13 - Food for thought: meeting a basic need for low-income urban residents

Summary

Introduction

The objective of this paper is to review the main elements of the food supply systems of the urban poor in the Third World, and how these have evolved and are changing within the broader context of the development process. Geographers are by nature interested in the patterns and interlinkages produced within complex systems of social and environmental relationships and in the processes that shape them. In the context of the urban food supply system (Fig. 13.1), such interest encompasses all levels of the system from production through to consumption. Moreover, within each level, analysis must be focused not just on the commodity itself but also on the economic, social, cultural and political factors that influence the nature of the system.

Although in the biological sciences considerable attention is paid to the nutritional problems and related consequences of inadequate diets, the social sciences have failed to match this with their investigations as to why so many people in the world still have inadequate diets when world food production is steadily increasing. As a result of the patchy coverage of what is clearly a complex system, the relationships between each of the components is imperfectly understood. In turn, this makes policy responses less effective.

Such research deficiencies are difficult to explain when they relate to the most important of basic needs. Low-income families in the Third World usually spend up to 60 or 70% of their income on food (Islam, 1982; Sanyal, 1987).