The Ever-Expanding Latitude of the World

To my lunch,

When making a trip to the bookstore I always pass the magazine section to see if I can discreetly check up on the current relationship status of Brad and Angelina by just glancing at headlines (you see this way I just keep my curiosity casual instead of borderline obsessive). Recently, as I was doing a quick walk-by, the special issue of Scientific American on "FEAST and FAMINE: The Global Paradox of Obesity and Malnutrition" caught my eye before I reached the US Weekly section. The bold headline, a picture of a global hamburger, and a quick flip through cemented my interest and the magazine was effectively sold.

According to most of the articles within the covers, the world is fat. I knew America was fat, I knew certain places in Canada were fat, but I didn't know that currently the number of overweight people is significantly greater than those who are underweight. In fact, studies estimate that 1.3 billion people are overweight while 800 million still go hungry. This transformation - the shift from undernutrition to overnutrition - is called the the nutrition transition and has literally happened overnight (well, within a generation).

Developing countries are the significant players on both sides of the scale (har dee har har). Famine and food insecurity are rooted in a wide variety of causes ranging from lack of good governance to natural disasters. Most often states and communities will become stuck in the poverty trap (see Jeffrey Sachs) and consequently go hungry. On the flip side, countries such as Mexico, China and even Brazil are doing the opposite.

Lifestyle changes and the adoption of more Westernized practices abroad (driving instead of walking, fast food instead of good food etc.) have created an obesity epidemic. In the aforementioned countries the percentage of adults who are obese have all practically doubled from figures from 10 years ago. For example, in China during 1991, 12.9% of adults were overweight...the figure in 2004 was 27.3%. Furthermore, the price of being fat is become cheaper and cheaper and thus a more favorable option for those on low-budget incomes. A bottle of Fanta is less expensive then a quart of milk, potato chips taste better than a raw carrot, and vegetable oil goes nicely with everything. You get the picture.

It has never been a question of lack of food in the world. It is well-known that there is enough calories on Earth to fill the stomachs of citizens from Chicago to Freetown. Discouragingly the world's belt is poking new notches in all the wrong places, while those starving a literally left in the dust.