Food Consumption (The Socioeconomic Aspect)

Abstract

The world food problem is currently the focal point of particular attention. It embraces a broad spectrum of issues, chief among which are: the creation of stable food resources; the correspondence of their volume and structure to the size of the population; the attainment of physiologically sound consumption norms; and the organization of rational food consumption. While the food problem exists in all socioeconomic formations, its nature varies with the different socioeconomic conditions that are to be found. Many bourgeois politicians and scientists attribute the worsening of the problem to the disparity between population growth and available food resources, to inequalities in world trade, and to the low degree of effectiveness of food aid programs. In this interpretation the food problem primarily affects the developing countries, which are faced with the acute problems posed by the starvation of millions of people. But despite the relatively high per capita production of foodstuffs in the developed capitalist countries, they too have a food problem. In these countries it is primarily associated with inequalities in distribution and is expressed in diseases resulting from deficient as well as excessive food consumption, in the destruction and denaturating (chemical processing) of food, and in regulations that curtail or halt agricultural production.