Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
There are probably macroeconomic policies, trade accords, and other large-scale
interventions that will play a role in abolishing malnutrition, but before and after
such measures come to pass, considerable progress will be made by thousands of
more modest individual and collective efforts: region by region, village by village,
child by child. A diverse range of projects, from short-term limited efforts to lifetime
commitments, will all contribute, some because of, many more in spite of national
and international scale policies.
This chapter surveys successful examples of bringing what we know about food
production, affordability, availability, and distribution in rural and urban areas of
developing countries to bear on wiping out undernutrition. More universal success
will require interventions involving funding, educating, and developing community
efforts in nutrient-rich plant and animal production for home consumption and for
sale of products in the local market. Success of such efforts will benefit from finan-
cial services, often through governments, foundations, and private investments. But,
while these obvious traditional routes to development have helped in the past, your
new ideas and methods will be required to complete the job. Food systems need to be
established for and by the people who need them in such a way that they are resistant
to changes in government, economics, and whatever type of assistance is fashionable
at any given time.
Although price rises in staple foods of plant origin have caused some recent prob-
lems around the world, the dominant type of malnutrition observed worldwide in
the last 20 years has been due to the quality, not the quantity, of food. A lack of
micronutrients (such as available iron, iodine, vitamin A, vitamin B
12
) (Demment
et al. 2003) and, in some cases, protein quality have become the leading concerns
for nutritionists and poor families around the world. Some of these nutrient needs
can be partially met by plant food sources, but the best predictor of healthy growth
(Grillenberger et al. 2003), cognitive development (Whaley et al. 2003), and freedom
from micronutrient and amino acid deficiency is the amount of animal source foods
(ASFs) in the diets of children (see also Chapters 11 and 12).
Possibilities exist for improving nutrition, particularly in children, in low-income
families in developing countries by increasing availability of ASFs through encour-
aging meat and milk production in rural communities. But, as valued as ASF is in
the diet, many people cannot afford it and have found multiple barriers to getting it
for their children. This chapter presents examples of some cases for which barriers
have been identified and overcome with positive results for the nutrition of children
around the world, as well as the most important case histories of all: your own proj-
ects that may not yet exist.
Example 1: Dr. Stephen Wanja
Stephen Wanja was a physician who spent most of his career in western Kenya at
Fudumi. Dr. Wanja was born near the coast of Kenya into the Giriama tribe, was
educated in both Kenya and in northern Europe, and performed his work among the
Abaluhya people, principally the Tiriki. When Dr. Wanja came to Fudumi, he chose
as his clinic site a few acres of steep, depleted, eroded, seemingly useless soil. As the
early years progressed, he healed those people who came for medical assistance, and
