Mitigating the Nutritional Impacts of the Global Food Price Crisis Workshop Summary (2010) / Chapter Skim
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3 Impacts on Nutrition
3 Impacts on Nutrition
Pages 31-48
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From page 31... ...
This chapter highlights the theoretical pathways and evidence base around how the dual crises are affecting nutrition. As described by moderator Isatou Jallow of the World Food Programme, the following presenta tions helped workshop participants to understand the pathways from the food and economic crises to nutritional impact, including a discussion of existing evidence and vulnerable populations.
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From page 32... ...
Ironically, a reduced income might cause the family to cut out the unnecessary processed foods and soft drinks, which would improve this family's nutritional status. In Cairo, a family spends $69 dollars per week on food.
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IMPACTS ON NUTRITION FIGURE 3-2 One week of food for the Casales family in Mexico. SOURCE: Menzel and D'Aluisio, 2005.
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If their income is sharply reduced, families do away with animal foods and nonstaple foods. They eat less meat, less dairy, less processed foods, less vegetables, and less fruits; they are predomi nately dependent on cereals, fats, and oils.
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IMPACTS ON NUTRITION FIGURE 3-5 One week of food for the Namgay family in Bhutan. SOURCE: Menzel and D'Aluisio, 2005.
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From page 36... ...
At the same time, families with fewer resources will use less money for education, housing, and medical care, likely compounding the effects of the food price crisis for the most vulnerable groups. A recent examination by the Economic Commission for Latin America showed that only 10 percent of the cost of hunger in Latin America was related to health or poor educational performance.
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From page 37... ...
• The food price crisis is already having a significant impact on the world's ability to reach the first UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG)
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. The combination of lower incomes caused by the economic crisis and persisting high food prices has been devastating for the world's most vulnerable populations.
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The 1994 devaluation of currency in the Congo led to an increase in wasting among mothers, more babies born with low birth weight, and a greater level of stunting and wasting among children. A few years later in Indonesia, the financial crisis led to increased wasting in mothers and higher prevalence of anemia in mothers and children, although strangely no increase in childhood malnutrition.
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From page 40... ...
Households that are net consumers in rural and urban areas are most likely to face the negative effects of high food prices, and households' resilience to these increases will depend on their available coping strategies. Typically, poor households have limited strategies in which to cope with such shocks.
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From page 41... ...
On the other hand, these households remain vulnerable to shocks as most have not built sustainable assets and continue to use such negative coping strategies as skipping entire days without eating or eating "famine foods" such as seeds. This difficult and precarious economic situation is forcing households to contract new debts mostly to buy animal feed.
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From page 42... ...
Variations in dietary intake and coping mechanisms in response to an increase in food prices include reduction of nutrient-dense foods, reduction of meals, reduction of portions, and use of "famine foods." The recommendations for dealing with the varying nutritional impacts on the population are to detect hidden nutritional effects and to identify and monitor vul nerable populations. To achieve this will require documenting nutritional impacts documenting in population subgroups; identifying and monitoring micronutrient deficiencies
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ARE THE URBAN POOR PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE? Marie Ruel, Ph.D., Director, Poerty, Health, and Nutrition Diision International Food Policy Research Institute Poverty Better Indicator of Food Crisis Impacts Than Geography In the next quarter century, the population explosion that characterized much of the previous century will be replaced by another dramatic transformation: urban population growth on an unprecedented scale.
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From page 44... ...
Among the poor, the rural poor have the highest percentage -- 88 percent are net buyers. In this light, the rural poor and the urban poor are all net buyers, meaning poerty is probably more important than geography in determining the effects of the food price crisis.
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From page 45... ...
There are strategies that revolve around food, such as switching to cheaper, less preferred, lower-quality foods; buying less food, skipping meals, and reducing food intake; decreasing intake of nonstaple foods; eating out and increasing consumption of street foods; using different ingredients and cooking methods; and modifying the allocation of resources within the household. There are also nonfood coping strategies such as boosting agricultural pro duction and even returning to rural areas if the household owns land; augmenting income through child labor and women working outside the home; increasing the number of hours worked; taking children out of school; reducing spending on nonfood (health, education)
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From page 46... ...
• Landless rural poor (who were vulnerable to start with) are net buyers and are extremely vulnerable; the dichotomy of the urban poor versus the rural poor may not be necessary except when you think of delivery mechanisms for interventions.
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From page 47... ...
Different thinking is needed to plan the delivery mechanisms for the urban poor and the rural poor, and the incentives of urban interventions should not be so attractive that they instigate an even more serious problem of urbanization than already exists. Investment in Rural Agriculture The belief that the international community should keep food prices artifi cially low as a response to the current food crisis and ongoing price volatility is controversial.
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From page 48... ...
2009. Feeding hunger and insecurity: The Global Food Price Crisis.
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