The world food problem: Tackling the causes of undernutrition in the ThirdWorld, 2nd edition

摘要

In this second edition of the well-received work by Phillips Foster published in 1992, Foster and Leathers present a very broad approach to the analysis of the world food problem. It is explicitly interdisciplinary: 'we have drawn on the fields of nutrition science, economics, demography, agronomy, history, anthropology, philosophy, and public policy analysis' (p. xiv) in order to deal with the challenge of the world hunger/problem. Based on this general promise, the book contains three major parts. The authors start in Part 1 with definitions and facts on malnutrition. Part 2 deals with 'Causes of Undernutrition', and Part 3 covers 'Policy Approaches to Undernutrition'. Four types of malnutrition are distinguished in Part 1' (i) overnutrition; (ii) secondary malnutrition; (iii) micronutrient malnutrition; and (iv) proteincalorie malnutrition. Foster and Leathers concentrate in most of their book on protein-calorie malnutrition, as this 'is a major source of nutrition-related disease' (p. 18) in developing countries. When the impacts of undernutrition are discussed, the authors elaborate clearly that measurement is difficult as, e.g., 'body size is the product of heredity and environment' (p. 37). Therefore, it is not easy to decide what is normal and which reference group is appropriate in order to conclude that an individual has a nutrition problem. Often-used anthropometric measures like height-for-age or weight-for-height must be regarded with such reservations. Nevertheless, anthropometric measures of undernutrition like clinical, biochemical or dietary assessments of nutritional status are crucial. They are discussed in Part 1 as are measures of aggregate nutritional status in a society like food balance sheets and associated per-capita food intake. Furthermore, a compact survey of the extent and development of undernutrition in the world is given. It clearly shows important facts and trends like the decreasing proportion of undernourished people in the world, the failure of the Malthusian view in a worldwide context, the seasonality of undernutrition, the vulnerability of children and females to undernutrition, and the concentration of undernutrition in rural areas and in parts of Asia and Africa.