Malnutrition

IPS (Feb 24): "Almost five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition every year in the developing world. Food aid – which mainly contains nutrient-poor carbohydrates - does little to address the absence of a diverse diet that would prevent the condition. Malnutrition is not only triggered by lack of food, as is commonly assumed, but also by poor nutritional quality. It is particularly prevalent in areas such as the Sahel region, where children have little access to a diverse diet that contains a variety of minerals, proteins and vitamins. ..."Small-scale farming has a woman’s face," said IFAD senior technical advisor on gender and household food security, Annina Lubbock. "Women produce 60 percent to 80 percent of the world’s food, yet their work remains largely unrecognised."
"Paradoxically, most of the hungry are those who produce food," agreed Thomas. "To address the root cause of the food crisis, we need to support small-scale farmers and livestock owners."" Read more.