Topic 5: Geography of Food

Chapter 11: Food Consumption

Changing Food Preferences In DCs:

(1)Increase Consumption of Healthy Food:

• There is a general increase in the proportion of fats intake in the diet of the
people.
• Increase in consumption of fats result in higher chances of getting heart disease
and diabetes.
• As a result, people start to become more health conscious and are moving away
from high-fat products.

• Moreover, there is also an increase in the consumption of food which are found to
have health benefits. Eg. Increase intake of organic food, increase import of olive
oil. Increase intake of leaner fat(decrease fat intake) as people are more health
conscious.
(2)Increase Consumption of Larger Variety of Food:
• People in DCs are exposed to different type of food around the world.
• Exposure to different food may influence the food preferences of people in that
area.

• It can also result in the modification of food/ development of new food whereby
food are modified to cater to different taste bugs and also developed new dishes
from a combination of food ideas from around the world. Eg. Development of
California rolls which uses cucumber and crabstick instead of raw fishes in sushi.

Changing Food Preferences In LDCs:

(1)Changes in Consumption of Carbohydrate:

• The cereal consumption increased by 40& while consumption of roots and tubers
fell by 8%. This is due to the increase in the variety of non-staple food available.
(2)Increase Consumption of non-staple food:

• Increase intake of meat and fish (protein) and there is a decrease in intake of
carbohydrates in people’s diet.

• This is also due to the increase in popularity of fast food restaurants which offers
a wide range of non-staple food. This is common in the urban areas of the LDCs.
Eg. About 54% of the people in Philippines eat as fast food chains at least once a
week.

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Topic 5: Geography of Food
Chapter 11: Food Consumption
Reasons for Variations In Food Consumption:
(1)Affordability:
• Amount & type of food that a person can buy depends on his purchasing power.

• People in DCs generally have higher purchasing power hence, able to buy enough
food of different variety to meet nutritional needs.

• People in LDCs earn very little hence has less money to buy enough food of
different variety to sustain their nutritional needs.
(2)Stability:
• Food Security: A situation where people are able to obtain enough food of
acceptable quality and variety at all times.
• It is important to have a stable amount of food available for human consumption.
• Food Security is obtained by producing enough food to sustain the food demand
of the country’s population.

• Most country achieves food security by importing sufficient food from other
countries at the same time.
• Natural factors such as natural disasters can affect food stability as large areas of
crop land are destroyed.

• Similarly, human factors such as war destroy large area of crop land.
(3)Accessibility:
• How well the place is connected affects the movement of food in the area.
• With high accessibility, natural barriers can be crossed to transport food. Eg. With
airplanes, people can fly over mountains.

• In DCs, there are convenience stores, fast food chains & supermarket
everywhere, food is easily available to all and also offers a large variety of food.

• In LDCs, fast food outlets or convenience stores are found only in the urban
areas. There are fewer shops selling food in the rural areas and the variety of
food is limited.

• Globalisation of food will result in food companies of other countries wanting to

expand its business by opening chains in other countries. Their marketing
campaigns to introduce their food might cause an increase in their demands.
Hence more variety and quantity of food available.
• Trading allow people of different countries to gain access to food that cannot be
grown naturally in their own country.

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Topic 5: Geography of Food
Chapter 11: Food Consumption
Impact of Variations in Food Consumption:

Starvation:
• Due to the people not receiving enough energy from their diet as there is a
severe shortage of food. It is a condition that a person suffers badly due to lack
of food.

• There is not enough food to meet their daily energy needs, hence muscle tissues
are burnt for energy, resulting in the people becoming skeletally thin. It can
cause organs damages or even death in a long run.
Malnutrition:

• This condition occurs when a person consumes an imbalanced amount of

nutrients over a period of time, resulting in the lack of important nutrients
• This can be found in the people of DCs as well as LDCs.

• Low purchasing power of in a LDC and poor harvest can lead to having not
enough food and variety of food with enough nutrients for its citizen.

• However, in a DC, some people have too strong a desire to be thin resulting in
them having eating disorder such as anorexia and bulimia. They either starve
themselves or vomit out the food that they had just eaten. This results in the lack
of nutrients being absorbed into the body. They become abnormally thin.
• Malnutrition can cause the person to weaken the person’s immune system,
making them more susceptible to illnesses.

• It may also cause rickets in young children.(Due to the lack of Vitamins D &
Calcium) Forming of poor bones and teeth.

• Also cause anaemia, due to the lack of iron in diet. Blood unable to provide
enough O2, hence become tired easily.

Obesity:
• Affect DCs in a larger scale.

• In DCs, the people have high variety food to buy and purchasing power, hence
when they consume much more nutrients than the body can use, the excess
nutrients are stored as fats.
• Increase consumption of snacks and junk food.
• Lead to health problems such as hypertension, diabetes.

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Topic 5: Geography of Food
Chapter 11: Food Consumption
Response to Variations in Food:
International Organisations:
• World Food Submit organised in 1996 to end world hunger.

• They developed programmes to provide people with food. Eg. WFP ‘food for work’
project in Somalia, whereby important farming facilities are built. Payment is in
terms of food.

• At the same time, they are able to improve on the country’s farming
infrastructure. By doing this, the LDCs will then not be too dependent on foreign
aids.

• The farming infrastructure built can increase job opportunities for its citizens
(leading to higher purchasing power) and at the same time, maintain the
availability of food for its citizens.

• This is a good way to help the LDCs rather than sponsoring the country with food
and medical aid directly.

Government Responses-Food Subsidies:

• The government could provide food subsidies by selling food at a lower price.
However this is only a short term solution and in a long run, causes a heavy
burden on the government.

• A better solution is to spend the money on reducing the cost of education for
children or to poor people so that they can learn skills which can help them gain
employment. It may be long process and requires much more money.
• The poor would then not be too dependent on government subsidies on food.
• The vicious cycle of poverty could then be broken.

Government Responses-Stock Piling:

• This involves setting aside and storing food and countries are recommended to
stock pile enough food to last its population for 3mths which is the approximate
time taken for new food supply to be obtained.
• Expensive storage place are build to enable the food to last longer. It is therefore
more common in the DCs,
• LDCs cannot afford the cost to build the storage facilities, furthermore, they
might not be able to buy enough food to stockpile or their harvest might not be
enough.

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Topic 5: Geography of Food
Chapter 11: Food Consumption
Food Producers in LDCs
• The LDCs depends a lot on food production on their livelihood.

• Food produced could be sold or exported to other countries so earn profits.

• Non-staple food are usually not grown in DCs, hence the DCs are willing to pay
more to import them into the country.

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