Abstract
This chapter provides an in-depth review of recent and projected trends in global food insecurity and malnutrition. It explores causes and consequences. In addition to a detailed review of the health costs of malnutrition (e.g. compromised physical growth, reduced cognitive function, increased vulnerability to infectious disease), the chapter includes discussion of the economic costs of malnutrition. The chapter concludes with a review of factors that are likely to contribute to malnutrition in the future. These challenges are related to climate change and increased demand for biofuel, and include, inter alia, structural shifts in food and agricultural systems, transboundary movement of disease and widespread land degradation.
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Notes
- 1.
See http://www.wssinfo.org/en/welcome.html, website of the World Health Organization/UN Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation.
- 2.
Underweight: Weight-for-age of two or more standard deviations below the median of the WHO child growth standards.
- 3.
Also referred to as “undernourishment”. See Box 3.1 for a detailed definition.
- 4.
Where the global burden of disease is defined as the total gap between current global health status and an ideal situation where everyone lives into old age in full health.
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Thompson, B., Cohen, M.J., Meerman, J. (2012). World Food Insecurity and Malnutrition: Scope, Trends, Causes and Consequences. In: Thompson, B., Cohen, M. (eds) The Impact of Climate Change and Bioenergy on Nutrition. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0110-6_3
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