Analyzing the effect of Food Shortages on Health - The case of Laos - Essay Example

Laos has all three of these types of food shortage phenomena. Individuals, households, and communities all suffer from acute and, in many cases, persistent, lack of food. Furthermore, the food available lacks sufficient variety and nutritional value to be nourishing.In Laos, the main indicator of food poverty is rice shortage, as Rice is the nation’s staple food (Raintree, 2003). Food poverty is calculated based on the number of months that an individual or family suffers insufficient amounts of rice.

Food poverty is widely spread among rural villagers; whereas, urban dwellers are by no means immune. (Raintree’s 2003) data that was collected from villages across Laos, substantiates that all villages experience a minimum of 3 to 4 months of rice insufficiency in a year, extending to a maximum of 5 to 6 months in some years (p. 6). World agricultural production is sufficient to provide every human being alive with his caloric intake needed. Accordingly, food scarcity, poverty, and deprivation are all avoidable phenomena (Fields DeRose et al., 1998). The problem stems from distribution patterns that deprive many of their needed nutrition.

In Laos, even if adequate food supplies are available, the underdeveloped infrastructure of roads and railways and basic transportation connections, prevents the government from reaching all citizens with needed food. The World Food Program (WFP), which is capable of providing food supplies to the people of Laos complaints that its work is severely limited.. 6). World agricultural production is sufficient to provide every human being alive with his caloric intake needed. Accordingly, food scarcity, poverty and deprivation are all avoidable phenomena (Fields DeRose et al., 1998). The problem stems from distribution patterns that deprive many of their needed nutrition.

In Laos, even if adequate food supplies are available, the underdeveloped infrastructure of roads and railways and basic transportation connections, prevents the government from reaching all citizens with needed food4. The World Food Program (WFP), which is capable of providing food supplies to the people of Laos complains that its work is severely limited by the underdeveloped internal infrastructure of the country. As the director of the program notes, WFP does not only measure its outcome and success by the number of children and adults served by the program, instead it accounts the successful efforts to reach people (Rader, 2005).

Food shortage, poverty and deprivation create a physical phenomenon that is commonly referred to as hunger. Persistent hunger leads to significant deterioration of the body, mind, and spirit. Research has substantiated and consistently reaffirmed that hunger has deleterious physical consequences (Zverev, 2004). The average adult, regardless of his or her ethnicity or demographic characteristics, should have an average daily intake of 2700 calories (Gonzalez Pelaez, 2005). The failure to meet caloric targets can be particularly severe for children, whose bodies have not fully developed and are vulnerable to external threats (Gonzalez Pelaez, 2005).

The reaction to unfulfilled caloric intake may cause adults' body system to shut down, while it may cause children's bodies system growth to be