Course: WVA 103 Fermentation Methods

Reading

(2/3)
Malnutrition and Food Waste

By the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Students will read information presented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The journal article, State of Food and Agriculture 2013: Food Systems for Better Nutrition, maintains that improving nutrition and reducing agricultural costs begins with food and agriculture producers. The traditional role of agriculture in producing food and generating income is fundamental, but agriculture and the entire food system – from inputs and production, through processing, storage, transport and retailing, to consumption – can contribute much more to the eradication of malnutrition. Malnutrition imposes high costs on society. FAO’s most recent estimates indicate that 12.5 percent of the world’s population (868 million people) are undernourished in terms of energy  intake, yet these figures represent only a fraction of the global burden of malnutrition. An estimated 26 percent of the world’s children are stunted, two billion people suffer from one or more micro-nutrient deficiencies and 1.4 billion people are overweight, of whom 500 million are obese. Most countries are burdened by multiple types of malnutrition, which may coexist within the same country, household or individual.