What Can Affect the Availability of Food - Research Paper Example

Food systems Introduction As the population increases, it leads to growth of wealth where purchasing power and consumption rate will be high thereafter-increasing food demand. All these will exert pressure to the food supply system. In addition, the population growth reduces self-sufficiency in food, availability of resources standard of leaving and security. Food prices are the indicators of availability of food. This is because when the cost of production is high automatically the prices of food warrants increase to recover the costs used and make a profit. When the food systems are not making any profit out of the food they are producing, they might end up producing little amount of food or not producing completely. This will affect the availability of food. Availability of resources Availability of natural resources like water, land, and energy affects the current food system. Food producers are competing for the scarce natural resources to produce food, which can satisfy the growing population. About 90% of the food supply is coming from the land which becoming scarcer as time goes. Land has been affected by factors like soil erosion and mining making it unproductive leading to little availability of food to the people. The increased infection of diseases and malnutrition has affected most people making them to migrate to urban areas where they can get access to medical facilities. This people in urban areas will rely on food systems for the supply of food thereby exerting pressure to the current food system. Energy is another resource used for food production; energy is used to production of pesticides, irrigation, fertilizers and machines to replace human labour. Technical constraints are another factor affecting food systems. This is because the farmers cannot get accessed to skills and knowledge which are necessary to increase food production. This makes them to incur more expenses when producing food, which will discourage them from participating in food production as the costs incurred, is more than the returns. Transport and market infrastructure are another factor that affects food systems. This is because when the infrastructure is poor, and it is hard to get market for the products, producers will have to incur additional cost of storing the goods in the warehouse when looking for market. In addition, poor road network will increase transport costs. This will discourage production of enough food that satisfy the population, hence, affect the food systems. Food production storage and processing Changes need to be made on the ways food is produced, processed, stored, distributed and accessed. This is achieved by utilising the available resources, for example, when processing food resources are utilized to minimise costs and thereby making greater profits. People and companies who participate in food production should be well educated on ways that they can be accessed to knowledge and skills applied to increase production and minimise costs. For the production of food to increase and reduce the food prices, market and road infrastructure needs to be addressed, as this will motivate producers to increase their capacity of production as they can be accessed to ready market and will have no problem when transporting their products to markets and consumers. Reducing wastes is another solution to the food systems. This is done by introducing well-constructed and managed warehouse where the goods stored in the warehouse await for marketing. It is imperative that, such goods will not be exposed to factors such as theft rain. It is important to note that, rain lead to wastes, and discourages those who participate in the production. Changing diets will also assist in reducing costs and feeding many people and other advantages to food systems. This is achieved by going for foods will a balanced diet and cheap. Cost and accessibility Cost and accessibility of food products, is a determinant of food choice this will depend on the economic and income status of persons. Low-income earners are likely to consume unbalanced diet while high-income earners will consume a balanced diet as they can get any kind of food they feel like eating. In addition, geographical location of shops also determines food choice as this will depend on the resources such as transport for people to access shops. Knowledge and education also determine the food choice as nutrition knowledge makes one to know more on balancing dietary requirements. This will create a big range on the educated people and those not educated in applying knowledge acquired practically to diets. Cultural influences also determines the food choices as the habitual consumption of certain food leads to restrictions of not eating certain food, for example, when moving to another country some foods are avoided. Socialisation also determines food choice as when people interact they can adopt eating habits from each other making them to eat some kind of food and dropping others. In institutions like those that schools where the food eaten is determine by the management makes people to adapt the food they eat frequently. This people when back to their normal homes cannot eat what they used to eat before but will continue eating the food, they are used to. Psychological stress can also determine the choice of food as the people undergoing stress can eat more and others eat less than usual (Maier & Shobayas, 2001P.140). The food eaten by the stressed person depends on food availability and preparation. Eating disorder is another factor determining the choice of food as different people change their eating habits to achieve the body mass they require. Some people have the desire to improve their body shape or to lose weight, and this will make them to change their eating habits. Food production ensures land is available for the production of food; food production relies on suitable land for agriculture. Land that is more suitable should be accessed to a source of water for irrigation. Therefore, awareness should be raised on the importance of food production, and to continue to protect and preserve land for agriculture. Food policy Developing food policy is important and guides on many issues related food protection, production, and distribution. This plays a key role in promoting healthy eating and improving food systems. Urban food production should be increased to make healthy food affordable and available to communities, connecting people with food and agriculture and a source of healthy food in economic crisis time. Food processing is another avenue; this can be achieved by developing local food processing capacity, which helps to make food producing a form of employment, creating vacancies for jobs in the economy that helps to secure food and health to communities. Moreover, development of healthier products is another strategy of food processing, which help consumers to make healthier choices on the processed food. This calls for identification of healthy food packaging that assist consumers in making healthier choices. Advertising of unhealthy food and beverages should be limited not to reach children to reduce the misuse of unhealthy food by children and make them develop using healthier food. Food distribution: healthy food should be made available to everyone for him or her to make his or her choices easily without moving far. The distribution between producers and consumers help to build food security and demand and it will in turn support consumers. In some communities which are isolated geographically have limited supply and it affects healthy eating and food security. Public health and safety Nowadays the diets are rich in grains, fat, salt, sugar but it lack nutritional content, and this will contribute to various diseases. In addition, as production increases from small scale to large scale, industrial factories are introduced which brings in air, water and soil pollution and contamination. What we can do is to choose organically and locally produced food that does externalise the cost of production on the environment or health. Conclusion In conclusion, what we eat matters as the people need to know where the food they eat come from. Environment: use of fertilizer and chemical to control pests leads to air pollution, deforestation and land degradation leads to water pollution from waste run off. Economy is viewed with respect to the amount of food produced and the consumption. If the distance is far, the intermediaries will benefit in that they will get a chance to increase the price to gather for the transport costs while the consumer, on the other hand, do not benefit in any way but, dip inside their pockets as the costs incurred are forward shifted to them. Reference Maier, L., & Shobayas, M. (2001). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. OECD. Read More