Useful website for Life on the Margins (Unit 4, Year 13)

World Disasters Report 2011- Focus on hunger and malnutrition



This year’s World Disasters Report focuses on the growing crisis of hunger and malnutrition. Smallholder farmers who produce half the world’s food are among the almost 1 billion people who go to bed hungry every night. Millions of children suffer the irreversible effects of undernutrition. Increasing food insecurity weakens people’s resilience to disasters and disease, and people everywhere are experiencing the increasing volatility of food prices.


“ Hunger and malnutrition are the worst enemies of humankind. They deny to children – even at birth – an opportunity for the full expression of their innate genetic potential for physical and mental development. Freedom from hunger is the first requisite for sustainable human security. This will depend upon the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture, as this edition of the World Disasters Report points out. Therefore, if food and nutrition policies go wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right."



– M. S. Swaminathan, an Indian MP

Click on the titleto be taken to the website where you can find the report

Rising food prices affects the poor- useful for Year 13, Unit 4

A report in June 2011 showed that the poor of the world are being affected much more seriously by rising food costs than any other group. Women appear to be harder hit then men as well.

The report says the world is being divided into "losers" and "winners":
"The losers – those already struggling in low-paid, informal sector occupations such as petty trading, street vending, casual construction work, sex work, laundry, portering and transport – are clearly worse off than last year."

Click on the title for further information and look at the links on that webpage for more about food price increases and the effects on people

Click on the photo to be taken to a graph and data about the rising costs of food around the world.

Year 13 - LIfe on the margins (unit 4)

The Foresight group published a report today about food and farming. It may well be looking at bits of it (the executive summary is a sensible starting point). If there's some useful bits in there (maybe a simple quote to add to your exam answer?) it will look good to the examiner as it so current.

Foresight Report (published 24th Jan 2011)

Guardian article on the Foresight report

Telegraph article about the report and warning of food price rises/GM crops

Year 13 Unit 4 pre-release information

Pre-release explore and research information is now available.

To help with the exploration of food production/food security, you may find these links useful:

Feeding Africa article from Dec 2010

Farm Africa website

A rather long document on the Green Revolution in Africa

More about the Green Revolution

Food security in LEDCs

Policies to reduce food insecurity (from UN)

World Food Programme - Purchase for Progress plan (useful case studies)

Are GM crops the solution to food issues in Africa (news story from 7th dec 2010)

Africa can feed itself within a generation (news story from 2nd dec 2010)

The Guardian Food section (useful, up to date information)

Vertical Farming in Urban areas

Trying to achieve food security in Australia (news report from Weds 8th Dec 2010)

FAO - hunger around the world

Don't forget to look at Geofile:
series 25, Issue 3 "Globalisation of food production" (April 2007)
series 27, Issue 2 "Global food production" (Jan 2009)
series 29, Issue 1 "Geopolitics of food" (Sept 2010)
series 29, Issue 2 "Feast or Famine - feeding the worlds people" (Jan 2011 - for some reason it os available now)
All useful but also useful is to look at the bibliographies and see if it can lead you towards further information


A quote for you (dated Tuesday 7th Dec 2010, from the Guardian)

It is great that new research from Harvard University is challenging pessimistic views of Africa as a continent unable to feed itself (Africa can feed itself in a generation, says author, if leaders take up cause, 3 December). However, the expensive and failing technology GM should have no role to play in this – not even selectively. UN research has shown that the adoption of organic and near-organic farming practices in Africa has improved yields by 116%, improved access to food for both farmers and local communities, and raised incomes. The role of agro-ecological farming methods in developing food security was strongly supported in the recent International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development report, written by 400 scientists and approved by 60 countries.

Isobel Tomlinson
Policy and campaigns officer, Soil Association

United Nations calls for united front against hunger on World Food Day

With nearly one billion people still suffering from food shortages around the globe, the world must take a united stand against hunger, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said.

World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on October the 16th  in honour of the date of the founding of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in 1945.


The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of hungry people in the world is a pillar for achieving all eight of the globally-agreed targets with a 2015 deadline, Ban said.
"When people are hungry, they cannot break the crippling chains of poverty, and are vulnerable to infectious diseases," the secretary-general said. "When children are hungry, they cannot grow, learn and develop."
This year alone, Ban said, millions have been pushed into hunger by the earthquake in Haiti, the drought in the Sahel and floods in Pakistan, while the twin food and financial crises continue to affect the world's most vulnerable.
He highlighted the need for global cooperation -- bringing together governments, intergovernmental organizations, regional and sub-regional bodies, business and civil society groups -- to combat hunger.
"Increasingly, their approach is comprehensive," Ban said, covering all aspects of food security, ranging from small farms to feeding schoolchildren.

For more information follow the links below:

Some progress made and some suggestions for the future - including an audio report on the issue

Hunger in Focus: India's Hungry Women and Children Remain a Major Problem

Report Says Hunger Costing Poor Countries Billions

UN Says Global Hunger Remains 'Unacceptably High'

Google news search results about hunger on world Food Day 2010 (search dated Oct 16th)

Ban Ki-Moon speech on World Food Day 2008

Africa's Food Crisis

Tens of millions of people across more than half the states in sub-Saharan Africa need urgent food aid, but the causes are often complex and varied.

Food crises were once primarily triggered by natural disasters like droughts. But according to research by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, man-made causes are increasingly to blame. These include conflict and poor governance, as well as HIV/Aids. Rural poverty, international trade barriers, overpopulation, deforestation, poor use of land and environmental problems can also be factors.

Find out more about Africa's food crisis now