Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
text of this rapidly altered food environment. hird, the nutritional ignorance whih
was irrelevant to our ancestors is now a source of vulnerability for those who can
afford the latest processed food diets, whih are accompanied by health claims of du-
bious merit and often based on highly reductive nutrition science. Indeed, many of
the nutritional supplements whih are swallowed by aluent populations have been
separated from their evolutionary context, with a corresponding diminution in their
nutritional values and, even, with the potential to harm. Fourth, the steady degrad-
ation of natural resources causes food yield declines along with an erosion in the
nutrient qualities in those foods whih are produced, to the extent that nutrient sup-
plementation becomes inevitable.
These four interacting trends are well encapsulated by what Karl Marx referred
to as the 'metabolic rift' (Foster 1999). Essentially, Marx was describing a 'robbery
system' by whih public goods (e.g. soil, natural resources, natural climate) are ap-
propriated by those with the greatest economic power to produce private goods and
more capital, whih in turn consolidates inequality. We support this proposition by
describing the implications of the metabolic rift for producer and consumer com-
munities. If the metabolic rift does apply, then the future of nutritious food supplies
is precarious indeed, with all but the very rih becoming vulnerable to shortages in
the dietary diversity that is fundamental to 'good nutrition'. he hapter concludes
by noting that when regional food security frameworks gloss over the distinction
between energy and nutritional security, they are ignoring the complex ecology of
nutritious diets.
Nutrition security: beyond energy and nutrients
Food security is generally considered to be met by the ingestion and absorption
of two principle kinds of food elements: sufficient calorific energy and adequate
amounts of the known essential nutrients ahieved through dietary diversity. Most
industrialized countries, especially if intervening in the market economy, could com-
fortably guarantee a national food supply providing adequate quantities of macro
and micro-nutrients. In most industrial market economies, these two haracteristics
are accessible for a majority of the population. While poorer sub-populations can
readily access the relatively affordable energy-dense foods, many are culturally, fin-
ancially and socially excluded from sufficient dietary diversity (Hawkes, 2006), and,
as a result, suffer from micro-nutrient shortfalls that are injurious to health. Due
to rising food prices, the number of suh people rose signiicantly in 2008, and sur-
