INTERNATIONAL NUTRITIONAL CONCERNS

Nutritional concerns in the United States are centered on over nutrition, including fat density and excessive caloric intake.  In contrast, in many areas of the world the main concern is the limited quantity and quality of food.  Reasons for these problems are many, including the weather, the availability of arable land, religious practices, political unrest, war, social infrastructure, and material and technical shortages.  Underlying nearly all of these factors, however, is unabated population growth.

To increase the availability of food to countries demand for food outweighs their ability to produce it, a number of steps have been suggested, including the following:

·         Increase the yield of land currently under cultivation.

·         Increase the amount of land under cultivation.

·         Increase animal production on land not suitable for the production of food.

·         Use water (seas, lakes, and ponds) more efficiently for the production of food.

·         Develop unconventional foods through the application of technology.

·         Improve nutritional practices through education.

Little progress is being made despite impressive technological breakthroughs in agriculture and food technology (such as a wide array of genetically modified seeds and soybean-enhanced infant foods), the efforts of governmental programs, and the support of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and the U.S.  Department of Agriculture.  Particularly in Third World countries, where fertility rate are two to four times higher than those of the United States, annual food production needs to increase between 2.7% and 3.9% to keep up with population needs.  With the world population now at 6.1 billion, and projected to reach 9 billion by 2070 before dipping to 8.4 billion in 2100, food production in the coming decades may need to be increased beyond these estimates.