Agriculture 9.1 Notes

Consumption of Food

Consumption of food varies across the world in total amount and source of nutrients. This happens because of 

• Level of development: In developed countries people tend to consume more food and from different sources than people in developing countries. So, people in a developed country would be eating more (total amount) and having more available nutrients (source of nutrients). In a developing country, people may not have access to food (total amount) and may have very limited nutrient options (source of nutrients). 

• Physical conditions: Climate can influence what people eat because climate determines what can be grown in certain areas (source of nutrients). For example, in a Mediterranean area, you wouldn’t expect the farmers to be practicing mixed crop and livestock.  

• Cultural preferences: Some food preferences and avoidances can be explained as cultural preferences. These can explain amount of food consumed because people would choose to eat or not to eat. This can also explain the nutrients because they would have dietary restrictions toward certain foods. 

The food industry in Canada and the US is vast BUT only a few people are full time farmers and they may be more familiar with the operation of computers and advanced machinery than the typical factory or office worker. 

The contrast between “typical” personal farming and heavily mechanized constitutes one of the most fundamental differences between the more developed and less developed countries of the world. 

The amount of food that an individual consumes is dietary energy consumption. The unit of measurement for this is kcal, Calorie in the US. 

The average consumption WORLDWIDE is 2,902 kcal per day, which is well above the recommended minimum. The recommended minimum being 1,844kcal. This means that most people are getting enough food to survive. 

In developing regions, the average daily consumption is 2,800, which is still over the minimum. But, the average in Sub-Saharan Africa is only 2,400kcal, which shows that a large percentage of Africans are not getting enough to eat. Since 1961, food production has increased substantially in Sub-Saharan Africa, but so has the population. As a result, food production in Sub-Saharan Africa has changed little in a half-century, and the region is struggling to keep food production ahead of population growth. 

The consumption of so much food is one reason that obesity is more prevalent than hunger in the United States as well as in other developed countries. But at the same time, some people are not getting enough to eat. The threat of famine is especially severe in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel. 

Global Agriculture and Undernourishment 

The United Nations defined food security as physical, social, and economic access at all times to safe and nutritious food sufficient to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. (Around 10% of the world’s inhabitants do not have food security. 

Undernourishment is dietary energy consumption that is continuously below that needed for a healthy life and carrying out light physical activity. Undernourishment is the most prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. 

• The UN estimated that 803 million people in the world are undernourished, one half of them in South and East Asia. The largest numbers are in China and India. 

• 98 percent of the world’s undernourished people are in developing countries. 

• Between 2000 and 2017, the number of undernourished people declined from 924 million to 803 million. The percentage of people who are undernourished declined from 15 percent in 2000 to 11 percent in 2017. 

The UN says that the record high food prices are because of four factors:

• Poor weather  

• High demand

• Smaller growth in productivity

• Use of crops as biofuels instead of food
  

Source of Nutrients

Cereal grain is a grass that yields grain for food. Grain is the seed from a cereal grass. The three leading cereal grains are wheat, maize, and rice. 

One of the most fundamental differences between developed and developing regions is the primary source of protein. In developed countries, the leading source of protein is meat products, including beef, pork, and poultry. In most developing countries, cereal grains provide the largest share of protein.