Food and Development

Some people have too little food and die as a consequence, some people have too much food and die from associated diseases, and some methods of food production create social dislocation and deadly environments where biodiversity is eroded and pollution is rampant. Food, how it is produced, distributed and consumed has more salience at the international level than ever before. While guaranteeing enough food for the world'¬"s inhabitants continues to be a serious challenge, new issues about food have emerged that are causing concern. New problems, associated with the increased levels of obesity, contentious agricultural trading regimes and the environmental sustainability of our contemporary food system are all high on international agendas. This text analyses these diverse food related problems, namely: the continued prevalence of mass under nutrition in the developing world; acute food crises in some places associated with conflict; the emergence of over nutrition in the developing world and the vulnerability of the contemporary global food production system. The most important of these issues are explored with particular reference to their implications for the majority of the world'¬"s population who live in what was traditionally categorised as the '¬Üdeveloping world'¬". The text identifies the major problems and analyses factors at the international, national and local scales to understand their continued prevalence.