The World Food Problem Toward Ending Undernutrition in the Third World

About this book

Why do millions of people in the less-developed countries go hungry--while there is an abundance of food in the world? What can be done about it? These are the issues explored in this accessible and comprehensive text. In addition to incorporating updated data throughout, this new edition includes: a comprehensive description and analysis of the 2008 food crisis; an expanded discussion of the impact of using food crops to produce biofuels; new case studies and recent examples to illustrate key points; examples of successful and unsuccessful policy approaches; and reference to the latest research findings (with more than 150 new citations). The result is the best available analysis of the current world food problem, as well as a provocative assessment of prospects for the future.

Contents

Introduction

Malnutrition: What Are the Facts?
- Famines
- Malnutrition Defined
- Measuring Undernutrition
- Impacts of Undernutrition
- Undernutrition: Who, When, Where?

Causes of Undernutrition
- Economics and the Concept of Food Security
- It Is Not Food Versus Population
- Income Distribution and Undernutrition
- Other Factors Influencing Demand for Food
- Agricultural Land and Water
- Agricultural Production and the Environment
- Increasing Yields and Input Use
- Increasing Yields and New Technology
- The Interaction Between Health and Undernutrition

Policy Approaches to Undernutrition
- Philosophical Approaches to Undernutrition
- Policies Aimed at Raising the Incomes of the Poor
- Policies Aimed at Demographic Causes of Undernutrition
- Policies Aimed at Lowering the Price of Food through Subsidized Consumption
- Policies Aimed at Improving Access to Food: It's All About Distribution (Isn't It?)
- Policies that Raise Prices Paid to Farmers: Direct Subsidies and Eliminating Urban Bias
- Policies Aimed at Lowering the Price of Food by Increasing the Supply
- World Food Supply and Demand for the next half-Century: Some Alternative Scenarios

Customer Reviews

Biography

Howard D. Leathers is associate professor of agricultural and resource economics and Phillips Foster is professor emeritus of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland, College Park.