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Query: UMLS:C0020175 (hunger)
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Contamination is usually the 1st problem identified when the results of human actions on the environment are considered. However, 2 others are of concern: immoderate population growth and the perenially threatened production of foodstuffs. The miracle of the "green revolution" of the past decade has seen traditional importers of food convert themselves into exporters. The most striking case has been India, where as recently as 1943 a famine killed 1.5 million persons. The 2 pillars of the green revolution are the decreasing diversity of varieties cultivated, with only the most productive utilized, and the use of irrigation. But even with the green revolution, agricultural production between 1984-90 increased by only 1% annually, compared to almost 2% annually for population growth. Use of only a few varieties of basic foods has helped increase productivity because, in addition to being high-yield, they allow the same fertilizers and harvesting machinery to be used, facilitating planting of large areas. Such homogeneity, however, implies great vulnerability if a disease should strike, since the protection of crop diversity is gone. The Irish potato famine of the past century is an example or this type of occurrence. Nor is the use of irrigation without perils. Misuse of irrigation can lead in a relatively short time to salinization and alcalinization of the soil, so that future cultivation is impossible. Soils at risk of erosion are especially vulnerable. Per capita grain production in 1990 was below its past peak in virtually every part of the world. Nevertheless, the measures taken, risky though they have been, were prompted by the need to feed ever larger numbers of persons. Rapid population growth has been estimated to be the cause of 80% of the total loss of vegetable cover. Almost 1/5 of the world's cultivable land may be lost if it is not properly managed. Increased food production has not solved the problem of hunger in the world. It will be necessary for human beings to control their own growth in numbers in order to reduce pressures on the environment.
Profamilia 1991 Dec
PMID:[Comments on population and the environment]. 1228 47

Within 30 years the world will be supplying food for an additional 2.5 billion people, most of whom will live in developing countries. Developing countries in meeting future challenges will need to implement sound and stable macroeconomic and sector policies. The World Bank is providing analysis, policy dialogue, and financial support in specific countries for opening up agricultural markets globally. Developing countries need to enhance food supplies by encouraging rapid technological change, increasing the efficiency of irrigation, and improving natural resource management. Agricultural and income growth in developing countries is dependent upon transfer of the breakthroughs in agricultural technology to the millions of small farms in the developing world. People currently use about 70% of available fresh water for irrigation, and competition for water resources with urban and industrial users has increased. Agriculture and other sectors must increase the efficiency of water use. Natural resource planning and comprehensive water and natural resource management that rely on a community-based approach have proven successful. Developing countries need to improve access to food by strengthening markets and agribusinesses, providing education and health services to both boys and girls, investing in infrastructure, and fostering broad participation. The major challenge ahead is to ensure food security for the hundreds of millions of families living in poverty. This large and complex task involves increasing agricultural output worldwide, reducing poverty, and improving health and nutrition. Progress has been made in the past 25 years in improving living conditions, but not everyone has benefitted. Almost 75% of the poor live in rural areas without access to land, and 25% are urban poor without jobs. Most of the poor live in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank mandate is to reduce poverty and hunger through revitalized rural development.
Finance Dev 1996 Dec
PMID:Rural development, agriculture, and food security. 1229 91

This article presents some findings from an evaluation of the Integrated Rural Nutrition Project (IRNP) in Kawambwa, Zambia. The IRNP was initiated in 1985. The program relied on a multisectoral approach by the Ministries of Health, Education, Agriculture, and Community Development. The program aimed to reduce the rate of malnutrition. Breast feeding was encouraged, and farmers were encouraged to increase production of beans and groundnuts. Extension workers were trained. Findings indicate that nutrition education programs had a significant, positive effect on the nutritional status of children aged under 5 years. The nutrition education component, which aimed at improving knowledge, attitudes, and practices, was more successful than the activities that aimed at increasing food availability. A continuing question was raised by program staff about whether training of extension workers, social marketing, mass education, or direct extension were capable of having an impact on nutrition without addressing food productivity issues. The availability of legumes improved throughout the intervention period. The length of the hunger season was shortened. However, increased food availability did not improve anthropometric measurements, and some children, who were not part of the seed multiplication program, showed improved anthropometric measurements. Children in the intervention area were exposed to better breast-feeding practices: breast feeding for longer periods and fewer introductions to non-milk liquids. After the first month, under 20% of children in the project area and 80-95% in the non-project areas had received breast milk substitutes. Young children in the project area had better weight-for-height, after controlling for wealth, access to services, maternal and paternal education, gender, and age. 3-year-old children in the project area weighed 0.3 of a z-score more than non-project children.
SCN News 1997 Dec
PMID:The Integrated Rural Nutrition Project, Kawambwa, Zambia: successes of a nutrition education programme. 1229 78

The world's population is increasing by 90-100 million every year, and it may double during the next half-century, with most of the added population coming from developing countries. 700 million people are malnourished and 40,000 die of hunger and hunger-related diseases each day. Most of the developing countries are extremely dependent on their renewable resource base to sustain their economic activities. Therefore, environmental changes and the loss of resources has dire implications for developing countries. This includes loss of arable land and lack of water, which lead to decreased food production. An area of about 1.2 billion hectares (almost the size of China and India taken together) has endured modest to severe soil degradation since World War II because of human activity. Air pollution can also directly affect crop production, lowering crop, wheat, soybean, and peanut harvests in the US. Rapid climate change triggered by the greenhouse effect would also inflict disproportionately more suffering on developing countries. The rise in sea levels caused by climatic change may severely affect densely populated coastal areas in China, Egypt, and Bangladesh. The loss of living space and livelihood could lead to the migration of people as it has happened throughout human history. The definition of environmental migrants is controversial and the other terms used include environmental refugees, ecological refugees, and resource refugees. Economic migrants are those who move to economically affluent regions responding to both the push and pull factors. In contrast, environmental migrants are forced to move--as a result of the loss of livelihood and space--to the nearest possible location. The scarcity induced by environmental migration may lead to acute conflict at three levels in the developing society: state vs. state (large-scale trans-border migration may trigger armed conflicts); state vs. group (rapid urbanization); and group vs. group (nativism).
Third World Q 1996 Dec
PMID:Environmental migration and conflict dynamics: focus on developing regions. 1232 Oct 41

In 1997, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and relevant nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) worked to actualize Objective 7.4 of the World Food Summit Plan of Action that asks governments "to clarify the content of the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, as stated in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other relevant international and regional instruments." The Objective also calls for a better definition of the rights related to food security. On May 29, 1997, the FAO Director-General and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) signed a Memorandum of Understanding that created a framework of cooperation on issues related to the right to food. NGOs have crafted a 15-article draft International Code of Conduct on the Human Right to Adequate Food that includes a precise definition of the content of the right to food and indicates the obligations of states and other organizations. The FAO and the office of the UNHCHR plan to mark the 50th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights with a public event recording their joint progress in clarifying and implementing the right to food.
DEEP Dev Educ Exch Pap 1997 Dec
PMID:Developments since the Summit. The right to food. 1232 63

In 1997, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) broadcast its first global television program on the theme of "Food for All" to an audience of approximately 450 million viewers. The objective of "TeleFood" was to raise awareness of the scale of the problem and to encourage solidarity in the fight against hunger. TeleFood raised funds to support the FAO's Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) and similar grassroots projects that target rural people in developing countries. The SPFS project, now operational in 19 countries and being formulated in 32 more, emphasizes national ownership, farmer participation, environmental awareness, and recognition of the role of women in food production and marketing. The 3-year SPFS pilot phase involves 1) small-scale water harvesting, irrigation, and drainage; 2) sustainable intensification of crop production; 3) diversification of production; and 4) removal of policies that impede food security. Results to date include 1) greatly increased maize and potato yields in Bolivia and more modest increases in Nepal; 2) doubled yields of maize and rice in Tanzania; and 3) expansion of the area under low-cost irrigation in Zambia. South-South cooperation is allowing some developing countries to benefit from experience gained in other developing countries. The pilot activities are being funded with an increasing number of "soft" loans from governments and financial institutions.
DEEP Dev Educ Exch Pap 1997 Dec
PMID:TeleFood: a worldwide appeal. 1232 67

Since the mid-1980s, Viet Nam has undergone a shift to a market-based economy, which has energized development activity. The 1993 population policy for the period until 2015 is devoted to fostering a healthy and happy family based on a small family size. It is expected that replacement level fertility will be reached by 2013. Viet Nam's population amounted to 76.7 million persons in mid-1997. Projections are for a population of about 81 million in 2000. The crude birthrate declined from 30.1/1000 persons to 22.8/1000 during 1989-96. The total fertility rate declined from 3.8 to 2.7 children/woman. If the crude birthrate and fertility rate continue to decline, replacement level fertility may be reached by 2005. New policies focus on marriage age, birth spacing, information dissemination, counseling, child and maternal health care, mortality decline, and promotion of small, healthy, and prosperous families. Policies are directed to the reintegration of returning migrants, poverty alleviation, hunger elimination, women's empowerment, and child care and protection. The Viet Nam Family Planning Association is a very large nongovernmental organization providing reproductive health and family planning.
CIRDAP Dev Dig 1998 Dec
PMID:Vietnam: enters new phase of its development. 1232

There is a subpopulation of asthmatic patients with a history of life-threatening asthma (LTA) who have a reduced perception of respiratory loads. The aim of this study was to determine if these patients have a reduced perception of both intrinsic and extrinsic loads. Children with asthma were classified into life-threatening asthma and control asthmatic groups. Perception of extrinsic loads was assessed by magnitude estimation of inspiratory resistive loads. Magnitude estimation was measured with handgrip estimation of resistive load magnitude. Perception of intrinsic loads was by methacholine bronchoprovocation in doses sufficient to a drop to 40% below baseline of forced expired volume in 1 sec (FEV(1)). Chest tightness, breathlessness, and air hunger, as estimated by a Borg scale were, used to rate methacholine perception. Life-threatening asthma subjects had a lower slope than nonlife-threatening asthma subjects for magnitude estimation of resistive loads. Life-threatening asthma patients also had a lower maximum Borg score for all three symptoms. There was no significant difference in magnitude estimation of symptom type.These results suggest that life-threatening asthma subjects have poor perception of extrinsic and intrinsic loads. This suggests that there is a similarity between the sensations elicited by intrinsic and extrinsic loads, allowing for the identification of poor-perceiving patients with either method of assessment and who suffer from life-threatening asthma.
Pediatr Pulmonol 2002 Dec
PMID:Perception of intrinsic and extrinsic respiratory loads in children with life-threatening asthma. 1242 40

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a genetic disorder occurring in 1 of 10,000-16,000 live births and is characterized by excessive appetite with progressive massive obesity as well as short stature and mental retardation. Most patients have GH deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. The causes of the hyperphagia and abnormal GH secretion are unknown. To determine whether ghrelin, a novel GH secretagogue with orexigenic properties, is elevated in PWS, we measured fasting plasma ghrelin concentration; body composition (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry); and subjective ratings of hunger (visual analog scale) in seven subjects (6 males and 1 female; age, 26 +/- 7 yr; body fat, 39 +/- 11%, mean +/- SD) with PWS (diagnosis confirmed by genetic test) and 30 healthy subjects (reference population, 15 males and 15 females; age, 32 +/- 7 yr; body fat, 36 +/- 11%) fasted overnight. All subjects were weight stable for at least 6 months before admission to the study. The mean plasma ghrelin concentration was higher in PWS than in the reference population (307 +/- 164 vs. 109 +/- 24 fmol/ml; P < 0.001), and this difference remained significant after adjustment for percentage body fat (P < 0.001). Plasma ghrelin was also higher (P = 0.0004) in PWS than in five healthy subjects fasted for 36 h. A positive correlation was found between plasma ghrelin and subjective ratings of hunger (r = 0.71; P = 0.008). Furthermore, in subjects with PWS, the concentration of the hormone was not different before and after ingestion of 2 ml and a satiating amount of the same liquid meal (ghrelin concentrations: 307 +/- 164 vs. 306 +/- 205 vs. 260 +/- 134 fmol/ml, respectively; ANOVA for repeated measures, P = 0.56). This is the first evidence that ghrelin, a novel orexigenic hormone, is elevated in subjects with PWS. Our finding suggests that ghrelin may be responsible, at least in part, for the hyperphagia observed in PWS.
J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2002 Dec
PMID:High circulating ghrelin: a potential cause for hyperphagia and obesity in prader-willi syndrome. 1246 37

U.S. adults are now gaining more weight and becoming obese at an earlier age than in previous years. The specific causes of adult weight gain are unknown, but may be attributed to a combination of factors leading to positive energy balance. U.S. food supply data indicate that Americans have had a gradual increase in energy intake since 1970, and that per capita energy intake was 1.42 MJ/d (340 kcal/d) higher in 1994 than that in 1984. In contrast, self-reported physical activity remained constant between 1990 and 1998. Taken together, these data indicate that the increasing trend in U.S. adult weight gain is primarily attributable to overconsumption of energy. Epidemiological and experimental studies in animals and humans provide strong evidence that biobehavioral factors such as dietary variety, liquid (vs. solid) energy, portion size, palatability (taste), snacking patterns, restaurant and other away-from-home food, and dietary restraint and disinhibition influence hunger, satiety and/or voluntary energy intake. When these eating behaviors are consistently experienced either separately or in combination over the long term, they are likely to facilitate overeating. We provide a brief overview of the evidence to date for the role of these biobehavioral factors in contributing to excess energy intake and increases in body weight over time.
J Nutr 2002 Dec
PMID:Biobehavioral influences on energy intake and adult weight gain. 1246 34


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