50-100x more efficient than traditional farming methods

• Consistent, available production

• Extremely high energy consumption

• Limited crop variety

• Requires less space - less deforestation for agricultural land

• High initial investment

• Loss of jobs as fully mechanised

• Unfavourable to countries that rely on agriculture for GDP

Waterborne Disease/Disease of Poverty/Diffusion of Disease - Cholera

Waterborne: spread through contaminated or dirty water

Disease of poverty: tend to be associated to lack of access to food/clean water and sanitation

• Transmitted through the fecal oral route by consuming contaminated water/food

• Children under 5 most at risk

• Quick spread due to increasing climate events (flooding)

• Diarrhoea, vomiting, leads to severe dehydration (this is what makes it deadly)

Haiti 2010 Outbreak

• Was brought to Haiti after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, where intl. Aid workers from Nepal arrived for recovery, bringing cholera with them, from a UN Peacekeeper base

• 800,000 affected, 9,000 deaths

• 47% patients hospitalised by Dec 2010

VULNERABILITY

• High % of IDPs (earthquake left 1.5mil displaced) and rural area populations with poor sanitation

• Earthquake destroyed 56 pipelines, so disease spread even quicker

MGMT

• 30 cholera treatment centers established, 13 in capital Port Au Prince

• Haiti ministry of health sent out over 10,000 workers

• Oral cholera vaccines and oral rehydration solutions distributed

→ CTCs very successful, hospital fatality rate dropped 3% 

• 87% deaths were outside of hospitals

• 11% fatality rate in rural vs 3% in urban areas

FACTORS AFFECTING SPREAD

Physical: floods/heavy rainfall wash sewage into water sources, Hurricane Tomas happened at a similar time which increased cholera cases 

Human: high pop density and poor hygienic practices

Political: poor water and sewage infrastructure

Haiti deemed cholera free by Jan 2019 with 0 cases reported

Vectorborne/Disease of Poverty/Diffusion of Disease - Malaria

:infections transmitted by bite of an infected arthropod species

• Transmitted by mosquito bites - infectious, non contagious (or through blood transfusions/contamination of needles)

• Children under 5, pregnant woman, and girls are at higher risk of severe infection - more vulnerable

SYMPTOMS:

• Fever, fatigue, diarrhoea

• Destroys red blood cells and can lead to organ failure and death if untreated

Malawi

• Endemic across 95% Malawi

• 9.4 mil cases in 2024, 2252 deaths

• High transmission rates in low lying regions like Lakeshore districts/Shire River valley due to high temps and near water bodies

VULNERABILITY

• Prolonged, with rapid surges in rainy seasons

• As climate change exacerbates, longer rainy seasons and higher temps create breeding pools for malaria

FACTORS AFFECTING SPREAD
Physical: high temps (16-32^oC), high humidity, seasonal rainfall

Human: high poverty rates - can’t invest in prevention like window screens, year round irrigation for agriculture creates breeding pools

Political: chronic healthcare shortage - 57% healthcare from foreign aid, only 0.1/1000 doctor to patient ratio

MGMT

• National Malaria control Programme that aims to reduce incidence by 90% in 2030

  • Done by providing insecticide treated nets

  • RTS,S vaccine being piloted

• 33% drop in children cases since 2000 already

WHO

• $6.7bil aid for international malaria combatting

• WHO provided 2mil doses of RTS,S vaccine, with 13% drop in child mortality in Malawi

• 9mil bed nets provided in Malawi

BUT

• Malaria becoming resistant to antimalarial drugs

• Rural isolation - 81% population in rural 

• Slow global medical progress (as a disease of poverty)

• Cannot be eradicated

• Climate change exacerbates

Disease of Affluence - Obesity in USA

• Driven by wealthy food systems and consumption habits - hence it is called a disease of affluence

• With the growth of the NGMC and increase in affluent population, diet shifts from one with fibers/grains to one high in fat, sugar, processed food

• Fast food chains like McDonald’s with national power to influence food consumption habits, as well as the media 

• Sedentary lifestyles

• Success of US agriculture has made food cheap to afford

• Federal subsidies for corn and soy led to corn syrup surplus

STATS

• 20% of children are obese

• Medical costs for obesity add up to $173bil annually

• 43% adult obesity rate

• 10% of pop classified as severely obese

MGMT

• FDA (Food and Drug Administration) requiring transparency on food labelling - added sugars must be explicitly listed, calorie count needs to be posted on menus to help people make informed choices

• CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) High Obesity Programme - grants 1g universities to work with the community, in rural areas where 40% adults have obesity - done through improving access to healthy foods and safe environment for physical activity

EVAL

• Difficult to eradicate because it requires changing people’s habits 

• TNCs have lobbying power to prevent bans on unhealthy foods

Famine - Yemen

: extreme, widespread food shortage in a region

2016-2021 famine

• Over 17 mil at risk - 3.3 mil women and children suffering from acute malnutrition 

CAUSES: 

• Civil unrest 

• Lack of imports

  • 90% reliant on food imports

  • Commercial imports fell to 40% of previously

• Poor sanitation

  • Only 50% health facilities fully functional in 2021

  • 2.5mil cases of cholera in 2021

• Economic collapse, Yemen Rial lost over 200% value 

IMPACTS:

• Displacement - 3mil people internally displaced

• 223,000 deaths attributed to hunger/disease

• 17mil people food insecure

• Healthcare system breakdown - people could not access the required medical care

AID:

• UN raised $1.2bil towards its total $4.3bil plan 

• World Food Programme reached 13.5mil people per month by 2021

• Doctors without borders - focuses on helping the malnourished, supporting Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centers (ITFCs) at hospitals, providing medical assistance for those who are acutely malnourished, admitting 3,300 people in 2021

  • 33% of their admittees are between 1-6months old

• Other govt supports - UAE contributing $6bil to support 100,000 directly 

  • ISSUES: lack of transparency, dual conflict between wanting to provide aid, yet blocking the Red Sea from imports/exports to protect their own economies 

Role of the Media + Ethiopia Famine - Band Aid

ETHIOPIA FAMINE 1983-1985

• Caused by conflict/civil unrest

• Exacerbated by drought

• Affected 7.8mil 

BAND AID

• Raise awareness and funds by selling their song “Do They Know Its Christmas” - celebrity involvement - Sting, Wham!, Paul McCartney

• Released 1984, fastest selling single at the time

• £8mil raised in 3 months

• Band Aid directly sent trucks over to ensure food was delivered to people directly

• Reached 8mil people 

LIVE AID 1985 concert

• Held in London and Philadelphia at the same time

• 1.5bil watched

• $100mil raised for famine relief

BAND AID TRUST

• Continued trust to support those in need of food aid

• £145mil total

• £2-3mil per year 

• Ethiopia continued aid - providing 120,000 daily meals to children, improving maternal health

CRITICISMS:

• Problematic lyrics

• Referred to Africa as a whole - false perception and imperialism

• Short term reliance on aid - BUT BAND AID TRUST IS LONG TERM

• Idea of a white saviour

Reducing Food Waste - Biocollectors, UK

• Closed loop waste mgmt system to transform food waste into renewable energy/agricultural products

1. Collection: collects commercial food waste through trucks that are powered by the biofuel they produce 

2. Anaerobic digestion: microorganisms break food waste down without oxygen

3. Biogas production: produces biogas, pumped directly in UK National Grid

4. Biofertilisers: leftovers from process turned into nutrient rich fertiliser

5. Sustainable cycle: fertiliser given to local farms to grow new crops

• This ensures 0% waste sent to landfill

Reducing Food Waste - Wonky Veg, UK

• initial idea launched by Asda in 2016 to reduce food waste by selling foods that may not fit aesthetic appeals 

Morrisons - “Naturally Wonky” line

• Most extensive range with over 33 seasonal lines/products

• Sell 1,200 tonnes of wonky produce every week

• Has been expanded to wonky flowers and frozen fruit mixes

Reducing Food Waste - Feeding HK

• Preventing food waste on a restaurant level

• Aims to redistribute food surplus and prevent it from going to waste

• Volunteers go on ‘bread runs’ to collect extra food from restaurants and redistribute to homeless

• Works with 440+ donors and 150+ charity organisations

• 250,000 meals distributed per month

Reducing Food Waste - Ethiopia Productive Safety Net Programme

Largest safety net programme in Sub Saharan Africa

• Dual structure, providing labour for community projects in return for food/cash transfers - supports 8 mil people with this 

• 1.6mil given direct support - vulnerable groups (pregnant woman, elderly)

• Aims to help 700,000 especially youth and women teaching them agricultural strategies and providing education

• Expanding irrigated land: less than 7% is irrigated right now

  • Aims to irrigate 4mil hectares

  • Aims to increase irrigation efficiency by 50% in 2030

  • Small scale farming focus

• World Food Programme aid: provides direct assistance to 6.8mil

Approaches to Food Production - GMOs

: Organisms whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering

• Env sustainability 

• Food security

• Reduced chemicals

• Consumer attitudes - skepticism with Impossible meat

• Biodiversity risks - modified genes of saltwater rice and low stress tolerance

IMPOSSIBLE FOODS

• genetically engineered yeast to produce Heme (soy that gives meat it’s ‘meat’ flavour)

• Soy DNA inserted to yeast that produces Heme through fermentation

• Over 1mil pounds produced a month

• But costs tend to be 20x more than actual meat 

• 95% less land, 69% less water than actual meat

LINK: reduces pressure on meat espc as NGMC population increases (less CO2, embedded water)

CHINA SEAWATER RICE

• Hybrid breeding of wild salt resistant rice with HYVs

• Creates salt tolerant rice that can grow in saline/alkaline soils and barren land

• Potential to feed extra 80mil people

• 6.7mil hectares of land in 2022

• diffused to Vietnam and Sri Lanka in the testing stages

COVID general

• Originated in Wuhan China in 2019 traced back to a wet market

• From bats (zoonotic outbreak)

• Affects respiratory system and lungs

Symptoms:

• Flu symptoms

• Loss of taste and smell

• Red swollen eyes

• Rashes 

Geographic Impacts

• Globalisation - air travel and shipping enabled global spread

• Urbanisation - urban areas as hotspots

• Social inequality - poor housing and sanitation

• Infrastructure - effectiveness of response linked to healthcare

Social Marginalisation 

• Pandemics effects were not evenly distributed because of capacity to comply with safety measures was tied to privilege/affluence

  • Employment vulnerability (people in hospitality)

  • Essential worker risk (cleaning, public transport)

  • Systemic barriers (no healthcare for marginalised communities)

COVID New Zealand HIC

• Island exclusion model “keep it out, stamp it out”

• Borders completely locked down in Mar 2020 for two months, and again in Aug-Sept - banned all movement of people and goods apart from healthcare related

  • Monitored boundary around Auckland to prevent it from spreading to rural areas

• 3000 deaths, one of the lowest mortality rates

• BUT 12.2% decrease in GDP 

Lessons learned:

• Using physical isolation to its benefit, joining forces as a country, rather than polarisation as seen in places like US + UK

• Reduce dependency on economic gain from tourism - setting up fiscal buffers in 2026 to prioritise healthcare and education

COVID HK HIC

• First case in Jan 2020

• Implementation of controls very quick as people had prior experience with Sars

• Community ‘bubble’ - free movement inside HK but not outside of HK

• 21 day hotel quarantine

• LeaveHomeSafe app - use of tech to track where people went

• Govt. antiepidemic fund - 6 rounds total to combat COVID, total $340bil from govt. to citizens to ensure economic stability

• 13,000 deaths by 2023

Lessons learned:

• Success of early adoption of strategies and shutdown early on - full time in person learning only resumed May 2022

• Mask ban until end of Feb 2023

• 80% elderly over 80 were not vaccinated - end of 2022 govt started offering Home Vaccination visits

COVID Nigeria LIC

• Prior epidemic experience with 2014 Ebola outbreak

• Nigeria Center for Disease control went from 4 to 140 labs in a year

• 2 month lockdown

  • Unsuccessful as the informal economy was so key (80% economy is informal) that people broke the lockdown rules

• Less than 22% vaccinated

• Hospitals lack sanitation

• 3000 deaths - high youthful pop, meaning stronger immunity 

Lessons:

• Early approach and research through prior experience

• However, HICs hoarded the vaccines - they could not access vaccines until later - 2026 Africa now aims to locally produce 60% vaccines by 2040