Abstract
The impact of food production patterns and food supply upon consumption patterns is usually explained by economies of scale and affordability. Less attention is given to food trade patterns and global insertion of economies affecting dietary changes. This paper contributes to the discussion using the concept of caloric unequal exchange that defines the deterioration of terms of trade in food in units of calories and complements studies on unequal exchange and ecologically unequal exchange. A new perspective to food systems’ analysis is achieved by using this concept. This paper uses the case study of Ecuador to exemplify its potentiality. Exports and imports to and from Ecuador are analyzed for the period 1988 through 2013 in volume, value, and calories, for different groups of products. The conclusion is that Ecuador is increasingly helping to feed the world, at a caloric cost that is decreasing over time. There is a deterioration of the terms of trade of traded food in terms of calories for Ecuador of more than 250% between 1986 and 2013.
Highlights
Changes in consumption patterns are usually referred to as being caused by changes in preferences in consumers [1] or certain constraints, such as those of a budgetary nature [2]
The traditional way we look at food systems, in terms of supply and demand, seems limited to us
After years of political and economic instability, Ecuador eliminated the national currency in January 2000, adopting the dollar
Summary
Changes in consumption patterns are usually referred to as being caused by changes in preferences in consumers [1] or certain constraints, such as those of a budgetary nature [2]. Data in terms of volume and value may well be complemented with data on the relative cost to the calorie of both imports and exports, what we call caloric unequal exchange. In this way, we can have a different look to the concept of domestic availability which links to other concepts such as food sovereignty. The change in domestic availability (and very often affordability) may induce changes in consumption patterns With this consideration in mind, the aim of the paper is twofold: (1) to explore the existence of caloric unequal exchange for Ecuador as defined by a recent study [3]; and (2) to explore the links between changes in food consumption patterns, international trade and domestic production of food products
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