Science and Food Today and Tomorrow (1961) / Chapter Skim
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What Modern Food Science and Its Application Mean to Developing Countries
What Modern Food Science and Its Application Mean to Developing Countries
Pages 29-42
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From page 29... ...
One reason for this urgency is that modern communications and transportation have brought a knowledge of something better to even the most isolated countries and as a result, national aspirations are rising. At the same time, other technical developments such as those in medicine and public health, are resulting in populations increasing too rapidly to be fed without the application of modern food science teamed with agricultural and industrial technology.
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From page 30... ...
It was still several years before the close correlation between kwashiorkor prevalence and mortality in the 1 to 4 year age group was understood, but we now know that the best indicator of protein malnutrition in a country is likely to be its mortality rate for children in this age group. Table 1 gives mortality rates for infants and for children 1 to 4 years of age, in several Latin American countries, as multiples of the corresponding U.S.
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From page 32... ...
We found that nearly 40% of those 1-4 died with edema, skin lesions, hair changes, apathy, and the other Other specified causes: kwashiorkor 0 40 other deficiency disease 1" 3 other 2 0 Ill-defined or unknown 41 17 Not investigated 0 7 TABLE 2. CAUSES OF DEATH OF CHILDREN UNDER 15 YEARS OF AGE IN FOUR HIGHLAND VILLAGES IN GUATEMALA, 1956 AND 1957 Official vital INCAP Cause statistics investigation Congenital malformations and diseases peculiar to early infancy 43 49 Diseases of the respiratory system 35 42 Diseases of the digestive system 21 37 Infective and parasitic diseases: whooping cough 12 17 intestinal parasites 58 0 other 9 10 Total ............
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From page 33... ...
If the concepts of the INCAP study are applied to vital statistics from other regions, the true significance of the high mortality figures which I quoted earlier for various other countries is apparent. Just as the results of this study were a revelation to us and lent new impetus to efforts to improve the nutrition of children in the INCAP area, including the development of low cost protein rich mixtures of vegetable origin, recent results of another type have given us a comparable shock and stimulus.
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From page 34... ...
Decreased stature due to malnutrition may conceivably have some adaptive advantage where nutrition deficiency is common, but the associated retardation in intelligence and increase in mortality and morbidity are obviously extremely undesirable. In looking at the health problems of technically underdeveloped areas from the viewpoint of the harmful effects of poor nutrition and attempting to appraise the benefits which the application of agricultural and food science can bring, we must also avoid the errors of the blind men describing an elephant only from the parts each is touching.
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From page 35... ...
The usual result is that the health worker continues to give this impractical advice because there seems to be no alternative, and concentrates on the things that he can more obviously do something about -- such as treatment of acute illnesses, preventive immunizations, and latrine construction and other environmental sanitation measures. Nutrition is not neglected because of lack of interest in the problems but because of frustration in attempting to cope with it.
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From page 36... ...
There will not be thousands of children permanently blinded as a result of vitamin A deficiency in Indonesia and other parts of South East Asia as well as, sporadically, some in Africa and Latin America. Application of present knowledge of enrichment procedures would eliminate pellagra from Yugoslavia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa where it is still prevalent, and beriberi from the countries of South East Asia.
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From page 37... ...
This is one approach to evaluating the food needs of a country but it is not entirely realistic. The market at that time already appeared saturated with milk -- at 20 cents per quart, with chicken -- at over $1.00 per pound, and with eggs -- at prices as high as 8 FOODS MILK EGGS MEAT LEGUMES VEGETABLES FRUITS BANANAS and PLANTAINS ROOTS and TUBERS CEREALS FATS and OILS SUGAR PRODUCTION DEFICIT Y///A MET '////////////////77A 26% '///////////////X 34% 50% '///////////////A 35% 'DATA NOT AVAILABLE V//////////////A '///////////////A 36% 35% 12% Y///////\ 68% 29% 162% V//////////////X 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% FIGURE 1.
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From page 38... ...
I have tried to point out the mass disasters which are occurring daily in technically underdeveloped countries and about which something can be done through application of the measures described in this symposium. I have no doubts as to the adequacy of the means available now and in the future for solving the nutrition problems of technically underdeveloped areas, but I am deeply concerned as to whether we will apply them in time.
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From page 39... ...
When an agreement is signed which puts United States technicians in control of the entire agricultural research and extension of a foreign country and then they and the national personnel working with them are prohibited from doing research or giving advice on crops competitive with those in surplus in the United States, local nationals are understandably dismayed. A disposal of United States surpluses abroad in ways that sound magnanimous but which actually interfere with the development of a country's capacity to feed itself, do not really deceive local leaders.
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From page 40... ...
Only if both industrial organizations and educational institutions in the more highly developed countries recognize the urgency of the problems and make more rapid progress toward understanding and helping to meet the needs of technically underdeveloped areas, will the advances in knowledge which you have heard discussed this morning have the dramatic and incalculably desirable effects which have been optimistically described. SUMMARY In summary, I am very pleased to have been asked to talk about implications of food science and technology for technically underdeveloped areas because they are dramatic and can be far reaching.
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From page 41... ...
Cravioto Munoz Algunos aspectos de crecimiento y desarrollo en el nino mexicano.
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