World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 105

World Food Policy

II - What are the underlying “caus- market” (PLoS Medicine Editors 2012). In
es” of food and nutrition insecuri- particular, multinational food companies
are targeting disadvantaged communities
ty?
2.1 - A complex and uneven nutrition
transition makes global policy prescriptions
elusive

T

in low-income countries with energy
dense, nutrition supplemented food
which can encourage calorie rich, micronutrient poor diets (Monteiro and Cannon
2012). In this sense, the co-existence of
obesity and underweight “may be linked
to the same forces that drive reduction
in malnutrition” (Hammond and Dube
2013, 12356). These forces include
major food processors and westernstyle food retailers which make access to
energy dense foods relatively accessible
and affordable, as well as development
agencies keen to increase caloric intakes.

In addition, several twentieth
century “advances” in agricultural
development and food processing have
turned out to be detrimental to health
because highly processed, energy-dense
foods, and beverages are consumed in
excessive quantities and can displace the
consumption of healthier alternatives
such as whole grains, cereals, fruits, and
vegetables. Such “advances” in agricultural
development and food processing include:

he nutrition transition” is not a
singular unfolding of changes
to dietary patterns. Rather, it is a
two or even three-phase, and often overlapping, process. The initial phase of the
transition—movement from famine and
restricted dietary quality and diversity—
is generally health promoting. The second
phase—from dietary diversity to diets low
in fruits and vegetables and high in meat,
fat, salt, and sugar is health depleting
(Popkin 2002).

Phase 2 of the nutrition transition,
to more energy-dense nutrient poor
diets, is spreading rapidly: “The ’Western
diet’ has also moved into the North,
South and East. [Nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases, once seen as a
burden of affluent classes, now impact
every socio-economic group at every level of
macro-economic development. Disparities
• High levels of red meat consumption—
within groups… present their own inherent
particularly of ruminant animals—
challenges” (Nazmi and Monteiro 2013,
has been associated with some non571). Furthermore, Phase 2 is being
communicable diseases such as
experienced by ever greater numbers,
colorectal cancer (Friel et al. 2009).
with China witnessing a 400 percent
• The intake of concentrated fructose
increase in obesity prevalence over the
products (the basis of many “soft
last 20 years (APCS 2006).
drinks”) has become a health risk in

Corporate economic imperatives
a context of diets that already provide
contribute to the spread of Phase 2: a finite
excess calories (Simopoulos, Bourne,
aggregate demand for food at any one
and Faergeman 2013).
time exists within a context of saturated
• Diets are tending to be low in omega-3
markets leading firms within concentrated
fatty acids and high in omega-6 fatty
food supply chains to engage in a highly
acids (Simopoulos, Bourne, and
competitive process of “growing the
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