Sarah+Sam's+Food+Distribution+&+Scarcity+Research+Notes

Before you read my notes I think you should know that my notes or my thesis is that food scarcity revolves greatly around a few factors, one of them being the environment. Because of the recent conditions of a changing climate it is one of the main contributing factors to food scarcity. The location and poverty are also huge factors but the environment still remains my main point. The following notes will expand in the future so please keep an eye out for any updates as my notes right now contain much about the environment but will expand on location and poverty as factors. Enjoy, Sarah Sam Bray Kingissepp
 * __Overview:__**


 * __An Introduction to the history of food:__** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNezTsrCY0Q&feature=related

• Researching the environment and it’s effects on the environment and how that is effect the types of food that can be raised or grown in the area’s that have such food scarcity • What types of animal/crop was once avalible for eating in these parts? Was it always like this?
 * __Brain storming__**


 * __Question:__** Does food scarcity actually exist?

(Five themes of geography ties in with statement/question.)


 * __Layout__:** Have a hypothesis or a question, do research and formulate your idea’s and create an opinion. Create a presentation that can be presented to a large audience and keep them interested. Make connections but don’t get too lost in them

Explain food. AREAS: North America, Asia. Explain the locations and place and how they relate to food EX. Soils, Climate and weather and oceans and water, irrigation. Human factors that hinder food, Costs, inforstructure, irragation. Ex. Buying local.
 * Food**-> why do some have it and some don’t?

Ending: Thoughts and idea’s for the future.

1. If the number of people that can afford food in the world declines won’t that effect a lot of people because then the farmers won’t be able to make enough money to support their families? Or will that make so much money because they have the food? Or will the farmers just be able to support themselves. 2. More money- US desserts compared to African sahara deserts. More money more resources.
 * __Connection:__**

1. I need a question, how do I sum up my many question in to one bigger questions that offers that deeper thought? 2. When I am presenting this later on, how should I present it? 3. What key words should I use to research on food scarcity? 4. Why are people in Africa starving? Is the food to expensive there as well? 5. Specifically to the people living in the northern Yukon, Why are they still up there? How did the original native people live there? How are they sustaining themselves now? 6. For the food scarcity in Canada, why is there not more quality control? 7. Does poverty/income have to do anything with the malnourished?
 * __Questions__**

Total number of people that remain hunger today: 841 million. • This number will increase as the population grows. • Our food comes from three different places: waterways, range ways and crops. • Over fishing and hunting from the increased population has caused over fishing and over hunting, not enough rebound time. • Food scarcity has to do somewhat with poverty, 1.3 billion people make under a dollar a day, most of these people in rural area’s. • The people in poverty try to but land but cannot because they can’t afford it or their plots of land become smaller and smaller as the population rises and can no longer grow enough food to feed their families. • Poverty also happened from people taking advantage of farmers selling their crops at such low prices but know as the depletion starts to increase because of such factors as poverty or climate the situation will be vice versa and the people who enjoyed low prices will have to pay higher prices because these crops become so rare.
 * __Food Scarcity globally (__**Greenhaven Press: //Global resources.// Michigan, 2003.)


 * __Global Warming and Food Shortages__** (West, Larry. //Environmental issues blog: Billions of people face food shortages due to global warming.// 2009.)

• As the population doubles by the end of the century there will be less food now because of rising temperatures reduce crop yields in the tropics alone. • That means billions of people will be without food worldwide by 2100. • "You can let it happen and painfully adapt, or you can plan for it,” said David Battisti, a scientist at the University of Washington who led the study. “You could also mitigate [climate change] and not let it happen in the first place, but we're not doing a very good job of that." • The Kyoto Protocol (See notes below) was put in place to help us as a planet protect earth. They have made very little progress. • If we don’t work together as an earth we will all perish because not only are we losing food, we are also losing water and air. • Half the worlds population could face severe food shortages by the end of this century as a rising temperature shorten the growing season in the tropics and sub tropics, increase the risk of drought and reduce the harvests of dietary staples such as rice and maize from 20% to 40% according to an article published in the journal science. • Between the rapid population growth and the rise in temperatures the number of crops are decreasing because the area’s that produce these crops can not accommodate these changes. • By 2100 there is a 90% chance that the coolest temperature in the tropics will have higher growing seasons than the hottest temperatures recorded in those regions through 2006. • We can expect the record high temperatures to become the norm worldwide. • The population is expected to double by the end of the century. • End result -> not good. • The Kyoto Protocol is an amendment to the united nations framework convention on climate change. • This is an international treaty intended to bring countries together to reduce global warming and to cope with the effects of temperature increase. • This protocol was originated in Kyoto Japan. • The goal of this protocol is to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions to 5.2% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. • Currently most of the world has ratified with this protocol. • Currently the United States declined though and is created 25% of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions. Australia also declined.
 * __Billions of people face food shortages due to global warming, study warns__ **
 * __Kyoto Protocol__ **

• 975,000,000 are hungry right now. • Prices between the farm and the prices paid by the consumers has increased significantly over the past few years. • “The crisis illustrated the unsustainability of a global food system which may be good at producing large amounts of food but that is neither socially nor environmentally sustainable.” • Farmers have to leave their fields to seek work in larger cities. Wouldn’t this cause the decline of food production thought because not as much food is being grown? Wouldn’t this technically send us in a backward spiral? • The agricultural field hasn’t been able to recover from the larger demand in oil. Everyone was so focused on producing oil and making money that there were not enough people to produce this food. • People are becoming more obese because it is easier to import/buy processed food than it is to buy/import than fruits or vegetables because they either go bad before they reach their destination or the inability to import them. • We are encouraged as a society to buy locally because when we buy locally we support our farmers and by doing so we don’t force them into leaving their farms to go work in cities. • 2.1 billion people, 500 million households depend on small scale farming for their livelihood. A majority of them are hungry because more expensive food and lower prices on their produced agriculture forces them to cut back on food are cut the more expensive foods out of their diet completely. • Producing the food is very important but shouldn’t be too over produced. There are factors that get in the way of producing that food; such as, population growth, shifting diets, climate change, and increased competition for crops for food, deed and fuel. • So producing food is important but the real problem is that the food produced is equally amongst everyone after it’s produced. • Feeding everyone equally and helping out in times of crisis (Ex. Environmental disasters) is high priority considered by the Agriculture Organization (FAO). • This third track, we can’t reduce it because it poses a huge risk. • “[This] ‘third track’ to improve governance or to the removal of institutional obstacles to the implementation of strategies to achive food security which would risk failing, for instance, because of corruption at the local level or because of the inability of the central government to impose its will on autonomous provinces.” • Two things about this: First it devalues the notion of the right to food as a human right. Second, in the current efforts to address the global food crisis, the right to food should not simply be a ‘third track’ supplementing the two other tracks; this should guide our efforts not simply shadow them. • The first track of this protcol: Short term support. Second Term: Rural development and support agriculture. • The vulnerable consist of three groups – Small scale farmers, Self employed food producers (Ex. Fisher Folk), and the urban poor. • Poverty consists of mainly of those who live in the country -> Mainly small scale farmers. • 1.2 billion slum dwellers are highly effected because they have to buy all the food they consume -> can’t have a garden to plant the food. • 700 million men and women who are agricultural workers can’t afford the food they sell. • 20% of the food workers are ‘landless laborers’ meaning they are willing to work but can’t find somewhere to settle/someone else to work with. • They rely on seasonal or temporary wages for basic survival. • “A rights-based approach to the global food crisis would require that we pay equal attention to all of these categories, and that we ensure that their entitlements are adequately protected: since hunger is a result, not too little food being produced, but marginalization and disempowerment of the poorest, who lack the purchasing power they need to procure the food that is available, guaranteeing such a protection should be a top priority. “ • 58 governments ratified to the conclusions of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology of Development. They review notes that say things like the newest farming technology is helping larger farmers but need to help the weaker groups like the small scale farmers. • Some improvements are being made. The green revolution was developed in 1943 in Latin America after 1943 and launched in 1960 in South Asia. • This made some improvements in short term but held nothing for them in long term. • To avoid a repeat another Green Revolution is being avoided yet food scarcity has not been dealt with directly by the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology of Development since then. • The governments of Tanzania and Malawi have taken huge steps to stop food scarcity.
 * __Harvard Article: The right to food.__ **
 * Important: It doesn’t matter how much food people produce it matters how expensive it is so third world families can afford this food. **

• 1.3 million people in Malawi who did not have food before will benefit greatly from the huge steps their government has taken. -> the people whose ability to produce food will be increased with a a investment of scarce cash • International trade is checking security on the right to food. •There is a theory that most of the worlds trading systems is heavily reliant on the more developed countries in the world. • Part of the reason small scale farmers are having such difficulties with selling their food is because the don’t have enough access to the international trading market. • More difficulties small scale farmers have in countries like Argentina are: lack of infastructures, insufficient storage facilities, and insufficient rural extension services. (Insecure rights on the land they farm.) • Countries with many small scale farmers like Argentina and Uruguay suffer from import surges (Bigger countries who can afford to import more food to more developed countries). If they can’t protect themselves the country dies. It’s like a never ending circle. First they farm and they need to sell and export what they can to make money but they need money first to actually do these things. • Because the country of Africa doesn’t have very good soil they can only plant and export things like cotton, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, and tea and sugar. (all processed goods) • Even though south Africa is the biggest exporter of processed foods in Africa, they only had a global trading share of 1% from 2001 to 2005. • As the thought of trade increase the amount of agricultural resources does as well. • “ the right to adequate food is not a slogan. It imposes obligations on states and non-state actors alike which are grounded in international law. Putting it at the center of our response to the global food crisis not only enriches our toolkit, providing us with a policy tool additional to trade and fiscal policies, the regulations of markets, or the development of social safety nets. It also leads us to fundamentally rethink the nature of the challenge we are facing, and what it requires to make progress towards addressing it.”

• Walmart is making changes to try and sell more locally grown food. • Some of walmarts food is a lot fresher than some whole foods • Walmart does things like buy organic milk because smaller local stores can’t afford to buy it anymore.
 * __The great grocery smackdown__**

• Until the industrial revolution things like dying from child birth were completely common. • The new technology developed in this era helped common problems resolve themselves. • 1 out of every 6 people don’t meet the basic human needs everyday. • They get by on one dollar or less • 20,000 people who are living in poverty die every day. • “ Extreme poverty could become a thing of the past in a few decades if the affluent countries of the world pony up a small percentage of their wealth to help out the planets 1.1 billion indigent populations out of conditions” • Progressions in poverty will not be made until we fix the environment CONNECTION -> Countries that depend mainly on farming have no way of fixing their poverty until they can farm so they can make money because how much they farm depends the environment. • Countries that are quite poor don’t have the resources to invest in their own education or health care systems. • Diseases can manifest them selves from things such as the environment or poor nutrition…. • To treat these disease from nutrition and enironment they need an individual diagnosis. To get this diagnosis the effected go to the city’’s for treatment. This cause more urbanization because people flock to the cities. • Countries with ‘poor governance’ often can’t provide things like medical care. • A study has proven that countries with stable government are more often able to make more progress to ending poverty because they can offer more programs to change that. • A professor from Colombia University did a study that proves that countries that are ridden with disease like malaria have a harder time developing than countries that have the resources to change that. • Geographic factors shape a countries economic fate •If the average income rises it doesn’t mean that everyone’s income rises because most incomes are not distributed evenly. • The Himalayas are a great place to farm because of the monsoon climate and the mass river sister. The water filters into the soil and makes it rich and ideal for farming. This is how Asia escaped it’s great poverty and started the green revolution. • The green revolution spurred the labor force to go seek work manufacturing things in the cities and spurred urban growth. • This spurred more growth because people were having less children and were more able to put money towards things like healthcare and education for their children which allowed for more skilled workers as the population matured. • Africa did not experience such a green revolution. They lacked the massive floodplains that Asia had. Irrigation was not as cheap. Asia succeeded so well because their main crop was wheat or rice paddys and they require a lot of water which Asia had because of their monsoon season. • Since the green revolution Asia has actually been falling in the amount of food produced. Africa has the lowest caloric intakes in the entire world. • The fact that Africa is very venerable to tropical disease doesn’t help. Because of their tropical climate, misquotes find it very comfortable there and transmit malaria to the African population. Malaria is very intensely transmitted in Africa. • Also, most people live in eastern Africa because that’s were the best soils for agricultural farming can be found there, but the major ports and transportation routes are no were there. • This problem also applies to other impoverished parts of the world such as Andea and Central America highlands and the landlocked countries of central Asia. • Because they are economically isolated they have trouble finding foreign investors because of the high shipping costs. The only thing foreign investors will take are precious minerals, oils and gases. • There is a visoucs cycle of poverty, illness, illiteracy and hunger because no one will pay the high transportation costs. • There are ways to solve the problems such as malaria (Bednets and indoor pesticides) but all of these solutions cost money that these countries don’t have. • Bigger countries such as china have better conditions because they make enough money in the urban area’s in order to support small scale farmers in rural area’s. • Most of today’s prosperous countries have received financial aid from other countries at crucial times. • The cost in improving the living conditions in tropical Africa would only be about $ 110 if everyone contributed evenly but most of the population makes about $350 per year; most of which they need to keep for survival. • Even if we only donated $110 dollars a year per person in Africa that would make a massive difference. • In total, the continent Africa gets about 80 billion dollars from across the world. Even though this seems like enough, it’s only about half of what they actually needs to make real improvements. • “When polled, Americans greatly overestimated how much foreign aid the U.S. gives-by as much as 30 times.” • ‘Here is a breakdown of the needed investment for three typical low-income countries to help them achieve the millennium development goals. For all nations given aid, the average total annual assistance per person would come to around $110 a year. These investments would be financed by both foreign aid and the countries themselves.’ Hunger || $ 19 $ 7 || $ 14 $ 8 || $ 5 $6 ||
 * __Can Extreme poverty be eliminated?__**
 * Investment Area || Ghana || Tanzania || Uganda ||
 * Education
 * Gender Equality || $3 || $3 || $3 ||
 * Health || $ 25 || $35 || $ 34 ||
 * Water Supply and sanitation || $8 || $7 || $5 ||
 * Improving slum conditions || $2 || $3 || $2 ||
 * Energy || $15 || $16 || $12 ||
 * Roads || $10 || $22 || $20 ||
 * Other || $10 || $10 || $10 ||
 * Total || $100 || $117 || $106 ||

• “We believe that these investments would enable the poorest countries to cut poverty in half by 2015 and, if continued, we could eliminate it all together by 2025.” •If we don’t contribute now the situations will only become worse as the terrorists attacks to increase and famine and disease will worsen more in to it’s spiraling state.

Explain food. AREAS: North America, Asia. Explain the locations and place and how they relate to food EX. Soils, Climate and weather and oceans and water, irrigation. Human factors that hinder food, Costs, infrastructure, irrigation. Ex. Buying local.
 * Food**-> why do some have it and some don’t?

Ending: Thoughts and idea’s for the future.

more money- US desserts compared to African sahara deserts. More money more resources.

TO DO: Research the climate and conditions of Africa, Asia and North America. • Finish reading articles for facts and quotes. • Research Green Revolution. • Look up flood plains

Greenhaven Press: //Global resources.// Michigan, 2003.
 * Sources:**

West, Larry. //Environmental issues blog: Billions of people face food shortages due to global warming.// Web February 25 2010.

West, Larry. //What is the Kyoto Protocol?// Web February 25 2010.

De Schutter, Oliver. //The Right to Food//. Harvard Journal, 2009.

Kummer, Corby. //The Great Grocery Smackdown.//

D. Sachs, Jeffrey. //Can extreme poverty be eliminated?// September 2005.