pp_food_trends_systems_security

=__UNIT 3:__= =FOOD TRENDS, FOOD SYSTEMS & FOOD SECURITY / INSECURITY=



__FOOD TRENDS: Trends in the Food Industry, Dieting, Vegetarianism__
What is currently trendy in the Food Industry? What are people searching for in terms of food, nutrition, and health? You can use Google Trends to find out!

First, go to: www.google.ca/trends

To the upper left of the page is a toolbar that has three horizontal lines. Click on this toolbar to find the heading called "Top Charts" and 13 charts should appear. Here you can find out what food diets are trending right now and what the top 10 recipes are that are being researched on Google.

Vegetarianism has different meanings to different people. In general, red meat consumption is eliminated from all vegetarian diets. Here is a list of the most common vegetarian practices, from the most restrictive to the least restrictive: • Vegans are strict, total, or pure vegetarians. They eat only foods from plant sources, such as nuts, fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains. • Lacto-vegetarians eat plant foods and dairy products. • Lacto-ovo- vegetarians eat plant foods, dairy products, and eggs. • Pesco-vegetarians eat plant foods,dairy products, eggs, and fish. • Partial- vegetarians eat all foods except red meat.
 * __Vegetarianism__ **
 * What Is Vegetarianism? **

Some of the health benefits of a vegetarian diet may include: • Decreased blood cholesterol levels and blood pressure. • Lower incidence of heart disease, some forms of cancer, and digestive disorders like constipation and diverticula disease. • Lower incidence of obesity and some forms of diabetes.
 * What Are the Benefits? **

If you choose to be a vegetarian, variety in your diet is essential to ensure an adequate intake of nutrients. Vegetarians who find their caloric intake is not adequate to sustain a healthy body weight should increase the size of their meals and the frequency of their snacks. It is important that calories are not obtained through unhealthy, highfat, and sugary snack foods. A vegetarian can be well nourished if the diet selected provides an adequate amount of protein, vitamins, and minerals.
 * Why Is It Essential to Select a Balanced Menu? **

Since vitamin B12 is found only in animal products, a vitamin B12 supplement, fortified cereal, or fortified soy milk is necessary for strict vegans. Iron and calcium intake is often low in vegetarian diets, and a supplement may be needed for these nutrients. If you are a vegetarian and are concerned about meeting your nutritional needs, please seek advice from a qualified health professional.

Protein is instrumental for growth, maintenance of body tissues, and fluid/salt balance. Proteins consist of various combinations of twenty amino acids. Nine of these amino acids cannot be made by the body and must be obtained in the diet. These are called the essential amino acids. Animal protein ( from meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and milk) is generally high-quality protein since it contains all of the essential amino acids and is highly digestible. Plant protein (from beans, nuts, grains, and vegetables) is often lower in quality because it is less digestible and lacks one or more of the essential amino acids. Soy protein is one exception. Tofu and other soy foods are complete, high-quality sources of protein.
 * Why Is Protein So Important to a Vegetarian Diet? **

It is possible for vegetarians to obtain all the essential amino acids needed for health by eating a variety of plant protein foods throughout the day. Many plant protein foods complement each other because one usually supplies the essential amino acids missing from the other and creates a “complete protein.”

• Grains + Legumes (beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts): • Rice and Beans • Whole Wheat Bread with Peanut Butter • Corn Tortillas and Beans • Lentil Soup with a Whole Grain Roll • Tofu and Pasta. • Nuts/Seeds + Legumes (beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts): • Sunflower Seeds and Peanuts, • Sesame Seeds in Bean Soups and Casserole.
 * What Combinations of Plant Foods Create a “Complete Protein"? **

= Vegetarian Eating  =

* Vegetable proteins must be combined in a way that makes them “complete” so that an individual’s protein requirements are met. * The diet must contain enough calories to support healthy weight if the protein eaten will be used to fill the body’s protein requirement. * A strict vegan must pay close attention to vitamin sources because they exclude meat and animal products, such as milk and eggs, from their diets. They must include supplemental vitamin B-12 (fortified nutritional yeast, B-12 fortified soy milk, or B-12 tablets) and take care to insure that their diet contains enough calcium, iron, and Vitamin D. Note that Brewer’s yeast, baker’s yeast, and live yeast have almost no vitamin B-12.
 * There are three important facts for any vegetarian to understand: **

* legumes and grains. * legumes with nuts and/or seeds. * animal dairy products (eggs, milk, and other products) with any vegetable protein.
 * The best combinations to make complete vegetable proteins are: **

Although some people are concerned that vegetarians may not eat enough protein, three facts should be noted: * Most meat eaters consume twice as much protein as really necessary. * The protein in milk and eggs is more efficiently used than that in meat, fish, or poultry; relatively little goes a long way. * Legumes, especially soybeans, contain the largest percentage of protein among the vegetable foods and are in the same range as many meats. If legumes are a central part of a vegetarian’s diet, there will be enough protein in the diet. For example, one cup of cooked soybeans contains approximately 20 grams of protein; that is equivalent to:
 * three hot dogs.
 * a quarter-pound hamburger.
 * three 8-ounce cups of milk.
 * three ounces of cheese.

Each of the above alternatives provides nearly half of the recommended protein allowance for a 120-pound adult.

Buckwheat Bulgur Cracked wheat Corn Millet Oats Rice Rye Triticale Wheat || Beans (Black, Broad, Kidney, Lima, Mung, Navy, Pea, and Soy) Black-eyed peas (Cow-peas) Chickpeas (Garbanzos) Lentils Peanuts Peas |||| Pumpkin Seed sprouts (Alfalfa seed, Lentils, Mung beans, Peas, and Soybeans) Sesame Squash Sunflower || Almonds Brazil nuts Cashews Coconut Filberts (Hazelnuts) Macadamia Peanuts Pecans pine nuts Pistachio Walnuts ||
 * |||| ** Vegetarian Protein Foods ** ||  ||   ||
 * ==Grains== || ** Legumes ** |||| ** Seeds ** || ** Nuts ** ||
 * Barley

Vegetarian Dishes with Complete Protein
* Rice with lentils * Rice with black-eye peas * Peanut butter sandwich (on whole wheat bread) * Bean taco or tostada * Split-pea soup with brown rice * Macaroni with enriched soy flour * Vegetable chili with cornbread * Bean soup with breadsticks * Falafel (chickpea pancake) with pita bread * Vegetable crepes with brown rice * Pasta salad with kidney beans || =Grains with Eggs= * Rice pudding * Fried rice * Oatmeal cookies * Quiche * Egg-salad sandwich on whole grain bread * Spaghetti pancake * Noodle pudding * French toast ||
 * =Grains with Legumes=

* Bean curd with sesame seeds * Hummus (chickpea and sesame paste) * Bean soup with sesame meal * Trail mix with toasted soybeans and pumpkin seeds
 * =Legumes with Seeds=

=Other Vegetables with Milk or Eggs= * Potato salad * Mashed potatoes with milk * Eggplant Parmesan * Broccoli with cheese sauce * Cream of spinach soup * Cheese and potato soup * Vegetable omelet * Vegetable pizza * Escalloped potatoes * Spinach salad with sliced egg * Sweet and sour vegetables with tofu || =Grains with Milk= * Oatmeal with milk * Wheat flakes with milk * Rice pudding * Pancakes or waffles * Quick breads or muffins with milk * Breads made with cheese * Pizza * Macaroni and cheese * Cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread * Cheese-stuffed manicotti * Quiche * Meatless lasagna * Granola with milk || = Using Meat Substitutes = There are products designed specifically to replace meats in the diet. These meat substitutes are made of texturized vegetable protein (TVP) from soybeans, and they can have a beef-, chicken-, or ham-flavor. Vegetarians and non-vegetarians can enjoy a meal of sausages, burgers, bacon, chicken, chili con carne, ham, or scallops that do not contain one bit of meat, fish, or poultry. One of the most popular TVP’s is imitation bacon bits.

TVP can be used as a meat substitute or as an extender. When used as a substitute, they may be healthier than “the real” main dish because they are made with little or no animal fats and cholesterol. Thus, TVP can help decrease the cholesterol and saturated fat content of a diet. Some people like them; others do not. TVP is best used in combination with meat or, if used alone, used in a spicy dish. There is one disadvantage to TVP’s; they generally have a high salt content.

Non-vegetarians may find TVP’s attractive because, they are: * economical by itself or when used to stretch red meat. * a healthy alternative to meat. * easy to store. * easy to prepare. * leave no waste; you get what you paid for.

Some grocery stores premix ground beef with TVP.

Sample Vegetarian Menus
The following menus were designed to provide 2,400 calories, adequate protein, and the daily requirements of vitamins and minerals for teen-agers and adults without overloading on saturated fats, cholesterol, and calories. If fewer calories are needed, the portion sizes can be reduced or the fats eliminated. Shredded-wheat biscuits, 2 Whole-grain toast, 1 slice Margarine, 1 teaspoon Skim milk, 1 cup || Orange, 1 medium Cottage cheese, 1/4 cup Whole-grain toast, 2 slices Margarine, 1 teaspoon Skim milk, 1 cup || Egg-salad-sandwich: whole-grain bread, 2 slices hard boiled egg, 1 medium celery, diced, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon Pear || Split-pea soup, 1 cup Sesame or whole-grain crackers, 6 Part-skimmed cheese, 1 slice Tomato and cucumber salad Salad dressing, 1 tablespoon Baked apple Skim milk, 1 cup || Almonds, 1/4 cup || Raisins, 1/4 cup Peanuts, 1/4 cup || Carrots, 1/2 cup Broccoli, 1/2 cup Margarine, 1 teaspoon
 * ** OVOLACTOVEGETARIAN MENU ** || ** LACTOVEGETARIAN MENU ** ||
 * Breakfast || Breakfast ||
 * Cantaloupe, 1/2 medium
 * Lunch || Lunch ||
 * Vegetable juice, 1 cup
 * Snack || Snack ||
 * Dried apricot halves, 4
 * Supper || Supper ||
 * Soy and brown rice loaf, 1 slice

Waldorf salad: * apple, diced, 1/2 cup * celery, diced, 1 tablespoon * raisins, 1 tablespoon * walnuts, chopped, 1 tablespoon * mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon Vanilla pudding, 1/2 cup || Fresh fruit cup Baked macaroni and cheese, 1 cup Collard greens, 1/2 cup Whole-grain bread, 1 slice Margarine, 1 teaspoon Junket or pudding, 1/2 cup || Graham crackers, 4 || Whole grain roll, 1 Skim milk or buttermilk, 1/2 cup ||
 * Snack || Snack ||
 * Yogurt or buttermilk, 1 cup

**THE $5 FOOD LAB**
To better understand food insecurity, we're going to study The Global Poverty Project and their initiative, Live Below the Line. Following this, we will be working in our food groups to prepare our own $5 Food Labs wherein each team will have five dollars with which to prepare a complete meal that includes all 4 CFG food groups. Your goal is to make the most nutritious meal possible for 4-5 people with only $5.

Here are some recipes and planning ideas from The Hunger Project in the UK:

@https://www.livebelowtheline.com/ca

In our studies of Sustainable Futures, we discovered David Ballila who was teaching people in Manilla, Phillippines how to do urban farming in any small space: @http://dalje.com/tv/en/index.php?id=3872wd35b05a

**Food security **
Food security can be defined as a condition in which all people in a community have access at all times to food that is safe, nutritious, personally acceptable and obtained in a manner that maintains human dignity.

Discuss the effects on the community of food security (e.g., positive effects on physical development, health, and behaviour) and the consequences of food insecurity (e.g., hunger, malnutrition, negative effects on health and quality of life).

The causes of food insecurity are numerous: globalization, social policies, debt restructuring, urbanization, feminization of poverty, cash cropping and large scale food production, and operations of the World Bank.

1. Name and describe the causes of food insecurity.
 * [[image:ymfood12/Screen_shot_2012-05-10_at_8.35.55_PM.png width="879" height="273"]] ||
 * Questions on Food Insecurity **
 * Questions on Food Insecurity **

2. Why does food insecurity exist?

3. Why does food insecurity continue to persist?

4. What is being done to alleviate the problem of food insecurity?

5. Provide examples of how it has impacted Canada and the nations of the world.

6. Conduct an Internet search for articles relating to economic, political, and sociocultural factors affecting food security. Select three articles, one for each of the three factors, and print copies of your articles and write a paragraph summary/critique for each.


 * [[image:ymfood12/Screen_shot_2012-05-10_at_8.58.34_PM.png]] ||

Why so much hunger?

What can we do about it?

To answer these questions we must unlearn much of what we have been taught. Only by freeing ourselves from the grip of widely held myths can we grasp the roots of hunger and see what we can do to end it.


 * Myth 1: **


 * Not Enough Food to Go Around **

**Reality:** Abundance,

not scarcity, best describes the world's food supply. Enough wheat, rice and other grains are produced to provide every human being with 3,200 calories a day. That doesn't even count many other commonly eaten foods - vegetables, beans, nuts, root crops, fruits, grass-fed meats, and fish. Enough food is available to provide at least 4.3 pounds of food per person a day worldwide: two and half pounds of grain, beans and nuts, about a pound of fruits and vegetables, and nearly another pound of meat, milk and eggs - - enough to make most people fat! The problem is that many people are too poor to buy readily available food.

Even most "hungry countries" have enough food for all their people right now. Many are net exporters of food and other agricultural products.


 * Myth 2: **


 * Nature is to Blame for Famine **

**Reality:** It's too easy to blame nature. Human-made forces are making people increasingly vulnerable to nature's vagaries. Food is always available for those who can afford it - starvation during hard times hits only the poorest. Millions live on the brink of disaster in South Asia, Africa and elsewhere, because they are deprived of land by a powerful few, trapped in the unremitting grip of debt, or miserably paid. Natural events rarely explain deaths; they are simply the final push over the brink. Human institutions and policies determine who eats and who starves during hard times. Likewise, in America many homeless die from the cold every winter, yet ultimate responsibility doesn't lie with the weather. The real culprits are an economy that fails to offer everyone opportunities, and a society that places economic efficiency over compassion.


 * Myth 3 **


 * Too Many People **

**Reality:** Birth rates are falling rapidly worldwide as remaining regions of the Third World begin the demographic transition - when birth rates drop in response to an earlier decline in death rates. Although rapid population growth remains a serious concern in many countries, nowhere does population density explain hunger. For every Bangladesh, a densely populated and hungry country, we find a Nigeria, Brazil or Bolivia, where abundant food resources coexist with hunger. Or we find a country like the Netherlands, where very little land per person has not prevented it from eliminating hunger and becoming a net exporter of food.

Rapid population growth is not the root cause of hunger. Like hunger itself, it results from underlying inequities that deprive people, especially poor women, of economic opportunity and security. Rapid population growth and hunger are endemic to societies where land ownership, jobs, education, health care, and old

age security are beyond the reach of most people. Those Third World societies with dramatically successful early and rapid reductions of population growth rates - China, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Cuba and the Indian state of Kerala - prove that the lives of the poor, especially poor women, must improve before they can choose to have fewer children.


 * Myth 4: **


 * The Environment vs. More Food? **

**Reality:** We should be alarmed that an environmental crisis is undercutting our food-production resources, but a trade-off between our environment and the world's need for food is not inevitable. Efforts to feed the hungry are not causing the environmental crisis. Large corporations are mainly responsible for deforestation - creating and profiting from developed-country consumer demand for tropical hardwoods and exotic or out-of-season food items. Most pesticides used in the Third World are applied to export crops, playing little role in feeding the hungry, while in the U.S. they are used to give a blemish-free cosmetic appearance to produce, with no improvement in nutritional value.

Alternatives exist now and many more are possible. The success of organic farmers in the U.S. gives a glimpse of the possibilities. Cuba's success in overcoming a food crisis through self-reliance and sustainable, virtually pesticide-free agriculture is another good example. Indeed, environmentally sound agricultural alternatives can be more productive than environmentally destructive ones.


 * Myth 5: **


 * The Green Revolution is the Answer **

**Reality:** The production advances of the Green Revolution are no myth. Thanks to the new seeds, millions of tons more grain a year are being harvested. But focusing narrowly on increasing production cannot alleviate hunger because it fails to alter the tightly concentrated distribution of economic power that determines who can buy the additional food. That's why in several of the biggest Green Revolution successes - India, Mexico, and the Philippines - grain production, and in some cases, exports, have climbed, while hunger has persisted and the long-term productive capacity of the soil is degraded. Now we must fight the prospect of a ‘New Green Revolution' based on biotechnology, which threatens to further accentuate inequality.


 * Myth 6: **


 * We Need Large Farms **

**Reality:** Large landowners who control most of the best land often leave much of it idle. Unjust farming systems leave farmland in the hands of the most inefficient producers. By contrast, small farmers typically achieve at least four to five times greater output per acre, in part because they work their land more intensively and use integrated, and often more sustainable, production systems. Without secure tenure, the many millions of tenant farmers in the Third World have little incentive to invest in land improvements, to rotate crops, or to leave land fallow for the sake of long-term soil fertility. Future food production is undermined. On the other hand, redistribution of land can favor production. Historically comprehensive land reforms have markedly increased production in countries as diverse as Japan, Zimbabwe, and Taiwan. A World Bank study of northeast Brazil estimates that redistributing farmland into smaller holdings would raise output an astonishing 80 percent.


 * Myth 7: **


 * The Free Market Can End Hunger **

**Reality:** Unfortunately, such a "market-is-good, government-is-bad" formula can never help address the causes of hunger. Such a dogmatic stance misleads us that a society can opt for one or the other, when in fact every economy on earth combines the market and government in allocating resources and distributing goods.

The market's marvelous efficiencies can only work to eliminate hunger, however, when purchasing power is widely dispersed.

So all those who believe in the usefulness of the market and the necessity of ending hunger must concentrate on promoting not the market, but the consumers! In this task, government has a vital role to play in countering the tendency toward economic concentration, through genuine tax, credit, and land reforms to disperse buying power toward the poor. Recent trends toward privatization and de-regulation are most definitely not the answer.


 * Myth 8: **


 * Free Trade is the Answer **

**Reality**: The trade promotion formula has proven an abject failure at alleviating hunger. In most Third World countries exports have boomed while hunger has continued unabated or actually worsened. While soybean exports boomed in Brazil - to feed Japanese and European livestock - hunger spread from one-third to two-thirds of the population. Where the majority of people have been made too poor to buy the food grown on their own country's soil, those who control productive resources will, not surprisingly, orient their production to more lucrative markets abroad. Export crop production squeezes out basic food production. So-called free trade treaties like NAFTA and WTO pit working people in different countries against each other in a ‘race to the bottom,' where the basis of competition is who will work for less, without adequate health coverage or minimum environmental standards. Mexico and the U.S. are a case in point: since NAFTA we have had a net loss of over a million jobs here in the U.S., while Mexico has lost 1.3 million in the agricultural sector alone and hunger is on the rise in both countries.


 * Myth 9: **


 * Too Hungry to Fight for Their Rights **

**Reality:** Bombarded with images of poor people as weak and hungry, we lose sight of the obvious: for those with few resources, mere survival requires tremendous effort. If the poor were truly passive, few of them could even survive. Around the world, from the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico to the Landless People's Movement in South Africa, wherever people are suffering needlessly movements for change are underway.

People will feed themselves, if allowed to do so. It's not our job to ‘set things right' for others. Our responsibility is to remove the obstacles in their paths, obstacles often created by large corporations and U.S. government, World Bank and IMF policies.


 * Myth 10: **


 * More U.S. Aid Will Help the Hungry **

**Reality:** Most U.S. aid works directly against the hungry. Foreign aid can only reinforce, not change, the status quo. Where governments answer only to elites, our aid not only fails to reach hungry people, it shores up the very forces working against them. Our aid is used to impose free trade and free market policies, to promote exports at the expense of food production, and to provide the arms that repressive governments use to stay in power. Even emergency, or humanitarian aid, which makes up only eight percent of the total, often ends up enriching American grain companies while failing to reach the hungry, and it can dangerously undercut local food production in the recipient country. It would be better to use our foreign aid budget for unconditional debt relief, as it is the foreign debt burden that forces most Third World countries to cut back on basic health, education and anti-poverty programs.


 * Myth 11: **


 * We Benefit From Their Poverty **

**Reality:** The biggest threat to the well-being of the vast majority of Americans is not the advancement but the continued deprivation of the hungry. Low wages - both abroad and in inner cities at home - may mean cheaper bananas, shirts, computers and fast food for most Americans, but in other ways we pay heavily for hunger and poverty. Enforced poverty in the Third World jeopardizes U.S. jobs, wages and working conditions as corporations seek cheaper labor abroad. In a global economy, what American workers have achieved in employment, wage levels, and working conditions can be protected only when working people in every country are freed from economic desperation.

Here at home, policies like welfare reform throw more people into the job market than can be absorbed – at below minimum wage levels in the case of ‘workfare' - which puts downward pressure on the wages of those on higher rungs of the employment ladder. The growing numbers of ‘working poor' are those who have part or full-time low wage jobs yet cannot afford adequate nutrition or housing for their families. Educating ourselves about the common interests most Americans share with the poor in the Third World and at home allows us to be compassionate without sliding into pity. In working to clear the way for the poor to free themselves from economic oppression, we free ourselves as well.


 * Myth 12: **


 * Curtail Freedom to End Hunger? **

**Reality:** There is no theoretical or practical reason why freedom, taken to mean civil liberties, should be incompatible with ending hunger. Surveying the globe, we see no correlation between hunger and civil liberties. However, one narrow definition of freedom - the right to unlimited accumulation of wealth-producing property and the right to use that property however one sees fit - is in fundamental conflict with ending hunger. By contrast, a definition of freedom more consistent with our nation's dominant founding vision holds that economic security for all is the guarantor of our liberty. Such an understanding of freedom is essential to ending hunger.

= __The $5 Food Lab__ =

After our studies in food insecurity and discovering that this is an issue in both developed and developing countries, your next food lab will give you the experience of how those less fortunate have to survive and manage food and nutrition for their families.

For this lab, you must aim to spend only $5 at the grocery store in order to purchase ingredients for one family meal that will feed four. I will provide spices and oil only. Five dollars means exactly that- you cannot buy more than that in bulk and then fraction it down, nor can you raid your parents' kitchen cabinets or refrigerator!

You should look over the local flyers (see below) for grocery stores in your area to see what staples and other grocery items cost, then scan the internet for recipes on a budget. Remember, we want to keep these nutritious and also aim to combine ingredients from the food groups from Canada's Food Guide. I don't want to see any boxes of KD, Rice-a-roni, or cans of Alphaghetti!

Here are some flyers from your local grocers for this week:

No Frills 3555 Don Mills Road []

Metro []

Longos []

Food Basics 1277 York Mills Road []